Keep it Simple

A Bible. A church family. Maybe a songbook and a catechism. And plenty of time. Can you think of anything else you absolutely need in order to walk with and grow in the Lord? Other things can be beneficial, of course (like good Christian books, which would be a big bonus item on the list!). But we really don’t need all that many resources, events, activities, and plans in order to bask in the gospel and move forward in the faith, do we? Indeed, there is a tipping point at which addition eventually becomes subtraction! A kitchen, or a tool shed, can only be so full of equipment before the clutter begins to be unwieldy and inefficient. Now, with more gear, you’re actually getting less done!

The same is true with our Christian endeavors. Too many resources, activities, and irons in the fire is a recipe either for burnout, or for hop-skipping from thing to thing without ever drinking all that deeply at any of them. Either way, you end up with diminishing returns – more activity, but less fruit. Which is better – to dip your toe, week-to-week, into a dozen different books, reading plans, devotionals, studies, small groups, podcasts, and blogs? Or to drink steadily, deeply, and (sometimes) even slowly at the same life-giving streams at which the saints have found their thirst quenched for century upon century?

Many of us, of course, are hustling and bustling over things far less valuable, even, than the spiritual game of hopscotch I’ve just decried. And when we realize that we are chasing our tails, the tendency is to think that, instead of all this secular busyness, we need to get spiritually busy instead! But the solution is not to just baptize your frenzy. The solution is not to just leap onto a different and more spiritual sort of hamster wheel! Delightfully, the solution to the delirious pace of modern life is to take a deep breath and slow down; and to clear out the tool shed, so to speak – to streamline; to get back to basics!

So what are the basics? What do you really need to be doing, on a regular basis, to bask in the gospel and to grow in grace? Space forbids me elaborating, but (fitting for an article about simplicity!) how about a bullet-point list?

• Corporate worship and teaching, weekly (Heb. 10:24-25)
• Corporate prayer, weekly (Acts 2:42)
• Meaningful Christian fellowship, weekly (Acts 2:46)
• Meaningful Christian service, periodically (Eph. 4:11-12)
• The Lord’s Supper, periodically (1 Cor. 11:23-26)
• Family worship, daily (Deut. 6:6-9)
• Personal worship, daily (Mark 1:25)

I hope the simplicity here is refreshing! Very few resources are required for such a regimen, right? A Bible. A church home. Maybe a songbook and a catechism. And then a few other incidentals, like maybe paper, pen, etc. Other things may be helpful. But they are not usually needful!

But what definitely is needful is time! You cannot follow through on these basic biblical commitments if your life is so frantic that you only have 5 and 10 minute windows in which to try and wedge your spiritual disciplines. You must have blocks of time – uninterrupted and unhurried! Time! This is the resource that we moderns need to stock up on most of all! All the other resources are easy enough to get our hands on. But will we carve out time for using them? Will we stop running the American rat-race, or sitting down all night in front of our American TV’s … and streamline our schedules so as to drink deeply at Christ’s well? We’d find such simplicity refreshing if we did!

And, while we’re talking about the refreshing streamlining of our lives, can I say that so much of our time and busyness problems would be solved if we would only “remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” If we’d set Sunday aside – free from work, shopping, laundry, chores, ballgames, TV, and so on – we’d have all the time in the world for the first five bullet points above! Even if we hadn’t time to get together with other believers, or visit the sick, or serve the church during the week … we’d have a whole day for doing so every Sunday! We’d often have time for the ‘bonus’ resource of good Christian books, too!  And so, if the seven bullet points above seem like a lot ... the reality is that, if we just kept the sabbath, most of these blessings we would be able to provide for ourselves in a single, unhurried, restful day!  That's why the Puritans called Sunday 'the market day of the soul'!  Because, if we use it as it was intended, we will be able to garner, in one trip to market (so to speak), so much of what we need to live on for the rest of the week!  Talk about simplifying our lives!  And if we trained ourselves to say ‘no’ to the hamster wheel on Sunday, then we’d find it even all the easier to jump off of it, at the appropriate times, during the rest of the week as well … making family and personal worship not so difficult-to-find-time-for as we might currently think!

There is a rhythm to the Christian life – both daily and weekly. And it’s generally far less like the frenetic beat of techno music, and far more like the gentle, steady lapping of waves upon the seashore. I hope that’s a relief to you! Jesus’ yoke is easy, not hard-driving; and His pace is usually steady, not hurried! And so get into His steady, slow, and simple rhythm, and you will find that the Christian life is not all that complex. Difficult sometimes, yes! But not complicated! Just keep it simple.

One of the Preacher's Best Friends

One of the preacher's best friends, over ther last decades, has been the Irish preacher, teacher, and writer Alec Motyer [maw-TEER], who passed into his rest last week. I call him one of the preacher's best friends because his commentaries have been so helpful to so many pastors and teachers of the Bible.  Terry Johnson recently wrote of Motyer that:

He holds the distinction, along with John Stott, of writing commentaries about which one may say, "If I have his, I have all I need." 

That's tall cotton!  But it is what Johnson wrote, otherwise, (in a recent personal remembrance) that moved me to go online and hear Motyer's voice for myself, for the first time, this week, in the preached word.  Johnson called Motyer and J.I. Packer "simply the most godly men I have ever known."  More tall Cotton!  And the little anectdotes and "Motyerisms" that Johnson passed on from his studies under Motyer nearly 40 years ago add to the impression beautifully.

So, I'm placing this little marker here to encourage you to go and read Johnson's piece.  It seems to me a marvelous portrait of what a man of God can and should be.  And I'll also point you to the sermon I listened to yesterday afternoon, on Acts 16, as marvelous confirmation that this was, indeed, a man of God.  The sermon - with its simple exhortation to begin and continue and go on in God's work in "the place of prayer" - has stuck with me in ways that not many sermons do.

Thank God for Alec Motyer, and for those like him.  May He give us more of them.

David's Mighty Men

I was struck, once again, this week as I re-read the account of David’s “mighty men” in 2 Samuel 23. You may remember that chapter, where the biblical author gives us a who’s who of David’s leading men – listing thirty-plus of them who counted as David’s most valiant and trusted warriors. One of them “went down and killed a lion in the middle of a pit on a snowy day.” Another of them slew eight hundred of the enemy in a single battle. And then there was the instance in which three of the mighty men, overhearing David’s wistfulness about the refreshing water that could be drawn from his hometown well, broke through the lines of Philistines camped round about that well, and secured a skin of water for their lord at the risk of their very lives!

These were great men! “Mighty men”, as they are called. Men who would go to great personal risk, and make great personal efforts to serve their lord, David. Even though, for most of them, all we know if their name and place of origin, there is no doubt that David could have listed many, many acts of valor, honor, loyalty, and kindness which each of them had performed on his behalf (and, thus, on behalf of his Lord).

And, as I read about them again this week, I was struck with the thought that he (or she) is greatly blessed who has such a band of men (or women) by his (or her) side. We are marvelously privileged if we have even three, much less thirty, such people in our lives – people who are valiant for what is right; people of honor; people who will be loyal to us no matter how difficult it may be; people who will go to great lengths to show love and care and help to our souls.

And it begs the question: Who are the mighty men (or women) in your life? Some of them may be spouses or family; some church family; some brothers and sisters in Christ who live in other places, but who would stop on a dime and be in Cincinnati overnight if that is what you needed. Do you have such people in your life? If so, you are rich indeed!

But then we should also ask … whose mighty man or woman are you? You cannot be “closer than a brother” to every friend in your life. But there are probably a few for whom you absolutely should be! Who are they? Or whom ought they to be? Don’t let them down. Be mighty on their behalf, and mighty for the Lord in their lives. No one else may know all that you did and sacrificed for their good. But they, like David, will have a long list of reasons to be thankful for you. And God will honor your faithfulness!

A Gathering of a few thoughts on Fifty Shades of Grey

Hello all.  Consider this a public service announcement.  I feel almost embarrassed to write this ... but pastoral concern compels me to do so.  I'd like to think that Fifty Shades of Grey is so far off of every Christian's radar screen that it need not even be given a second thought.  But alas, I don't know that that is the case.  So I mention it here, for all who cross these pages, and ask you to please, please not subject yourself to the filth that is, more and more, becoming mainstream in our culture.

Here are a few others' thoughts on the issue:

Jesus Christ: "The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!"

The Apostle Paul: "Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret."

Kevin DeYoung: No Grey Area

Christians who see 50 Shades of Grey should be ashamed of themselves. Hard words, but that’s the point of Ephesians 5:3-12.
— Kevin DeYoung (@RevKevDeYoung) February 10, 2015

If some things should not be spoken, they should certainly not be viewed with popcorn (Eph. 5:11-12).
— Kevin DeYoung (@RevKevDeYoung) February 10, 2015

I am staggered that it is considered necessary to reason some professing Christians out of watching "Fifty Shades of Grey."
— Jeremy Walker (@peregrinus75) February 12, 2015

Fifty Shades of Nay. Those who choose to see less today will see more forever. http://t.co/xwgGe2f9Dc
— John Piper (@JohnPiper) February 11, 2015

"Adorn the doctrine"

Tobey has recently been on a bit of a purging kick … which (as those who know me well will surely guess) makes me quite happy. Goodwill is my friend, and I love to give him gifts! And lately I can say ditto regarding craigslist.com! Indeed, it is amazing to me, when you post an item under the “free stuff” category, how many emails and texts you get within the first 15 minutes! It makes giving things away a breeze!  

But there has been one exception – “the black couch,” as it will ever affectionately be known to us and our children (to set it off from “the red couch” in our bedroom). It served us well for a good 12 years (and other family members for many a moon before that!). And it was perhaps the most comfortable napping spot I have ever known! But alas, it could really no longer be called “the black couch” – more like “mostly black,” with some faded yellowish-brown areas, and a nice pink stain in one spot. And there were a couple of places where the seams were coming apart. And one section that was torn. And the zippers on the seat cushions were all shot, and hanging wide open. And so it was time for a change. And the church’s Christmas generosity toward us enabled us to make one (thank you!). Now we have “the green couch.”

But what to do with “the black couch”? Craigslist, of course! Surely we could get rid of it if we list it for free, right? I put a couple of other items up for free recently … and had multiple people contacting me for them within an hour of the postings. But “the black couch” … not so much. Only two bites in two weeks … and neither of them ended up taking it. One lady might have taken it, but for the lack of vehicle space. But only one other person even inquired. Reason? Presumably because I was very forthright about the fact that it badly needed re-covering … and even posted a picture of it. And not only did it have the defects listed above, but Tobey recently pilfered part of the fabric for another project … so that two of the sections no longer had any cover at all! It became the black and white couch! And nobody seemed to want it … even though it was free!

Why not? It was actually quite a comfy couch. And, though it was far from brand new, and had a loose spring or two, I think it was in decent structural shape. But the problem was the adornment, the packaging, the cover. That, dear reader, was so bad that even the free section on Craigslist couldn’t give it away!

And all of this is driving toward a spiritual punchline … because the talk of our couch’s adornment (or lack thereof) echoes the language of the apostle Paul, when he wrote that Christians should “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect” (Titus 2.9-10).

Now understand carefully what Paul is (and is not) saying. We Christians are not the doctrine ourselves. Your testimony is not a substitute for the truth of the gospel, which comes in words, from the Bible (Romans 10.17)! “The doctrine of our Savior” – the word of the gospel – is indispensable! No one will ever be saved simply by watching you live for God. But you can, by your godly behavior, “adorn” the doctrine that does have the power to save! You can, by your outward testimony, attract people to the substance that lies beneath it. Or your testimony can be so faded, and stained, and torn, and broken, and even missing in some places that – like the crummy cover on our couch – it drives people away from any interest in the solid gospel substance that (allegedly) lies beneath!

The gospel – like our couch – is on offer for free! We are giving it away! But does your testimony draw people to it? If your testimony were posted like a photo on Craigslist, would it attract people to what we are trying to give away … or repel them from even taking an investigative look?

And how sobering is it to remember that your testimony is being published every day – even more broadly than an online photo. Your children, and co-workers, and neighbors, and unbelieving relatives see it in live action all the time. Is it attractive, kind, joyful, winsome, pure, possessing integrity, reliable, humble, forgiving, and willing to admit when it is wrong? Or is it the opposite? Or perhaps a mixed bag of the two? Go back through that list of character qualities and think about their opposites. Are there areas in your life in which the wrong side of the coin shows up as the picture alongside your posting of the free offer of the gospel? Where must you turn to Christ and ask Him to come and stitch, re-cover, or perhaps altogether replace your adornment? Run to Him today for mercy and for help! And do what you know that you must do to repair the adornment that is your testimony. God will honor that! And, with a beautiful cover adorning the gospel that is the substance of your life, who knows how many people might track you down to ask about what it is that you are giving away for free!