Don't waste Your Cancer

The following is an article that John Piper wrote on the eve of Prostate Surgery. David Powlison added his own insights for the very same reason. This is the most lucid and sane and God-glorifying writing I have ever read on the subject and on suffering in general. I commend it to anyone and everyone...

http://www.desiringgod.org/library/fresh_words/2006/021506.html

Don’t Waste Your Cancer

February 15, 2006

[Editor's Note: Our friend, David Powlison, of the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation, who also was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer, has added some helpful expansions to John Piper’s ten points. Indented paragraphs beginning with "DP:" are written by David Powlison.]

I write this on the eve of prostate surgery. I believe in God’s power to heal—by miracle and by medicine. I believe it is right and good to pray for both kinds of healing. Cancer is not wasted when it is healed by God. He gets the glory and that is why cancer exists. So not to pray for healing may waste your cancer. But healing is not God’s plan for everyone. And there are many other ways to waste your cancer. I am praying for myself and for you that we will not waste this pain.

DP: I (David Powlison) add these reflections on John Piper’s words the morning after receiving news that I have been diagnosed with prostate cancer (March 3, 2006). The ten main points and first paragraphs are his; the second paragraphs are mine.

1. You will waste your cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.
It will not do to say that God only uses our cancer but does not design it. What God permits, he permits for a reason. And that reason is his design. If God foresees molecular developments becoming cancer, he can stop it or not. If he does not, he has a purpose. Since he is infinitely wise, it is right to call this purpose a design. Satan is real and causes many pleasures and pains. But he is not ultimate. So when he strikes Job with boils (Job 2:7), Job attributes it ultimately to God (2:10) and the inspired writer agrees: “They . . . comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11). If you don’t believe your cancer is designed for you by God, you will waste it.

DP: Recognizing his designing hand does not make you stoic or dishonest or artificially buoyant. Instead, the reality of God’s design elicits and channels your honest outcry to your one true Savior. God’s design invites honest speech, rather than silencing us into resignation. Consider the honesty of the Psalms, of King Hezekiah (Isaiah 38), of Habakkuk 3. These people are bluntly, believingly honest because they know that God is God and set their hopes in him. Psalm 28 teaches you passionate, direct prayer to God. He must hear you. He will hear you. He will continue to work in you and your situation. This outcry comes from your sense of need for help (28:1-2). Then name your particular troubles to God (28:3-5). You are free to personalize with your own particulars. Often in life’s ‘various trials’ (James 1:2), what you face does not exactly map on to the particulars that David or Jesus faced – but the dynamic of faith is the same. Having cast your cares on him who cares for you, then voice your joy (28:6-7): the God-given peace that is beyond understanding. Finally, because faith always works out into love, your personal need and joy will branch out into loving concern for others (28:8-9). Illness can sharpen your awareness of how thoroughly God has already and always been at work in every detail of your life.

2. You will waste your cancer if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). “There is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel” (Numbers 23:23). “The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11).

DP: The blessing comes in what God does for us, with us, through us. He brings his great and merciful redemption onto the stage of the curse. Your cancer, in itself, is one of those 10,000 ‘shadows of death’ (Psalm 23:4) that come upon each of us: all the threats, losses, pains, incompletion, disappointment, evils. But in his beloved children, our Father works a most kind good through our most grievous losses: sometimes healing and restoring the body (temporarily, until the resurrection of the dead to eternal life), always sustaining and teaching us that we might know and love him more simply. In the testing ground of evils, your faith becomes deep and real, and your love becomes purposeful and wise: James 1:2-5, 1 Peter 1:3-9, Romans 5:1-5, Romans 8:18-39.

3. You will waste your cancer if you seek comfort from your odds rather than from God.
The design of God in your cancer is not to train you in the rationalistic, human calculation of odds. The world gets comfort from their odds. Not Christians. Some count their chariots (percentages of survival) and some count their horses (side effects of treatment), but we trust in the name of the Lord our God (Psalm 20:7). God’s design is clear from 2 Corinthians 1:9, “We felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” The aim of God in your cancer (among a thousand other good things) is to knock props out from under our hearts so that we rely utterly on him.

DP: God himself is your comfort. He gives himself. The hymn “Be Still My Soul” (by Katerina von Schlegel) reckons the odds the right way: we are 100% certain to suffer, and Christ is 100% certain to meet us, to come for us, comfort us, and restore love’s purest joys. The hymn “How Firm a Foundation” reckons the odds the same way: you are 100% certain to pass through grave distresses, and your Savior is 100% certain to “be with you, your troubles to bless, and sanctify to you your deepest distress.” With God, you aren’t playing percentages, but living within certainties.

4. You will waste your cancer if you refuse to think about death.
We will all die, if Jesus postpones his return. Not to think about what it will be like to leave this life and meet God is folly. Ecclesiastes 7:2 says, “It is better to go to the house of mourning [a funeral] than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.” How can you lay it to heart if you won’t think about it? Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” Numbering your days means thinking about how few there are and that they will end. How will you get a heart of wisdom if you refuse to think about this? What a waste, if we do not think about death.

DP: Paul describes the Holy Spirit is the unseen, inner ‘downpayment’ on the certainty of life. By faith, the Lord gives a sweet taste of the face-to-face reality of eternal life in the presence of our God and Christ. We might also say that cancer is one ‘downpayment’ on inevitable death, giving one bad taste of the reality of of our mortality. Cancer is a signpost pointing to something far bigger: the last enemy that you must face. But Christ has defeated this last enemy: 1 Corinthians 15. Death is swallowed up in victory. Cancer is merely one of the enemy’s scouting parties, out on patrol. It has no final power if you are a child of the resurrection, so you can look it in the eye.

5. You will waste your cancer if you think that “beating” cancer means staying alive rather than cherishing Christ.
Satan’s and God’s designs in your cancer are not the same. Satan designs to destroy your love for Christ. God designs to deepen your love for Christ. Cancer does not win if you die. It wins if you fail to cherish Christ. God’s design is to wean you off the breast of the world and feast you on the sufficiency of Christ. It is meant to help you say and feel, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” And to know that therefore, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 3:8; 1:21).

DP: Cherishing Christ expresses the two core activities of faith: dire need and utter joy. Many psalms cry out in a ‘minor key’: we cherish our Savior by needing him to save us from real troubles, real sins, real sufferings, real anguish. Many psalms sing out in a ‘major key’: we cherish our Savior by delighting in him, loving him, thanking him for all his benefits to us, rejoicing that his salvation is the weightiest thing in the world and that he gets last say. And many psalms start out in one key and end up in the other. Cherishing Christ is not monochromatic; you live the whole spectrum of human experience with him. To ‘beat’ cancer is to live knowing how your Father has compassion on his beloved child, because he knows your frame, that you are but dust. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. To live is to know him, whom to know is to love.

6. You will waste your cancer if you spend too much time reading about cancer and not enough time reading about God.
It is not wrong to know about cancer. Ignorance is not a virtue. But the lure to know more and more and the lack of zeal to know God more and more is symptomatic of unbelief. Cancer is meant to waken us to the reality of God. It is meant to put feeling and force behind the command, “Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord” (Hosea 6:3). It is meant to waken us to the truth of Daniel 11:32, “The people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.” It is meant to make unshakable, indestructible oak trees out of us: “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalm 1:2). What a waste of cancer if we read day and night about cancer and not about God.

DP: What is so for your reading is also true for your conversations with others. Other people will often express their care and concern by inquiring about your health. That’s good, but the conversation easily gets stuck there. So tell them openly about your sickness, seeking their prayers and counsel, but then change the direction of the conversation by telling them what your God is doing to faithfully sustain you with 10,000 mercies. Robert Murray McCheyne wisely said, “For every one look at your sins, take ten looks at Christ.” He was countering our tendency to reverse that 10:1 ratio by brooding over our failings and forgetting the Lord of mercy. What McCheyne says about our sins we can also apply to our sufferings. For every one sentence you say to others about your cancer, say ten sentences about your God, and your hope, and what he is teaching you, and the small blessings of each day. For every hour you spend researching or discussing your cancer, spend 10 hours researching and discussing and serving your Lord. Relate all that you are learning about cancer back to him and his purposes, and you won’t become obsessed.

7. You will waste your cancer if you let it drive you into solitude instead of deepen your relationships with manifest affection.
When Epaphroditus brought the gifts to Paul sent by the Philippian church he became ill and almost died. Paul tells the Philippians, “He has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill” (Philippians 2:26-27). What an amazing response! It does not say they were distressed that he was ill, but that he was distressed because they heard he was ill. That is the kind of heart God is aiming to create with cancer: a deeply affectionate, caring heart for people. Don’t waste your cancer by retreating into yourself.

DP: Our culture is terrified of facing death. It is obsessed with medicine. It idolizes youth, health and energy. It tries to hide any signs of weakness or imperfection. You will bring huge blessing to others by living openly, believingly and lovingly within your weaknesses. Paradoxically, moving out into relationships when you are hurting and weak will actually strengthen others. ‘One anothering’ is a two-way street of generous giving and grateful receiving. Your need gives others an opportunity to love. And since love is always God’s highest purpose in you, too, you will learn his finest and most joyous lessons as you find small ways to express concern for others even when you are most weak. A great, life-threatening weakness can prove amazingly freeing. Nothing is left for you to do except to be loved by God and others, and to love God and others.

8. You will waste your cancer if you grieve as those who have no hope.
Paul used this phrase in relation to those whose loved ones had died: “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). There is a grief at death. Even for the believer who dies, there is temporary loss—loss of body, and loss of loved ones here, and loss of earthly ministry. But the grief is different—it is permeated with hope. “We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). Don’t waste your cancer grieving as those who don’t have this hope.

DP: Show the world this different way of grieving. Paul said that he would have had “grief upon grief” if his friend Epaphroditus had died. He had been grieving, feeling the painful weight of his friend’s illness. He would have doubly grieved if his friend had died. But this loving, honest, God-oriented grief coexisted with “rejoice always” and “the peace of God that passes understanding” and “showing a genuine concern for your welfare.” How on earth can heartache coexist with love, joy, peace, and an indestructible sense of life purpose? In the inner logic of faith, this makes perfect sense. In fact, because you have hope, you may feel the sufferings of this life more keenly: grief upon grief. In contrast, the grieving that has no hope often chooses denial or escape or busyness because it can’t face reality without becoming distraught. In Christ, you know what’s at stake, and so you keenly feel the wrong of this fallen world. You don’t take pain and death for granted. You love what is good, and hate what is evil. After all, you follow in the image of “a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.” But this Jesus chose his cross willingly “for the joy set before him.” He lived and died in hopes that all come true. His pain was not muted by denial or medication, nor was it tainted with despair, fear, or thrashing about for any straw of hope that might change his circumstances. Jesus’ final promises overflow with the gladness of solid hope amid sorrows: “My joy will be in you, and your joy will be made full. Your grief will be turned to joy. No one will take your joy away from you. Ask, and you will receive, so that your joy will be made full. These things I speak in the world, so that they may have my joy made full in themselves” (selection from John 15-17).

9. You will waste your cancer if you treat sin as casually as before.
Are your besetting sins as attractive as they were before you had cancer? If so you are wasting your cancer. Cancer is designed to destroy the appetite for sin. Pride, greed, lust, hatred, unforgiveness, impatience, laziness, procrastination—all these are the adversaries that cancer is meant to attack. Don’t just think of battling against cancer. Also think of battling with cancer. All these things are worse enemies than cancer. Don’t waste the power of cancer to crush these foes. Let the presence of eternity make the sins of time look as futile as they really are. “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” (Luke 9:25).

DP: Suffering really is meant to wean you from sin and strengthen your faith. If you are God-less, then suffering magnifies sin. Will you become more bitter, despairing, addictive, fearful, frenzied, avoidant, sentimental, godless in how you go about life? Will you pretend it’s business as usual? Will you come to terms with death, on your terms? But if you are God’s, then suffering in Christ’s hands will change you, always slowly, sometimes quickly. You come to terms with life and death on his terms. He will gentle you, purify you, cleanse you of vanities. He will make you need him and love him. He rearranges your priorities, so first things come first more often. He will walk with you. Of course you’ll fail at times, perhaps seized by irritability or brooding, escapism or fears. But he will always pick you up when you stumble. Your inner enemy – a moral cancer 10,000 times more deadly than your physical cancer – will be dying as you continue seeking and finding your Savior: “For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is very great. Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose” (Psalm 25).

10. You will waste your cancer if you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ.
Christians are never anywhere by divine accident. There are reasons for why we wind up where we do. Consider what Jesus said about painful, unplanned circumstances: “They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness” (Luke 21:12 -13). So it is with cancer. This will be an opportunity to bear witness. Christ is infinitely worthy. Here is a golden opportunity to show that he is worth more than life. Don’t waste it.

DP: Jesus is your life. He is the man before whom every knee will bow. He has defeated death once for all. He will finish what he has begun. Let your light so shine as you live in him, by him, through him, for him. One of the church’s ancient hymns puts it this way: “Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger” (from “I bind unto myself the name”). In your cancer, you will need your brothers and sisters to witness to the truth and glory of Christ, to walk with you, to live out their faith beside you, to love you. And you can do same with them and with all others, becoming the heart that loves with the love of Christ, the mouth filled with hope to both friends and strangers.

Remember you are not left alone. You will have the help you need. “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

Pastor John

©Desiring God
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www.compassion.com

A Lack of Discernment

After reading the lyrics of the songs on Derek Webb’s new album, Mockingbird I am nothing short of frustrated. Perhaps this is what he wanted from being so "honest." (This idea that “honesty” in songwriting covers a multitude of sins is foolish…as if the opposite is always to “lie” through your teeth.) So he may be very happy with such an outcome but I am less enthusiastic.

The first two albums were great. Really, I love them. They are poetic and prophetic. They resist cliché argumentation and push people further than bumper sticker and sound-byte parting shots. However, after reading through the lyrics of the new album I am just, well, frustrated. The album sounds like a collection of protest songs. And I was not helped at all in reading the interview about the new album on his website.

"peace by way of war is like purity by way of fornication"

The above lyric is from the new album. This is what I mean by bumper sticker parting shots and sound-byte arguments. However, this is of course no real argument. It is simply a “gotcha” moment. And it is devoid of logic and truth, especially biblical truth. This argument assumes there is moral equivalency between war and fornication. They are both morally wrong or the statement is meaningless. So the underlying argument is that you cannot achieve peace through violence. Which is true on one level but patently false on another level.

On one level it is true that if one country fights an enemy so that the enemy will stop its aggression then it is not being peaceful in its effort for peace. But this is only a gotcha moment if peace is the end-all-be-all in conflict. If peace is to be had at all costs then of course pacifism might be a "consistent" position. And if you think war and violence are always wrong at all times in all circumstances then this statement might be logically defended.

However, if you are a believer then you must concede that peace is not the chief end of man. The chief end of man is to glorify God. Peace may in fact be a way of achieving this but you would be wading into theologically liberal waters to condemn all violence and war and say that violence and war cannot glorify God. The whole of the OT must be rejected. And Paul’s defense of a thoroughly pagan State and it’s wielding of the sword in carrying “out God’s wrath” must be duly explained away (Romans 13:1-5).

Throughout the OT, God commanded war and used war for his glory. This cannot just be written off. God used, commanded and commended the violence of men and women against those who rebelled against him. Now someone might argue that God does not sanction violence anymore. The argument might be that he at one time used war but now we have the Prince of Peace as our Lord and Savior.

Well, I disagree for at least two reasons.

1. Romans 13:1-5: Paul here calls for believers to be subject to the governing authorities. Who are these governing authorities? For the Roman believers it was well, Rome. Rome was thoroughly pagan and very harsh in its treatment of Christians and Jews and slaves. And yet they, the believers are called to be subject to them. Hmmm. Paul then goes on to argue that Rome (and our authorities) do not bear the sword (gun) in vain. In otherwords Paul calls the Roman Christians to fear the sword of the authority put there by God. In otherwords "be peaceful and do not cause trouble because if you do, violence will be upon you by the ones that God has put there for that very purpose." Now someon might argue that this would translate to believers respecting the Police of our day. True. But my question would be, "why would that exclude the use of violence to insure peace in the form of war?"

2. Revelation: throughout Revelation we have pictures of God doing great viloence to his adversaries. Just a cursory read of the book of Revelation is filled with blood and gore and violence. Not to mention images of warfare. And no matter how figurative they are they used as images of what God would do. I cannot imagine God using images of fornication to communicate the images of his righteous acts. To compare war and fornication is to confuse two wildly different categories.

This cliche and Webb's use of it shows a stunning lack of discernment. It is devoid of logic Biblical and otherwise. Besides it is just too easy to write this kind of lyric, borrowed as it is. Where are the songs protesting the death of untold millions of unborn children? Where are the songs decrying the exorbitant tax rates and complicated tax laws in this country? Where are the songs portesting wealthy celebrities who shmooze with communist dictators? Where are the protest songs about public school education that indoctrinates young children into thinking God has nothing to do with reality as the textbooks see it?

I wil tell you. They will only be written when singers start not caring whether they get good press and the masses think they are cool. Only when intellectual elitism and the love of applause from socially liberal critics are no longer goals for singers and songwriters will such songs be written.

Walk the Line

My wife and I just watched Walk the Line last night.

Let me first say that the acting was superb. I cannot get over it. Both Joaquin and Reese were amazing. I cannot say enough about how I really bought that they were Cash and Carter. The film was also visually appealing and the production was more than good.

All that said, the story was more than a little tragic. I cannot get over how I have read nothing about how the moviegoer is supposed to be pleased that June and Johnny finally get together. It is almost as if, nothing else really mattered. Sure they were “bad things” but nothing so bad as to worry about once you get cleaned up.

To be honest the only reason for liking this story is that we, the fans get really good music because both Johnny and June were rid of their spouses. In fact, I thought I would enjoy his music more after watching the movie, I actually have less love toward his music than before.

Man was I disappointed. I know I lose cool points for this one.

The Greenwood Commonwealth had some empty space to fill

An Article I sunbmitted to the paper...

What’s Your Worldview?

In Nancy Pearcey’s book Total Truth she talks about a book titled Conversations with God for Teens by Neale Donald Walsch. This book of conversations contains questions teens ask questions about life and God. The author answers as if he were God. Consider the following example from a girl of 13:

Question: “But how can I ever erase the bad things I’ve done from your judgment book?”

Answer: “There is no “judgment book.”…It may be a surprise for most humans to learn that there is no such thing as right and wrong. There is only what works and what doesn’t work…absolute right and absolute wrong do not exist.

Question: So right and wrong are a changing thing?

Answer: Yes, changing and shifting from time to time and place to place.

Now regardless of whether you agree with “God” here, the statement should be evaluated, shouldn’t it? At the least, “God” (the author) should be asked by the reader, “Are you absolutely sure there is no absolute right and wrong.”

You see, everyone has a way of looking at the world. Everyone has a “worldview.” Everyone has a perspective on reality. And this perspective on reality affects the way we look at everything. Everything. Mr. Walsch, the author of Conversations with God for Teens has a Worldview he is teaching (preaching!) to teenagers. The question is, “how do we evaluate such worldviews?” Mrs. Pearcey, the author of Total Truth helps us here.

She suggests to the reader that every Worldview must be evaluated through a fairly simple grid. This grid consists of the following three points:

Creation – “Where do we come from?” “Why are we here?”

Fall – “What went wrong?” “What is evil and suffering?”

Redemption – “How can things be made right?” “Is there any reason for hope?”

According to Mrs. Pearcey, every Worldview must be able to answer these questions. If it cannot answer these questions in a sensible way then it must be discarded. It follows then that this grid can be used to evaluate the Worldviews that are beamed into our homes and sit on our bookshelves and bounce around in your child’s backpack.

In the South, most people probably do not need to be convinced that the most logical and intellectually satisfying is the Biblical Worldview. A Biblical Worldview answers the question in our three-point grid by looking into the Bible. In other words those who have a Biblical Worldview see the world through the “lens” of the Bible. Their perspective on reality is determined by the way the Bible views reality. Again, most people in the South, specifically in Mississippi, do not need to be convinced that a Biblical Worldview makes sense, indeed the only worldview that makes sense. The problem is that most are not equipped with the tools needed to respond to various issues in their life with a Biblical Worldview. Most Bible-believing Christians have trouble living their life in a way that is consistent with a Biblical Worldview. Let’s see if Pearcey’s grid is a helpful tool.

Take Sports for example. What would participation in athletic contests look like for people who live out their Biblical Worldview and for those who reject a Biblical Worldview?

Let’s look at the one who rejects the Biblical Worldview first. The goal is only to win and whatever it takes to win must be done (Creation). After all there is no objective standard by which to measure what ought to be done, only what can be done to win. That includes inflicting injury, trying to get away with breaking the rules of the game and trash-talking. If the athlete gets elbowed under the goal, how do they respond? They elbow back! What if one player gets taken out of the game by injury (Fall)? Retaliate! The only hope is to win and that alone (Redemption). And what if you lose? Complain about the officiating, reluctantly congratulate the other team, who probably cheated and whine intolerably. There is no reason for the athlete or spectator to act any different.

So what about the athlete who lives out the Biblical Worldview? According to the Bible, we exist to glorify the God who created us and everything else (Creation – Romans 11:36; Isaiah 43:7). If that is the purpose in life it ought to be our purpose in all parts of life…even sports. And we can say “ought” because there is a Standard by which we measure our lives, God himself. How do we then treat the other players (Fall – Romans 3:10)? As those who have been created in God’s image and therefore as we would want to be treated (Matt. 7:12). But what if a player on an opposing team gives us an elbow in the stomach? We respond in kindness instead of in kind. We remember that while we were once enemies Christ died for us (Romans 5:10). We forgive because we have been forgiven. We extend mercy because we have received mercy. And in winning and losing we enjoy the game as a gift (Philippians 4:1). Winning is not the best news we could get and losing is never our worst problem. This is not to say we should not strive to win, winning simply cannot be the ultimate goal in a Biblical Worldview. Our biggest problem was dealt with on the cross (Redemption – Romans 3:21ff). Our hope is not the glory of winning; our hope is the glory of God (Romans 5:2; 2 Cor. 4:6).

I encourage you to test (Romans 12:2) the Biblical Worldview and all other worldviews using the above grid of Creation, Fall and Redemption. Everyone has a Worldview. What’s yours?

Matt Redmond
Pastor of Student Discipleship
Westminster Presbyterian Church

Maybe the Best Review of Blue like Jazz Yet

Click on the link for a really good review of Blue Like Jazz.

http://danielwiginton.blogspot.com/2006/02/blue-like-not-jazz.html

Thanks a ton to Boring Dan!!!

(update! Check out an article version of the post linked to above www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=22885

Again, thanks to Boring Dan!)

Some Articles and Sermons on Suffering

I have had a couple of people comment on my post regarding Debbie Maken's Book, Getting Serious About Getting Married. I wanted to post some articles on Suffering and Singleness for anyone interested.

http://www.desiringgod.org/library/topics/suffering/suffering_index.html

http://www.desiringgod.org/library/sermons/81/020881.html

A Darn Good Album

This is one that I keep listening to again and again. I just bought it a couple of weeks ago and keep enjoying it the more I listen to it. It is different than "Live at the New Earth" or any of the many bootlegs out there. Don uses some loops and there is an ethereal sound that fits well with the pathos of Waterdeep. Lyrically and artistically this album is way good. You can download it for a measly $7.50 at waterdeep.com.

A Book I Love

More info is available at... www.totaltruth.com

A Review of Miller's Blue Like Jazz

I read Blue Like Jazz today...here are my reflections

1. First, there is this honesty that precludes critique and excludes repentance. The whole book is filled with shocking honesty. It is almost James Frey-like, and I get the idea it is to cut off criticism from the outset. You see, that is the difference between self-deprecation and real sorrow over sin. If you point out your faults before anyone else does then you can just say, "yeah, I already knew that!" Also, it is easier to laugh about. If honesty is so dadgum good, where is Paul's? Sure, he was honest about having sin. But come on, not one single detail...just the struggle. That tells me that honesty does not enjoy a status of being always a good thing.
2. Almost all "I" and little "He"
3. His stories of living in community were inspiring and motivating.
4. The content of the gospel got little press.
5. Since when is autobiography an acceptable genre for Christian Spirituality? This may be the most distrurbing and dengerous part of the book. It only makes sense that a book on Christian Spirituality would look closely at the best resource for such a subject...the Bible. Whip me, beat me and call me a fundamentalist but I am stickler for looking to the Bible for help in these matters. Anecdotes of a personal nature might be helpful but they are shifting sand. Perhaps it would be easier to understand this book as one Christian's Spirituality instead of Christian Spirtuality.
6. This book more than any in a while has caused me to ask the question of whether I lean towards mercy or justice.
7. He seems to have it in for the Republican Party way more than the Democratic Party. And he assumes that evengelicals who "support" the Republican Party are naive and he equates the two. This straw man gets beat to death. I am an evangelical and I wholeheartedly will support any party that wants to end abortion. If that makes me naive, so be it.
8. Also, he leads the reader to believe that the only involvement in governemnt and politics for the Christian is prayer and protesting. This is troubling. Political theory, the intellectual marketplace of ideas and theological tenets are not independent of one another. And beacuse of this truth we must not write off the policies and actions of others without discussion of them. To simply state that feeding the homeless on the street in America is more merciful and biblical than economic systems which make it possible for them to produce wealth and participate in the marketplace might fit on a bumper-sticker but it might not be true. I bring this up because it passes faddish witty quips off as intelligent statements. He may be right. But he has done little to show it or prove it.
9. The whole book comes off as adolescent ranting. Do not get me wrong there is a lot of maturity too. But the tenor and tone of the book is marked by a tiresome immmaturity. this book will only sound profound to a college student or someone who thinks like one. I have elsewhere read that this book says old truths in a different way. That is true, there is not a whole lot of novelty here. But you can translate the "saying it a different way" to "saying it like a kid."
10. I do not know if it is a good thing or not but the book reminded a lot of the last book I finished, Bob Dylan's Chronicles. Now to Miller that is probably a compliment. Maybe it is and should be. I liked Dylan's book but the writing style had an undistinguishable order to it that made it hard to know where he is and what he was talking about. That will be very attractive to the Postmodern-emergent types. To me it just felt lazy. The one word sentance is powerful when employed scarcely. Miller uses it everywhere. Literally.

Would I recommend the book. No, probably not. I especially would not reccomend it to less than discerning readers. College students are snatching this book up left and right. I am not surprised. Let's face it, the book sounds rebellious and cool, after all it is called Blue Like Jazz. The fact is that this is a poor book on Christian Spirtuality. It is a funny book and an poetic book. But it is not a book on Christian Spirituality. A good book on Christian Spirituality is Schaeffer's book, True Spirituality.

I do not fear books by Spong and other heretics. I fear books that have lots of truth but will still lead young Christians down the wrong path. This book will be very attractive to young believers who suffer from an aversion to authority, fall in love with what is cool easily, and love different for different's sake.

(update: I lead a Bible Study on Thursday Night of young couple's where I always learn more from them than they do from me. Last night was no exception. A girl named Allison gave me a quote (not original to me) that helped me think more about this book and why I did not like it. The qoute is, "True humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking about yourself less." Blue Like Jazz failed miserably if this qoute is right on.)

(another update: I read in Philippians 3 about this group of unbelievers who "glory in their shame" I am not convinced I know what this means. But it did get me thinking about how some people in giving their "testimony" seem to glory in the shameful acts they committed before they beleived the gospel. They use humor liberally or they speak about past sins in a trite way. Perhaps, that is why the "honesty" of Blue Like Jazz irked me so. Maybe he did not mean to sound so trite but it was very easy for me to walk away feeling as if he was.)

Rethinking Biblical Paradigms

Getting Serious About Getting Married by Debbie Maken states its purpose on the front cover...Rethinking the Gift of Singleness. Indeed, the entire book is predicated upon the idea that singleness is not a gift and to teach that it is a gift is to teach something contrary to the Bible and indeed to go against God's will. Her argument goes like this...

1. We were created to be married.
2. The Bible treats Marriage as the norm for men and women.
3. Therefore singleness is not the norm and not an equal status before God.
4. Therefore singleness is not a gift.
5. For if we were created to be married then singleness cannot be a gift.

The premise of the book is that singleness cannot be a gift. If this premise is shown to be false then the book falls apart. My hope is that the book will fall apart in the minds and hearts of singles and pastors and teachers everywhere. Why?

There are two points at which this book fails.

1. First, she compares not having a spouse to not eating. I think this is a fair comparison. For she says, and I agree that we were created to eat just as well as we were created to be married. It isn't a perfect analogy but one that works. Her argument is that someone not being married is like someone being hungry. And to tell someone that singleness is a gift is tantamount to telling someone that hunger is a gift. This argument actually betrays some unbiblical paradigms in her thinking. She assumes that suffering is not a gift to rejoice over, whether it be suffering because you are single or suffering because you are hungry. Such a way of thinking ignores James 1 and Romans 5, not to mention the stories of Job, Joseph and Paul who said, "...I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:11-13). And what is so frustrating is that such discussions are treated with contempt throughout the book. This is not a pat answer. Paul is in prison and is in a position of suffering that makes not having a spouse seem a little small. He might die. I agree that we should be careful when we discuss this with someone who is single. I actually agree that it is biblical to encourage someone to seek a spouse. But like anything, it must be done with the understanding that if you do not get married in your youth or ever, that contentment should be the order of the day. Why not counsel them to seek a spouse but not at the expense of their contentment with where God has them now.
2. Second, Mrs. Maken fails in her discussion on Providence. She is guided by experience over against the testimony of Scripture. She argues against those who would trust in God's Providence by using a personal anecdote of someone who is "lazy" about getting a wife. Well Hell's bells, I could use the argument of someone so desperate to live out the creational mandate to get a spouse that he beat a woman over the head and dragged her back to the cave to say that we ought not listen to her book! In other words she should have argued with scholarly defenders of a classical evangelical view of Providence and its day in and day out relevance to life. But she chose to argue with someone who does not have a biblically informed picture of Providence. If she had, she would have read (even if done so randomly) that a confidence in God's Providential Hand has nothing in common with laziness but much to do with the fact that whatever difficulty, suffering or trial or even hope realized and dream fulfilled is to be seen as done by God. It is simply foolish to presume that because God's revealed will calls for everyone besides a distinct few to have a spouse (a premise I reject) that all must reject the call to contentment because they have no spouse. Let's talk about Joseph, who should not have been in jail as women should not be single. He did not choose jail and some single women do not choose singleness. He suffered because of the sins of sinful men. Some single women suffer because of the sins of single men who would rather play video games and drive sports cars than grow up and get married. Joseph wanted out of jail as some single women want out of singleness. God provided a way for him to get out of jail and God provides a spouse so that some single people escape (some sooner and some later, for Joseph it was later) the suffering they were enduring. Joseph attributes the sins of other men (brothers) as God doing something through their sins...we have no record of complaint. Though the author of Getting Serious is now married we have the very opposite in printed form, for in her way of thinking he might be sovereign over singleness but it is not really relevant to the quest of a spouse. She simply assumes that if we cite God's Sovereignty over the sinful actions of others we have excused the sin. This is to fight a strawman. Those of us who would disagree with her simply want to assert that every suffering (even loneliness) and every dream that is realized (marriage) are circumstances in which we should rejoice (I did not say act like all is easy and rosy). Listen to James, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." To rejoice in suffering (Romans 5) and count it all joy when you face various trials (James 1) is to assume the suffering is for a good reason and therefore a gift. This of course does not excuse sin that might cause these trials, it simply explains that there is a purpose in trials, even in Singleness.

I can appreciate her frustrations to some degree. But her bitterness never rises to the level of righteous indignation. Sneers seem to leap from the page and anger is the rule and not the exception. Those she disagrees with she either writes off or rolls her eyes at. Let me say in closing I sympathize a lot with some of her cultural diagnoses. She sees many of the problems that are really there. But borrowed cultural analyses even if good, is no cover for ignoring Biblical paradigms. Her view of suffering is at odds with the Biblical paradigm. God is obviously sovereign over sin and the results of sin(Romans 11) and yet is angry at it. This differs from Mrs. Maken as she is not in control and seems to be angry about that.

File Sharing

Last Sunday Night I discussed with my teens the uncomfortable subject of file sharing. I say uncomfortable because most of them had never really given it much thought. They were simply in the dark about the moral and legal issues involved. They were very receptive and seemed to see the moral implications of it all. We all walked away with the sense that downloading songs through file sharing programs and copying other people's cds is stealing, pure and simple.

This was another of our Learn to Discern exercises. I used the following article to get the discussion going...

http://www.christianitytoday.com/music/news/2005/gmafightsback.html

One of the things I learned during this discussion was that all of my 6th and 7th graders were easy to convince. Why is that? Well, none of them had ever downloaded a song for free or otherwise. They saw file sharing and cd copying for what it was...walking into a store and stealing a product that someone worked hard to produce.

The hard part was getting them all to see the relevance of the gospel. So we talked long and hard about being content because we, who have Christ have all we need. We do not need to steal to be happy. Happiness because of the gospel is rooted in the justifying work of the gospel. Because they stand before God, justified by grace through faith they have no need to steal. Their biggest problem is not being without a particular song or album. Their biggest problem has been dealt with on the cross.

At this very moment Sara Butler is sitting right next to me and wants to be on my blog...

Name: Sara Butler Makamson
Age:9
Grade:3
Favorite color:Pink
Favorite food:Pizza
Favorite Church: Westminster
Favorite Youth Pastor: Matt Redmond (the only one she knows)

Discovering a "New" Old Band



Over the Rhine is new to me. I was downloading some bootleg (legal ones) concerts of Waterdeep and I found some bootlegs of Over the Rhine. I had, of course, known of them for years but had never really given them much of a listen to this past week. I have fallen in love with their sound and lyrics. I recommend their studio recordings as well as these bootlegs.

http://www.archive.org/audio/etreelisting-browse.php?collection=etree&mode=mp3&cat=Over%20the%20Rhine

I started with the latest bootlegs from last year and worked my way backwards. They are all now on my ipod and will provide me with hours of bliss. The bootlegs are actuallt really good quality. Folk-ish music bootlegs the best.

You should also check out their website as their are lots of free downloads of studio recordings and two free live mp3 from an upcoming live release.

Enjoy.

What we did last Sunday PM

We did a learn to discern with the video Dirty Little Secret. I was rather surprised at how well it went. There were some snickers and some confusion and more than a little embarrament but it went better than I expected.

What did they learn?

1. Peoples problems/sins are not funny.
2. Everyone struggles with things they are ashamed of about themselves.
3. The hope that we ought to hold out to to people dealing with their dirty little secrets is the hope of the gospel of grace in Christ Jesus.

They are still talking about it.