What follows can be surprising.

"May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that..."

Now certainly, we know God's blessing can be immediate and tangible in our daily lives. We know that his blessing isn't always apparent. We know that his blessing isn't necessarily what we had in mind. We know that his blessing can overwhelm us with joy and gladness, sometimes tears. We know that his blessing is often pervasive and greater than our imagination. So often we know his blessing extends beyond our own thinking, however, in our own regular, finite thinking, we assume his blessing falls chiefly and primarily on us and goes no further. Is it healthy for a creature to be the end-all recipient of the Creator's eternal blessing? I don't think we can handle the weight of such a gracious gift.

Do we know that his blessing, his gracious act towards us and his causing his face to shine upon us is ultimately for himself? The very notion that he would involve us in his blessing is wonderful, but it doesn't come near the wonder of his self-revelation in Jesus. His blessing is that we may know the supremacy of Christ and so glorify his name! What participation he has given us in his saving purpose and eternal plan!

"... that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations." Psalm 67:1-2

Real Conversation

Will the copy say to what is real, "I have no need of you"? And yet, we think and live in copies all day long. Are we not beating the air aimlessly? Is your truth, to which you hold so dearly, tangible? Is it painful, powerful and desirable? Does it delight you?

In our own unconsciousness, copies suck dry every byte of energy within us unless they move us toward the real. Real truth does the opposite when it is rooted in our hearts. It builds up, fills up and nearly explodes with joy inexpressible.

How much real do you have in your life right now?

Besides your last words...

If you are conscious when you breathe your last breath, what will you be thinking? Who would you want to be present?

Different Day

The Hebrew understanding of the 24 hour day is very different from modern western society. It began in the evening and ended in the afternoon.

Genesis 1:5 "God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day."

Psalm 5:3 "O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch."

Lamentations 3:22-23 "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

I usually look forward to the end of the day - the evening. What if I were to hope for the end of the day - the morning, when God speaks and I'm reminded of his steadfast love and his never-ending mercies. Then, I will exult in his faithfulness.

Morning is more apt to remind me of these things than the evening.

When you breathe in...

your chest expands to make room for the air. Then, you must exhale or you'll look like a puffed up blowfish, and so is learning. So, what are you breathing and why?

More on Pastors & Headship

Summary: God's design is for male leadership in the Church.

Ever since the 1970s, the question of a woman serving as a teaching elder or senior pastor has been a watershed issue for the Church. Some assert that gender is irrelevant concerning church leadership; others maintain that biblical eldership is a role held exclusively for qualified men. The controversy is rooted in the interpretation of Scripture from the creation narrative to the Pauline epistles. The two major positions that have emerged are the egalitarian and the complementarian.

Essentially, egalitarians argue that gender is irrelevant when it comes to the role of men and women in ministry; rather, they proffer that giftedness alone should be the basis for placement in leadership roles.

Conversely, complementarians affirm that men and women are equal in essence but different in function.

The complementarian view rightly expresses a more biblical view of church eldership. Biblical church eldership was designed by God to be fulfilled by qualified men according to the way in which men uniquely express their manhood as redeemed persons. Likewise, God intends for women to uniquely express their womanhood as redeemed persons by gladly submitting to the leadership of men. In support of this position, a right understanding of 1) Genesis 1-3, 2) 1 Timothy 2:9-15, and 3) the intra-Trinitarian relationship, will demonstrate that it is God’s design for biblical eldership to be held by men alone.

Two objections that might be raised to this argument are: 1) the complementarian position is merely a hierarchical understanding of the superiority of men and the inferiority of women in relation to each other and to God, and this understanding is contrary to the freedom of the gospel because it demeans women, and 2) the complementarian position wrongly interprets Genesis 2 by seeing multiple proofs of male authority.

In response to the first objection, it is a false assumption to consider every relationship involving subordination or a structural hierarchy as necessarily implying that one is superior in essence and the other is inferior in essence.

In response to the second objection, the multiple proofs of male authority in Genesis 2 are clear. And this objection comes dangerously close to committing two fallacies: exclusion of the middle and appeal to selective evidence (whereas if one is to consider the perspicuity of Scripture, the objection will not hold up to the historical interpretation of Genesis 2, of which is the way Paul took it as well).

The complementarian view rightly expresses a more biblical view of church eldership, in which women and other men in the church are to submit entirely to an eldership comprised exclusively of qualified men.

Let me know if you would like the "guts" of the argument.

Pastors & Headship

I've been thinking a lot about the pastor's responsibility of shepherding the church, and how he is only effective to the extent of, firstly, the Father shepherding him, and secondly, the measure of his shepherding his own family. And I believe this is so right because the pastor does not make the church! The Church belongs to Christ! The Good Shepherd cares for each individual believer. The Christian life is not meant to be lived out in solitude so the Father's design is inthe oneness of the marriage relationship (God, husband, wife), which is based on the oneness of the Trinitarian relationship (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). Just as the Father decrees what will be, the Son carries out the will of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father given by the Son to carry out the will of the Father and the Son (the Spirit only does the will of the Son and the Father) in the hearts of believers, so the husband seeks to do the Lord's will as he leads/guides/directs his family as he is the head of his family as the Father is in the Godhead and Christ is the Head of the Church. Anyways, by the power of the Spirit, the pastor submits to God, the Father Almighty, and fixes his eyes on Christ. In doing so, as the God-appointed head of his wife and family, he shepherds them to carry out the will of the Father, in the power of the Spirit with heart and mind set on heavenly things where Christ is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Likewise, he shepherds his church most assuringly glorifying God in the power of the Spirit and face set like flint on Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith. So future pastor, do you bear the burden of your wife and children? Do you find rest for your soul in Jesus? Future pastor, you do that, and your church will be a God-glorifying, Spirit-empowered, Christ-exalting, Gospel-saturated, cross-centered, soul-winning, mission-driven, disciple-making movement crushing the evil one in its path and going to the ends of the world. All this, from the Father's command, the Spirit's empowerment and for the glory of Christ. Pray for me to continually lay my worldly cares at the feet of King Jesus and bear the burdens of Meghan, Jack, Isabel and Schaeffer as Christ does for the Church so we may all see how great our God really is and know of his holy justice and loving-kindness.