Blogs

Lots to catch up on after my week of teaching at Westminster Seminary.

On Knowing When to Resign
Best article I’ve read on the subject of pastoral resignations. File it away for the day you’ll need it.

Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?
If you haven’t yet read this, you need to:

More comfortable online than out partying, post-Millennials are safer, physically, than adolescents have ever been. But they’re on the brink of a mental-health crisis.

Our Wedding Date Is Set — Why Not Have Sex Now?
Sadly and badly needed.

12 Basic Principles for Faith and Work
Transform your Monday morning.

4 Money Principles for Millennials
Being a long-time Dave Ramsey listener, I’m not shocked by these stats.

How did millennials get into so much financial trouble? They’ve received little financial training, college tuition has skyrocketed during their lifetimes, and student loans have become as easy to get as candy canes on Christmas. This combination of factors has landed many millennials in debt, unable to achieve their goals. With all this debt, it’s harder to buy a home, own a car, save for retirement, and start a family. Many millennials are asking how they can make a difference in the world when they can barely make their debt payments.

Why Does It Take an Eclipse to Get Us to Look Up to the Heavens?
You don’t ned to be in the path of today’s eclipse to wonder and worship:

Let’s not wait until the next eclipse to stop and pause and wonder. Look up to the heavens, and then look further up, until you find joy in the God who enjoys his handiwork.

Today, More than Ever, Read Beyond the Headlines
To paraphrase Hosea 13:9: “O media, you have destroyed yourselves.”

I’m not sure the news will ever be the same after the presidency of Donald Trump. While the industry has already been in a long decline, it seems to have entered into an era of near-insanity as the networks and websites compete against one another to set new standards in thoughtless, bloviating reporting. Whether those networks love or hate the president, they seem to be tripping over themselves and one another to say the most the fastest, to constantly editorialize on every decision, every step, every misstep. Reading the news has become a grueling, exasperating chore. Watching it has become almost unbearable.

Walking Through It: A Family Violence Survivor’s Reflection
The basics of how to help victims of domestic abuse.

A New Set of Priorities for Our Kids
“We must intentionally teach our children the skills and character traits they’ll need to thrive in college and beyond. We must teach them about their need for three things in particular: passion, humility, and trust in a sovereign God.”

Kindle Books

Amazon are offering significant discounts on a number of Kindle devices.

God’s Love Compels Us: Taking the Gospel to the World by Don Carson and others $2.99.

Too Good to be True by Michael Horton $4.99.

Beating the College Debt Trap: Getting a Degree Without Going Broke by Alex Chediak $1.99.

New Book

God and the Transgender Debate: What does the Bible actually say about gender identity? by Andrew Walker

I will be as the dew to Israel. (Hosea 14:5)

Dry, dry, dry. Have you ever felt like that? Has your soul ever seemed like a desert? You look at the wastelands within your soul and you can’t find any bud or blossom, never mind any fruit. There is no refreshing, encouraging oasis anywhere. It wasn’t always like that. You can remember a time when there was bud, blossom, and fruit everywhere. There was a little oasis here and a little stream there. Spiritual life and liveliness flowed in your blood and all was well with your soul.

What happened? Well, many things happened, didn’t they? But the more important question is, how do you get out of this? We turn to Hosea to find the answer.

God gave Israel the land of Canaan as promised, a land which flowed with milk and honey. Under His blessing, they had known many years of fruitfulness and fertility. However, their disobedience had brought them and their land under the divinely promised curse. God withheld water from the land and the result was desert-dryness everywhere.

But, when this divine chastisement had humbled Israel and brought her to see her need of the Lord, He promised He would return with His dew. “I will be as the dew to Israel.” This is sovereign dew; God creates it, sends it, and controls it. This is softening dew; it soaks into the hardest soul and breaks the hardest clods. It is stimulating dew. It refreshes and invigorates. It is saving dew; it is God Himself who will be the dew. “I will be as the dew to Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.”

So, dry soul, look up. It is the Lord alone who can refresh you and reinvigorate you. He can make the desert sand blossom into a rose. Each of His three Persons can drench you with dew. Even one of His attributes can saturate your soul. Just one of His words can break the hardest clod. “Lord, come, beautify and fructify me with yourself.”

I will love them freely. (Hosea 14:4)

How much does your love cost? How much do you extract from someone in return for your love? How many diamonds must he buy to secure your love? How beautiful does she have to make herself to guarantee your continued love? How obedient do your children have to be to ensure your love? How many toys do your parents have to buy you to make you love them? How much does your love cost?

How much does God’s love cost? How much do we have to give Him? How much do we have to pay Him? How much do we have to do or say? How many laws do we have to keep? And for how long? The answer to all these questions is zero—nothing—nil. “I will love them freely.”

This is written over every page of God’s dealings with sinners. When we look at Abraham or Moses or David, we hear God saying, “I will love them freely.” When we look at Peter or Thomas or Saul of Tarsus, we hear, “I will love them freely.” When we see God’s people restored to God’s land, we hear, “I will love them freely.” When we see Christ with arms outstretched on Calvary’s cross, we hear, “I will love them freely.” When the Holy Spirit is poured out on Christ’s crucifiers at Pentecost, we hear, “I will love them freely.” Throughout all church history, the church has heard, “I will love them freely.”

And what about your own life, child of God? Is not “I will love you freely,” written above it? How much did God’s love cost you? How much did you pay for a godly upbringing? How much did you pay for faithful pastors? What was the price of your justification? How much for your adoption? Sanctification? Zero—nothing—nil. “I will love them freely.” If freely you have received, then freely give.

I will heal their backsliding. (Hosea 14:4)

One word describes Israel’s history: backsliding. Two words describe God’s response: chastising and healing. Most of Hosea’s message was about the backsliding and the chastising, but here his theme moves on to the healing.

Hosea’s prophecies tell us that backsliding is very common. Octavius Winslow said, “There is a tendency to secret, perpetual, and alarming departure from God.” Backsliding requires no effort. You don’t need to do anything to slip away; it is such a gradual process that it is usually unnoticed until it is too late. And this despite preachers like Hosea pointing it out so clearly.

It usually begins in the heart. Love for God and His people diminishes. Reverence for the Bible decreases. Enjoyment of prayer evaporates. Delight in the Lord’s Day fades. It is like an ant removing sand, one grain at a time, from one side of a set of scales to the other. No change is noticed until suddenly the scales tip. Church activity and service may cover up the worrying inward reality for a time, but when the scales eventually tip, outward moral catastrophe is usually imminent. And, as Israel discovered, backsliding and its eventual chastisement is a miserable experience.

Remember Bunyan’s erring pilgrim who had to go back for his mislaid scroll—he ended up covering the same road three times, and it was dangerously late and dark when he finally arrived exhausted at his lodgings. Ask Naomi how bitter backsliding is (Ruth 1:20-21). Ask the prodigal son how depressing backsliding is (Luke 15:17).

But, and here is great encouragement, backsliding can be healed—not by the backslider but by the Lord. “I will heal their backsliding.” No one can return from backsliding except through the merciful intervention of Christ. Look at Peter weeping bitterly over his declension and desertion. Who can restore him? “Go tell the disciples, and Peter…” (Mark 16:7). The Lord intervenes to heal his backsliding. So Israel, and so you, backslidden Christian, look to Christ as the great Healer of backsliding. True grace is indestructible. It may decay but it can never die. Bring your faint embers and remaining sparks to the Lord and say, “Heal my backsliding. Fan my embers into flame.”

O death, I will be your plagues. (Hosea 13:14)

Disease brings death, and the grave destroys. But here God promises a radical reversal. Death will be diseased and the grave will be destroyed. Israel’s enemies will themselves be defeated and Israel will be released.

Paul borrows this language and the principle behind it to anticipate the ultimate victory of the Christian over death: “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?” (1 Cor. 15:54 –55).

This great climactic victory will be seen in all its glory on the day of the general resurrection of all God’s people. As the Lord Jesus comes to claim the precious dust of His saints and to transform them to be like unto His glorious body, He shouts, “O death, I will be your plagues; O grave, I will be your destruction.”

But we need not wait until then to see foreshadows of this victory. Every time a Christian defeats the fear of death and its soul-paralyzing power by trusting in Christ to save his body and soul from death, the victory shout is heard, “O death, I will be your plagues; O grave, I will be your destruction.”

Every time a Christian faces terminal illness and death with faith and confidence in Christ, death is plagued and the grave’s power is destroyed.

Every time a persecuted Christian faces the firing squad and looks heavenward with peace and confidence, all heaven celebrates the victory, “O death, I will be your plagues; O grave, I will be your destruction.”

As you face your own end in this world, may this great divine “I will” make death and the grave weaken and wither before you. May you look forward to the day of full and final victory when “[w]e shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51–52).