Friday, February 22, 2008
Important Lessons
To begin the new year, Keith Buhler at Mere Orthodoxy looked at three important lessons for dealing with the future, and trying to sell a few great books too. His lessons:
So much around us seems overwhelming. Whatever your interest, you may seem as if it is falling apart and there is nothing you can do. Maybe you are into politics and your candidate is not doing so well. Maybe you are overwhelmed by your studies. Maybe you feel your faith challenged by what you read this week. Maybe you see your congregation falling apart.
Whatever it is, God is sovereign and our role is to see it through out of obedience. Why, because we trust in our Sovereign even when we do not know His designs. You see all the calamity, all the problems, all you fear, He is in control.
We do not have His vision, nor do we have His depth of understanding. All we have is Him.
He will lead us to the future, and it will be good.
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1. The final victory belongs to Jesus Christ and his Bride.I would sum all this up by the simple phrase, "God is Sovereign." We forget that - we forget it a lot, and we do so to our detriment.
[...]
At his feet “every knee shall bow,” not only Christians, not only back-slidden and schismatic Christians, not only Jewish and Muslim branches of the Abrahamic tradition, not only the ancient Eastern religions, not only the religions of town and city nor of village and forest, but every city, nation, and land will confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord. Every tongue and tribe and nation, if need be, even the rocks and trees and the stars will praise the Lord.
[...]
2. Scientific/Intellectual inquiry is a moral obligation. Philosophical and scientific inquiry are not (as is commonly thought) antithetical to religious devotion. Rather, all three fall under a third and greater pursuit: Obedience. The pursuit of wisdom (philosophy) and the understanding of the workings of nature (science) and the practice of ethical behavior, civil responsibility, love for family, and ultimately, acceptance and conformity to the specific features of the historic Christian religion all find their root in something as simple and human as obedience to our father. Obeying our parents and paternal caregiver is as familiar and inescapable as breathing. Depending on them, trusting their greater wisdom and experience, faithfully (or begrudgingly) following their example and instruction is the lifeblood of familial life, of personal psychology, of civil order. Obedience to our heavenly father is indeed the binding force of all these and more, for he commands us to follow him in all ways and at all times, and gives us the help we need (and the forgiveness we require) to do so.
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3. We must “keep our minds in hell and despair not.” Julian of Norwich is most famous for her succinct summary of the final truths of theology and philosophy. “All is well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” One modern translator updated the (beautiful) old saying in a somewhat less attractive but nonetheless helpful phrase: “Everything is all right, everything will turn out all right, every kind of thing will turn out right.” If you haven’t made it all the way through the political and philosophical poetry of the Divine Comedy, fear not: this is Dante for Dummies. This is the Revelation of Julian which echoes the Revelation of John.
So much around us seems overwhelming. Whatever your interest, you may seem as if it is falling apart and there is nothing you can do. Maybe you are into politics and your candidate is not doing so well. Maybe you are overwhelmed by your studies. Maybe you feel your faith challenged by what you read this week. Maybe you see your congregation falling apart.
Whatever it is, God is sovereign and our role is to see it through out of obedience. Why, because we trust in our Sovereign even when we do not know His designs. You see all the calamity, all the problems, all you fear, He is in control.
We do not have His vision, nor do we have His depth of understanding. All we have is Him.
He will lead us to the future, and it will be good.
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