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One of the More promising, but underdeveloped characters of Jack Kirby's New Gods is Lightray. Visually he is classic, classic Kirby - a real gem, but he has never gotten the writing treatment necessary to bring such an iconic image to the fore. Anytime you see images of the New Gods, Lightray is there, but when you read, well he is just mostly window dressing.

One can certainly see Lightray come home to roost in the character of Firestorm - the resemblance is just too strong to miss. Nonetheless, the subtlety of the red hair appearing like flame seems much preferable to the actual flame of Firestorm. Firestorm has certainly gotten more writing effort than Lightray, but he too suffers from a lack of compelling narrative to really move the character forward - so bit player in the Justice League it is.

Lightray strikes me as prime miniseries material. In the right hands he could be something special. Heck one could even throw Firestorm into the mix and come up with quite the yarn.

Too bad the Master could not be here to draw it!


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Glenn Lucke, writing at CGO recently put up a "one-sided conversation" that was extraordinary. Excerpting a good bit of it:

If you and I serve these companies, institutions, and individuals, if we will follow them, they will give us something we know is essential: normal. If some people are talented, resourceful, blessed and persistent, such people will attain an type or level of ‘normal’ that also confers elite status and comfort.

The brands, the scripts, the jobs, the accessories for what a normal, successful life looks like....all this seems so utterly true, so inescapably necessary, that we cannot imagine life another way. Our ability to reflect upon these matters is often limited by our busy-ness to mere snap judgments; “loser” or “winner”, have and have not.

When ‘Christianity’ is presented to us, or when it was presented to us years ago, we did the only thing with it we could imagine: we added Jesus or more likely we added ‘Christianity’ to the scripts, the brands, the jobs, the accessories. If we can be normal and add Christianity, super.

The companies, organizations, individuals competing for our love, our time, our money? With the exception of family and some friends, they do not love us.

[...]

There is another ‘way.’

There is an alternative reality that is actually the most real and truest and most beautiful reality. It is the realm of God’s rule. This realm is material, social, and spiritual, all three. The ancient scriptures refer to it as ‘the kingdom of God’.

Most of the people we know or are acquainted with are not ready to be set free, even though the alternative Way delivers forgiveness, joy, pleasure, love, peace and justice, along with suffering of various kinds.

The portal into the Way-- the material, social and spiritual realm called the Kingdom-- is a bloody Cross. Entry comes at incalculable cost, yet it’s free for you, and yet even more paradoxically, this incalculably costly free entry also costs you your very life. You can be free of the scripts, free of the Matrix, free to love and be loved, free from being a scared person who needs to wear and be and do life a certain way to fit in.

From this flows a fascinating question - Can the church love us? My short answer is, "It should, but it has failed miserably." Worse, the institutions of this world do a much better job of pretending to love me than the institution of the Kingdom. At the very least they offer me a next alternative - somewhere else to turn when disappointed. And now, the church seems to be trying to set up the same thing.

But here is the crux of the matter, for the church to adopt such forms just emphasizes the problem, it does not address it.

My heart broke when I read this post because Glenn's description of the institutions that do not love us so fit the church that I found myself experiencing genuine despair. It was as if he were writing of an alternative to the church. That is an incredibly sad state of affairs.

One may ask - Can an institution ever "love"? As best as I can tell, the answer is "no." Therefore, it becomes part of the church's mission not to become institutionalized.

How's that for an alternative?

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OK, this is one of the emails that just sort of shows up. Don't know who the protagonist is, don't really care. It made me laugh entirely too hard not to pass it on.

I went grocery shopping recently while not being altogether sure that said course of action was a wise one. You see, the previous evening I had prepared and consumed a massive quantity of my patented 'You're definitely going to have a BIG problem tomorrow' chili.' Tasty stuff, albeit hot to the point of being painful, which comes with a written guarantee from me that if you eat the next day both of your butt cheeks WILL fall off.

Here's the thing. I had awakened that morning, and even after two cups of coffee (and all of you know what I mean) nothing happened. No 'Watson's Movement 2'. Despite habanera peppers swimming their way through my intestinal tract, I appeared to be unable to create the usual morning symphony referred to by my next door neighbors as thunder and lightning.

Knowing that a time of reckoning had to come, yet not sure of when, I bravely set off for the market; a local Wal-Mart grocery store that I often haunt in search of tasty tidbits.

Upon entering the store at first all seemed normal. I selected a cart and began pushing it about dropping items in for purchase. It wasn't until I was at the opposite end of the store from the restrooms that the pain hit me. Oh, don't look at me like you don't know what I'm talking about. I'm referring to that 'Uh oh, gotta go' pain that always seems to hit us at the wrong time. The thing is, this pain was different.

The habaneras in the chili from the night before were staging a revolt. In a mad rush for freedom they bullied their way through the small intestines, forcing their way into the large intestines, and before I could take one step in the direction of the restrooms which would bring sweet relief, it happened. The peppers fired a warning shot.

There I stood, alone in the spice and baking aisle, suddenly enveloped in a noxious cloud the likes of which has never before been recorded. I was afraid to move for fear that more of this vile odor might escape me. Slowly, oh so slowly, the pressure seemed to leave the lower part of my body, and I
began to move up the aisle and out of it, just as an elderly woman turned into it.

I don't know what made me do it, but I stopped to see what her reaction would be to the malodorous effluvium that refused to dissipate, as she walked into it unsuspecting. Have you ever been torn in two different directions emotionally? Here's what I mean, and I'm sure some of you at least will be able to relate.

I could've warned that poor woman but didn't. I simply watched as she walked into an invisible, and apparently indestructible, wall of odor so terrible that all she could do before gathering her senses and running, was to stand there blinking and waving her arms about her head as though trying to ward off angry bees. This, of course, made me feel terrible, but then made me laugh. Mistake.

Here's the thing. When you laugh, it's hard to keep things 'clamped down', if you know what I mean. With each new guffaw an explosive issue burst forth from my nether region. Some were so loud and echoing that I was later told a few folks in other aisles had ducked, fearing that someone was robbing the store and firing off a shotgun.

Suddenly things were no longer funny. IT was coming, and I raced off through the store towards the restrooms, laying down a cloud the whole way, praying that I'd make it before the grand mal assplosion took place.

Luck was on my side. Just in the nick of time I got to the john, began the inevitable 'Oh my God', floating above the toilet seat because my butt is burning SO BAD, purging. One poor fellow walked in while I was in the middle of what is the true meaning of 'Shock and Awe'. He made a gagging sound, and disgustedly said, ' Oh my God!', then quickly left.

Once finished I left the restroom, reacquired my partially filled cart intending to carry on with my shopping when a store employee approached me and said, 'Sir, you might want to step outside for a few minutes. It appears some prankster set off a stink bomb in the store. The manager is going to run the vent fans on high for a minute or two which ought to take care of the problem.'
That of course set me off again, causing residual gases to escape me. The employee took one sniff, jumped back pulling his shirt up to cover his nose and, pointing at me in an accusing manner shouted, 'IT'S YOU!', then ran off returning moments later with the manager. I was unceremoniously escorted from the premises and asked none too kindly not to return.

Home again without having shopped, I realized that there was nothing to eat but leftover chili, so I consumed two more bowls. The next day I went to shop at Albertson's. I can't say anymore about that because we are in court over the whole matter. They claim they're going to have to repaint the store

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I recently encountered Mark Daniels sermon from this Pentecost Sunday just past. In it Mark summarizes the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives this way:

The Spirit never calls attention to Himself. But He showers us with gifts, including the courage to live past our fears and a reason for living, a vocation of pointing others to Christ, serving them in Jesus’ Name and inviting others to follow Christ, a vocation that lasts our whole lives.

I encountered this sermon at roughly the same time that the hottest discussion in Godblogging was the "Lakeland Revival" as lead by Todd Bentley. Bunch of YouTube here and Adrian Warnock let others comment on it extensively here. I am not sure there could be two more radically different approaches to the Holy Spirit than those represented by Mark Daniels and Todd Bentley - Which raises an extraordinary question - Which one is right?

Before I dig into that question too seriously, I need to recast it a bit. As the headline I have written indicates, the real question has to do with whether the Holy Spirit works miraculously or, as Mark indicates, quietly. Todd Bentley is in no way an example of the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit. He is violent. He actually claims that his voice called people back from God's presence. He is at best grossly misguided and and at worst genuinely deceptive. Either way, ministry of the type he practices leaves in its wake broken hearts, broken bodies, and people permanently bitter towards the genuine gospel of Jesus. He is, I believe, the reason so many people tend to think that the Holy Spirit "never calls attention to Himself;" generally when we think we see Him, we see Todd Bentleys and that is just wrong.

This much I know with certainty - if the Holy Spirit were to work a genuine miracle, the attention would most completely be focused on the Holy Spirit and not on the person the Spirit chose to use as agent. As in all things, our lives are lived in submissions to the working of God in them, and that includes when God works miraculously. Bentley works almost exclusively to attract attention to himself - that is the greatest tip-off that there are problems there that I know of.

You see, in the end, I lie in the middle of the spectrum I have established in this post. The Holy Spirit can and does indeed work miraculously, but He does so in a manner more in line with Mark's presentation than anything Bentley is starring in his own TV show with.

Miracles happen everyday. My cousin Steve lived, productively, years longer than any doctor thought he would with Hodgkin's. So too me friend and co-worker Rick with whom I work to this day. There are no healer intermediaries, there is only the Holy Spirit - there is also no TV, no kicking, no shouting -- just prayer.

We cannot let the Todd Bentley's of the world destroy our genuine desire for and reliance on the miracles performed by the Holy Spirit. Such charlatans must be denounced. And the presumption that comes in the wake of such perfidy must also be combated - we can have a direct encounter with the Holy Spirit, but like Elijah's encounter with the living God at Horeb, He will not be in the wind or earthquake, He will be in a still small voice. Such a voice is equally as powerful, just quieter - but very distinctive. He is recognized and he is known.

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Hugh Hewitt recently reprinted an email from Randy Elrod on "new leadership." Said Elrod:

We now live in an automagical world. A world that is composed of not one future, but multiple futures. A world of self-chosen communities or tribes that are nodes in large, complex networks of such groups. A world in which hierarchal pyramids of control are crumbling and the Taylorism world of precise affluence has become a Web 2.0 world of mystical influence and social networks.

Viral loops, not manifestos, provide the opportunity for unparalleled influence. This is a world in which documents handed down by well-meaning alpha males result in a stifled yawn. However, this same world moves to the edge of their seat upon realizing that the responsibility to change the world need not be their legacy or burden. On the contrary, the creation of culture is the calling from which history speaks.

[...]

Servant leaders have the ability to provide a new type of leadership. A collaborative mentoring and releasing of people with varied and mystical gifts in order to create culture. Alpha leaders value control, servant leaders value collaboration. Alpha leaders value individualism, servant leaders value community. Alpha leaders value affluence, servant leaders value influence.

Elrod is writing in response to a question concerning the recently released, and seemingly quickly forgotten Evangelical Manifesto. In many ways, I like what Elrod is saying, but my question is "Why is this new?" This strikes me as the biblical model for organization of the body of Christ that has been there from the very beginning.

Hewitt would likely contend that the command-and-control form of leadership was necessary because of historical communication difficulties. There is little question the Internet has made organizing ourselves in this looser fashion easier, and made command-and-control harder, but somehow, I think that if God provided the vision of organization then He provided the means, even before the Internet.

Those with much at risk in the change to which Elrod points will talk about how dangerous this is, how heresies will develop, and how the average person, especially the average Christian, cannot be counted on to understand the intricacies of life with Christ.

To that I respond similarly - do you not think God understands our sinful nature and has accounted for our capability to stray in His plans. In fact, isn't that the point? Command-and-control leadership can, and often does, stray. The new organization may allow for more strays, but it also limits the impact of those strays.

But what is most intriguing about the model Elrod discusses is that it removes the middle man - God now works directly in our hearts, without benefit of intercessor. Think about that theologically and see where you end up. Maybe this where Christ intended things to go? - I'm thinkin'.

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Milt Stanley looks at a report out of Ontario and quotes as follows:

The church recently asked community members to describe their objections against Christianity. They found that many didn't have objections; they just find Christianity irrelevant. Going to church doesn't even make the list of options for Sunday morning. The seeker approach assumes that people will attend church if its relevant. But many won't go to church no matter what we do.

I find that quote a bit self-contradictory in its use of the word "irrelevant" as the reason people do not have church on the Sunday morning options list and then using that to refute the argument that relevancy brings people in. Let's try and untangle this knot a bit.

If I understand this correctly, seeker models discuss relevancy in terms of music, media and other cultural issues. That is, of course, while the church is decidedly counter-cultural when it comes to values, and most people know that. So, one conclusion would be that genuine relevancy is steeped not in the surface issues of cultural like music and clothing, but in the values.

The flip side of this; however, in in the churches that have a somewhat deeper understanding of this so they try to change cultural values as their means to developing relevance. These are largely the politically active churches, church organs and para-church organizations.

In point of fact there is some value in both approaches and their ineffectiveness lies a great deal in their unwillingness to cooperate with each other and therefore take advantage of the strengths the Apostle Paul presents with his body imagery in scripture.

But I would like to add a different approach to this. People come to church, like anywhere else they might go, because church has something they need or desire. So the essential question is what does church have to offer that people need or desire?

The answer of course, has nothing to do with culture, it is Jesus Christ - Him crucified and resurrected for the sake of our transformation into the beings we were created to be. Why don't people find that "relevant"?

I would submit to you they do not find it relevant because they HAVE NOT SEEN IT. Why did the first century church succeed so well when we do not? Because they genuinely reflected the glory of the risen Lord!

Relevancy does not lie in presenting ourselves in a package that appears more culturally in tune with our times. Relevancy does not lie in changing our culture into something that is more in tune with the church. Relevancy does lie in each of us coming to be more in tune with Jesus Christ - and allowing that fact to transform us into something the likes of which the world has never seen.

When we truly reflect the glory of Christ, people will beat a path to our door like never in history.

Think about it.

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Mark Roberts wrote, in the wake of the Jeremiah Wright controversy, about pulpit pride. As all things Mark does, it was a series and my favorite was on accountability.

In general, sinful pride disappears when we look truly at who we are and who God is. When we see ourselves as sinners saved by grace, when we regard our abilities and opportunities as gifts from God, when we own our personal limitations, and when we glimpse the wonder and majesty of God, it’s hard to be prideful. Humility before the Lord leads to humility before people, including ourselves. Any preacher too puffed up by pride needs, in my opinion, to come humbly before God.

But there’s more that can help a preacher whose pride leads to irresponsible sermonizing. I’m thinking of accountability.

[...]

Ultimately, we preachers won’t know how we measure up until we stand before the Lord. But, it the meanwhile, God has given the Christian community the responsibility for discerning the truthfulness and goodness of what Christians, including preachers, say. In one of Paul’s letters in the New Testament we read:

Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. Do not scoff at prophecies, but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil. (1 Thes 5:19-22, NLT, 2nd ed)

Though this passage doesn’t mention preaching per se, it does speak of prophesying, which is fairly close to preaching. Both have to do with speaking God’s word to people. When one claims to speak on behalf of God, the congregation of gathered Christians is not expected merely to listen submissively. On the contrary, they are to “test everything that is said” (v. 21). If it’s good, they should hang onto it. If it’s evil, they should avoid it.

Mark then goes on to explore the practicalities of such things. There are two important points I want to make out this.

Most pastors I know pay some service to this concept - the problem is in the details. Generally either they do it "on the clock" or they are a bit too selective in who they listen to. Let me explain what I mean a bit. When they do it "on the clock" they have a set amount of time they devote to "feedback" (it generally appears on their to-do list that way) most of it in the greeting after the service, and a few emails. The time devoted is severely limited and consists of "vote counting" - 23 liked it, 17 didn't. That is poll taking, not accountability. There is no feedback as to what was good and bad - there is no shaping of the ideas to improve them. The biggest problem is it is arrogant - it assumes that they know what they are doing and just seeking their rating this week.

The second issue about being too selective can get downright ridiculous. I know pastors that have held focus group kind of discussions on their sermons every week, but the group consisted of a bunch of sycophants that would praise what the guy said if he stood in the pulpit and cursed for 20 minutes. This pastor is interested in the form, but not the function of accountability.

But there is a flip side to this coin. As congregants, as the people that are to hold the preacher accountable, we carry a heavy, heavy burden. We must first of all educate ourselves in a fashion that enables us to exercise that function with wisdom. We must become mature enough people to exercise the function with grace. We must be willing to set aside our personal agendas and ask questions not about what we need from the pulpit, but what the congregation needs. This is a tall order.

It puts me in mind of Christ's discussion of planks and specks. If you seek to exercise your role to hold the preacher accountable, do so with even greater humility than you demand of him/her. Take the plank from your own eye, and monitor carefully that it not return, before you start helping your preacher with his speck.

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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Thomas Hooker, graduate and fellow of Cambridge, England, and practically founder of Connecticut, was born in 1586. He was dedicated to the ministry, and began his activities in 1620 by taking a small parish in Surrey. He did not, however, attract much notice for his powerful advocacy of reformed doctrine, until 1629, when he was cited to appear before Laud, the Bishop of London, whose threats induced him to leave England for Holland, whence he sailed with John Cotton, in 1633, for New England, and settled in Newtown, now Cambridge, Mass.

Chiefly in consequence of disagreements between his own and Cotton’s congregation he, with a large following, migrated in 1636 to the Connecticut Valley, where the little band made their center at Hartford. Hooker was the inspirer if not the author of the Fundamental Laws and was of wide political as well as religious influence in organizing “The United Colonies of New England” in 1643 - the first effort after federal government made on this continent. He was an active preacher and prolific writer up to his death in 1647.


And the father of circumcision to them who are not of circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had, being yet uncircumcized. - Romans 4:12.

I proceed now to show who those are, that may, and do indeed, receive benefit as Abraham did. The text saith, “They that walk in the steps of that faith of Abraham:” that man that not only enjoyeth the privileges of the Church, but yieldeth the obedience of faith, according to the Word of God revealed, and walketh in obedience, that man alone shall be blest with faithful Abraham.

Two points may be here raised, but I shall hardly handle them both; therefore I will pass over the first only with a touch, and that hath closely couched in the text.

That faith causeth fruitfulness in the hearts and lives of those in whom it is.

Mark what I say: a faithful man is a fruitful man; faith enableth a man to be doing. Ask the question, by what power was it whereby Abraham was enabled to yield obedience to the Lord? The text anawereth you, “They that walk in the footsteps” not of Abraham, but “in the footsteps of the faith of Abraham.” A man would have thought the text should have run thus: They that walk in the footsteps of Abraham. That is true, too, but the apostle had another end; therefore he saith, “They that walk in the footsteps of the faith of Abraham,” implying that it was the grace of faith that God bestowed on Abraham, that quickened and enabled him to perform every duty that God required of him, and called him to the performance of. So that I say, the question being, whence came it that Abraham was so fruitful a Christian, what enabled him to do and to suffer what he did? surely it was faith that was the cause that produced such effects, that helped him to perform such actions. The point then you see is evident, faith it is that causeth fruit.

Hence it is, that of almost all the actions that a Christian hath to do, faith is still said to be the worker. If a man pray as he should, it is “the prayer of faith.” If a man obey as he should, it is the obedience of faith. If a man war in the Church militant, it is “the fight of faith.” If a man live as a Christian and holy man, he “liveth by faith.” Nay, shall I say yet more, if he died as he ought, “he dieth by faith.” “These all died in faith.” What is that? The power of faith that directed and ordered them in the cause of their death, furnished them with grounds and principles of assurance of the love of God, made them carry themselves patiently in death. I can say no more, but with the apostle, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.” Why doth not the apostle say, Examine whether faith be in you, but “whether ye be in the faith”? His meaning is, that as a man is said to be in drink, or to be in love, or to be in passion, that is, under the command of drink, or love, or passion; so the whole man must be under the command of faith (as you shall see more afterward). If he prays, faith must indite his prayer; if he obey, faith must work; if he live, it is faith that must quicken him; and if he die, it is faith that must order him in death. And wheresoever faith is, it will do wonders in the soul of that man where it is; it can not be idle; it will have footsteps, it sets the whole man on work; it moveth feet, and hands, and eyes, and all parts of the body. Mark how the apostle disputeth: “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken, we also believe, and therefore speak.” The faith of the apostle, which he had in his heart, set his tongue agoing. If a man have faith within, it will break forth at his mouth. This shall suffice for the proof of the point; I thought to have prest it further, but if I should, I see the time would prevent me.

The use, therefore, in a word, is this: if this be so, then it falleth foul, and is a heavy bill of indictment against many that live in the bosom of the Church. Go thy ways home, and read but this text, and consider seriously but this one thing in it: That whosoever is the son of Abraham, hath faith, and whosoever hath faith is a walker, is a marker; by the footsteps of faith you may see where faith hath been. Will not this, then, I say, fall marvelous heavy upon many souls that live in the bosom of the Church, who are confident, and put it out of all question, that they are true believers, and make no doubt but what they have faith? But look to it, wheresoever faith is, it is fruitful. If thou art fruitless, say what thou wilt, thou hast no faith at all. Alas, these idle drones, these idle Christians, the Church is too full of them; Men are continually hearing, and yet remain fruitless and unprofitable; whereas if there were more faith in the world, we should have more work done in the world; faith would set feet, and hands, and eyes, and all on work. Men go under the name of professors, but alas! they are but pictures; they stir not a whit; mark, where you found them in the beginning of the year, there you shall find them in the end of the year, as profane, as worldly, as loose in their conversations, as formal in duty as ever. And is this faith? Oh! faith would work other matters, and provoke a soul to other passages than these.

But you will say, may not a man have faith, and not that fruit you speak of? May not a man have a good heart to Godward, although he can not find that ability in matter of fruitfulness?

My brethren, be not deceived; such an opinion is a mere delusion of Satan; wherever faith is it bringeth Christ into the soul; mark that, “Whosoever believeth, Christ dwelleth in his heart by faith. And if Christ be in you,” saith the apostle, “the body is dead, because of sin, but the spirit is life, because of righteousness.” If Christ be in you, that is, whosoever believeth in the Lord Jesus, Christ dwells in such a man by faith; now if Christ be in the soul, the body can not be dead; but a man is alive, and quick, and active to holy duties, ready, and willing, and cheerful in the performance of whatsoever God requireth. Christ is not a dear Savior, nor the Spirit a dead Spirit: the second Adam is made a quickening spirit. And wherever the Spirit is, it works effects suitable to itself. The Spirit is a spirit of purity, a spirit of zeal, and where it is it maketh pure and zealous. When a man will say he hath faith, and in the mean time can be content to be idle and unfruitful in the work of the Lord, can be content to be a dead Christian, let him know that his case is marvelously fearful: for if faith were in him indeed it wouldst appear; ye can not keep your good hearts to yourselves; wherever fire is it will burn, and wherever faith is it can not be kept secret. The heart will be enlarged, the soul quickened, and there will be a change in the whole life and conversation, if ever faith takes place in a man. I will say no more of this, but proceed to the second point arising out of the affirmative part.

You will say, what fruit is it then? Or how shall a man know what is the true fruit of faith, indeed, whereby he may discern his own estate? I answer, the text will tell you: “He that walketh in the footsteps of that faith of Abraham.” By footsteps are meant the works the actions, the holy endeavors of Abraham; and where those footsteps are there is the faith of Abraham. So that the point of instruction hence is thus much (which indeed is the main drift of the apostle).

That, every faithful man may, yea doth, imitate the actions of faithful Abraham.

Mark what I say; I say again, this is to be the son of Abraham, not because we are begot¬ten of him by natural generation, for so the Jews are the sons of Abraham; but Abraham is our father because he is the pattern for the proceeding of our faith. “Thy father was an Amorite,” saith the Scripture: that is, thou followest the steps of the Amorites in thy conversation. So is Abraham called the “father of the faithful,” because he is the copy of their course, whom they must follow in those services that God calleth for. So the point is clear, every faithful man may, yea doth, and must imitate the actions of faithful Abraham. It is Christ’s own plea, and He presseth it as an undeniable truth upon the hearts of the Scribes and Pharisees, that bragged very highly of their privileges and prerogatives, and said, “Abraham is our father.” “No (saith Christ), if ye were Abraham’s children ye would do the works of Abraham.” To be like Abraham in constitution, to be one of his blood, is not that which makes a man a son of Abraham, but to be like him in holiness of affection, to have a heart framed and a life disposed answerably to his. The apostle in like manner presseth this point when he would provoke the Hebrews, to whom he wrote, to follow the examples of the saints: “Whose faith (says he) follow, considering the end of their conversation.” So the apostle Peter presseth the example of Sarah upon all good women: “Whose daughter ye are (saith he) as long as ye do well.”

For the opening of the point, and that ye may more clearly understand it, a question here would be resolved, what were “the footsteps of the faith of Abraham”? Which way went he? This is a question, I say, worthy the scanning, and therefore (leaving the further confirmation of the point, as already evident enough) I will come to it that you may know what to settle your hearts upon.

I answer, therefore, there are six footsteps of the faith of Abraham, which are the main things wherein every faithful man must do as Abraham did, in the work of faith - I mean in his ordinary course; for if there be any thing extraordinary no man is bound to imitate him therein; but in the works of faith, I say, which belongeth to all men, every man must imitate Abraham in these six steps, and then he is in the next door to happiness, the very next neighbor, as I say, to heaven.

The first advance which Abraham made in the ways of grace and happiness, you shall observe to be a yielding to the call of God. Mark what God said to Abraham: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee; and Abraham departed,” saith the text, “as the Lord had spoken unto him.” Even when he was an idolater, he is content to lay aside all and let the command of God bear the sway; neither friends, nor kindred, nor gods can keep him back, but he presently stoopeth to the call of God. So it is, my brethren, with every faithful man. This is his first step: he is content to be under the rule and power of God’s command. Let the Lord call for him, require any service of him, his soul presently yieldeth, and is content to be framed and fashioned to God’s call, and return3th an obedient answer thereto; he is content to come out of his sins, and out of himself, and to receive the impressions of the Spirit. This is that which God requireth, not only of Abraham, but of all believers: “Whosoever will be my disciple,” saith Christ, “must forsake father, and mother, and children, and houses, and lands; yea, and he must “deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.” This is the first step in Christianity, to lay down our own honors, to trample upon our own respects, to submit our necks to the block, as it were, and whatever God commands, to be content that His good pleasure should take place with us.

Then Abraham, as doth every faithful soul, set forward, in this wise: He showed that whenever faith cometh powerfully into the heart, the soul is not content barely to yield to the command of God, but it breatheth after His mercy, longeth for His grace, prizeth Christ and salvation above all things in the world, is satisfied and contented with nothing but with the Lord Christ, and although it partake of many things below, and enjoy abundance of outward comforts, yet it is not quieted till it rest and pitch itself upon the Lord, and find and feel that evidence and assurance of His love, which He hath promised unto and will bestow on those who love Him. As for all things here below, he hath but a slight, and mean, and b&se esteem of them. This you shall see apparent in Abraham. “Fear not, Abraham (saith God), I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” What could a man desire more? One would think that the Lord makes a promise here large enough to Abraham, “I will be thy buckler, and exceeding great reward.” Is not Abraham contented with this? No; mark how he pleadeth with God: “Lord God (saith he), what wilt thou give me seeing I go childless?” His eye is upon the promise that God had made to him of a son, of whom the Savior of the world should come. “0 Lord, what wilt thou give me 1” as if he had said, What wilt Thou do for me? alas! nothing will do my soul good unless I have a son, and in him a Savior. What will become of me so long as I go childless, and so Saviorless, as I may so speak? You see how Abraham‘s mouth was out of taste with all other things, how he could relish nothing, enjoy nothing in comparison of the promise, tho he had otherwise what he would, or could desire. Thus must it be with every faithful man. That soul never hfid, nor never shall have Christ, that doth not prize Him above all things in the world.

The next step of Abraham’s faith was this, he casteth himself and flingeth his soul, as I may say, upon the all-sufficient power and mercy of God for the attainment of what he desireth; he rolleth and tumbleth himself, as it were, upon the all-sufficiency of God. This you shall find in Rom. 4:18, where the apostle, speaks of Abraham, who “against hope, believed in hope”; that is, when there was no hope in the world, yet he believed in God, even above hope, and so made it possible. It was an object of his hope, that it might be in regard of God, howsoever there was no possibility in regard of man. So the text saith, “he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah‘s womb, but was strong in faith.” He cast himself wholly upon the precious promise and mercy of God.

But he took another step in true justifying faith. He proved to us the believer is informed touching the excellency of the Lord Jesus, and that fullness that is to be had in Him, though he can not find the sweetness of His mercy, though he can not or dare not apprehend and apply it to himself, though he find nothing in himself, yet he is still resolved to rest upon the Lord, and to stay himself on the God of his salvation, and to wait for His mercy till he find Him gracious to his poor soul. Excellent and famous is the example of the woman of Canaan. When Christ, as it were, beat her off, and took up arms against her, was not pleased to reveal Himself graciously to her for the present, “I am not sent (saith He) but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; and it is not meet to take the children ‘s bread, and to cast it to the dogs”; mark how she replied, “Truth, Lord, I confess all that; yet notwithstanding, the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Oh, the excellency, and strength, and work of her faith! She comes to Christ for mercy, He repelleth her, reproacheth her, tells her she is a dog; she confesseth her baseness, is not discouraged for all that, but still resteth upon the goodness and mercy of Christ, and is mightily resolved to have mercy whatsoever befalleth her. Truth, Lord, I confess I am as bad as Thou canst term me, yet I confess, too, that there is no comfort but from ‘thee, and though I am a dog, yet I would have crumbs. Still she laboreth to catch after mercy, and to lean and to bear herself upon the favor of Christ for the bestowing thereof upon her. So it must be with every faithful Christian in this particular; he must roll himself upon the power, and faithfulness, and truth of God, and wait for His mercy (I will join them both together for brevity’s sake, though the latter be a fourth step and degree of faith); I say he must not only depend upon God, but he must wait upon the Holy One of Israel.

But a further step of Abraham’s faith ap¬peared in this: he counted nothing too dear for the Lord; he was content to break through all impediments, to pass through all difficulties, whatsoever God would have, He had of him. This is the next step that Abraham went; and this you shall find when God put him upon trial. The text saith there “that God did tempt Abraham,” did try what He would do for Him, and He bade him, “Go, take thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and slay him”; and straight Abraham went and laid his son upon an altar, and took a knife, to cut the throat of his son - so that Abraham did not spare his son Isaac, he did not spare for any cost, he did not dodge with God in this case; if God would have anything, He should have it, whatsoever it were, though it were his own life, for no question Isaac was dearer to him than his own life. And this was not his case alone, but the faithful people of God have ever walked the same course. The apostle Paul was of the same spirit; “I know not (saith he) the things that shall befall me, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me: but none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God.” 0 blest spirit! here is the work of faith. Alas! when we come to part with anything for the cause of God, how hardly comes it from us! “But I (saith he) pass not, no, nor is my life dear unto me.” Here, I say, is the work of faith, indeed, when a man is content to do anything for God, and to say if imprisonment, loss of estate, liberty, life, come, I pass not, it moveth me nothing, so I may finish my course with comfort. Hence it was that the saints of God in those primitive times “took joyfully the spoiling of their goods.” Me-thinks I see the saints there reaching after Christ with the arms of faith, and how, when anything lay in their way, they were content to lose all, to part with all, to have Christ. Therefore saith Saint Paul, “I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” Mark, rather than he would leave his Savior, he would leave his life, and tho men would have hindered him, yet was resolved to have Christ, howsoever, though he lost his life for Him. Oh, let me have my Savior, and take my life!

The last step of all is this: when the soul is thus resolved not to dodge with God, but to part with anything for Him, then in the last place there followeth a readiness of heart to address man’s self to the performance of whatsoever duty God requireth at his hands; I say this is the last step, when, without consulting with flesh and blood, without ham¬mering upon it, as it were, without awkwardness of heart, there followeth a readiness to obey God; the soul is at hand. When Abraham was called, “Behold (saith he) here I am.” And so Samuel, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth,” and so Ananias. “Be¬hold, I am here, Lord.” The faithful soul is not to seek, as an evil servant that is gone a roving after his companions, that is out of the way when his master would use him, but is like a trusty servant that waiteth upon his master, and is ever at hand to do His pleasure. So you shall see it was with Abra¬ham, when the Lord commanded him to go out of his country, “he obeyed, and went out, not knowing whither he went”; he went cheerfully and readily, though he knew not whither; as who would say, if the Lord calls, I will not question, if He command I will perform, whatever it be. So it must be with every faithful soul - we must blind the eye of carnal reason, resolve to obey, though heaven and earth seem to meet together in a contradiction, care not what man or what devil saith in this case, but what God will have done, do it; this is the courage and obedience of faith. See how Saint Paul, in the place be¬fore named, flung his ancient friends from him, when they came to cross him in the work of his ministry. They all came about him, and because they thought they should see his face no more, they besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “What, mean ye to weep, and to break my heart?” as who should say, It is a grief and a vexation to my soul, that ye would burden me, that I can not go with readiness to perform the service that God requireth at my hands. The like Christian courage was in Luther when his friends dissuaded him to go to Worms: “If all the tiles in Worms were so many devils (said he) yet would I go thither in the name of my Lord Jesus.” This is the last step.

Now gather up a little what I have delivered. He that is resolved to stoop to the call of God; to prize the promises, and breathe after them; to rest upon the Lord, and to wait His time for bestowing mercy upon him; to break through all impediments and difficulties, and to count nothing too dear for God; to be content to perform ready and cheerful obedience; he that walketh thus, and treadeth in these steps, peace be upon him; heaven is hard by; he is as sure of salvation as the angels are; it is as certain as the Lord liveth that he shall be saved with faithful Abraham, for he walketh in the steps of Abraham, and therefore he is sure to be where he is. The case, you see, is clear, and the point evident, that every faithful man may, and must, imitate faithful Abraham.

It may be here imagined, that we draw men up to too high a pitch; and certainly, if this be the sense of the words, and the meaning of the Holy Ghost in this place, what will become of many that live in the bosom of the Church? Will you therefore see the point confirmed by reason? The ground of this doctrine stands thus: every faithful man hath the same faith, for nature and for work, that Abraham had; therefore, look what nature his faith was of, and what power it had; of the same nature and power every true believer’s faith is. Briefly thus: the promises of God are the ground upon which all true faith resteth; the Spirit of God it is that worketh this faith in all believers; the power of the Spirit is that that putteth forth itself in the hearts and lives of all the faithful; gather these together: if all true believers have the same promises for the ground of their faith; have one and the same spirit to work it; have one and the same power to draw out the abilities of faith, then certainly they can not but have the very self-same actions, having the very self-same ground of their actions.

Every particular believer (as the apostle Peter saith) “bath obtained the like precious faith.” Mark, that there is a great deal of copper faith in the world - much counterfeit believing; but the saints do all partake of “the like precious faith.” As when a man bath but a sixpence in silver, or a crown in gold, those small pieces, for the nature, are as good as the greatest of the same metal; so it is with the faith of God’s elect. And look as it is in grafting; if there be many scions of the same kind grafted into one stock, they all partake alike of the virtue of the stock; just so it is here. The Lord Jesus Christ is the stock, as it were, into which all the faithful are grafted by the spirit of God and faith; therefore, whatsoever fruit one beareth, another beareth also: howsoever, there may be degrees of works, yet they are of the same nature. As a little apple is the same in taste with a great one of the same tree, even so every faithful man hath the same holiness of heart and life, because he hath the same principle of holiness. The fruit indeed that one Christian bringeth may be but poor and small in comparison with others, yet it is the same in kind; the course of his life is not with so much power and fullness of grace, it may be, as another’s, yet there is the same true grace, and the same practice, in the kind of it, for truth, however in degree it differ.

Let us now come to see what benefit we may make to ourselves of this point, thus proved and confirmed; and, certainly, the use of this doctrine is of great consequence. In the first place, it is a just ground of examination. For if it be true (as can not be denied, the reasons being so strong, and arguments so plain) that every son of Abraham followeth the steps of Abraham, then here you may clearly perceive who it is that bath saving faith indeed, who they be that are true saints and the sons of Abraham. By the light of this truth, by the rule of this doctrine, if you would square your courses, and look into your conversations, you can not but discern whether you have faith or no. That man whose faith showeth itself and putteth itself forth in its several conditions, agreeably to the faith of Abraham, that man that followeth the footsteps of the faith of Abraham, let him be esteemed a faithful man, let him be reckoned for a true believer.

You that are gentlemen and tradesmen, I appeal to your souls whether the Lord and His cause is not the loser this way? Doth not prayer pay for it? Doth not the Word pay for it? Are not the ordinances always losers when anything of your own cometh in competition? Is it not evident, then, that you are not under the command of the Word? How do you tremble at the wrath and threatenings of a mortal man? and yet, when you hear the Lord thunder judgments out of His Word, who is humbled? When He calls for fasting, and weeping, and mourning, who regards it? Abraham, my brethren, did not thus: these were none of his steps; no, no: be went a hundred miles off this course. The Lord no sooner said to him, “Forsake thy country and thy kindred, and thy father’s house,” but he forsook all, neither friend nor father prevailed to detain him from obedience, but he stooped willingly to God’s command.

There are a sort that come short of being the sons of Abraham, and they are the close-hearted hypocrites. These are a gen¬eration that are of a more refined kind than the last, but howsoever they carry the matter very covertly, yea, and are exceeding cunning; yet the truth will make them known. Many a hypocrite may come thus far, to be content to part with anything, and outwardly to suffer for the cause of God, to part with diverse pleasures and lusts, and to perform many holy services. But here is the difference between Abraham and these men: Abraham forsook his goods and all, but your close-hearted hypocrites have always some god or other that they do homage to - their ease, or their wealth, or some secret lust, something or other they have set up as an idol within them - and so long as they may have and enjoy that, they will part with anything else. But thou must know that, if thou be one of Abraham ‘s children, thou must come away from thy gods - the god of pride, of self-love, of vainglory - and leave worshiping of these, and be content to be alone by God and His truth. This shall suffice for the first use; I can not proceed further in the pressing thereof, because I would shut up all with the time.

The second use is a word of instruction, and it shall be but a word or two; that if all the saints of God must walk in the same way of life and salvation that Abraham did, then there is no byway to bring a man to happiness. Look, what way Abraham went, you must go; there are no more ways: the same course that he took must be a copy for you to follow, a rule, as it were, for you to square your whole conversation by. There is no way but one to come to life and happiness. I speak it the rather to dash that idle device of many carnal men, that think the Lord bath a new invention to bring them to life, and that they need not go the ordinary way, but God bath made a shorter cut for them. Great men and gentlemen think God will spare them. What, must they be humbled, and fast, and pray? That is for poor men, and mean men. Their places and estates will not suffer it; therefore surely God bath given a dispensation to them. And the poor men, they think it is for gentlemen that have more leisure and time: alas! they live by their labor, and they must take pains for what they have, and therefore they can not do what is required. But be not deceived; if there be any way beside that which Abraham went, then will I deny myself. But the case is clear, the Lord saith it, the Word saith it; the same way, the same footsteps that Abraham took, we must take, if ever we will come where Abraham is.

You must not balk in this kind, whoever you are; God respecteth no man’s person. If you would arrive at the same haven, you must sail through the same sea. You must walk the same way of grace, if you would come to the same kingdom of glory. It is a conceit that harboreth in the hearts of many men, nay, of most men in general, especially your great wise men and your great rich men, that have better places and estates in the world than ordinary. What, think they, may not a man be saved without all this ado? What needs all this? Is there not another way be¬sides this? Surely, my brethren, you must teach our Savior Christ and the apostle Paul another way. I am sure they never knew another; and he that dreameth of another way must be content to go beside. There is no such matter as the devil would persuade you; it is but his delusion to keep you under infidelity, and so shut you up to destruction under false and vain conceits. The truth is, here is the way, and the only way, and you must walk here if ever you come to life and happiness. Therefore, be not deceived, suffer not your eyes to be blinded; but know, what Abraham did, you must do the same, if not in action, yet in affection. If God say, forsake all, thou must do it, at least in affection. Thou must still wait upon His power and providence; yield obedience to Him in all things; be content to submit thyself to His will. This is the way you must walk in, if you ever come to heaven.

The last use shall be a use of comfort to all the saints and people of God, whose consciences can witness that they have labored to walk in the uprightness of their heart as Abraham did. I have two or three words to speak to these.

Be persuaded out of the Word of God, that your course is good, and go on with comfort, and the God of heaven be with you; and be sure of it, that you that walk with Abraham shall be at rest with Abraham; and it shall never repent you of all the pains that you have taken. Haply it may seem painful and tedious to you; yet, what Abigail said to David, let me say to you: “Oh,” saith she, “let not my lord do this: when the Lord shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he bath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Is¬rael, this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offense of heart, that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord bath avenged himself.” My brethren, let me say to you, you will find trouble and inconveniences and hard measure at the hands of the wicked in this world. Many Nabals and Cams will set themselves against you; but go on, and bear it patiently. Know it is a troublesome way, but a true way; it is grievous but yet good; and the end will be happy. It will never repent you, when the Lord hath performed all the good that He hath spoken concerning you.

Oh! to see a man drawing his breath low and short, after he bath spent many hours and days in prayer to the Lord, grappling with his corruptions, and striving to pull down his base lusts, after he bath waited upon the Lord in a constant course of obedience. Take but such a man, and ask him, now his conscience is opened, whether the ways of holiness and sincerity be not irksome to him, whether he be not grieved with him¬self for undergoing so much needless trouble (as the world thinks it) ; and his soul will then clear this matter. It is true he bath a tedious course of it, but now his death will be blest. He bath striven for a crown, and now beholds a crown. Now he is beyond the waves. All the contempts, and imprisonments, and outrages of wicked men are now too short to reach him. He is so far from repenting, that he rejoiceth and triumpheth in reflecting back upon all the pains, and care, and labor of love, whereby he bath loved the Lord Jesus, in submitting his heart unto Him.

Take me another man, that hath lived here in pomp and jollity, bath had many livings, great preferments, much honor, abundance of pleasure, yet bath been ever careless of God and of His Word, profane in his course, loose in his conversation, and ask him upon his death-bed, how it standeth with him. Oh! woe the time, that ever he spent it as be bath done. Now the soul begins to bate the man, and the very sight of him that bath been the instrument with it in the committing of sin. Now nothing but gall and wormwood remaineth. Now the sweetness of the adulterer’s lust is gone, and nothing but the sting of conscience remaineth. Now the covetous man must part with his goods, and the gall of asps must stick behind. Now the soul sinks within, and the heart is overwhelmed with sorrow. Take but these two men, I say, and judge by their ends, whether it will ever repent you that you have done well, that you have walked in the steps of the faith of Abraham.

My brethren, howsoever you have had many miseries, yet the Lord bath many mercies for you. God dealeth with His servants, as a father doth with his son, after he bath sent him on a journey to do some business; and the weather falleth foul, and the way proveth dangerous, and many a storm, and great difficulties are to be gone through. Oh, how the heart of that father pitieth his son! How doth he resolve to requite him, if he ever live to come home again! What preparation doth he make to entertain, and welcome him; and how doth he study to do good unto him! My brethren, so it is here; I beseech you, think of it, you that are the saints and people of God. You must find in your way many troubles and griefs (and we ought to find them), but be not discouraged. The more misery, the greater mercy. God the Father seeth His servants: and if they suffer and endure for a good conscience, as His eye seeth them, so His soul pitieth them. His heart bleeds within Him for them; that is, He bath a tender compassion of them, and He saith within Himself, Well, I will requite them if ever they come into My kingdom; all their patience, and care, and conscience in walking My ways, I will requite; and they shall receive a double reward from Me, even a crown of eternal glory. Think of these things that are not seen; they are eternal. The things that are seen are temporal, and they will deceive us. Let our hearts be carried after the other, and rest in them forever!

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