Perfectly Restful Activity

I’m working on a sermon on the 4th commandment, remembering the Sabbath. One reason God calls us to do this is because he created the earth in six days and rested the seventh. I wondered, “Why did God rest? Certainly he wasn’t tired, was he?” The Hebrew word for Sabbath can be best interpreted as a ‘day of ceasing.’ So God ceased his work, and in John Piper’s words said, “Wow!” It is as if God is taking pleasure in his glorious work of creation and asking us to join him in the wonder of his creativity and power.

I was reminded this week that we are not only to look back, but we are also to look forward. I believe that another reason God modeled this pattern of work and rest is because a Sabbath rest yet remains for us in heaven after our work on earth is done (Heb 4). I met with a beautiful, godly lady this week that has terminal cancer, and the 4th commandment came to life. (So often God’s Word seems so theoretical in the study, but when you see how it applies and speaks into real life, it comes to life itself.) I took great joy in describing that our new life in the New Heavens and New Earth will be full of activity, will be marvelous and full of wonder, will be full of worship and excitement and perfect peace; and as active as it will be, it will be completely and utterly restful.

We think of all the things we would like to do on earth, but I believe it would be more fruitful to set our minds on things above, realizing that it will be infinitely better to do these things in the New Earth in new bodies which will never tire.

Thankful for Punishment

Very often our thoughts and prayers on suffering and punishment are along this thread: “Why is there evil in the world?” “God, please take this suffering away.” “Why would a good person have to suffer so much?” But here is a challenging perspective from Ezra in chapter 9: “God, you have punished us less thank our sins have deserved.” Even in light of the exile, Israel losing their homes and country, being taken to a foreign land, their hugely important center for worship had been destroyed and pillaged, and Ezra says that God’s punishment has been less than they deserved.

Clearly his eye is not on his circumstances but on his God, and his own sinfulness before Him. God, help me to know you, help me to know myself and my depravity. And help me to ultimately look to Jesus’ work and life eternal being thankful that any suffering that I endure on earth is infinitely less than I deserve.

ACTS

I was praying my way through the acrostic ACTS this morning (adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication). 1 Chronicles 29:10-13 is a great prayer for adoration and one I want to memorize. When I was on ‘confession,’ my mind wandered to other things (as it often does in prayer). I woke back up and asked myself, “Have you finished confession?” The thought of response was, “I’ve never finished confession.”

There is always more. But the purpose is never to wipe the slate clean, which is already clean. The purpose is never to earn my way back into God’s good graces. The purpose is to exalt the name of God by humbling myself and recognizing the great distance between us that Christ has covered. God is honored and glorified when we confess our sins, when we acknowledge to him that we are sinful and he is holy. The greater our awareness of our desperate need for him, the more glorious and powerful is his rescue through Christ.

Being Real

Perhaps my greatest fear is that I would live out an inauthentic Christian life before my kids, such that they would see me as a hypocrite. Perhaps as a pastor this temptation is stronger than it is for many others, as I perceive that I have to live up to certain moral, social, and spiritual expectations of others. How am I doing?

Several days ago my son Craig said to Lucibeth and I, "Why are you nicer to us around other people than when we are alone?" Ouch. Yes, I know—it is right not to discipline or reprove in public. But that is not what he was talking about. As a seven year-old this was the deep wisdom to discern anger, frustration and impatience that we are quick to hide from others behind a plastic mask of a smile.

What can we do? Repent. And to do so in front of our kids, so that they can see for themselves that we are trying to overcome this most heinous of sins by confessing it and repenting of it before others. I have read somewhere that the most powerful way to impact your kids is not necessarily to be "good," but rather to confess and let them know when we are not. That way, they will see that your faith is real, and there is much power in that.