Coming Up For Air

From Psalm 68 – 28 [k]Your God has commanded your strength; Strengthen, O God, what You have done for us. 29 Because of Your temple at Jerusalem, Kings will bring presents to You. 30 Rebuke the beasts of the reeds, The herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples, Till everyone submits himself with pieces of silver. Scatter the peoples who delight in war. 31 Envoys will come out of Egypt; Ethiopia will quickly stretch out her hands to God. "I think," considers Greg Forster in Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It , "the failure of The American church to affirm the goodness of civilizational life is our greatest failing today.” Perhaps the seeds of regrowing a more holistic gratitude are offered by the Holy Spirit Psalm 68:29. Malcolm Gladwell makes much of the outsized influence of tipping points in a given culture, and there is this. If those wearing society's formal or informal crowns, if their hear...

From John 13 – 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, 4 rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. 5 After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. In one scene in The Greatest Showman , PT Barnum has arrived. From derided outcast, Barnum has gotten to the point of prominence wherein he and his family have been invited to appear before Queen Victoria. Barnum muses, "If you want society to accept you, you might as well start at the very, very top." The same Truth is more radically presented by the Holy Spirit in John 13. We get a glimpse inside Jesus' certainty of His identity, his value in His Father's eyes. His acceptance comes from a top Barnum hardly envisions in approval available from Queen Victoria. And because Christ's ultimate validation comes fr...

From Psalm 68 – 7 O God, when You went out before Your people, When You marched through the wilderness, Selah 8 The earth shook; The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God; Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel. 9 You, O God, sent a plentiful rain, Whereby You confirmed Your inheritance, When it was weary. 10 Your congregation dwelt in it; You, O God, provided from Your goodness for the poor. In News from Lake Wobegon , Garrison Keillor notices that he tends to be imposing to children. His genesis of genuine approachability, then, is to sing. He observes, 3 “You don’t intimidate people when you sing.  Takes you back to a time when people singing to you was the only way that they could tell you that they loved you.” Perhaps that's why the Gospel in song, in the 150 Psalms in the middle of the Bible, is so engaging. Awed or convicted to speechlessness at one point? The song will go on as it has for thousands of years before. Convictio...

From Psalm 68 – 5 A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation. 6 God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity; But the rebellious dwell in a dry land. "Christ did not die for men because they were intrinsically worth dying for," differentiates CS Lewis in Miracles , " but because He is intrinsically loving, and therefore loves infinitely." Intrinsically is the right word as we contemplate the unity of Psalm 68. Without such insights, I can picture ministry in humanity's sticky details as something that interrupts God's bliss, or at least as something He takes on for internal payoff when we "grow up." But this window on Heaven won't allow such a bifurcated view. The Psalmist insists that in His holy habitation, God is about repairing human relationships. From that lofty vantage point, He sets the solitary in families. He brings those who are bound into prosperi...

From Isaiah 30 – 8 Now go, write it before them on a tablet, And note it on a scroll, That it may be for time to come, Forever and ever: 9 That this is a rebellious people, Lying children, Children who will not hear the law of the Lord; 10 Who say to the seers, “Do not see,” And to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things; Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits. 11 Get out of the way, Turn aside from the path, Cause the Holy One of Israel To cease from before us.” "When it comes to knowing God, many of us constitute a culture of the spiritually stunted." So confronts DA Carson in Praying with Paul . "So much of our religion," he continues with the grim diagnosis of the spirit of the age, "is packaged to address our felt needs—and these are almost uniformly anchored in our pursuit of happiness and fulfillment, without rightly understanding where true happiness and fulfillment lie." Not surprisingly, Carson must lead us to understand that our t...

From Colossians 4 – 1 Masters, give your bondservants what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven. Christian Graces 2 Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; 3 meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the [a]mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, 4 that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. 5 Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. 6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. Final Greetings 7 Tychicus, a beloved brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me. 8 I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that [b]he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts, 9 with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will make known to you all things which are happening here. 10 Aristarchus my fellow pris...

From Psalm 107 – 1 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. 2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy, 3 And gathered out of the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south. 4 They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way; They found no city to dwell in. 5 Hungry and thirsty, Their soul fainted in them. 6 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, And He delivered them out of their distresses. 7 And He led them forth by the right way, That they might go to a city for a dwelling place. 8 Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! 9 For He satisfies the longing soul, And fills the hungry soul with goodness. "Sudden change," reflects Dr. Matthew Clark quoting John Calvin in Clark's sermon "Responding to the Storm" "precedes only from the hidden provide...

From Habakkuk 2 – 1 I will stand my watch And set myself on the rampart, And watch to see what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected. The Just Live by Faith 2 Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. 4 “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith. “But what we need to own and perfect into a magnificent, shining thing," whispers Megan McKenna conspiratorially in The New Stations of the Cross: The Way of the Cross According to Scripture, " is a new kind of politics, the politics of resistance. The politics of slowing things down. In the present circumstances, I'd say the only thing worth globalizing is dissent.” Habakkuk 2 is in on the sa...

From Ecclesiastes 3 – 9 What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? 10 I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. In his Heretics , GK Chesterton encourages us to expand our spectrum of what we see and speak of as poetry. He then describes the railroad conductor as existing in "an agony of vigilance." So, then, we neither imagine the poetry nor a certain agony of stretching as we enter into the more ordinary-seeming aspects of our day and our week. The author of Ecclesiastes 3 guides us through such a sometimes awkward transition. Just as he, and The Birds after him, have been coaching our contemplations to consider history's big picture including a time for every macro trend, he comes down from the mountain with those of us who need to go to work and con...

From 1 Timothy 5 – 11 But refuse the younger widows; for when they have begun to grow wanton against Christ, they desire to marry, 12 having condemnation because they have cast off their first faith. 13 And besides they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not. For vitamin D to energize the body and a moment's reflection to energize the soul, I was once pausing in the sunshine at the top of a steep flight of stairs which fronted a building. From that vantage point, I saw a toddler tackle them. He took each step, each one perhaps higher than his shin. When he reached the top, there was a memorable look backwards, and then forward again. It wasn't pride. It was dominion. It was accomplishment. The desire to matter, to be able to look back on the difference we've made is part of who we are. That genuine drive for genuine accomplishment is so integral that it persisted throug...

From John 8 – 54 Jesus answered, “If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is [o]your God. 55 Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I say, ‘I do not know Him,’ I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and keep His word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” "Where there is danger," decrees Edward Gibbon in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , "there may be glory." In John 8, Jesus is facing pressing danger and thick, personal hostility. The writer in me always wonders, what was His facial expression? Verses 54 through 56 give us a clue by allowing us into His thoughts from which words and facial expression flowed. He is tapping into REJOICING by thinking about those who did rejoice and still do. Abraham, Jesus reminds us, looked on the day in which Jesus His Descendent and Progenitor goes unrecognized among the Abrahamic heirs and is glad to see ...

 From Romans 5 – 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. "Most Christians have a deferred hope, not a daily celebration," divides Chris Tiegreen in Feeling Like God: The Emotional Side of Discipleship - and Why You Can’t Fully Follow Jesus without It . "When we miss out on his joy, we miss out on his fruitfulness." The apostle Paul makes the same connection in Romans 5. Yes, Paul and Tiegreen peer into a future eternal reckoning and are fittingly grateful that we are saved from the wrath of a just God. This is what Tiegreen refers to as our deferred hope. It's real and celebratory, but we won't experience it fully for a while. With our incom...

From Psalm 63 1 O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. 2 So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory. 3 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You. 4 Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. 5 My soul shall be satisfied as with [a]marrow and [b]fatness, And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips. "I want to cross the borderline," All Things New pleads with the Lord in "Borderline," "between Your heart and mine, where Heaven and Earth collide." Psalm 63 from a more ancient songster expresses much the same longing for continuity. The first borderline he would cross is a less intimate sense of God's Presence he would exchange for a more immediate sense. We notice that both All Things New and our Psalmist are resolved in the beginning. ...

From John 10 – 31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. 32 Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” 33 The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.” Pride, GK Chesterton said aptly in Heretics , dries up wonder. In an interesting pairing of personalities, Bob Dylan sings similarly in "Visions of Joanna," "Inside the museums, infinity goes up on trial." Of course, the same bitter reaction predates them both and is distilled in God's Word. As recently as yesterday, I thought John 10:31 to be assertive, sanctified sarcasm. If so, praise be to Christ its Author for His assurance of Who He is under withering assault. Now, I think we might have missed the literal, which is more impactful, and in keeping with what Chesterton and Dylan together realize. The flesh wants to measure and grade...

From John 7 – 2 Now the Jews’ Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. 3 His brothers therefore said to Him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. 4 For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” 5 For even His brothers did not believe in Him. 6 Then Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil. 8 You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come.” 9 When He had said these things to them, He remained in Galilee. 10 But when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. Tad Friend noticed a paradoxical tension when he wrote in the March 5, 2018 issue of the New Yorker , "Network  executives want a dab of originality, ...

From Genesis 4 – 3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. 6 So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” On the television drama The West Wing , President Bartlett is a fit representative for husbands everywhere, and really for anyone who has ever attempted relationship. He's wrong. He's wrong, and he doesn't like it. He's wrong, he doesn't like it, and this acidic discomfort eats through the solitary confinement to which is otherwise remarkable discipline sentences it. In President Bartlett...

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 I am a professional worrier. I tend to push my worries as far as possible outside of my realm of responsibility in order to excuse my inaction and my lack of faith. God, in His grace, actually used this fallen tendency. When I was 12, at the height of the Cold War, I heard a preacher on television talking about biblical prophecies about nuclear war. I realized, by God's grace, that this world was temporary and vulnerable. I was afraid, with some tiny percentage being genuine fear of God. Also by God's grace, my father was present and had God's Word in his heart and on his lips. Rather than easily tell me that death was not something I needed to concern myself with, he affirmed that, yes, one day you will die. The conditions making that certain have been in place for much longer than the Cold War or the state of Israel. The point, he sai...

From Isaiah 29 – 6 You will be punished by the Lord of hosts With thunder and earthquake and great noise, With storm and tempest And the flame of devouring fire. 7 The multitude of all the nations who fight against Ariel, Even all who fight against her and her fortress, And distress her, Shall be as a dream of a night vision. 8 It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams, And look—he eats; But he awakes, and his soul is still empty; Or as when a thirsty man dreams, And look—he drinks; But he awakes, and indeed he is faint, And his soul still craves: So the multitude of all the nations shall be, Who fight against Mount Zion.” 9 Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunk, but not with wine; They stagger, but not with intoxicating drink. 10 For the Lord has poured out on you The spirit of deep sleep, And has closed your eyes, namely, the prophets; And He has covered your heads, namely, the seers. "The reward," writes a reviewer in...

From Psalm 57 – 1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, Until these calamities have passed by. 2 I will cry out to God Most High, To God who performs all things for me. 3 He shall send from heaven and save me; He reproaches the one who would swallow me up. Selah God shall send forth His mercy and His truth. 4 My soul is among lions; I lie among the sons of men Who are set on fire, Whose teeth are spears and arrows, And their tongue a sharp sword. 5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; Let Your glory be above all the earth. Back in November of 2017, the New Yorker featured a traveling Oval Office set which makes its way to fairs and allows participants to envision themselves in the seat of power. Its purveyor observed that the pieces don't look that impressive individually, but that they have a collective impact. We can get the same sense from the opening of Psalm 57. Davi...

From John 8 – 10 When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers [j]of yours? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go [k]and sin no more.” 12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” 13 The Pharisees therefore said to Him, “You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not [l]true.” "Let me not strive to understand the infinite," aspires Charles Spurgeon in Morning and Evening, resolving instead to, "spend my strength in love." John 8 shows us both a beautiful benefit of this humble, engaged spirit, and an undesirable alternative. Would you counter Spurgeon, in a sense, with a desire to know more of the infinite? Is the passion of your heart to know more theology? Would you hear Christ speak of Himself to your soul with p...