Here’s the deal: somewhere in my head there’s a list of things by levels of importance. Following Christ wholeheartedly and loving/serving/leading my family top that list, naturally, with my church and small group, my job, school, friends, etc, on there as well. Unfortunately, with my life loaded like it is right now, blogging is not making the cut (as is obvious when you see the date of my last post…).

So, until we meet again, adieu.

So when I read Psalm 34, I must know that verse 16 and verse 21 should be pointed at me. “The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth…. Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.” As Paul writes in Ephesians 2, I should be, and deservedly so, a child of wrath.

Not only this, but all the great promises of Psalm 34 should not be granted to me. Based on my merit, it should not be true that God hears and answers and delivers me. I should not have the experience of lacking no good thing. The Lord, because of me, should not be near me, a sinner, and I am in no way worthy of being saved. My life should not be redeemed and I am worthy of condemnation.

But the wonder of the gospel is that God justifies the ungodly (Psalm 32; Romans 4). I, who was not and am not worthy on my own, have been made worthy in Christ. In Christ I have been counted as a child of God and an heir of his promises, promises that Psalm 34 lays out so beautifully for me to see.

Though I deserve no answer from God, he hears my cry and delivers me. Where I deserve curse, he blesses me and calls me to take refuge in him. Whereas the angel of the Lord should slay me with the sword, he now “encamps around” me and delivers me. God has told me that I will lack no good thing as I seek him, and he has graciously instructed me on how to walk in the reverent fear of him. Where the wrath of God should be toward me, now he looks on me with compassion and he hears my cry. His face is no longer against me. He has forgiven and paid for the evil I have done. Although I should greatly fear his presence, as it should surely destroy me, now he is near me and he promises to save. Yes, my afflictions continue, but God delivers me from them all, and even if they bring death, he is now delivering me not finally away from him for eternity, but to his side forever. My life, worthy of nothing, has been redeemed; the condemnation that I earned will never meet me, for it has already been given to Another in my place.

My wife’s blog (http://bertandstephanie.blogspot.com) is a much better site and is THE place for updates and photos about my beautiful baby girl, her beautiful mother and even a few items on yours truly from time to time….

So check it out. I promise it’ll bring a smile to your face…

Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. / Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. / I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. / I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. / I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. / I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me. / How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! / Through your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way.

Recently I’ve taken a couple of months to walk through Psalm 119 slowly, asking myself along the way what its contents tell us about the Word of God, his character, and how we should live. It’s been a fruitful exercise for me, one which I would commend everyone to do at some point. This afternoon I condensed some of my conclusions into a list… I hope this proves helpful for you, too, challenging you as it did me…                                Grace, Bert

God’s Word:

• is righteous — 119:7, 62, 75, 106, 123, 144, 160, 164
• is right — 119:128, 137, 172
• is good — 119:39, (68)
• is wonderful — 119:18, 27, 129
• gives life from God — 119:25, 37, 40, 50, 107, 154, 156
• is exceedingly broad — 119:96
• strengthens — 119:28
• is a blessing to keep — 119:56
• shows me the way — 119:105
• is my heritage forever — 119:111
• is well-tried — 119:140
• is true — 119:142, 151, 159

God’s Word Should Be:

• my delight — 119:14, 16, 24, 35, 47, 70, 77, 92, 143, 174
• my longing — 119:20, 40, 82, 131
• my counselor — 119:24
• my hope — 119:43, 49, 74, 81, 116, 147
• my love — 119:47, 48, 97, 113, 127, 140, 159, 165, 167 (exceedingly!)
• my most treasured possession — 119:72, 103, 127, (167)
• what I stand in awe of — 119:161
• my joy — 119:111
• that at which I rejoice — 119:162
• that which I cling to — 119:31
• that which I am inclined to (and not selfish gain!) — 119:36

The one who has this attitude about the Word:

• lives it out (is “a doer of the Word”, as James writes) — 119:5, 9-11, 30, 44, 56, 59-60, 67, 69, 100-102, 106, 112,  121, 160, 166
• relies on the gracious God to continually teach him the word — 119:12, 18, 26, 29, 33, 34, 64, 66, 68, 73, 108, 125, 144, 171
• relies on the gracious God to empower his obedience — 119:10, 17, 18, 27, 28, 32, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 41-42, 43, 56, 77, 88, 107, 130, 132, 133, 134, 135, 144, 173

And all this points us to the Word made flesh, Christ Himself.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1, 14)

May we all seek the grace of God to empower us to treasure Him and obey in the same manner…

The greatest gift I can give to my fellow Christians is the gospel itself. I love my fellow Christians not simply because of the gospel, but I love them best when I am loving them with the gospel! And I do this not merely by speaking gospel words to them, but also by living before them and generously relating to them in a gospel manner….

By preaching the gospel to myself each day, I nurture the bond that unites me with my brothers and sisters for whom Christ died, and I also keep myself well-versed in the raw materials with which I may actively love them in Christ….

We are all significant players in each other’s gospel narrative, and it is in relationship with one another that we experience the fullness of God in Christ. Hence, the more I comprehend the full scope of the gospel, the more I value the church for which Christ died, the more I value the role that I play in the lives of my fellow-Christians, and the more I appreciate the role that they must be allowed to play in mine.

While there’s a lot being said about this (a quick Google search of “Anne Rice” will lead to tons of articles and blogs on this topic), I’m going to leave the talking to others except to make two quick points, one minor and one major.

On one level the issue is one of mere disagreement. Disagreement over hot-button issues like homosexuality, feminism and science. Ms. Rice notes that she is leaving Christianity because she refuses to be anti-gay, anti-feminist, anti-artificial birth control, anti-democrat, anti-secular humanism, anti-science and anti-life. She’s walking away because she doesn’t want to be tossed in with the “anti-” crowd.

This is really a false issue, however. The fact is that no matter where one is in life in terms of what one believes and what one values, a person will always stand at odds with someone else. The real issue, and still not the major one, is how so-called Christians go about showing their opposition to certain things. This is, at one level, Ms. Rice’s problem.

Those who claim to be Christians but show no love or charity in their opposition to matters on which the Bible takes an unequivocal negative stand are not walking in the way of Christ.

Here’s the rub though: People in our culture, and this is nothing new, don’t want Christ to be “opposed” to anything. The truth is, however, Christ was opposed to certain things, and this because he was pro something else — the glory and will of God. This is clear throughout the gospels.

The same Christ who showed the great act love that is so often used in the name of “acceptance” of everything when he declared “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone,” is the same Christ who immediately after showed his opposition to an adulterous lifestyle by telling the woman to “Go and sin no more.” This is love, and this is truth.

Christ’s way was the way of loving those who stood at odds, and that’s all of us, with God by lovingly correcting them (showing opposition to their faulty ideals and teaching them right ones) and, most of all, by doing everything it took to lovingly and justly forgive them, by dying in their place, showing (and absorbing!) the end which these sins deserve.

Christianity would be much better off if its followers actually followed Christ in loving those at odds with the gospel. This doesn’t mean, however, that Christianity should accept anything and everything under the sun. What it means is that Christians should be people of selfless love, loving those different from themselves and not boasting in their supposed “superior” morality and laboring to show people the way of Christ even when it is in opposition to other’s lifestyle and preferences.

[As a side note, this idea of loving others even when it comes through opposing them really is everyone's (not just Christian's) default mode. A quick analogy, via Randy Pope, pastor at Perimeter Church in Duluth, GA: Imagine you and I were at a restaurant together and you ordered a dessert. While walking to the restroom, I overheard the waiter instruct the cook to slip poison into your dessert for some unknown reason. You really want this dessert, you really think you will enjoy it. I tell you what I saw and you look at me as if I'm crazy. Is it loving for me to let you eat the dessert? Wouldn't the truly loving thing to do be to act on what I know as reality, even against your thoughts, and plead with you, beg you not to eat the dessert, even going so far as preventing you from eating it?]

The second, and major, issue is simply this. Ms. Rice is living out what many others are living as well: the ultimate end of western individualism. I get what I want, truth is what I make it, and I can create my own set of beliefs that suits me. If the Bible says things that I don’t like, I’ll ignore them. If the Bible and two thousand years of church history is opposed to things that today’s culture, even within Christianity, celebrates, then I’ll go with today’s “enlightened” world.

Ms. Rice, it appears at least, is taking a buffet approach to Christianity.

But that is not the way of Christ. Christ said: “Come, follow me.” He said “If you love me, you will obey my commandments.” He said “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father.”

I hope that I am wrong. Ms. Rice did say that Christ is very important to her life still, that it is these things and his followers she doesn’t want to be associated with.

Christ’s greatest command is for man to love God with all he has. Christ’s word was one of grace, to come and rest in his work. He does not command his followers to be right on all doctrine, and I am sure I am wrong on much.

There are some things with which Ms. Rice has a problem that I too am at odds with. Being a Christian doesn’t mean anti-democrat. It certainly doesn’t mean anit-life. It doesn’t mean anti-artificial birth control or anti-science, either. In fact, it’s not anti-man or anti-woman in way, shape or form. Being a Christian is pro-woman and pro-man. It is pro-life, and not just in the abortion debate.

And the way to be these things is to be pro-Christ, which means to be pro-following Christ and walking in his ways.

Born April 8, 2010, 7:28 a.m. 8 lbs, 2 oz.

Blessed.

The other good news: The baby’s coming soon! (Which means, I’ll have to adjust again, which this time, hopefully, doesn’t equate to long times between posts….)

Easter Sunday’s coming up. The day that many celebrate bunnies and spring with baskets of candy and egg hunts. (I actually participated in an egg hunt last year. Made $20 or so. True story.) But, obvious to probably all of you who read this (or at least all that I know), it is more importantly the day that we celebrate and remember the resurrection.

The resurrection — securing Christ’s victory over sin and Satan, finalizing his work on the cross. 1 Corinthians 15 teaches that Christ “was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” Romans 4:24-25 tells us that “Jesus our Lord … was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

We know and discuss frequently the fact of Christ’s death and resurrection and what it does for the believer’s status before God. Because of the historic reality of the life of Christ, culminating in the events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday, those who trust in Christ are counted righteous–though they be ungodly in and of themselves (Romans 4:5). They have been forgiven of their sins, redeemed and made new.

And we know of the reality that is to come because of the work of Christ on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15 spells out clearly that because of the resurrection of Christ, the believer can be assured that “this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality.” John writes that one day we will see Him and “we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.” And elsewhere, in Revelation, he describes the New Heavens and the New Earth where those who followed Christ in this life will dwell with God Himself.

But what about TODAY? Have you ever considered what the resurrection has to do for you — not positionally, not eternally, but presently?

This is what we mean when we speak of a “Gospel-centered” life – a life that is shaped and directed and empowered by the reality of the death and resurrection of Christ for sinners like you and me. But how is this rooted in the death and resurrection, how is it not just me doing as if to pay off a great debt I owe because of the cross?

Two passages in particular shed light here: John 14:12 and Romans 8:11.

In John 14 we find Christ speaking with the disciples on the night before his death. You can imagine the scene. He’s aware of what is to come; the disciples, though warned, probably do not fully grasp what is to unfold in the hours ahead. But Christ knows. And it’s one of his last times with them. What he is saying here is not unimportant. Here we find the “new commandment” to love, the imagery of the vine and the branches as a picture of abiding in Christ and promises that what we ask in Christ’s name will be granted for the glory of the Father.

And we read these words:

Truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. (14:12)

Greater works because He goes to the Father? Christ here gives the unthinkable promise that because of the resurrection (and ascension) His followers will do — in this life, today — the same and greater works.

The works that are to define our daily lives as we follow Christ, these works are not manufactured by ourselves on our own; we are empowered and enabled to do these because Christ has gone to the Father.

Just after this Christ tells the disciples that what they ask, He will do, and then, importantly, that the Father will give them another (after Christ departs), that is, the Helper, the Spirit of Truth.

What we are taught here by John is that the resurrection and ascension of Christ matter to us today, they have an effect on the day-to-day life of the Christian in the present. Precisely because of the reality of the events on Easter morning we are able to live the life Christ has called us to live, and even this – like our salvation – is not by our works but through the work of the Spirit of God in our lives.

And that’s where the second passage comes in. Do you realize that this Spirit is in you, actually in you, if you have been born again?

In Romans 8:11 Paul gives incredible promises to the believer.

If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you [as promised by John that He would dwell in the believer], He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

“If the Spirit dwells in you…” and “through His Spirit who dwells in you.” There is an explicit promise in the middle of this passage that is bookended by these two reminders that is meant to open our eyes to the profound reality of the effects of the gospel in the life of the believer.

The reality is this: you have been saved, you have been secured and, good news of good news, you have the down payment (Eph 1:13-14) of this right now in the very Spirit of God who dwells in you.

When is the last time you considered that the same Spirit of God that raised Christ from the dead now dwells in you?

What does this Spirit do? He gives life to your mortal bodies. When? In the future? Yes. But that’s not all. He gives that life today. The Spirit of God that brought about the resurrection of Christ – the great display of the grace of God to save sinners – now lives in those whom He has saved to give them life, enabling them to follow after Christ.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:10, “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” The Christian life is one of work. We are those who are actively following our Lord Jesus. We are those who are obedient to his teaching. But, preeminently, the Christian life is one of grace. We are only able to do this work rightly, full of worship, because of the grace of God that is with us, yes, that dwells in us, the Holy Spirit.

Easter Sunday is not just about something that happened in the past that has a future effect for the believer. Have a robust view of the resurrection this Easter. If you trust in Christ, then know: because He was raised, you have life, even today, through His Spirit who dwells in you. Follow Him, then, doing the greater works.

Unfortunately, wordpress won’t allow me to post a video from ESPN, so this is a test of true fan-hood: you’ll have to go to ESPN to watch the clip! (My apologies!)

Here’s the direct link: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4946600

We love movies of heroes who live this out. People who dust themselves off and get “back in the saddle.”

Unfortunately, what speaks well to the culture often shouldn’t speak well to the church. And in this case, this half-truth of getting back up again is often confused with Biblical truth.

“When I fall, I shall rise” is certainly true for followers of Christ—the difference is the one who does the lifting.

This truth is laid out clearly in Micah 7:8-9:

Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me. I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication.

When I fall, I shall rise. But, contrary to popular belief, not because of my own strength. Not because of my own will power or stamina or perseverance or pride or resiliency or determination or grit. Not because of me will I rise again.

But the truth is clear: When I fall, I shall rise.  When I sit in the darkness caused by my own sin, I will see the light again.

Isn’t the grace of the LORD so clear in these verses! When I fall, I shall rise not because of me but because the One against whom I sin, this very One will plead my cause and He will execute judgment for me. He, not I, will bring me out to the light.

So Christian, we must walk in the gospel today. Yes, when you feel trapped in the darkness caused by your own unfaithfulness, light is coming. Believe it: when you fall, you will rise; but you will rise only as you look to Another who is uniquely able to lift you up. Your sins He has pardoned, and judgment has been executed. This He has done on your behalf. Christ has bore our sins in His body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24) and now serves as our Advocate day and night before the throne of God (1 John 2:1; Hebrews 7:25).

The lyrics, particularly the second verse, of “Before the Throne of God Above” capture this well. Though these may be familiar, let me encourage you to take a few minutes to read them through again:

Before the throne of God above/I have a strong and perfect plea:/A great high priest whose name is Love/Who ever lives and pleads for me./My name is graven on His hands/My name is written on His heart/I know that while in heaven He stands/No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair/And tells me of the guilt within/Upward I look and see Him there/Who made an end to all my sin./Because my sinless Savior died/My sinful soul is counted free/For God the Just is satisfied/To look on Him and pardon me.

Behold Him there the Risen Lamb/My perfect spotless Righteousness/The great unchangeable I AM/The King of glory and of grace./One in Himself I cannot die/My soul is purchased by His blood/My life is hid with Christ on high/With Christ, my Savior and my God.