A father came to Jesus; “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. The disciples were not able to cast it out. This has been happening since childhood. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us!”

One man, the leper, came confessing ignorance of what he couldn’t know (”if You are willing”) but loads of faith in what he did know (”You can make me clean!”)  The other man, the father, wasn’t sure that God existed, or that He rewards those who seek Him. Jesus had no rebuke for the leper’s qualification, “If you will.” But He had one for the words of the dad: “If You can? All things are possible for one who believes!”

The words of Jesus pierced that father’s heart so that he immediately cried out and confessed his true state to Him, asking Him to help His unbelief. It was a cry, at last, of faith.

God doesn’t want us to come speaking presumptuously about His will for us and our requests. We don’t know His secret purposes. We implore Him to save our sons and daughters, we request that He heal our bodies of cancer, all the while resting in His sovereign design.

But He does want us to come to Him in full confidence that He is fully able to do, in a heartbeat, what we’ve asked of Him! And that no matter how He chooses to work, He has rewards in store for our audacious and settled belief in Him. He is the God who can. And so very wonderfully often, He is also the God who will.

The strength He promises here comes only when I am made quiet and confident by remembering what He has done, and what He has promised to do; by resting as I meditate on His past deeds and mighty acts, both those in the Bible and those of last week. He has never failed His people.

The children of Israel tested God at Meribah, complaining that no water had yet appeared to quench their thirst. No matter that they had seen Him deliver them out of Egypt with a great and mighty arm; that they had seen the Red Sea part before them, and had known His constant presence and provision in the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. Here at Meribah they discounted all that, forgot all about it, because they wanted to. They wanted to murmur; they wanted their unbelief.

So Lord, help me to remember, and so know You as You have revealed Yourself to be. In this way I’ll be still and quiet before your mighty deeds, recounting them often to myself and to my children, and my confidence will be in You. Keep me from the unbelief of Israel at Meribah; I have seen your mighty acts before, and I know I will yet again. May I not be unbelieving. You are the God who acts; You have promised never to leave me or forsake me.  In the quietness and confidence of faith in You, let my strength be found.

“For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,
‘In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.’

“But you were unwilling, and you said,
‘No! We will flee upon horses’…

“Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.”   Isaiah 30:15, 16a, 18

“It will be said on that day,
‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.’”    Isaiah 25:9

But God’s word gives us the right way to think about the issue, and it’s not *never* considering Satan’s involvement in a situation, and it’s not *always* thinking in terms of how Satan figures into a situation. Some reformed Christians tend to lean more toward the first mistake, some charismatics toward the second one.

I think 2 Corinthians 2:10 gives insight into this. Paul warns that in the situation he is addressing, care should be taken to avoid being “outwitted” by the devil ( he names names here, you’ll notice.) This war of “wits” implies that some prayerful thinking and wisdom are called for… in fact, a counter-strategy is being proposed against a very real strategist.

Other places we’re warned specifically to be mindful of how Satan can get the advantage over us are in Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 7:

“Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,  and give no opportunity to the devil” (Ephesians 4:26, 27).

“Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control” (1 Corinthians 7:5).

Paul warns that the devil may take advantage of human, sinful weakness in these three specific situations: the zeal of the church and the sorrow of the repentant in a church discipline situation; righteous anger that goes on too long; and the prolonged sexual abstinence of husband and wife for the purpose of prayer and fasting.  In his cautioning them, Paul could have simply said, “Be careful that you don’t sin as you are handling these things.” But he uses the fact that the devil is seeking an opportunity as an explanation to them for their need to be watchful and careful.

We shouldn’t do less, though it’s kind of tricky in this day and culture to speak of these things. Many Christians who want to be Scriptural and who want to avoid giving the devil “too much credit” have erred too far on the side of not paying that kind of attention.  We are reluctant because the Bible shines the spotlight undeniably on the power and promises of our wonderful Lord and Savior to keep and deliver His people, and we are called to do the same. We are to “set our affections on things above” and to dwell on whatever is “lovely and worthy of praise.” We are definitely not called to dwell on what demons may or may not be up to! But we see from the Scriptures that we are called to be watchful and prayerful as we go through our days, daily asking the Lord to “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil (or ‘the evil one’.) We have an enemy who is watching for an “opportune time” (Luke 4:13.) Let’s learn from God’s word about this, asking the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom and discernment, as in all matters pertaining to godliness.

(This post is a response to some discussion on a much better article than this one !…)

All this is right in line with having a sober-minded view of myself and how I can be most helpful to God’s people. It’s neat how He will surely lead and guide us in answer to our sincere prayers for that guidance. In this case my husband’s good advice helped me out.

You can access the web pages I am talking about here, where I have posted stories and thoughts on living sober-mindedly since 2005, shortly after the loss of our son Joe in October 2004. (You can also click on the link “More Sober-Minded” on the sidebar at the right.)

When we pray this, we’re not asking God to ”forgive us our trespasses because we have forgiven those who trespass against us.” Rather, we’re asking Him to ”forgive us our trespasses in the same way we forgive those who trespass against us.” In other words, we’re asking God to use the same standard with us that we use with our brothers and sisters. (Now does it start to seem like a scary way to pray?) To make matters worse, not only did Jesus teach us to pray that way, but whether we pray it or not, it is the standard God will use. He makes that clear when He says a few verses later, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14). 

Wow. I thought that once I became a Christian, all my sins are automatically forgiven. But here I’m told that my refusal to forgive the one who has insulted, snubbed, or otherwise offended me will result in God not forgiving me. Me, the injured party!

But it gets worse. Not only must I forgive, but it must be from the heart.  Matthew 18:35: “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” From the heart!! I begin to see what the Lord is getting at. Only one way is this possible–by the genuine, fervent, supernatural love of the Holy Spirit, the love God promises to pour into our hearts for one another if we will seek Him for it. We can’t forgive from the heart if we don’t love each other from the heart. And if we don’t love from the heart, we are told that we don’t belong to Him (1 John 2:10-11). That’s why Jesus says that if we don’t forgive from the heart His Father will not forgive us–only those who are bought by Jesus’ blood can love and forgive each other in this way.

I hear fellow Christians talk about why we should forgive each other and overlook offenses. “Oh, unforgiveness only hurts the one who’s holding the grudge,” they say.  “Unforgiveness makes you bitter. Healthier just to let it go.” But that’s not the reason the Bible gives us for why we should forgive. “If you don’t,” it tells us, “you won’t be forgiven.” This puts everything in its proper perspective. A God who is to be feared and obeyed; a blood-bought family that is to be loved and forgiven for Christ’s sake; and the honor and glory we bring to the One who loved us, forgiving us all our vile offense against His holy character. That is why we forgive. And that is why we need to go ahead and pray that section of the Lord’s Prayer… even though it is, by His design, a scary way to pray.

I just want to talk about this latest book star, The Shack, for a minute. I haven’t read the whole book. I have read quite a few excerpts from it and trustworthy people’s comments on it.  Several good and thoughtful reviews can be easily accessed online (I’ll provide links to those at the end of this article.) What I want to talk about here, though, is how and why we all come to be so enamored of books like this that fail the test of sound doctrine, and why we ought to choose better things to help us and teach us through this life.

Appeal, interest, warmth, emotion–these are all good qualities in a book, but they do not automatically guarantee a book that will really help us. Only the truth about God makes us free. Truth is found in God’s word. There is a line when we are writing about God that, when crossed, blurs the truth about Him and how He deals with us, about what His purposes are for us in this life. If we say “it’s only fiction for goodness’ sake!” we’re kidding ourselves…reading is akin to eating, in that we become what we take in. We are what we read, only it’s more important than becoming what we merely eat. Because it is through our minds and thoughts that a true… or false… knowledge of God comes.

Because of that, we should use lots of discernment about anything we read. But spiritual discernment is in short supply in the American church today. Why? There are lots of secondary reasons: the American church is often biblically illiterate; we have lost the knowledge of why and how to study the Bible seriously; there is a huge bias against the use of the mind, but toward the trusting of our own intuitions and feelings about the things of God. The bottom line though, I’m convinced, is that we do not fear God or “tremble at His word” as we should. We don’t even know how far gone we are there, or that we’re so lacking in that.

So we’re sitting ducks for every new faddish read that comes along. Publishers make sweeping promises about what this latest book will do for us and how it will change our lives, and we buy into it and buy the book and talk about it for a while before its popularity finally begins to fade. If we are reading a book like The Shack to learn something more about God and life and suffering and ourselves, we will have missed it, I promise you. The truth about suffering and God and us is something very different from what this book portrays. It’s a whole lot better. The real truth about all that will change your life.

Most importantly, God is not glorified and shown as great in The Shack. God is glorified by the truth about Himself; that He is sovereign over all things, including our suffering, and that His purposes will prevail. He is glorified by the fact that He is good in this sovereignty, and all His decisions are right and just and true. The truth about the Trinity glorifies God greatly, increasing our understanding of His majesty, holiness and power, causing us to worship Him and honor Him as God. Sadly, The Shack attempts to diminish, belittle and change these glorious truths. The god of The Shack is certainly not the sovereign Lord of the universe that the Bible reveals Him to be!

The Shack is the current “hot” seller in a long line of popular, best-selling Christian books. What sets this one apart is the fact that so many hurting people are reading it for hope and comfort, and the hope and comfort it offers is just not the real deal. In the long run it’s not helpful, because it is contrary to the unbreakable word of God: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). And not only is it not helpful, it is also potentially damaging, since it distorts the truth and misleads the reader.

There are very helpful books written that are based on the Scriptures; those books can help to bring light and healing to us. There are great fiction works that make use of metaphor (Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan and The Chronicles of Narnia books come to mind) in helpful ways. But The Shack doesn’t use metaphor; rather it makes claims. The characters are called by the very names we know them by, and the setting of the book conveys the fact that this story is meant to teach us, the reader, something about God.  

So what are your thoughts or opinions on The Shack? Please feel free to comment, even if you disagree! Meanwhile, here are two things: a couple of book recommendations for people who may be hurting or grieving, and then the links I mentioned to a couple of helpful reviews of The Shack. Let’s look to the Lord for the wisdom and discernment we need to read all things for His glory, and our good, through these difficult days. It is always through the opening of our eyes to His greatness and sovereignty that we are most helped.

Book recommendations for those who are suffering:

  Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, edited by John Piper/Justin Taylor 

    When God Weeps: Why Our Suffering Matters to God, by Joni Eareckson Tada

Links to helpful reviews of The Shack:

Discerning Reader 

Dr. Scott Kaufman at “Between Sundays”

The Flourishing Mother on “Textile Management”

HT: Amy Scott

I just ached and longed for the truth about God to be spoken to those young people. The fact that the youth pastor didn’t was absolutely devastating, but not that great a surprise, which makes it even worse.

Why is the church so ashamed of the gospel? Why so ashamed of the God who is Himself the gospel, the good news? We are afraid to say hard things. We are afraid to be genuine, authentic and vulnerable and cast absolutely on the God who is there. I understand; we are mere people, mere weak humans, who have no strength of our own. All the more reason then to abandon ourselves to His purposes. He is great!

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’” Our prayers to Him to send willing laborers out into (His!) harvest is one means He uses to rescue the precious, captive, harassed and helpless ones He is seeking. He told us to pray… let’s pray. He told us to go… let’s go.

WHAT I SAW:

I saw hundreds of young people (many more than were evidently expected) of all types and stripes, but the majority of them skater types. I saw a lot of tattoos, piercings, and black garb. I saw fields white for the harvest, though it looked like a sea of black. I saw tears of anguish. I saw pictures of this beautiful young man with people he loved and who loved him; I saw his artwork, some of it very good, sitting around everywhere. I saw his mom, sitting at the front. I saw my daughter, standing along the wall with a lot of other young people who couldn’t find a seat. I saw 10 or 12 young guys walk in procession to the front with skateboards when the service started. I saw a few of them take to the pavement outside later on, and knew they skated in memory of their friend.

WHAT I HEARD:

I heard people crying. I heard music, some from a cd and one song played live and played very well, and all of it was very sad. I heard one young man, though I didn’t hear him very well because he laid aside the microphone they handed him, talk from the heart about his friend; it was short and sweet and I hope I can find out from my daughter what all he said. I heard the young man’s aunt talk about her favorite nephew, and read a little essay she had written a couple of nights ago about him; it was very lovely and touching and genuine. I heard laughter at a few things that were said about that young man, and I knew it felt good to them to laugh a little.

WHAT THE YOUTH PASTOR SAID:

The youth pastor said that God created us to find out who we are and then to go for it. The youth pastor said that he hopes that when he dies, people will say about him that he really knew how to be himself. The youth pastor said that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our “stuff.” (Then the youth pastor said “baggage” to clarify what he meant by “stuff.”) The youth pastor said that faith, in this life, is a guess; we jump in and do the best we can, but that for now we just don’t know.

WHAT THE YOUTH PASTOR SAID, AND WHAT THESE YOUNG PEOPLE AND THIS FAMILY HEARD, THAT WAS LIFE-SAVINGLY TRUE ABOUT GOD, ABOUT US, ABOUT LIFE, AND DEATH, AND ETERNITY, AND HEAVEN, AND HELL:

At Bethlehem Baptist Church and at Desiring God we use the term “God-centered” a lot. Here is one simple way to tell what we mean and test yourself to see if you are God-centered.

The psalmist describes the motivation of God in saving sinners like this:

Both we and our fathers have sinned… Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power. (Psalms 106:6, 8)

God was motivated to rescue them and us from our sin and its penalty “for his name’s sake.” What does “for his name’s sake” mean? It means “that he might make known his mighty power.”

What we mean when we say God is “God-centered” is that he acts like that. He saves for the sake of his name. He saves to make known his own power.

And what we mean when we say we are God-centered (or desire to be) is that we like to have it that way. It satisfies us to have God save us for God’s sake. We are happy that this is the way it is. We get pleasure in seeing it and savoring it.

We like to talk about God doing it that way.