Jared over at Gospel Driven Church has a great post on the subject of battling doubt. Read the whole thing. Below is my favorite part; this is a view of the matter that I'd not considered before:

4. Re-focus your doubts toward your own failings and inability. Doubt yourself, in other words.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
-- 1 Corinthians 1:25

This is counter-intuitive to some, and it sounds like bad advice in this age of “Believe in yourself” and self-help and the therapeutic gospel of human potential, but we will not believe God more fully until we despair of ourselves more fully.

In this sense, the counter-attack is not to “stop doubting God” – telling someone awash in doubt to simply “stop doubting” is like telling a drowning man to thrash harder – but to start doubting yourself. It is telling a drowning man to stop thrashing, to doubt his own ability to thrash his way into safety. And in fact, when a drowning man relaxes and stops “fighting,” giving up trust in his ability to save himself, his rescuer is better able to swim him to safety.

If you think God can’t be trusted, think about yourself. How together are you? How well do YOU have it figured out? How in control are you? How are your plans coming together for a great life? How is “following your heart,” which is deceitful above al things, working out for you?

If we are honest with ourselves, we will realize our utter dependence and feebleness. And when we doubt ourselves, we are ready to trust God.

He must become greater; I must become less.
-- John 3:30

Wickle over at A True Believer's Blog offers a profound view of why Christmas is, often times, a holiday we prefer over Easter.

My pastor speculated that it’s because it’s really easy to deal with the baby in the manger. There He is, being born, there are shepherds around because God loves poor people, there are angels because it’s a big deal, and magi because they’re there to celebrate. Great. We can deal with this.

Once you take that baby and make Him into a man, He becomes harder to handle. He said things, He did things, and He called us to be changed. Then, He died and came back out of the tomb.

God out of the tomb is completely unmanageable. We can’t hold that one back, limit Him, or try to pretend that it’s just a nice story. The Nativity can be trivialized and tamed — the Resurrection can’t.

There is talk about how to “keep Christ is Christmas,” or whether Christians should observe Christmas at all, and just about everything in between.

For my own part, I think that it’s fine to observe Christmas as a remembrance of the event. But while we’re at it, let’s remember that the Incarnation of God on earth wasn’t an end unto itself. He came to the earth to live, teach, die, and rise again. He didn’t stay in the manger.

That’s part of why I was so excited to see the second chorus of “What Child is This?” when I read it. Right there in the Christmas song, it reminded us that He came not to be born as a baby and stop there, but to be pierced with nails and a spear (among the other things that ripped His flesh that day). It wasn’t His birth that redeems us, it was His death.

Yes, by all means, celebrate the birth. The birth of Jesus is the beginning of the process that leads us to the death and resurrection, which is what makes it possible for any of us to have eternal life.

But let’s never forget that ours isn’t a God in a manger, He didn’t stay wrapped up in swaddling clothes, and He sure wasn’t a baby forever.

Regarding the second verse of "What Child Is This", mentioned above, here it is:

Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

Praise Him for His incarnation!

The Incarnation, by Denise Day Spencer:

He stands,
poised on the brink of two worlds:
One, land of eternal day,
the other, earth of mire and clay.

Behind Him,
legions of heavenly host,
bright faces covered, praising,
all chanting, voices raising.

Before Him,
chaos yawning, swift and deep,
known, yet unknown. Fear unfurling,
death and darkness churning, swirling.

He turns.
One last look at golden glory.
The Three part; He is now One.
The Father’s voice says, “Go well, my Son.”

He leaps
into the abyss.

His next memory will be a Mother’s kiss.

~ Denise Day Spencer, January 1999

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Grateful hat tip and Christmas Blessings to the Internet Monk.

An excellent reminder from Sherry:

Without Jesus, Christmas is an empty shell, not much to celebrate. Some of us can keep the shell game going for a long time; some even choose the empty shells instead of working to hang onto the real thing. But Christmas is about Christ, even if he wasn’t really born in December, even if you have questions and doubts, even if you’re messy or suffering or full of fear and even depression.

You can celebrate an empty Christmas and try to fill it yourself with material things and friends and family and whatever else happens to come along, but eventually, one Christmas, I predict that you’ll come up with a hollow place right at the center of your Christmas, right at the center of your life. And the only one who can fill that hole is Jesus Himself, the Word made Flesh who came to live among us full of grace and truth. If you don’t believe in that Truth, if you’re not sure Jesus really came to save sinners, then it’s worth your time and energy and material wealth to go on a search to find out if it might, possibly, maybe, under any circumstances be true after all.

On this Christmas Eve, I wish you a full Christmas, full of grace and truth, full of Jesus. Because He’s what Christmas is all about.

The God of power, as he did ride
In his majestick robes of glorie
Resolv'd to light; and so one day
He did descend, undressing all the way.

- George Herbert
(as quoted in Philip Yancey's excellent The Jesus I Never Knew)

I hope your Christmas season has been glorious so far. I pray each of us will be humbled and amazed by the amazing humility that our Lord took upon himself in the Incarnation.

I will be writing more in coming days. I've been so busy, but it's been a good busy.

Merry Christmas!

From my bud the Ancient Mariner:

Just got the lights up on our tree, so I thought I'd put up the traditional Bloo Christmas Star theme.

Merry Christmas. Hope your Christmas season is shaping up nicely. The world can be dark, but Christ, the Gift, is coming!

I think I'm going to start posting here in this humble little space again. I guess the next few days will tell.

Also, I upgraded to a pre-release of Bloo version 1.20 (version 1.11). It represents a pretty significant change, structurally, in Bloo, since Bloo now supports community sub-blogs. More on that later. This space always has served as a great guinea pig site for these releases anyway.

God loves you Blogosphere, and so do I.

At least for now, I am posting exclusively over at The Thinklings. It's a splendid site and you should check it out. :-)

I may get back to posting here on Out of the Bloo at a later date.

See you on the other side, blogosphere.

For my three readers who wonder where I've gone:

I'm still writing posts. Just not so much here. I have trouble juggling multiple blogs, I've discovered, and have decided to focus mainly on posting at Thinklings, where I started this little Adventure in Blogyssey, years ago.

So if you want to find me, that's where I'll be for awhile. And my other Thinkling bros (well, except for Blo, who we think doesn't exist) also post on Thinklings, so there's generally something good to read over there.

God loves you, blogosphere, and so do I.

I'm so thankful to have a teaching pastor who doesn't shy away from the hard passages.

Today's message was one of the clearest and most in-depth sermons I've ever heard on the difficult passages in Hebrews 6 (primarily verses 4 through 8).

Scratch that. This was possibly the only sermon I've ever heard on that passage. And Dr. Howell dove pretty deep into it; he discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the various interpretations, shared supporting scripture, and included generous and frequent references to the Gospel.

It's so good to be in a place where the Bible is taught.

The Lord upholds all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
You open your hand;
you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and kind in all his works.
The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he also hears their cry and saves them.
The Lord preserves all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.

My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,
and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

- Psalm 145:14-21

Teach me, O God, so to use all the circumstances of my life today that they may bring forth in me the fruits of holiness rather than the fruits of sin.

Let me use disappointment as material for patience
Let me use success as material for thankfulness
Let me use trouble as material for perseverance
Let me use danger as material for courage
Let me use reproach as material for long suffering
Let me use praise as material for humility
Let me use pleasures as material for temperance
Let me use pain as material for endurance

- John Baillie

Read today in church:

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

- Hebrews 2:14-18 (ESV)

When I think of the Lord's suffering, it's common for me to concentrate on the last day of his life. This is what we call his Passion, when Christ endured the excruciating pain of torture, mockery, and execution for our sakes and for God's glory.

I often forget that Christ's entire life was part of his Passion. As the writer of Hebrews recounts above, Christ "suffered when tempted", the only man who has ever resisted fully and completely the temptations common to us all.

C.S. Lewis has a great quote on this (and is there any quote from old Jack that isn't great?); this was also shared from the pulpit today.

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.”

- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

In contrast to this, I had a very weak day. Emotionally on edge, for reasons I'm not exactly sure of, I lashed out more than once today at those closest to me. I did a poor job of resisting the temptation to give into what my flesh was telling me to say. I've asked for and have received forgiveness, but the regret lives on.

Thank God that every new day is truly a "new day" when you're in Christ. I'm going to bed tonight hoping to do better tomorrow, trusting in my great High Priest to continue molding me into the man he wants me to be.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” - John 13:34-35

These are words Jesus spoke to his disciples on the night before his torture and crucifixion. They amaze me. They cause me to bow in shame. They cause me to rejoice.

This passage has been simmering in me for quite some time. I have found it hard to tackle this core truth; this beautiful, beautiful diamond of a command that Jesus gave us his last night on earth pre-resurrection.

"By this all people will know that you are my disciples . . ." - by what? By the fact that we have love for one another. I like the way the ESV (and NASB too) render that last phrase: "if you have love for one another".

Do you know anyone who has love for you? I certainly hope so. I hope I'm not mangling this or reading too much into it - not all versions translate it that way - but I am caught by the subtle difference between "if you have love for one another" and "if you love one another". Someone can love you and never show it, can't they? Someone can say they love you, and not mean it. But if someone has love for you - the image I get is that they have love ready, available, on full display, kind of like a good meal, set out for you - now that's quite another thing.

But be that as it may, it is definitely quite another thing, quite a different thing, quite an amazing thing, to love our brothers and sisters in Christ so that all the world can see it. That's the beauty of the church. You see, loving people who are just like you is easy. But the church is diverse, different, full of many, many different kinds of people, spanning the globe and spanning history.

The love of Christ is the kind of love that can spring into full bloom between two people who's only similarity is that they are in Christ. When the world sees that, they know it's real. The love of Jesus, truly and freely given to our brothers and sisters in Christ, is the height of (to use a word very popular these days) authenticity.

It's absolutely beautiful.

And this is one reason I am afraid. Not just because the church is divided; God's love can span those divisions and has for millennia. But in our day, in this time, it seems our divisions are becoming more dumbed-down, and hence less hefty, and, therefore, far less excusable. It's one thing to respectfully divide from a brother over the weightier matters of doctrine. It's quite another to divide from him because he isn't as relevant as you are, or because you want to be called "Christian" and he wants to be called "Christ-follower", or because his suit irritates you, or . . . whatever. It's one thing to disagree on the meaning of communion, quite another to bash your brother because you think ministering to people's physical needs is primary and you're embarrassed because he wants to give them a Bible.

It's common to be embarrassed by our brothers and sisters in Christ, isn't it? It's so easy to have that thought slip into our minds: "They're doing it wrong. They're giving me a bad name." When, God help us, by our rejection of our brother, we give Christ a bad name. I've written around this subject recently, and continue to think on it with Christ's words in mind.

I read the passage at the top of this post and I want to sing and dance for joy, and I want to fall to the ground and hide from God's wrath. I'm no theologian, but I'm pretty sure that it means that Jesus wants us to have love for our Christian brothers and sisters. Full, unashamed, on-display, familial love. Not a love that sweeps aside true differences, but rather a love like that with which Christ loved, one that sharpens our brothers and sisters, speaks the truth in love, forgives, yields, shows mercy, gives others preference in honor, and stands beside them always.

"just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another."

If there was ever someone who Jesus could be embarrassed of, it's me. It might be you too. Yet he loves me. And he loves you. And he wasn't too embarrassed to be seen with us. In fact, he humbled himself beyond all imagining to come dwell among us so we could kill him.

In light of that, the least I can do is follow his example and love you.


Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. - 1 John 4:7

When the cares of my heart are many,
your consolations cheer my soul.

Psalm 94:19

Have you ever tried to encourage someone? It feels clumsy sometimes. I find the same phrases spilling out of me:

"It will be alright"

"This too shall pass"

"Hang in there"

And, how about this one?

"C'mon, cheer up!"

Works like a charm, no?

No.

See? clumsy.

God, on the other hand, doesn't know clumsy. He knows the end from the beginning, actually, and when he says it will be alright, it will. From his perspective, it already is.

We don't always believe that, of course. At least I don't. It's so tempting to want proof that all will turn out right in the end, and it can be so frustrating to have to walk by faith.

I often wonder at the saying "God has a wonderful plan for your life". Now, I fully believe he has a wonderful plan, and I fervently hope he is including me in it. But as I read scripture I become increasingly convinced that he has absolutely no plan to fill me in on the details. That's not his way. He wants me to walk by faith, not by sight. He wants me to trust.

Because he truly does have it under control. He's got this. For him, it's easy.

I really don't need to worry.

And if that consolation doesn't cheer my soul, I'm not sure what will.

"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." - John 16:33

Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

- Revelation 5:1-5

This spoke to me tonight. I started by looking for passages on comfort, because, goodness knows I could use some encouragement right now, and I'll bet you could to.

But I landed upon this. And on the backdrop of my angst and tribulation of mind, this passage chiseled itself in gold letters.

Sometimes I just don't know what on earth to do. Seriously; everything I've tried has turned to skubalon and I'm at a loss. Thank God for prayer, but even that becomes such difficult work when words fail. And I am realizing more with every passing day how terribly bad I am at it.

Among many other things, this passage has to do with what worth is. I can almost see the hot tears running down John's cheeks as he begins to weep loudly, realizing that no one there is worthy to open the scroll. Likewise, our souls cry out for the One who is worthy. We long to hear the news: "Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered . . ."

I am so encouraged by this: Jesus Christ is worthy! He has conquered! All power and authority has been given to him. He is the King.

And he is the only one who is worthy, in worthiness as measured with the standard of Heaven.

John wept for one who was worthy. We weep today to find the same one. We need him. We need him so badly that it hurts.

Jesus is worthy. He's the only one who is.

In reading that, I am comforted. Praise be to God!

Good night everyone.

Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

- John 2:23-25 (ESV)

Don't you admire Jesus?

That's a strange question, isn't it? It's common to be asked if you love Jesus, or if you follow him, or if you obey him. But I read passages like the one above and I feel a deep sense of respect and admiration for Jesus as well.

Jesus was wise. At the time of this passage, his ministry was just starting, and it was being authenticated by signs and wonders. People were beginning to get swept up in it; they were starting to believe.

Look at how the New Living Translation translates that last sentence:

"No one needed to tell him what mankind is really like."

No they didn't. Jesus knew well what mankind was (and is) like; with his sinless eyes he had witnessed thirty years of our shenanigans, our schemes, our deceits, murders, idolotry and wickedness. We were created through him in the first place, and through our own sin we marred his creation.

I sense that Jesus was glad people believed. But he kept it in perspective; He knew that the same people praising his name on this day would be the ones calling for his death all too soon.

Jesus knows us.

And that's what makes Jesus that much more worthy of praise. He knew all about us, and he still stayed, still labored, still loved, taught, and served a thick-necked, unstable and fickle people.

We looked in his eyes and saw love. He looked in ours and saw his own death. He didn't need to be told what mankind was like.

Yet he stayed and saw his mission through, out of love for us and out of a deep desire to glorify the Father.

Thank you Lord Jesus!

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

- Hebrews 3:12-19

The words "original confidence" above bring back so many memories.

. . . if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

I remember my original confidence, when I first knew the Lord. I hope that I have held on to it and built on it over the years, but I also find myself wanting to reach back to those days sometimes. My original confidence sparkled with a childlike (and clumsy) faith that I have, in many ways, "grown out of", to my detriment.

And I know many - too many - people who had what appeared to be an original confidence in the Lord which now appears to be missing. Or at least it's not visible anymore. By appearances they have fallen into the trap the writer warns us about in Hebrews 2; that of neglecting so great a salvation.

For salvation is often neglected. We have so many other things to attend to, or so we think. I've learned that it doesn't take long for the crust to begin building up around our hearts. It can come in those difficult years when, weaned from the student ministry we grew up in, we find that this faith we call our own is suddenly a strange thing, and a thing that needs tending and diligence that we are no longer willing to give. Tending our faith is often something we never learned to do.

For others of us, other things have shoved their way in; jealous gods of this world who stand against the one true God. Almost without knowing it, we find ourselves once again at the pagan altar, offering strange fire to the gods of our own imagining.

. . . if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

The writer points us to the Israelites of the Exodus. The horror of their fate is a punch to the heart when you think of it. They all died, save for Joshua and Celeb, in the wilderness, never having gone to the promised land. And all because of one day, when they heard the call of God to take the land, but because of unbelief and fear they decided they weren't able.

They lost their original confidence in God on the day of decision. And the result was tragedy. If only they had kept their hearts soft, their eyes clear, and their confidence grounded in the Lord who had brought them through so much!

Today has an urgency to it. This may be the day of our calling, when our faith ceases to be something we keep in our back pockets for difficult situations, and itself becomes the driving force that hurls us, joyfully and with full confidence, into difficult situations that will unleash the terrifying, wonderful, joyous will of God upon us and those around us.

Sometimes every day for the rest of our lives depends on what we do, and Who we believe, today.

Why does the wicked renounce God
and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?

But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,
that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless commits himself;
you have been the helper of the fatherless.

- Psalm 10:13-14

Have you ever noticed that so many lines in the Psalms start with the word "why"?

This psalm, psalm 10, starts with a "why". Verse 1 asks "Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?" It is a cry heard throughout history, uttered by the despairing, the oppressed, the fearful, the helpless - often, the writers of Scripture. Feeling helpless, small and alone in a very, very large universe is part of the human condition. At least it is when we're looking at life honestly.

The psalmist here answers his initial "why" question with another, in verse 13: "why does the wicked renounce God"? Indeed. We may feel alone in a very large universe, but the psalmist rightly recognizes the fact that we are not alone. We have a King who "is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land." (verse 16). He is King of the entire universe, and, indeed, he's bigger than it is. Even the nations, these vast, quarrelsome and often oppressive beasts that prowl history, will perish. The Lord will remain. Wickedness will not prevail. And those who do it would be well advised to pay attention to the one to whom they will give an account. To the one who knows the Lord and walks in his ways, the question must be asked - why do the wicked renounce God? Can't they see?

Our Lord has a special place in his heart for the helpless who cry out to him. And he helps and fights for those who are "fatherless"; those who have no one to fight for them.

And he's big enough to gently heed our "whys", and strengthen the heart from which those questions ring.

O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear
to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

- Psalm 10:17-18