"WALK BY THE SPiRiT" [Gal 5.16]

• The rigidity of Puritan morality.
• The extent of fundamentalism's legalism.
• The historic excess of Rome's ritualism.
• The fluidity of postmodernity's [I don't think this is a cool word anymore?] approach toward doctrine and ecclesiology.
  

I'm not saying that the above list is all bad. However, I do believe that most of any wrongness in these things comes from a specific source: a weak understanding of the Holy Spirit.

St Paul's understanding of the Spirit was that He was vital and active in the church. For Paul, the goal was never to give the Spirit a theological or theoretical head nod. I am even pressed to find an occasion where Paul's purpose is to assert the deity of the Spirit. Yes, he does write about the doctrine of the Spirit with clarity. Yes, he does hint at the deity of the Spirit in such a way that we should not question it. But what is the hub of wheel of Paul's pneumatology?

Paul sees the Holy Spirit as God's empowering presence in the community of faith. The Spirit is experienced corporately and individually as the relational means by which the covenant community lives. He gifts each member of the body for the building up of the body [1 Cor 12.7, 12.11]. 

I tend to think that a better experience and/or understanding of the Spirit's personal work in the church would have rightly nuanced the motives and practices of our friends in the list above.

Yet, we are all guilty of not yielding to His voice. May we learn to listen carefully to our Helper.

PURiTAN, SACRAMENTAL REPENTANCE

I know way too many fellas who think reading the Puritans puts them on a higher shelf theologically. How arrogant, narrow-minded, and just plain stupid is that? Yes, the Puritans are great to read and soak in, but they also thought that in coming to America, they were ushering in God's millennial kingdom. Many of them also believed that the gifts of the Holy Spirit no longer exist. Some would even use sharp objects to nudge men awake if they fell asleep in church. The Puritans had dozens of things that should never be emulated. 

But still.

The Puritans must be beheld for their persistent piety and their dependence on God that flavored everything they wrote. It is said that Puritan New England had the highest literacy rate of any society in history. Why you might ask? Simply because they wanted their kids to be able to read the Bible.

One of my favorites is "The Doctrine of Repentance" by Thomas Watson. His whole book defines what he calls "gospel repentance." He says that "repentance is a spiritual medicine made up of six special ingredients." They are:

• sight of sin
  
• sorrow for sin
  
• confession of sin
  
• shame for sin
  
• hatred for sin
  
• turning from sin

In his section on sorrow for sin, Watson says that part of this sorrow comes corporately - in partaking of the Lord's Table with contrition. He says that

A repentant frame is a sacramental frame. A broken heart and a broken Christ do well agree. The more bitterness we taste in sin, the more sweetness we shall taste in Christ.

a ministerial kick in the teeth

Maybe these are a few reasons why "not many of you should become teachers, my brothers" [Js 3.1]. I convictingly perused through these this morning in a Puritan book of quotes I have. Both Richard Baxter and Charles Spurgeon also have poignant considerations about pastoral ministry. This book is at the most $7. Tis worth every penny and would probably look good beside your bed or on your toilet.

• He that is more frequent in his pulpit to his people than he is in his closet for his people, is but a sorry watchman [John Owen].
  
• The doctrine of a minister must credit his life and his life must adorn his doctrine [Jean Daille].
  
• Ministers are not cooks, but physicians and therefore should not study to delight the palate, but to recover the patient [Jean Daille].
  
• Brethren, it is easier to declaim against 1000 sins of others than to mortify one sin in ourselves [John Flavel].
  
• Three things make a preacher - reading, prayer, and temptation [John Trapp].
  
• Unholiness in a preacher's life will either stop his mouth from reproving or the people's ears from receiving [William Gurnall].
  

HOPE

I read this quote this morning. It reminded me of the chasm of distinction between the New Testament's meaning of the word "hope" and how we often use it. Ladies and gentlemen, Thomas Adams:

Hope is a virgin of a fair and clear countenance; her proper seat is upon the earth, her proper object is in heaven. Faith is her attorney-general, prayer her solicitor, patience her physician, charity her almoner, thankfulness her treasure, the promise of God her anchor, peace her chair of state, and eternal glory her crown.

"ON AFFLiCTiON" [puritan excerpts]

Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word. I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are righteous and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me [Psalm 119.67, 75].

• A sanctified person, like a silver bell, the harder he is smitten, the better he sounds [George Swinnock].
• Poverty and affliction take away the fuel that feeds pride [Richard Sibbes].
• We often learn more of God under the rod that strikes us, than under the staff that comforts us [Stephen Charnock].
• When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord's choicest wines [Samuel Rutherford].
• It is said that in some countries trees will grow, but will bear no fruit, because there is no winter there [John Bunyan].

O people in Zion, inhabitants in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. Although the Lord has given you the bread of affliction and the water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold Your Teacher. Your ears will hear a word behind you saying, "This is the way. Walk in it." [Isaiah 30.19-21]

prayers and thanks

I feel as though my prayer life as of late has consisted of only gratitude. We have two Hondas that are nearing 600,000 miles as a dynamic duo [neither have AC at the moment either]. We just bought this house and still have many more nights of labor to put into it. We have no clue how to fix it all either. The funds are tight. The days are long. The summer has already promised to prove itself chaotic as far as calendars are concerned. And the best part of all of this though is that I am convinced it's normal.

Everybody has stuff on their plate. Relationships. Finances. Jobs. In-laws. Schedules. Church. Kids. Whatever. Who am I to complain or act like some victim. I must be and I get to be grateful. At first I was really mad/sad that I wasn't praying as much for others or ministries or whatnot. Actually, I still am. But.... God has so brought peace to me when I realized that this season of appreciation-saturated prayer is a wonderfully humbling thing.

I love what some of the old Puritans used to say about prayer. They were known for this lovely axiom: "Pray until you pray." Meaning, be with Him until you are no longer thinking about it and concentrating on it, but you just are. You're thanking Him. You're pleading with Him. You're trusting His word. You're confessing. You're happy in Him. That's what I see when I read the prayers of Paul. That's how I long for it to be for me too.

"Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" [1 Ths 5.16-18].