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Join The Table Laziness or Fear?
Pastor Bob
Jul 16th, 2009
|
05:36
The sluggard says,
“There is a Lion Outside!
I shall be slain in the streets!”~ Proverbs 22.13
This is not what I expected the proverbs to say. I would have expected it to say “The coward says, ‘There is a lion outside! I shall be slain in the streets!’” But it says, “sluggard”, not “coward.” So the controlling emotion here is laziness, not fear. But what does laziness have to do with the danger of a lion in the street? What is the point of the proverb?
The point is that the sluggard creates imaginary circumstances to justify not doing his work and thus shifts the focus from the voice of his laziness to the danger of lions. No one will approve his staying in the house all day just because he is lazy.
But they might sympathize with him and approve his staying home if there were real danger outside. So, to hide his laziness and justify himself, he deflects attention away from the truth (laziness) to an illusion (lions).
If we would be side people – people on the way to being “sages” – we must understand how our sinful human hearts and minds work. One profound Biblical insight we need to embrace is that our heart exploits our mind to justify what the heart wants. That is, our deepest desires precede the rational functioning of our minds and incline the mind to perceive and think in a way that will make the desires look right. It is an illusion to hink that our hearts are neutral and incline in accordance with cool, rational observation of truth. On the contrary, we feel powerful desires or fears in our hearts, and then our minds bend reality to justify the desires and fears.
This is what the sluggard is doing. He deeply desires to stay at home and not work. There is no good reason to stay at home. So what does he do? Does he overcome his bad desire? No, his lazy heart exploits his mind to create unreal circumstances to justify his desire. He may even believe the creation of his mind. Deception can cross from moral depravity to mental derangement – from deceiving others to deceiving ourselves.
Thus Proverbs 26.16 says, “The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can give a discreet answer.” Now why is that? Does laziness make people haughty? Not necessarily. But it does make them resistant to any truth that exposes their laziness. So when seven men say, “There is no lion in the street,” the sluggard cannot concede. He must insist that his own answer is wise: There is a lion in the street. Otherwise his laziness is exposed for what it is. Thus truth is sacrificed on the altar of self-justification.
Its an old tale. From Cain (Genesis 4.9) to American presidents, truth has been sacrificed to desire, and the mind has been shrewdly employed by the darkened heart to shroud its passions. This is the point of Romans 1.18 – “They suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” Truth is held hostage by the unrighteous commitments of the heart. The unrighteous heart then employs the mind to distract and deceive. As Jesus says, “Everyone who does evil hates the Light.” (John 3.20) Doing the evil we love makes us hostile to the light of truth which will expose the evil and rob us of its fleeting pleasures. In this condition the mind becomes a factory of half-truths, equivocations, sophistries, evasions, and lies – anything to protect the evil desires of the heart from exposure and destruction.
We are all given to this. Our only home is the transforming work of God in our hearts to free us from the bondage of a hardened heart that produces a futile mind. This is Paul’s diagnosis of the “futile mind” and the “darkened understanding” – they are rooted in hardness of heart. “Walk no longer as the Gentiles… in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart” (Ephesians 4.17-18). The root cause is a heart cause, not a head cause. The mind is darkened and made futile by rebellion in the heart.
This does not mean that lovers of truth should stop speaking truth and explaining truth and defending truth. But it does mean that we should pray for God to change hearts so that they can see the beauty of truth and love it – even if it begins with: There is no lion in the street and you are lazy. This devine work is what Paul gives thanks for in Romans 6.17, “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed.” Obedience came from the heart. Thanks be to God. And if thanks be to God, then let prayers be to God. He is our only hope – to escape our own delusions and deliver others.
* Taken from Taste and See Meditations by John Piper
Today is Calvin’s 500th Birthday
Pastor Bob
Jul 10th, 2009
|
06:39
Today marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of the great reformer, John Calvin (July 10, 1509 – May 27, 1564). Hundreds of thousands commemorate this day with gratitude to God for this man and his influence on the church.
For those of us who embrace the doctrines of grace, we celebrate God’s preacher who did so much to teach us even still today. He wrote the astounding work: “Institutes of the Christian Religion” which is cherished to this day.
River of Life is a Calvinist (theologically – all 5 points) church that serves Christ and celebrates the doctrines of grace. The acronym TULIP literally shapes the way we do our marriages, our ministry, and our lives. You can read our reformed theology statement here: http://portagechurch.org/beliefs/Reformed%20Positional%20Statement.pdf
But even those who disagree with his theology should still regard him as a gift to the church. Here is what some of the great contrasts to his teachings said about him: John Wesley called him “a great instrument of God,” and Jacob Arminius considered Calvin “incomparable in the interpretation of Scripture” and recommended Calvin’s commentaries second only to the Bible itself. So learning and benefiting from Calvin isn’t just for the five pointers.
Why was John Calvin so significant? Listen to John Piper (who is doing a conference on Calvin) discuss the importance of John Calvin’s life and ministry and how it impacts our life today.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z9gy8BEegk]
So today we celebrate this man of God who taught us so much and was used by our Lord to remind us what Jonah wrote: “Salvation belongs to the Lord” (Jonah 2.9)
Soli Deo Gloria!
I Don’t Know…
Pastor Bob
Jul 1st, 2009
|
14:45
C.J. Mahaney talks about mystery and the limitations of human knowlege about God, especially regarding whom he chooses to save.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXNEsgN0vDQ]
URGENT – PRAYER REQUEST
Pastor Bob
Jul 1st, 2009
|
07:21
River of Life Church family & friends,
I have an urgent prayer request for you. A dear friend of mine and brother in the Lord, Tim Worden* and 21 members of his church (The Vista in Texas*) are in Honduras. They are in hiding as the political events unfold around them. They have a return flight scheduled for today (July 1st) and are praying that they will be able to leave the country.
Let’s join together and pray that our Lord will lead them to safety and home. Let’s also pray for their families who are anxiously waiting for word of their loved ones’ safety.
*Tim and his wife Staci were the couple that Alisha, myself, Jenn & Jarrod stayed with when we went to Texas last year.
Through Tim, The Vista Community Church is also partnering in the gospel ministry with River of Life Church and they sponsor us monthly also.
* Update – they are home safe and sound. thank you to everyone who prayed for them!
TAGS: Thoughts From My Journal
