Gabe Is Not a Baby!

The boys are growing up way too fast! Gabe turned two on September 29th. I still can't believe it. It seems like he should just be turning one...but he's two! That's half way to preschool, a third of the way to little league. He's almost a sixth of the way to being a teenager, an eighth of the way to a driver's license, and a ninth until he graduates high school. These past two years have been a blur. How fast will the others go?

Every time the boys have a birthday, I'm reminded of how little time I have with them. You blink and they grow an inch. They go to sleep and wake up the next day a pound heavier. My time with them is really short (and that is given that the Lord should, in kindness, extend our lives so long).

I am especially reminded of how little time I have to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Eph 6:4). On Gabe's birthday I was meditating on Deuteronomy 4:9: "Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children." The imperatives are two-fold: Keep your soul diligently and teach your children. I must lead them by example and by word. It is not enough to have one without the other. I must keep my soul diligently AND teach the things of the Lord to my kids.

I cannot focus on my own spiritual life to the neglect of my boys. In working on my own heart, I must work on theirs as well. And if I am lax and fail to take care of my soul, I am not the only one affected. Providentially, a few days after meditating on Deuteronomy 4, I read Andrew Fuller's Causes for Declinsion in Religion and Means of Revival (I commend it to all men, particularly those in or going into ministry). While many applicable quotes could be taken from Fuller, I want to mention only two. In warning in the danger of keeping a spiritual status quo rather than aspiring to holiness, Fuller says: "those who are contented not to do better than other people, generally allow themselves to do a little worse." His point is that if we are happy to compare ourselves to other Christians rather than striving hard after Christ, we will be willing to give ourselves over to temptation. It is just like in a race: If we get lazy, we're going to get beat. We should not run to keep pace with the pack, but instead set the course, lest we fall further and further behind. For my boys, if I am lax about my spiritual life, I do not set the example for them that I ought.

The second Fuller quote builds upon the first. He says, "A single defeat or slip, of which we may think but little at the time, may be copied by our children, servants, neighbors, or friends, over and over again; yea, it may be transmitted to our posterity, and pleaded as a precedent for evil when we are no more! Thus it may kindle a fire which, if we ourselves are saved from it, may nevertheless burn to the lowest hell and aggravate the everlasting misery of many around us, who are flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone!" YIKES! Our subtle sins may be used as a precedent for evil. Fuller is right. Our actions have a lasting impact on those around us. Therefore let us strive all the more to imitate Christ in our words, thoughts, and deeds. Let us pursue him with all fervency, as if not only our lives, but the lives of others depended upon it. But we must do so not by our own effort, but in recognition of our utter need for and desire for Christ.

But we must also remember the second part of Deuteronomy 4:9. We not only set an example for our children by keeping our souls diligently, we must also teach them. I am grateful to the Lord for what he has taught Phyllis and me regarding biblical parenting. We are so indebted to the Word, our church, and the seminary for teaching us more about what it means to raise children who love the Lord. Ladan has been memorizing Scripture and catechism questions, both the boys love church, reading Bible stories from the Big Picture Story Bible or the Jesus Storybook Bible, and prayer. Gabe regularly grabs our hands, tilts his head down with eyes fixed upward on us and says, "Pay!", which means pray. He'll do it over and over again. I am so grateful that the Lord is working on their hearts and I continue to pray that he will lead them to place their trust in Christ as Lord and Savior.

Birthdays are great milestones and opportunities to reflect on what the Lord has done. But they are also much needed reminders that the course is not yet complete. I still have a long way to go in working on my heart so that I might be an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity (1 Timothy 4:12). I still have much more to learn in leading my family in worship to God. I praise God for these little reminders of how short life is and I pray that by God's grace I will make every day count.

"Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers." - 1 Timothy 4:16

Sermons and Teachings

I just uploaded a video of a sermon I delivered for one of my classes. If you'd like to view it, or listen to the other audio I have available, just click on the links on the left sidebar. I hope you enjoy and are encouraged in Christ.

Grace and peace,
Chet

Joey's Epiphany

I have a friend at work named Joey who I have been witnessing to for about a year. Despite having heard the gospel countless times throughout his life, Joey is an unbeliever. He knows what the Bible says, but finds himself unwilling to take up his cross and follow Christ. Well, he just got back from bootcamp for the Army Reserves, where he told me of an "epiphany" he had. He said, "In bootcamp, they take away everything from you, except your training. All the stuff you rely on, all the things that you do or distract you are gone, and you are left with who you really are." Then Joey said to me, "I got a look at myself and I didn't like what I saw." I was stunned. I immediately began to ask him questions about his realization of himself and what he thought he should do. But despite catching a glimpse of who he really was and the depth of his sinfulness, Joey is not yet ready to respond to the gospel. He's not ready to admit his wretchedness and utter need for Christ. He is still unwilling to fall on his face before God to respond in repentance and faith. Rather than being broken, he is attempting to cover over his epiphany. He would rather think he's not that bad.

All of us have experienced those times in which everything is stripped away and we find the reality of our hearts laid bare. The sight of it can be frightening. It may come in the dead of night or in the middle of the day, when were are alone or in the middle of a crowd. But there we are...there we REALLY are. And in those moments we catch a glimpse of the wretched, black, malignant, putrid hearts within each of us. We can see our transgression. We feel the guilt. The yoke of sin and death are tight around our necks, and we realize the futility of our insatiable lusts. In that instant, we must make a choice. We can attempt to bury deep within the recesses of our minds, or we can let it break us. We can hide it away and lie to ourselves, or, in honesty and earnestness, fall on our knees in contrition and appeal for mercy.

For those of us who have responded to the free offer of the gospel by repenting and trusting in Christ alone for our salvation: Let us never forget that image. This is who we were apart from Jesus. This is who they are who don't believe in the Son of God. We must remember so that we never attempt to rip ourselves from our recognition for the need of God's continual, sustaining grace.

For those who may have stood in Joey's shoes as an unbeliever: If you have not had an epiphany like his, it will come. But if you have had those times in which you caught a glimpse of the true nature of your heart, REMEMBER! Don't try to cover it over. Don't try to deceive yourself into believing that you are okay. Repent. Turn to the only one who can free you from your bondage to sin. There is no lasting satisfaction in this life apart from Christ. Seek the one in whom true joy comes, trust in Him, and seek out Christians who can help you know more about the Christian life. But do not delay. You may stuff this vision for a while, but it will come back time and again to haunt you. And every time it does, it beckons you to God. Receive the hope that comes only from Jesus.

In closing, I beg my brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for Joey. I believe he is not far from the kingdom of God. And to all of you, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope!" - Romans 15:13

Our Lens for Viewing the World

Okay, so I had to read this book for my Old Testament class (though I'm not sure why) entitled The Creator and the Cosmos by Hugh Ross. In it, Ross, Ph.D in astronomy from the University of Toronto, argues for a divinely created Big Bang. Giving a cornucopia of data, which requires a doctorate in astrophysics to understand, he attempts to persuade his readers of the validity of an intelligent Creator who set creation in motion by a sudden burst of matter and energy which results in the continual expanse of the universe according to the laws of thermodynamics and the theory of general relativity. Furthermore, he suggests that this cosmology is consistent with Scripture, since it was God who 'stretched out the heavens' - Isaiah 42:5 (p. 23-29). Ross then defends his position against numerous alternate cosmologies and provides an abundance of information on both the impossibility of accidental life and the anthropic principle (a theory that argues that the entire universe must exist exactly as it is in order for life to be sustained here on earth).

The amount of data he provides is overwhelming, leaving simple-minded men such as myself with little to say. It appears to the average reader, that beyond a scientific doubt, the universe was created, through a Big Bang, which was orchestrated by an intelligent Creator. AND, because the Bible appears to support the claim, the God of the Bible must be this Creator.

On surface level this sounds great, but is this the way we should view the world? Is it okay for us to attempt to validate the truth claims of the Bible through the lens of science? My answer..."NO!" There are a couple of questions I would ask Ross. First, it is my understanding that the Big Bang theory requires three things: 1) dense matter, 2) very extreme heat, and 3) time. Ross argues that God created these three things ex nihilo (from nothing) and set the big bang on the course of expanding the universe according to thermodynamics and general relativity, making the universe some 15 billion years old. But, if God created these from nothing, is it impossible for him to create a universe with apparent age that continues to expand according to the rules of thermodynamics and general relativity?

The second question is this: Do you believe that Adam was a real person, created with apparent age? The Bible supports that Adam and the animals were created as functional adults. So, if they began with apparent age, again could the world not have been created with maturity as well? If Ross does not believe that Adam was real, he's undermining the very thing he is trying to validate: Scripture. Genesis, Joshua, 1 Chronicles, Hosea, Luke, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 1 Timothy, and Jude all portray Adam as a real, created human being (not to mention Eve). I don't think he would want to try to give an argument of how the Bible implicitly supports a Big Bang theory, but deny what Scripture explicitly affirms. How do you attempt to defend the Bible with science, only to turn and say that science proves that some of its claims are impossible? I ask these questions only to get at the point that when it comes to the way we view the world, science is no substitute for Scripture.

Now don't get me wrong. I appreciate science. I believe there are a great number of things we can learn about our world and we should seek to learn more about it. Ross' arguments for the intricacy and uniqueness of life are astonishing. We should rejoice at the idea of the anthropic principle. God fashioning the entire universe so that human life could exist on this small speck of a planet should cause us to stand in awe of the wisdom and love of God. But should we rely on human understanding to defend God and the claims of Scripture? Absolutely not! Are we really so arrogant?

You may have heard of the illustration of the watch and the watchmaker. If we found a watch on the beach, the order and intelligence of the design would be evident to us. By simple observation, we could tell implicitly that it was made and not a product of chance. Yet we do not stand outside the watch, we are a part of it. How can we then, as an insignificant piece of the watch, expect to be able to fully comprehend it, let alone the watchmaker? We are like a little gold link near the clasp of the watchband, resting outside the intricate mechanics of the watch itself. Yet in reality the distinction is far greater. We are a microscopic speck of the created, an infinitesimal speck of dust on a vast, gargantuan, and complex machine. It seems foolish for me to think that we can then stand as an authority over creation. And even if we could stand outside of the created in order to observe and discern the absolute workings of the mechanism, how would we know it is a watch and not a flashlight, or a microwave? The only way we would know that it is a watch is because somebody told us that it was. Apart from this revelation, we would have no idea what it was or why it is created. We would need an instruction manual for that. Furthermore, we certainly would not be able to deduce from it who the watchmaker was and what he was really like. Therefore, no matter how much we discover about our universe, it will never fully tell us why it is here and what its origins are. We cannot get to the Creator through the created. It is arrogance to try.

If we are to know how and why we came to be it MUST be told to us. The universe will never tell us more than "you were created." We can learn some things about the Creator, but we'll never find out who he is unless he tells us. We need revelation. We need to hear his Word. We need to believe what he tells us. He claims all authority by his Word without giving a single apologetic for it, because what piece of the created order could give irrefutable evidence for the One who is by nature irrefutable? He must speak if we are to know him. If he speaks, his word is authoritative truth and, as the Creator, all creation must obey it. Let us then not seek to make the Bible fit with science. Let's not shape Christianity according to the intellectual theory of the day. Rather, let's take him at his Word. One day we'll see that it all fits together. Until then, we should plumb the depths of knowledge with the understanding that to God belongs all wisdom, knowledge, and power. Let's be content to leave question marks where they remain. But let us never attempt to make the truth claims of Scripture fit our scientific worldview, for God alone "is perfect in knowledge" (Job 37:16).

HYPOCRITE!

That's right folks. I am a hypocrite. I'm doing what I said I would not do. I am starting a blog. I really can't believe I am doing it. After many persuasive arguments from my professors and peers, and the persistent prodding of my precious wife, I caved in. I hope to bring clarity to some of my teachings or provide afterthoughts, give updates on some of the ministry opportunities I have been given, occasionally comment on important issues, and provide words of inspiration and encouragement (Phyll's blog will still bear the brunt of the family updates). However, I make no promises in the timeliness of my posts. I cannot guarantee they will be particularly enlightening. But if the Lord should see fit to use my musings, as simple as they are, then to him be glory!

P.S. I still refuse to be a part of Facebook!