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Posts Tagged ‘pride’

Trusting God’s Sovereign Hand

Posted in Discipleship, God, Sovereignty, tagged , , on 01/18/2022| 1 Comment »

The first lesson as a human being ought to be that I’m not in charge. To know that I’m born to a world older than I and rest in the hands of the maker who brought me here. I’m not in charge of this world and I’m not even in control of my own fate. Yes, I would love to be in control. I would love it if I can guarantee my future and be in charge of my present. I would love it if tomorrow was mine to command and today mine to rule. But I need to know that though there are aspects of my life I can control yet there are many factors beyond me. I need to get it right in my mind that I’m not in charge before the world lies to me that I am.

Though he should choose to take us through the furnace of suffering his hand still would hold us. And I should say his hand is firm than mine.

But if that’s the first lesson for a human being. The first for a Christian ought to be that it is good and right that I’m not in control. Not in dismissive indifference but because our God is in control. Yes, given a choice I should always choose God to be in charge because he’s a better Father than any of us will ever be. He knows best and he who didn’t spare his own son for us will surely do right by us. Though he should choose to take us through the furnace of suffering his hand still would hold us. And I should say his hand is firm than mine. His mind has the best interests for his children and his heart knows best their weaknesses. If he wounds us the good potter will make good of his clay. If he should prosper our ministry I should remember it’s his work at hand, not mine.

But my problem is to know that my heart will even so constantly doubt his control. That there will be times I wish I was in charge and doubt he knows what he is doing. That you’ll find this clay ask its maker, what are you doing? What is wrong with you? This tells me that I need to intentionally and constantly let him take charge. If he’s the Lord of all I need to let him be my Lord indeed. I shouldn’t wait until he has to show me he’s in charge. By then I might hate him for it. I would rather know and expect him to take charge at all times. But I need help here because the idolatry of my heart will always compete against his sovereign hand. Many will be the times I take his seat and want to be my own lord and god. I need his help to know and believe that no other god not even myself will lead me better like our heavenly Father would.

At the heart of that first rebellion, we see our pride and the idolatry of the heart to take charge of our lives thinking we can do better than God.

Isn’t it interesting that the first man having everything given freely to him was tempted to set the word of God aside for the promise that he would be like God? At the heart of that first rebellion, we see our pride and the idolatry of the heart to take charge of our lives thinking we can do better than God. We read in Genesis 3:

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Genesis 3.

How often do we follow in the footsteps of that first Adam to our ruin and heartache? So often the old serpent says you’d do better than God and we yield like we don’t know he’s been a liar since day one. But the redeemed are called to follow in the footsteps of the second Adam who we are told in Philippians 2:

Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross! Philippians 2.

Jesus was happy in God’s charge even though he could have said he is equal with God. He taught us the path to glory is yielding and trusting in God’s charge. Trusting him in the good and the not-so-good times. It should therefore be the business of our lives and something we need to pray regularly for that our Lord would give us such an attitude of humility and faith in his sovereign hand. Whatever awaits us dear Lord teach us now to take comfort that you take better charge of us than we could ever do.

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The dangers of theological blogging (and being a theological student)

Posted in Christian Life, tagged , , , on 05/20/2016| Leave a Comment »

Cutting wisdom from Carl Trueman:

I am increasingly convinced that pride is the root of problems among students. I was convicted recently by a minister friend quoting to me 1 Timothy 1:5-7:
“The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.”
My friend made two observations about this passage. First, the drift into dubious theological discussion is here described as moral in origin: these characters have swerved from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith; that is why their theology is so dreadful. Second, their desire is not to teach but to be teachers. There is an important difference here: their focus is on their own status, not on the words they proclaim. At most, the latter are merely instrumental to getting them status and boosting their careers.

Thus, what concerns me most is that students may simply desire to be teachers. If that is their motivation, then they have already abandoned a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith, and their theology, no matter how orthodox, is just a means to an end and no sound thing. It is why I am very sceptical of the internal call to the ministry as a decisive or motivating factor in seeking ordination. Nine times out of ten, I believe that the church should first discern who should be considering the Christian ministry, not simply a rubberstamp act as a putative internal call which an individual may think he has.

Further, such students whose first desire is to be teachers are more likely to try to catch whatever is the latest trendy wave. Orthodoxy is always doomed to seem uncreative and pedestrian in the wider arena; if the aim is to be a teacher, to be the big shot, then it is more likely that orthodoxy will be less appealing in the long run – though there are those for whom orthodoxy too is simply a means to being a celebrity.

If a prideful desire to be a teacher, to be a somebody, is the fundamental problem, then one other aspect which is increasingly problematic is the whole phenomenon of the internet. Now anyone can put their views out for public consumption, without the usual processes of accountability, peer review, careful editing, timely reflection, etc., which is the norm in the scholarly world and has also been the tradition in the more theologically responsible parts of the Christian publishing industry. The internet has few quality controls and feeds narcissism. Again, I have a friend, a minister in a North American Presbyterian denomination who says that, as he reads many blogs, his overwhelming feeling is one of sadness as he sees men seriously undermining their future ministry through the venom they pour out on others. I think he is right.

Of course, all young theologians and aspiring church leaders say stupid and unpleasant things. I still blush about comments I made fifteen or twenty years ago which now seem arrogant and offensive, and certainly unworthy of a Christian. But for those of us who are older, the sins of our youth are thankfully now long vanished from the public sphere; yet such sins committed today can live on indefinitely in cyberspace. I shudder for those who have not yet grasped this basic fact and who say some frightful things on the internet which will come back to haunt them the very first time a church googles their name as part of doing routine background checks on a potential ministerial candidate. But more than that: I shudder at the kind of self-appointed arrogance among ministerial candidates and recently-minted graduates which the internet can foster and intensify.

Paul’s words to Timothy seem prophetic in times such as ours. Students should cultivate pure hearts, good consciences, and a sincere faith. That way they will safeguard their theology from becoming idle speculation.

[interviewed by Martin Downes in Risking the Truth: Handling error in the church, Christian Focus, 2009, p. 31-33]

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