Category Archives: Quotes & Excerpts

The Beatitude Life

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We have been living as if the most important things about us are what we perform before others, and it’s making us miserable and anxious. Jesus tells us that the most important things in life are done in secret, before the Father, who loves us simply because he loves us.

One counterargument to this might go like this: “Yes, but doesn’t Jesus also say, ‘Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven’” (Matthew 5:16)? Yes, he does. Why, then, would he say just a few passages later (in the same sermon!) that we ought to practice our good works in secret? Which is it—practice your life in public to be seen by others, or resist that line of thinking and keep your life secret before God?

On the surface, these two verses seem to contradict each other. Either Jesus forgot what he just said and is confused, or he is misleading us and shouldn’t be trusted. Well, don’t worry—there’s a third option.

When Jesus tells us to practice our lives in secret, he is talking about our virtues—giving to the poor, praying, and fasting; things we might be tempted to perform before others to look impressive. But in Matthew 5:16, when he calls us to shine our works before others in such a way that they’ll see and glorify God, he has just finished unveiling the Beatitudes (vv. 3–12): Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who are meek, those who mourn, those who are persecuted, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and those who are slandered for Christ’s sake.

You can give to the poor, pray, and fast outwardly, but inwardly the substance of your life can still be based on pretense. You can do all these wonderful acts of virtue and still be a hypocrite. But poverty of spirit, mourning, meekness, joy in suffering, and endurance of slander form substance that is deeper than outward impressiveness. Living this beatitude life will produce a kind of attraction that glorifies God rather than you. In other words, it’s hard to perform the Beatitudes. Jesus isn’t concerned about performative meekness; he’s concerned about performative prayer and performative justice.

But the Beatitudes Jesus describes in Matthew 5:3–12 do not just grow from nowhere. A heart that can rejoice in slander must first learn to resist the praise of others and live in secret with the Father. Jesus lived out this pattern in his own life. In John 2:1–11, after he turned water into wine at the wedding at Cana and performed many great signs, a large crowd began to believe in and follow him (v. 23). But John’s gospel shows us how Jesus responded: “But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people” (v. 24).

We tend to think this verse is primarily about what’s inside a person. And it certainly is about that! The rest of John’s gospel shows the frailty of our beliefs. But it also reveals what’s inside Jesus: He “did not entrust himself to them.” Jesus knew how to practice the principle of Matthew 6, resisting the world’s praise. He entrusted himself to something deeper than man’s approval—a deeper reward, so to speak. It’s almost as if Jesus is singing Psalm 102 to himself: “They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment . . . You are the same, and your years have no end” (vv. 26–27).

If you consider the end of John’s gospel when the praises of man were no more and the people cried, “Crucify him!” and wanted to exchange his life for that of Barabbas, Jesus could quietly embrace the cross because his life never depended on the praise of others. And so when Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him (Matthew 16:24), this pattern of not entrusting ourselves to others must be deep within us.

Do you see? Jesus had a heart that could endure the cross and be slandered for righteousness’ sake because his heart was hidden in secret with the Father who loved him. The heart that takes these small crucifying steps of learning how to resist praise from others can be formed into a heart that follows Christ—even (or especially) when it costs us deeply.

I want to emphasize that these are small crucifying steps. The work of unwinding our hearts is difficult and slow. It’s remarkable that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus doesn’t instruct us toward grand or famous acts of faith and courage, just ordinary spiritual obedience done in a hidden way. But even so, practicing these ordinary things—these small crucifying steps—in a hidden, intentional way has a transformative effect.

—John Starke, The Secret Place of Thunder: Trading Our Need to Be Noticed for a Hidden Life with Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2023). Available from Christian Book, Logos, and everywhere else books are sold.

 

“An Expensive Training Watch”

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“My goal is an expensive training watch,” Kari heard Dutch announce over dinner last Spring.

All year I taught a physical education (P.E.) class on Mondays for middle and high school students. It was lots of fun, and especially a learning lesson for this coach. During the year Dutch gained strength, endurance, confidence, coordination, and became a friend of exertion. Attitude is essential to this course, and weekly I extolled to all in public, and to Dutch in private, the value of a good effort, exertion, proper form, and enjoyment of sport and games. Most of what we did was get moving through warmup, games, introduced the fundamental aspects of a few sports, learning the necessary skills, rules, and working on those in an environment of grace. For many of these kids this was the first foray into organized sports of sorts, having not participated on teams in the usual leagues. Seeing their enjoyment of exercise, being kids at play, was fulfilling as a tutor and coach. This brief introduction to playing catch, not only enjoying a few sports (many of their choosing), but also to gain confidence in playing them.

The most frequently played game was one I invented on a whim to make use of the painted lines in the parking lot, with a triangle at one end. Tri-Ball was born and this fast-paced game of catch and goal-scoring on teams (think ultimate frisbee with the disk traded for a small rubber ball) got them moving rain or shine. After a warmup, a hilly walk-then-run course, self-checking heart rates and a short lesson/lecture outlining the rules or effect of exercises, we played games, learned the day’s new skill — how to hold a basketball, aim, shoot, and follow-through; the “windows” for catching a soft football; ways to place that kickball were the defense cannot catch it; making contact with a level swing in wiffle ball — or added on to their expanding skill set (a bounce pass after dribbling a basketball, how to stand and move fluidly when throwing a ball). Rather quickly our hour was almost up.

The last request of every P.E. class? “Can we play tag?!” Ultimate tag is a favorite (everyone’s “it”), sometimes borg tag, until class was complete.

After a few months, I gave instruction in how to set a fitness goal and the related emphases of exertion, sustained effort, then rest, and recovery. We talked about “polarity,” such as a hard effort followed by an easy or restful day, rather than going all-out over-and-over. Teens need rest, plenty of it. Changing paces, or “shifting gears” is a rare ability for people of all ages, so we worked on that in the by and by. Their fitness goals ranged from a custom training plan for pushups for a few who chose that path, consistency on wake-up times to do chores, a short workout, and eating a healthy breakfast. Others focused on walking hills 3x/week for others, to keeping a log of sleep and nutrition. Each student set their sights on an end goal, a timeline, and how to go about keeping track of progress. Let the training begin.

Dutch’s first goal? “To tag four people in one game.”

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Blogging Excellence: Building One Another Up and Lifting Christ Higher

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A new book drops today, yes on Election Day. Its impact will be considerable as well, for words carry weight. How one wields their words speaks much about their motivations, goals, and the gains of connections made to others.

This new book is Blogging for God’s Glory in a Clickbait World by Benjamin Vrbicek and John Beeson.

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Travelogue: Six Weeks

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Hello! We made it through wildfires, an unbelievable two weeks, yet the fires are still burning (and will for months, even underground). Fires fizzle out, people endure with hope, and life moves on. In 2020 more than one person has remarked with anticipation how “______ (every-thing) will change on election day”! For us all will surely change, as our next son is due that day, almost six weeks from now. Of course, we cannot schedule when this baby arrives, yet can steward our energies (and emotions) to be the most helpful in our home, church, work, communities, all of life.

Four things and some travelpixels for this week’s travelogue:

1) Are You Able to Help?

A college friend was in a horrific car wreck yesterday and remains in critical care and an induced coma. Jake and his twin brother Josh are truly two of the most able-bodied men I’ve ever met, seemingly as fit in their forties as they were as wrestlers at OSU. All that changed for Jake this week.

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I am bound to speak well of my Physician

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An excerpt from a letter by John Newton, penned on June 2, 1772. The last three-quarters of this personal correspondence was shared at the close of my video sermon this past Sunday: Patiently Building Up One Another Until Jesus Returns (Sunday, July 12th) on 1st Thessalonians 5:1-15.

The illness under which I have labored so long, is far from being removed. Yet I am bound to speak well of my Physician—He treats me with great tenderness, and bids me in due time to expect a perfect cure. I know too much of Him (though I know but little) to doubt either His skill or His promise.

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Happy work is best done …

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“Never, in peace or war, commit your virtue or your happiness to the future. Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment ‘as to the Lord.’ It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received.”
—C.S. Lewis, “Learning in Wartime” (1939)

 

Since you did not pull yourself out of the pit, nor illuminate yourself.

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“A company of travelers fall into a pit: one of them gets a passenger to draw him out. Now he should not be angry with the rest for falling in; nor because they are not yet out, as he is. He did not pull himself out: instead, therefore, of reproaching them, he should show them pity. . . . A man, truly illuminated, will no more despise others, than Bartimaeus1, after his own eyes were opened, would take a stick, and beat every blind man he met.”
—John Newton2
Let us embrace the tenderness of Jesus and embody this habitual tenderness to others.
  1. Read Mark 10:46-52 to see the scene when Jesus restored blind Bartimaeus’ sight ↩
  2. Cecil, Memoirs of the Rev. John Newton, p. 105. ↩

 

In darkness: do you carry a lamp?

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I like running in the dark. At first, it was unsettling to be surrounded by so much, well, darkness. Yet this happy discipline has grown on me. A habit of sorts, forged over these last few years (in patience), and I run early in part because that is the time of day when I’m not needed elsewhere. Four or five AM is well before responsibility gives a hug and won’t let go.

A question often comes up: isn’t it dangerous to run in the dark?

(You’d probably have to ask about the dangers the millions upon millions of women and children face while traveling miles upon miles every day to fetch water— six kilometers on average. Did you know that every day 200 Million hours are amassed in fetching water, mostly unsafe water, in developing nations? You can change that for someone, in just an hour. Join the 6K for Water. Do it!)

Running in the dark, where I live, is probably not as dangerous as running in the daytime. You see, there’s this phenomenon of being surrounded by massive bullets flying around, without much attention paid to where they’re going. (Cars, those bullets are cars driven by people.) That is, a daytime runner has to be constantly on the watch for inattentive drivers. Distracted, looking at devices, not looking for a runner, walker of cyclist. Pedestrians have the Right-of-Way, until they don’t and it’s too late. Plus, early mornings are quiet and peaceful, even (or especially?) in rain or snow; these are times I relish for moments to think, pray, BE. The lonely miles are always accompanied by LIGHT and reflectivity. Simply investments in rechargeable hand lights and headlamps make one seen and safe at the same time. Dark mornings are when one must bring a lamp. And a gift from our church family last Fall made capturing some of these moments quiet fun. “GoPro take photo,” is a simple voice command that later reveals a beautiful scene. Like this one …
Track Tuesday
In meditative moments like this, the Scripture comes into focus:

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Psalm 119:105)

Let the reader understand: there is plenty of darkness even in the light of day.

Coupled with this reflection on that verse:

“We are walkers through the city of this world, and we are often called to go out into its darkness; let us never venture there without the light-giving word, lest we slip with our feet. Each man should use the word of God personally, practically, and habitually, that he may see his way and see what lies in it. When darkness settles down upon all around me, the word of the Lord, like a flaming torch, reveals my way. Having no fixed lamps in eastern towns, in old time each passenger carried a lantern with him that he might not fall into the open sewer, or stumble over the heaps of ordure which defiled the road. This is a true picture of our path through this dark world: we should not know the way, or how to walk in it, if Scripture, like a blazing flambeau, did not reveal it.”
—C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David on Ps. 119:105

It must be asked: Do you use the word of God personally, practically, and habitually, that you may see your way and see what lies in it? (Find some good helps here.) 

Will you do this in the early hours, or in the “darkness” of daytime, even before discouragements and disagreements mount their assault? When all the good news and fake news and whatever news dissuades your heart from keeping up the good work of following Jesus no matter the cost? If you do this, in the darkness, your feet will not slip.

The most healthful thing you can do today is not so much run a mile, in darkness or daylight, but rather this: take the lamp of the Word of God and let it shine brightly on the world, on your mind, bringing light to your heart. Then you will be able to see clearly, to “capture” with the lens of the mind’s eye the beauty AND brokenness in each scene. Then you will be able to see reality as it really is. In His light do we see light. Even, and especially, in darkness.

Track Tuesday
(Photos by the author. Please do not use without my permission; happy to lend permission if you ask.)

 

More by less.

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Every time we add something new to our schedule, we must take something out. Alongside your ‘to do’ list think about keeping a ‘don’t do’ list as well.

“Many times, developing the ability to spend time in the Bible and to hear what it’s saying is less about our aptitude for scripture and more about all the noise that exists around us. We all know we could use more Bible, but we often forget we could use less of everything else.”
—Jared Wilson, Abide

 

Our hearts are longing for the more-ness of our Creator.

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One of the greatest challenges we have as parents is to keep our children from settling for less.

The world offers less.

The great lie is that our heart’s longing can be satisfied with the lesser things of this world. We attempt to make a god of created things instead of worshiping the creator. This is why we never find a sustained sense of satisfaction or contentment. Our hearts are longing for the more-ness of our Creator. 1

The beauty of the Creation story is that it paints a picture of the one we worship. The all-powerful, all-sovereign, all-loving, all-just completeness of our God. Here’s the opportunity:

Our struggle as parents will always be to keep the bigness of God in our homes. As parents, we get the enormous opportunity to help our children connect the dots of their deepest desires to the source: their magnificent God.

So let’s help them DREAM and let’s help them to SEE the realities beyond this world. Through it all, they just might develop a taste for the kingdom of God. God is and will always be the best conversation that you can have with your children.

Rooted in Scripture, this prayer of the Apostle Paul for us and with us:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from Whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being…
—Ephesians 3:14-16

SC-prayer-day-01

Story Catechism Prayer Challenge

  1. Day 01, Story Catechism Back 2 School Prayer Challenge ↩

 

Until His love we tasted …

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Our time in sin we wasted,
And fed upon the wind;
Until His love we tasted,
No comfort could we find:

But now we stand to witness
His pow’r and grace to you;
May you perceive its fitness,
And call upon him too!

Our pleasure and our duty,
Though opposite before;
Since we have seen his beauty,
Are joined to part no more:

It is our highest pleasure,
No less than duty’s call;
To love him beyond measure,
And serve him with our all.

—hymn by John Newton, “We Were Once As You Are”

On Sunday July 3rd we (Renew Church) considered the themes of Duty and Dependence, whereby the beauty of God overwhelms our hearts and what used to be a mere duty receives a whole new energy to be joyfully performed, even with pleasure!

The following Sunday we sang “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” (original lyrics by Sir Robert Robinson) with added closing verses borrowed from one John Newton’s hymns, “We Were Once As You Are,” with the chosen verses from above emphasized (added at 3:21 in song). Listen …

 

Let’s get uncomfortable!

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“Western culture has things a little backwards right now. We think that if we had every comfort available to us, we’d be happy. We equate comfort with happiness. And now we’re so comfortable we’re miserable. There’s no struggle in our lives. No sense of adventure. We get in a car, we get in an elevator, it all comes easy. What I’ve found is that I’m never more alive than when I’m pushing and I’m in pain, and I’m struggling for high achievement, and in that struggle I think there’s a magic.”1

That’s a keen insight from long-distance runner Dean Karnazes. His words apply to all “adventure,” really all of life, as running and training can be a good metaphor for the real “endurance” events we call daily life. The ordinary, common, everyday activities are where we need the will to persevere and willingness to get uncomfortable.

In short: We can either be comfortable and stagnate or stretch ourselves—become uncomfortable—and grow.

We tend to think that comfort leads to happiness. It doesn’t. “Happiness” comes from growth, a deeper joy than temporal circumstances. In comes in part from making commitments and keeping them. We find a measure of joy in making progress, and especially joining others in their development. When we persevere, we grow.

Let's run up those hillsFor me that means hitting the pavement in search of some hills almost every morning. In reality, running is the easy part. It’s the other “endurance” events of life where we must embrace the uncomfortable: relationship tensions, hard decisions, confrontation, adversity, setbacks, each new challenge an opportunity. This is essential if we are to reject apathy.

I wonder if one reason 80%+ of people fail on their New Year’s resolutions is they remain committed to their own comfort. The love of comfort keeps them from a better adventure. People embrace apathy, which is a slow death. And a love of self-comfort keeps them for pursuing health and wholeness for the sake of others. If we are to benefit—and better yet: if others are to develop under our care and leadership—we must get uncomfortable. Seek out a measure of adversity, and train for the real adversity than will inevitably come your way.

“Nothing is more important than to learn how to maintain a life of purpose in the midst of painful adversity.”2

  1. Dean Karnazes in an interview with Outdoor Magazine, published online December 2006. ↩
  2. Timothy Keller, Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering. ↩