Early Christian Orations On Christmas

I don't remember how I came across it, but here's a link to a doctoral dissertation featuring new English translations of a few ancient orations on Christmas (Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, Amphilochius of Iconium).

Try To Persuade

In a tribute to Tim Keller after his death, Michael Kruger mentioned an article he'd written about how persuasion is a missing element in modern sermons. It's also missing in a lot of other contexts. There's a major problem with Christians in general, not just pastors, not trying to persuade people as much as they should. Most people don't get involved much in discussions about religious issues (or ethics, politics, etc.). Among those who do get involved, they often state their position without offering much or any support for it. The people who are making a significant effort to not only discuss religion, but also do it persuasively are a small percentage of the population. That needs to change.

The High Cost Of Low Living

My post yesterday quoted some comments from J.G. Pilkington on the significance of what are often regarded as little things, including sins that we often underestimate. Adrian Rogers preached a great sermon on Samson, probably the best sermon I've ever heard from him, and it addresses this issue. You can listen to it here. The last several minutes are especially good, starting here, but I recommend listening to the whole thing.

Ideas For Christmas Sermons

I recently referred to the problem of Protestants being shallow and overly repetitive in their sermons, including Christmas sermons. I discussed a related problem a couple of years ago. There was a news story about how pastors neglect apologetic issues during the Christmas season, even when those issues are prominent in the society around them. In light of these problems, I want to post some ideas for potential Christmas sermons, in addition to the idea I suggested in the first post linked above. This list isn't meant to be exhaustive. These are just several among many more that could be added. The links below, including links on scripture passages, will take you to relevant posts in the Triablogue archives. These are just ideas in seed form, which would need to be developed to produce sermons, Sunday school classes, blog posts, or whatever. The posts I link provide further thoughts about how to develop these themes:

The Anti-Catholic Mary Of Christmas

It's become popular in many Protestant circles to say that we need to find a balance between Protestant and Roman Catholic views of Mary. Supposedly, Protestants, especially Evangelicals, are overly negative about her. In an attempt to resolve that alleged problem, we're often encouraged to give a lot of positive attention to Mary during the Christmas season. She's often featured in Protestant sermons, for example, as a model believer. Sometimes we're even told that Protestants have a problem with being "afraid of" Mary, being "suspicious of" her, etc.

John Chrysostom Condemns Neglect Of Apologetics

In a culture like the United States, in which people have such significant advantages and responsibilities that Chrysostom's audience didn't have, every pastor should be speaking this way. So should other people in positions of influence. Notice that Chrysostom includes the poor in his criticism. Even they should be involved in apologetics and should be criticized when they neglect it. In societies like the United States, we often classify people as poor when they aren't poor by historical and global standards. But even when Chrysostom was addressing people poorer than the average allegedly poor person in America, he held those individuals accountable for being involved in apologetics. If pastors, parents, teachers, and other people in positions of influence would speak this way, we'd have a much better culture. Read through to the end, as the focus moves more and more to apologetics. Notice how the faults and excuses Chrysostom demolishes are so similar to the ones we see in our day:

"Jonah and the whale"

The book of Jonah is famous for the fish miracle. Some scholars deride it while others defend it. 

Commentators on Jonah aren't ordinarily commercial fishermen or whalers. Same thing with most modern readers. In that regard, it's useful to see the reaction to a sermon on "Jonah and the whale" by a congregation that understands the perils, firsthand. This is account of an Eskimo church service. The parishioners belong to a fishing village on the North Slope of Alaska. The mortal dangers, as well as the theme of divine deliverance, has special resonance for them:

The church was empty when I entered–it was rather fine, walled with the pale oak mass-produced panelling…On the wall above the altar glimmered a scene from the Gospels.  

The service was beginning. Choir men and women took their places, and a serious Iñupiat preacher entered, short in stature, round of face, wearing a white surplice and stole. During the service he sometimes spoke in Iñupiat, sometimes in English. During the hymns I noticed Seth Lowe, a grizzled whaling captain, sitting behind me. I could hear him sing a hearty bass, and many women were singing alto, so I sang tenor, and we harmonized quite well. "Stand up, stand up for Jesus/ Ye soldiers of the cross" was one hymn. The theme running through the service was battle, death, human weakness, the desire for suicide, and God's triumph. The reading was from Jonah and the whale. Tears did not seem very far from any of us. E. Turner, The Hands Feel It (Northern Illinois University Press 1996), 22-23. 

Praying for sermons

In my observation, Christians pray different kinds of prayer for sermons.

A pastor may pray during the sermon prep phase that God will quicken and clarify his mind so that he will exegete the passage correctly, and think of suitable applications.

Before the sermon, a pastor may pray for freedom to extemporize. Even if he wrote out his sermon, he may wish to leave himself open to the inspiration of the moment. Composing a sermon in the privacy of your study is different from the dynamic of speaking before a live audience. 

In addition, both pastor and parishioners may pray that God will put the parishioners in a receptive state of mind to heed the sermon. 

Finally, the pastor may pray that his sermon will speak to the situation of his parishioners. Be especially relevant to their circumstances. In many cases he can't know what they went through that week. What challenges they may be facing. But God does. 

Now, I don't think these kinds of prayers single out any particular theological tradition. I think Christians generally pray these kinds of prayer.

However, I'd note that these kinds of prayers make far more sense in Calvinism. They assume that God is in control of our mental states. Our psychological predispositions. Hence, God can make us more receptive to the message.

They assume that God is in control of our circumstances. Hence, God can coordinate, indeed, prearrange, the sermon to dovetail with the individual situation of a particular parishioner. 

For instance, in the course of his sermon the pastor may go off message to make some unprepared remarks. As he's preaching, something crosses his mind. So he interjects an impromptu, parenthetical aside. 

After service, as the congregation is filing out of church, a parishioner may quote that part of the sermon and tell the pastor how timely that was. How that spoke directly to his situation that week. What the pastor didn't plan on saying turns out to be the most crucial thing he said.

We may take that for granted. But it only makes sense if God is providentially guiding events according to his master plan for the world. 

Meet the Jesus of History

God's presence in the wilderness

I'd recommend Iain Duguid's sermons here and here.

Bread and salt from the word of God

http://archive.org/details/breadandsaltfro00zahngoog

Preacher man

server10/23/2012 9:16 AM

"I don’t listen to his sermons."

Whose sermons do you listen to, or whose sermons do you recommend?

Just to clarify, when I said I don’t listen to his sermons, that doesn’t mean his sermons aren’t worthwhile. For me, it’s just a question of time management. I don’t generally consult sermons for exegesis.

Although it’s unusual, some professional Bible scholars are pastors. Of the top of my head, I can think of John Currid, Douglas Stuart, Paul Barnett, Iain Duguid, R. T. France, and Jim Hamilton. No doubt there are others.

I do think it would be good for Christians to read or listen to sermons by professional Bible scholars (conservative evangelical scholars). Expository sermons that are properly grounded in the sermon text, and not just tacked onto the text.

There are other preachers who are very good at practical theology. Martyn Lloyd-Jones is an obvious case in point. I believe you can now listen to his sermons for free.

And, yes, I’d recommend John Piper. He’s eloquent, theologically solid, and a careful exegete.

An invincible hope

A wonderful sermon from Tom Schreiner:

The faith-shaped life

From Rev. Ian Hamilton:

Faith and Disappointment

The life of faith is not immune from the disappointments and heartaches of what Paul calls "the sufferings of this present age" (Roms.8v18). God does not exempt his children from unexpected, sorely wounding providences. In 2 Cor.1v8, Paul tells us that the hardships and pressures he and his friends were experiencing were so severe, that "we despaired even of life"! Even in the model life of faith, we find our Lord Jesus Christ experiencing disappointment, opposition, hardships, and bereavement. Nowhere does God imply that his believing children will be cocooned from the struggles, disappointments and perplexities of living in a fallen world. On the contrary, in addition to this the Lord tells us that "everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2Tim.3v12). Without this spiritual realism, our lives will become the prisoners of circumstance, rising and falling depending on the kind of circumstances that touch our lives.

But the Lord has given us infinitely more than the grace of spiritual realism in order that we might cope with the heartaches, disappointments and mysteries that inevitably touch our lives. First of all, he promises us his unfailing presence in all our times of need: "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you" (Hebs.13v5). More than that, he promises to be the indwelling Helper of his children. In the Upper Room, as he faced the Cross, the Lord Jesus assured his disciples, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." (Jn.14v18). He was speaking of his coming in his Spirit to be their abiding indwelling Sanctifier and Friend. Whatever difficulties and disappointments you face, however sore God's unexpected providences, of this you can be sure, you are never alone! All the resources of the Godhead are for you and in you! Believe this!

More than this, God assures us that not one unexpected providence that touches his children's lives is fortuitous. Our God is the One "who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will" (Eph.1v11). Here we come face to face with God's unconditional sovereignty. But this truth is revealed in Scripture not as a puzzle to unravel, but as a comfort to embrace! Who is this God who is unconditionally sovereign over all things? He is the God who "spared not his own Son, but gave him up for us all" (Roms.8v32). He is "the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort" (2Cor.1v3). It is our loving heavenly Father who does whatsoever he pleases. Who God is to us in Christ is our assurance that "Our Father's hand will never cause his child a needless tear". Believe this. By faith draw out the comfort of being a dearly loved and precious child of a sovereign and loving Father.

There is another strand of encouragement that God gives to us in his Word. In 2 Cor.1, where Paul recounts the great pressures that were causing him to despair even of life, he tells us that "this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead." God was pleased to bring his servant into such straitened circumstances in order to strengthen his trust and confirm his obedience. Samuel Rutherford made the same point: "Faith is the better for the free air and the sharp winter storm in its face. Grace withereth without adversity." God always has our eternal as well as our present good in mind in his relations with us. John Newton's celebrated hymn, "These Inward Trials", captures the grace of God's dealings with his hard-pressed children. Having asked the Lord for growth in "faith and love and every grace", the child of God finds his life assaulted on all sides by unexpected and sore providences. In response to the Christian's perplexity at what has happened, the Lord replies: "These inward trials I employ, From self and pride to set thee free, And break thy schemes of earthly joy, That thou mayest seek thy all in me." The Lord always and ever has our best before him. He is "the gardener" who lovingly prunes the branches united to his Son so that they will bear "even more fruit" (see Jn.15v1-2).

Until we go to be with the Lord, we will find unexpected, and sore, providences touching our lives. It cannot be otherwise, for the servant is not greater than the Master! But, though we might well be hard pressed on every side, we are never crushed. Though we might well be perplexed, we are never in despair. Even if we are persecuted, we are never abandoned. (see 2Cor.4v8-9). God will not exempt us from the tears or the pains; but he will be with you, and in you, every step of the way, bringing the infinite resources of the Godhead graciously to sustain you and make you "more than a conqueror". He who promised is faithful.

Continued here.

Death is not dying

On March 4, 2009, Rachel [Barkey] had an opportunity to share about her hope in the midst of terminal cancer. What began as a small talk to her church women's group became an event attended by over 600 women and was an experience that left many with a desire to discover more about Rachel’s journey and faith.

Rachel Barkey's talk can be seen and heard here.

A new hope

I was inspired by, and am deeply indebted to, the recent sermon of a visiting preacher (whose name I unfortunately don't remember) to write the following:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." (Rev. 21:1-4)

As Christians, we frequently speak about faith and love, and rightly so. But we don't seem to speak as much about hope. Hope seems to have been forgotten. Or perhaps, as in Dante's Inferno, abandoned.

Of course, because God is faithful to us even when we are not faithful to him, the true Christian could never entirely abandon his hope, for his hope is tied to his union with Christ. Still, sometimes the Christian needs a reminder or an encouragement to continue hoping.

With these things in mind, I'd like to ask two questions:

1. What is our hope?

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more."

First, our hope is the promise of the new creation. While this world is a beautiful and good world, it is also a fallen world. While there are diamonds to be mined here, and beauties to behold in lands near and faraway, and while the starry heavens silently but unceasingly declare the glory of their Creator, nevertheless, it is all wearing down and falling apart. It is all passing away. Like old clothes ready to be discarded. Yet our hope is God's promise that there will soon come a new heavens and a new earth. Imagine all the goodness and beauty of this world, and, knowing God's promises in places like the end of Isaiah and Revelation, imagine how much better the world to come will be than even this world which is already beautiful! If even atheists like Carl Sagan or Richard Dawkins can marvel at creation, in all its imperfections and fallenness, how much more should Christians not only appreciate the world as it is today but also how much more will Christians marvel when creation itself is renewed and paradise restored! Along these same lines, we know that creation itself groans in expectation of such things to come. Shouldn't we likewise long for his kingdom to come, and soon?

"And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

Next, our hope is the beauty of holiness. Our hope is to be adorned like a bride is for her husband. As Christians, we long to be made perfect in holiness. We long not merely to be justified legally, which we already are in Christ, but we long to be made perfectly morally sanctified in our person, loving God and neighbor wholeheartedly and never amiss. We long to be free from sin, to no longer have sin dwell within us, because it clouds our fellowship with God, and grieves the Lord who longs jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us. We long to be like Christ, to be holy, because he is holy.

"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with the, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God . . .'"

Our hope is God himself dwelling with us and among us. Our hope is to be with God and for him to be with us. Not just as a lover might send letters to his beloved from across the sea, but to be with our beloved in person. Our hope is Christ himself.

Our hope is not merely to be adorned like a bride, as above, but in fact it is to be with our Bridegroom, with Christ himself. "For your Maker is your husband; the Lord of hosts is his name" (Isa. 54:5). As much as we desire to be clothed in robes of righteousness, what we long for even more is Christ himself. We long to see his beautiful face. As Anne Cousin wrote: "The bride eyes not her garment, but her dear Bridegroom's face; I will not gaze at glory, but on my King of grace." Just as every bride awaits her wedding day with her groom with hope and excitement, so too do we as Christians long with eager hope to see our Lord and Savior, face to face, for then we shall be able to say with humble gratitude and joy: "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine!"

Our hope is the divine romance and its fulfillment.

"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

Our hope is for the end of evil and sin and suffering. Today there are hospitals, doctors, and nurses because there is disease and death. But our hope which will be fulfilled is that there will be no more need for hospitals, doctors, and nurses, because there is no more disease and death.

Today there are police departments, police officers, legal systems and judges, and even militaries because there is sin and injustice in this world. Justice therefore needs to be established in order to restrain sin. But our hope is that there will be no more police or judges or even military required because there will be no more lawbreakers since people will no longer desire to sin. God alone will be our King and Judge, and his law joyfully obeyed from within our hearts because it is written and engraved in our hearts without our abiding sin resisting it. We shall beat our swords into plowshares, and our spears into pruning hooks.

Our hope is that there will be no more pain. Our hope is that there will be no more suffering. Our hope is that there will be no more sadness. Our hope is that there will be no more grief. Our hope is that there will be no more loneliness. Our hope is that there will be no more broken relationships. Our hope is that there will be no more tears. No more bitterness and hatred. No more wasted time or lives or could-have-beens or would-have-beens or should-have-beens. Our hope is that there will be no more goodbyes. In a word, our hope is that there will be no more death, but only life -- endless, enduring, undecaying, incorruptible, undying, abundant, glorious, eternal life, with the Lord and his people, forever.

Our hope is that the Lord himself will console us and comfort us by wiping away all our tears, restoring all that was lost to us in service to him, perhaps in ways we could not have possibly imagined, but will surely be immensely thankful for. And even if we receive nothing but the Lord himself, we will be more than satisfied. "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life" (Matt. 19:29). "And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3).

And our hope will be fulfilled by the Lord when he does away with and tramples underfoot all evil and evil people. All he does is good, and will be seen to be good.

Of course, we don't understand his ways in the here and now. The bud of our lives may have a bitter taste. But soon we will understand, at least more so than we do now. And, then, sweet will be the flower. "Jesus answered him, 'What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand'" (John 13:7).

John Lennon couldn't have imagined a better ending!

Indeed, "no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Cor. 2:9).

2. What is our hope for?

We know what our hope is now. But what is our hope for?

To answer this, let's look at verse 7: "The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son."

In a phrase, our hope is so that we might conquer. So that we might overcome. So that we might fight the good fight and finish the race. So that we might keep the faith. So that we might enter the kingdom of God. So that we might have God as our God and be called his sons and daughters.

Our hope is so that we would make it through this world which, along with our sinful flesh and the devil, conspire to take us down in order to discredit the good name of the Lord of grace. This they will do by any means possible, whether subtly or overtly, whether by hook or by crook, whether as a serpent to deceive us or as a dragon to assail us. Satan, this world, and our very flesh want us to give up. Nothing would please them more. They want to wear us down. To break us. To see us throw in the towel and quit. But we must not give up or give in. Rather, we must overcome. And God promises the true Christian that he will indeed overcome. So we have hope in order to overcome because Christ has promised his people that we will overcome. By God's grace to us, we will be victorious because Christ has already won the victory for us.

Few objections to Christianity are truly intellectually sound. And of the ones that I know of that might be, existentially speaking, it wouldn't be any better than believing in the fairy tale of Christianity (assuming Christianity isn't true). There'd be no grounds for believing in the one over the other. In other words, they "salvage" intellectual soundness, if such a thing would be intellectual in the first place, by giving up reason and rationality altogether. For all practical intents and purposes, however, nearly all the apostasies that I know of occur not because of persuasive intellectual arguments, primarily, but because of moral lapses or immoralities.

That's why it's important to think through things rather than to merely give up because one is going through a difficulty, however hard it may be. Or even if one is suffering through an outright evil. For starters, the doubting Christian might think along these lines: "Give up, and maybe I'll get some sort of a reprieve from my pain or suffering. At best, I might receive some pleasure here or there in this life. But, ultimately, it'll all either be meaningless, or if the Bible is true after all, then I'll possibly be separated from God and all goodness for eternity." In addition, one might seek to inoculate oneself against such an attitude or bent by reading books such as How Long, O Lord? by D.A. Carson and/or various essays and works by men like John Frame on the problem of evil and suffering.

And we ought to make our decisions for things small as well as great with the light of eternity in mind. As John Wesley wrote to his brother Charles: "I desire to have both heaven and hell ever in my eye, while I stand on this isthmus of life, between two boundless oceans."

To close, hope is the anchor of our soul. We hope in these things, and ultimately we hope in Christ, because he is our rock and he is the one who keeps us steady amidst the rising and falling waves and seas of this turbulent life. He is the solid rock on which we stand; all other ground is sinking sand. He is the one who keeps us anchored. Therefore, let us continue to hold fast to the hope set before us, let us continue to hope in the sure and steadfast anchor of our soul, let us continue to "lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:1-2). Let us continue to hope in Christ, because he already went before us and made the way for us, and because he continues to walk with us and even carry us through it all, even in the midst of the raging furnaces of this life.

And, most of all, let us continue to hope in Christ and his promises because he first loved us and gave himself for us. He who spent himself and died for us when he gave himself for us on the cross will never leave us nor forsake us. Never; it cannot be. Could Christ desire to save and redeem us, and to love us by causing his Spirit to dwell within us, but not also desire to bring us home safely to his kingdom? And can love such as Christ's which came and sought us and died for us to save us then fail to bring us home safely? Could his promise, "I give [my sheep] eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one" (John 10:28-29) fail, or fall short? Could the Father give us to the Son, but then the Son lose us (cf. Col. 3:3)? Could God give us eternal life, but then we perish in the end? No, for God cannot lie, and his word is truth.

So let us hope and continue to hope in Christ who is infinitely worthy of our hope.

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:31b-32, 37-39)

A day with Dr. Don

D.A. Carson preached five sermons at Mars Hill Church in Seattle.

Sweet will be the flower

Please forgive me for my feeble words on the topic of trusting God in the midst of suffering and trials in the believer's life. What little suffering I've been through in life has been so light in comparison to many believers that I wondered if I ought even broach the topic in such inexperience and likely naivety. Nevertheless, I'll try, and if God would so bless it, I hope the following might at least be of some encouragement to believers facing difficulties and trials, whether small or great. And if anything I've said is amiss, please feel free to correct me. I wouldn't want my brethren to have false ideas -- and especially not during a difficulty or trial. Thanks.

In the midst of our trials, God is trustworthy. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower.

As Christians, we can trust the Lord because of who he is and what he has done for us. Who is he? What is the character of our God? God is sovereign and has control over the most minute details of our lives. God is wise and knows what's best for us. And God is so good and loves us so much as his children. Thus, because God is sovereign, wise, and good, we can trust him.

What has he done for us? We can consider what he has done for us in our own lives. We can consider what he has done in the lives of those we know. We can consider what he has done for other Christians around the world we don't personally know but have read about. We can consider what he has done for the saints in the past as we read their biographies. We can consider what he has done for the saints in the Old and New Testaments, which are recorded for our edification.

But most of all, we can consider the most wonderful thing he has ever done and could ever do for us when we survey the wondrous cross of Jesus Christ, when we consider how the Father gave up his only Son in order to save sinners. God loved us so much that he was willing to allow his dear and precious only Son Jesus Christ to die so that we would be saved. When we consider this, when we give serious thought to this, how can we not trust such a God? After all, "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" (Rom. 8:32). What more could God have done to demonstrate his love for us than to give up his only Son to die for our sins? Is there anything more we can think of that God could've done to demonstrate his love to us? If God was willing to give up his Son Jesus Christ to show us he loves us, if God was willing to sacrifice his very Son whom he loves with a love which we will never be able to fully know, then of course he is willing to do anything else for us which he deems for our good, because "anything else" he does for us would be less than giving up his Son. We can trust God.

Of course, this is not to say that we deserve anything from the Lord. Even if nothing else "good" were ever given to us again in this life, we have Christ, and he is more than enough. We were sinners, without hope and without God in this world. But God spent his holy wrath on his Son Jesus Christ so that he would not have to spend it on us. We are saved from eternal death and condemnation because Christ stood in our place and died for us. As my pastor rightly says, anything short of hell is infinitely more grace than any of us deserve. Thank God for his grace toward us sinners in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior!

Moreover, not only can we trust God, but we must trust God if we desire to glorify him in all things. If we do not think we have enough "faith" to trust God's word and do not trust it, rather than simply trusting God's word, we are not somehow being humble but we are being the direct opposite: we are being proud. If we do not trust God's word, then we do not trust God himself who spoke those words to us. And if we do not trust God himself, then we do not honor him as the faithful and true God as he has revealed himself in his word. And if we do not honor him as such, then we make God to be less than God. Thus we impugn God as God by our unbelief. We must trust God and his word if we seek to honor and glorify him in all things.

We must not ultimately trust other people because people are like grass, and the best of men and women are but lovely flowers growing in the grass. They might have much wisdom and knowledge, much strength and beauty, and much else we could rightly admire and respect. But even the best fail us. In the end, the grass withers, and the flower falls. Only the Lord our God is eternal and only the word of the Lord remains forever (cf. 1 Peter 1:24-25).

We must not trust our ever changing circumstances, but we must trust our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who never changes, who abides forever, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and who will never leave us nor forsake us. For he who promised is faithful (cf. Hebrews).

We must not trust our subjective feelings which constantly change, but we must trust the objective reality that is God's revealed word. We must not trust our feelings which can pass from happiness to sadness or from peace to anger or from gratitude to complaint from one moment to the next, but we must trust God's word which never passes away. We must not trust our feelings because they can change at the smallest whim, perhaps due to what we ate for breakfast or someone looking at us the wrong way, but we must trust God's word because the Lord has spoken it and it is firm. After all, God is not a man that he should lie. Nor does he ever change his mind. Rather, God has spoken, and he will accomplish what he said he would do (cf. Num. 23:19).

Thus, when our feelings about a particular circumstance(s) or person(s) or whatever else seek to overwhelm us, rather than listening to our feelings and giving in to them, we must talk back to them, as David did throughout the Psalms, such as when he argued with his soul: "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God." Rather than listening to himself and his feelings (which caused him to be "cast down" and "in turmoil within"), David talked back to them, and told himself to "hope in God," to trust the Lord, because the Lord alone is faithful and true.

On a more practical level, then, the first question we must ask ourselves when we read the truth and promises in the Bible is not, "How do I feel about God's truth and promise?" but "Do I trust God's truth and promise?" Once we first trust God's word, then we put God's word in its rightful place of preeminence in our lives, and we likewise put our feelings in their place after the word of God. Our feelings will often and later follow. But we must first trust God's word, no matter how we feel, because it is the truth.

Again, our feelings do not reflect reality but rather what God tells us in his word reflects reality.

Therefore: choose to trust God and choose to trust his word.

Now, if I recall, it was Martin Luther who once said music was God's greatest gift to people after the Scriptures (or something along those lines). So, by way of further encouragement, I want to mention how I love the hymn "God Moves in a Mysterious Way" by William Cowper. His words stir my heart to trust in God through the difficulties of life, through its many pains and sorrows, through its achingly real, palpable heartbreaks and sufferings.

What's even better, Sovereign Grace Music has done a beautiful rendition of Cowper's hymn. I would commend it to my dear brothers and sisters in Christ. You can listen to a sample of the song here.

And here are the complete lyrics:

God Moves

Verse 1
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm
Deep in His dark and hidden mines
With never-failing skill
He fashions all His bright designs
And works His sovereign will

Chorus I
So God we trust in You
O God we trust in You

Verse 2
O fearful saints new courage take
The clouds that you now dread
Are big with mercy and will break
In blessings on your head
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense
But trust Him for His grace
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face

Chorus II
So God we trust in You
O God we trust in You
When tears are great
And comforts few
We hope in mercies ever new
We trust in You

Verse 3
God’s purposes will ripen fast
Unfolding every hour
The bud may have a bitter taste
But sweet will be the flower
Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain
God is His own interpreter
And He will make it plain

In addition, some people might benefit from John Piper's sermons on both Cowper as well as his friend John Newton. These sermons are, in my opinion, such a refreshment and encouragement to God's people, especially to those who are weary and fainting, to the heavy-hearted pilgrims journeying homeward to the Celestial City, where they look expectantly for Christ their first love to wipe away every tear from their eyes, and to shine his face upon them again. I often find Piper's sermons, particularly the biographies in the series "Men of Whom the World Was Not Worthy," to be healing medicine for wounded souls.

May the grace of our Lord God in Christ Jesus be with you, dear brothers and sisters.