Contentment in Affliction
January 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment
In The Art of Divine Contentment, Watson gives numerous arguments for why the believer should always be content. One argument is, “the consideration that all God’s providences, how cross or bloody soever, shall do a believer good.”
He then moves explain seven reasons why afflictions work for the good of the believer in Christ.
1) Afflictions are disciplinary; they teach us. ‘God makes our adversity our university.’ He uses afflictions to teach us humility, repentance, and prayer. Why then should we be discontent in our afflictions?
2) Afflictions are probatory. They expose the genuineness (or lack thereof) of our faith.
3) Afflictions are expurgatory, “these evils work for our good, because they work out sin, and shall I be discontented at this? What if I have more trouble, if I have less sin?”
4) Afflictions do both exercise and increase our grace. “Everything is most in its excellency when it is most in its exercise.”
Afflictions do increase grace; as the wind serves to increase and blow up the flame, so doth the windy blasts of affliction augment and blow up our graces; grace spends not in the furnace, but it is like the widow’s oil in the cruise, which did increase by pouring out. The torch, when it is beaten burns brightest, so doth grace when it is exercised by sufferings. Sharp frosts nourish the good corn, so do sharp afflictions grace. Some plants grow better in the shade than in the sun, as the bay and the cypress; the shade of adversity is better for some than the sun-shine of prosperity. Naturalists observe that the colewort thrives better when it is watered with salt water than with fresh, so do some thrive better in the salt water of affliction; and shall we be discontented at that which makes us grow and fructify more?
Three more arguments remain. I will post them sometime later.
A Challenge to Ministers
December 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I am presently reading a great book (especially for me), entitled, The Image of God in the Human Body: Essays on Christianity and Sports. In his chapter of the book, Erik Thoennes begins by listing five reasons why we must have a better understanding of play. His fifth reason is,
And finally, ministers should help people play well. A Christian who takes his role as a minister seriously must be able to lead people in godly play. As a pastor of a dear flock of growing saints and a teacher of college students who generally have a deep hunger to know God, I’m convinced that helping God’s people survive in a very broken world requires a well developed ability to play. A minister of the gospel must be able to cry and mourn, laugh and play with godly gusto, and lead others in these as well.
Remember, it is written within a certain context, but it is a context in which (in my opinion) the statement certainly stands. Finding out why is worth the intellectual pursuit. I commend it to everyone reading.
Mercy Over Sin
December 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Here is the first reason Watson gives for why one’s sin is no reason to be discontentment. In particular, he says that one’s disquiet about his sin is beyond its bounds when,
1….it is disheartening, that is, when it sets up sin above mercy. If Israel had only pored upon their sting, and not looked up to the brazen serpent, they had never been healed. That sorrow for sin which drives us away from God, is not without sin, for there is more despair in it than remorse; the soul hath so many tears in its eyes, that it cannot see Christ. Sorrow, as sorrow, doth not save, that were to make Christ of our tears, but is useful, as it is preparatory in the soul, making sin vile, and Christ precious. O look up to the brazen serpent, the Lord Jesus! A sight of his blood will revive, the plaster of his merits is broader than our sore.
Let us beware of the sin of setting sin above mercy and instead, be diligent to look to Christ.
Third and Fourth Argument
December 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I found these too good not to share as well. Remember, Watson is giving reasons for why false teaching should not be an excuse for discontentment in us.
Third, God raiseth the price of his truth the more: the very shreds and fillings of truth are venerable. When there is much counterfeit metal abroad, we prize the true gold the more; pure win of truth is never more precious, than when unsound doctrines are broached and vented.
Fourth, Error make us more thankful to God for the jewel of truth. When you see another infected with the plague, how thankful are you that God hath freed you from the infection? When we see others have the leprosy in the head, how thankful are we to God that he hath not given us over to believe a lie and so be damned? It is a good use that may be made even of the error of the times when it makes us more humble and thankful, adoring the free grace of God, who hath kept us from drinking of that deadly poison.“
Second Argument
December 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment
The other day, I alluded to Watson’s second argument against discontentment amidst false teaching, but after reading the whole thing, I cannot help but quote it here. It led me to marvel at the wisdom and glory of our God. May it do the same for each of you.
“Be not sinfully discontented, for God can make the errors of the church advantageous to truth. Thus the truths of God have come to be more beaten out and confirmed; as it is in the law, one may lay a false title to a piece of land, the true title hath by this means been the more searched into and ratified; some had never so studied to defend the truth by Scripture, if others had not endeavored to overthrow it by sophistry; all the mists and fogs of error that have risen out of the bottomless pit, have made the glorious Sun of truth to shine so much the brighter. Had not Arius and Sabellius broached their damnable error, the truth of those questions about the blessed Trinity had never been so discussed and defended by Athanasius, Augustine, and others; had not the devil brought in so much of his princely darkness, the champions for truth had never run so fast to Scripture to light their lamps. So that God with a wheel within a wheel, over-rules these things wisely, and turns them to the best. Truth is a heavenly plant, that settles by shaking.”
Marvel at this reality historically, yes, but also do so in relationship to your own life. For the Lord has used similar means for each of us to confirm us in the truth. What wisdom and mercy.
Error and the Exposure of Men
December 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Back to Watson’s Art of Divine Contentment. He is focused now on the excuse discontentment gives that ‘the times are evil.’ First, he deals with the subject of heresy. He aims to convince the reader that false teaching is still not a reason for discontentment within. His first argument is this,
“Error makes a discovery of men. Bad men; error discovers such as are tainted and corrupt. When the leprosy brake forth in the forehead, then was the leper discovered. Error is a spiritual bastard; the devil is the father, and pride the mother; you never knew an erroneous man but he was a proud man. Now, it is good that such men should be laid open, to the intent, first, that God’s righteous judgement upon them may be adored; secondly, that others, who are free, be not infected. If a man have the plague, it is well it breaks forth; for my part, I would avoid an heretic, as I would avoid the devil, for he is sent on his errand. I appeal unto you; if there were a tavern in this city, where under a pretence of selling win, many hogsheads of poison were to be sold, were it not well that others should know of it, that they might not buy? It is good that those that have poisoned opinions should be known, that the people of God may not come near either the scent or the taste of that poison.
Error is a touch-stone to discover good men: it tries the gold: ‘there must be heresies, that they which are approved, may be made manifest.’ (1 Cor. 11:19). Thus our love to Christ, and zeal for truth doth appear. God shows who are the living fish; such as swim against the stream: who are the sound sheep; such as feed in the green pastures of the ordinances: who are the doves; such as live in the best air, where the spirit breaths…”
So, in the first place, doctrinal error should not be an excuse for our discontentment, because it is a means through which those who are true are revealed. “Error is a touch-stone to discover good men.” Error is a means through which true teaching is clarified and the church strengthened (which in large part, is Watson’s second argument).
Let us marvel at the way in which the Lord uses those who are in error to strengthen His people and bring glory to His name.
Fighting for Contentment
December 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I can’t help but share more thoughts from Watson today. There is such a clarity and conviction in his thought, one that I rarely encounter in preachers and writers today.
The section I am reading focuses on the excuses a discontented person makes for their own lack of contentment. The loss of one’s estate was one. Here is another ‘apology.’
He writes, “The next apology [discontentment makes] is, I meet with very great sufferings for the truth.”
Simple enough. I am discontent because I suffer much for the sake of the truth. Now ask yourself, if I offered this ‘apology’ to you, how would you respond? What reasons would you give me for why I should still be content? At the very least, what is the first thing that comes to mind?
Well, here is consideration number one for Thomas Watson.
“Consider, 1. Your sufferings are not so great as your sins: put these two in the balance, and see which weighs heaviest; where sin lies heavy, sufferings lie light. A carnal spirit makes more of his sufferings, and less of his sins; he looks upon one at the great end of the perspective, but upon the other at the little end of the perspective. The carnal heart cries out, take away the frogs: but a gracious heart cries out, ‘take away the iniquity.’ (2 Sa. 24:10) The one saith, never any one suffered as I have done; but the other saith, never one sinned as I have done. (Mi. 7:7).”
Such a consideration cuts right to the heart of the matter. It exposes our pride. Sure, it must be stated carefully and in the proper context. But let us first ask ourselves: would it even have come to mind to answer like this? And if not, why not? At the very least, let us learn for the sake of our own hearts, so that we might question ourselves accordingly when we are struggling with discontentment. For this must be where the lessons begin.
Financial Loss in Perspective Part 2
December 22, 2008 | 2 Comments
Watson’s third argument for contentment in the midst of great financial loss is that we can be content with little because God loves to bless a little. After all,
“It is not how much money we have, but how much blessing. He that often curseth the bags of gold, can bless the meal in the barrel, and the oil in the cruise. What if thou hast not the full fleshpots? yet thou hast a promise, ‘I will abundantly bless her provision,’ (Ps. 132:15) and then a little goes a great way. Be content thou has the dew of blessing distilled; a dinner of green herbs, where love is, is sweet; I may add, where the love of God is.”
Fourth, he argues,
“You did never so thrive in your spiritual trade; your heart was never so low, as since your condition was low; you were never so poor in spirit, never so rich in faith. You did never run the ways of God’s commandments so fast as since some of your golden weights were taken off. You never had such trading for heaven all your life; this is most abundant gain. You did never make such adventures upon the promise as since you left off your sea-adventures. This is the best kind of merchandize. O Christian, thou never hadst such incomes of the Spirit, such spring-tides of joy; and what though weak in estate, if strong in assurance? Be content: what you have lost one way, you have gained another.”
The key to this argument is, of course, valuing (deep down) the right things.
Fifth, Watson argues,
“Be your losses what they will in this kind, remember in every loss there is only a suffering, but in every discontent there is a sin, and one sin is worse a thousand sufferings. What! because some of my revenues are gone, shall I part with some of my righteousness? shall my faith and patience go too? Because I do not possess an estate, shall I not therefore possess my own spirit? O learn to be content.”
We should fear discontentment much more than we fear losing our entire estate. For the effect of the former is actually much worse than that of the latter.
I confess that such thinking is rather difficult for me. But by God’s grace, I and you can grow in it. Whatever we have lost, we have actually lost nothing in the end. We can rejoice and rest content, knowing without a doubt that we have a Father in heaven who is actively tracking us down with goodness and mercy all the way.
Financial Loss in Perspective
December 20, 2008 | 2 Comments
In The Divine Art of Contentment, Thomas Watson has one section that deals with the loss of one’s estate and how contentment will respond to it. Considering how many Christians have lost a good deal of money over the past however many months, I believe his words will prove helpful to those who have ears to hear.
First, he argues that however much anyone has lost, their true inheritance has not been touched. He writes,
“Suppose one worth a million of money, and he should chance to lose a pin off his sleeve, this is no part of his estate, nor can we say he is undone; the loss of sublunary comforts is not so much to a Christian’s portion, as the loss of a pin is to a million.”
As tough as it might be for some people to hear such words, they can prove quite encouraging if we embrace them as our own. No matter what you may have lost, your true inheritance remains untouched.
Second, he argues,
“Perhaps, if they estate had not been lost, they soul had been lost; outward comforts do often quench inward heat. God can bestow a jewel upon us, but we fall so in love with it, that we forget Him that gave it. What a pity is it that we should commit idolatry with the creature! God is forced sometimes to drain away an estate: the plate and jewels are often cast over-board to save the passenger. Many a man may curse the time that ever he had such an estate: it hath been an enchantment to draw away his heart from God; ‘they that will be rich, fall into a snare:’ are thou troubled that God hath prevented a snare?…Be content; if God dam up our outward comforts, it is, that the stream of our love may run faster another way.”
If we know our own hearts at all, we know that we are easily inclined to trust in anything else but the Lord. So if the Lord takes away our material goods, we can be sure that this is good for us. At the very least, it will teach us to trust in Him in greater measure. And what can be more important than that? If God loves us and knows that it is good for us to lose, then lose we will.
He offers three other arguments as well, but they will have to wait for another post.
I have personally lost some some financial resources during the past number of months, but definitely not all. If I do, however, my prayer is that I might find comfort in the truth conveyed above (and the truth conveyed in a post yet to come).
Come Thou Fount
November 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Lar,
Yesterday we sang Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing with its original lyrics. I am a big fan. What do you think?
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.
Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.
Worth Memorizing
November 19, 2008 | 2 Comments
“There is more mercy in Christ, than sin in us.”
- Richard Sibbes
Gospel Growth Example
November 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Lar,
Considering it is the weekend, I am going to spread out my post over two days. To begin with, here is another quote from Keller’s The Prodigal God. Actually, it is the continuation of the quote I posted the other day.
“What is the point? What makes you faithful or generous is not just a redoubled effort to follow moral rules. Rather, all change comes from deepening your understanding of the salvation of Christ and living out of the changes that understanding creates in your heart. Faith in the gospel restructures our motivations, our self-understanding, our identity, and our view of the world. Behavioral compliance to rules without heart-change will be superficial and fleeting.
The gospel is therefore not just the ABCs of the Christian life, but the A to Z of the Christian life. Our problems arise largely because we don’t continually return to the gospel to work it in and live it out. That is why Martin Luther wrote, ‘The truth of the Gospel is the principle article of all Christian doctrine….Most necessary is it that we know this article well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually.’”
Pray for me brother. I am so slow to learn this. But by God’s grace, I at least will have an example tomorrow.
Learning A to Z,
Joe
Gospel Growth
November 13, 2008 | 3 Comments
Keller’s The Prodigal God has been a great blessing to me Lar. I am sure you are not surprised to hear that I believe it should be required reading for every Christian. Anyhow, here are a few paragraphs that particularly stood out. Reminders are O so good!
“As we have seen, believing the gospel is how a person first makes a connection to God. It gives us a new relationship with God and a new identity. We must not think, however, that once believing it, the Christian is now finished with the gospel message. A fundamental insight of Martin Luther’s was that ‘religion’ is the default mode of the human heart. Your computer operates automatically in a default mode unless you deliberately tell it to do something else. So Luther says that even after you are converted by the gospel your heart will go back to operating on other principles unless you deliberately, repeatedly set it to gospel-mode.
We habitually and instinctively look to other things besides God and his grace as our justification, hope, significance, and security. We believe the gospel at one level, but at deeper levels we do not. Human approval, professional success, power and influence, family and clan identity–all of these things serve as our heart’s ‘functional trust’ rather than what Christ has done, and as a result we continue to be drive to a great degree by fear, anger, and a lack of self-control. You cannot change such things through mere will-power, through learning Biblical principles and trying to carry them out. We can only change permanently as we take the gospel more deeply into our understanding and into our hearts. We must feed on the gospel, as it were, digesting it and making it part of ourselves. That is how we grow.”
Finding Yourself
October 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment
“Your real, new self (which is Christ’s and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it.”
- C.S. Lewis
In Pursuit of Shalom
October 23, 2008 | 3 Comments
Lar,
I think we have posted this quote two other times, but I am reading Plantinga’s Not the Way it is Supposed to Be, and therefore, cannot help but post it again.
“The webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight is what the Hebrew prophets call shalom. We call it peace, but it means far more than mere peace of mind or a cease-fire between enemies. In the Bible, shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight–a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed, a state of affairs that inspires joyful wonder as its Creator and Savior opens doors and welcomes the creatures in whom he delights. Shalom, in other words, is the way things ought to be.”
There is so much more to say, of course, but that is a wonderful summery and worthy of meditation. In fact, I think this book goes on my ‘must read’ list (even though I haven’t finished it). But the concept of Shalom is one that I believe every Christian should become intimately acquainted with. We need to talk like this. We need to ask ourselves: Am I contributing to the shalom of the city by the way in which I drive? Am I contributing to the shalom of my family by my attitude today? Am I seeking the shalom of my body by the way in which I eat? Am I contributing to the shalom of my workplace by the way in which I work?
In fact, I believe such talk should become commonplace in our homes. And I am aiming to do just that in mine. If Abigail is having a difficult time walking in immediate obedience, we will often ask her, “Are you contributing to the Shalom of the home today?” Essentially, are your attitudes and actions helping both yourself and others to flourish? She knows the concept well enough to answer appropriately. And so should we.
Such questions could be asked about every sphere of life. Because our actions in every sphere of life are important to every other sphere. A sound understanding of the way things ought to be is a powerful motivation to do all we can to make things as they ought to be by the power of the Spirit to the glory of God. I encourage you then brother, to make sure those under you in ministry understand well the concept of Shalom.
Seeking the well-being of the world (however imperfectly),
Joe
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