Several professors from Asbury give brief responses to the question of God’s will as we once again face the aftermath of disaster in Kentucky. Definitely worth your time (or an Evernote link).
He Is Faithful
by Bryan & Katie Torwalt
He is Faithful || Bryan and Katie Torwalt
There are some great tunes on this album, including an ever-rare song about the Holy Spirit. I’m bookmarking that one for Pentecost. This song is one of my favorites from the album. What do you think of it?
A Hardened Heart - (Lent Reflections)
What does it mean to have a hardened heart? I’ve been thinking on this a lot today.
In Chapter 3, Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath, and we know from the context that the healing came in the presence of a group of people looking for a reason to accuse Jesus of breaking the law and blaspheming God by breaking the Sabbath. Jesus asks them a pointed question about what would seem most like a Sabbath action, and then Mark recorded this insight into the heart of Christ:
And he looked around at (the ones testing him) with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
The healing is miraculous. The care of Jesus for the man with the withered hand shows Jesus’ compassion and authority. But even in the midst of such an amazing event, Jesus is angry and grieved by the ones testing him, and most specifically by the hardness of their hearts.
Hardness of heart is not a new image in Scripture. Any reader familiar with the Exodus story would link that image with the antagonist of the Exodus narrative - the Pharaoh. The quick gloss of that story would lead to an easy conclusion about having a hard heart: it is not what a person seeking God would want to be accused of having.
That is why it is so interesting that Israel’s rebellion and idol worship at Meribah was described by the Psalmist as a hardening of heart (Ps 95:8). Deut 15, as they are instructed to care for the poor among them, they are warned not to let their hearts be hardened. There is this direct correlation between disobedience (in all its forms) and having a hard heart.
Is this why those seeking to trap Jesus were described this way? Was their refusal to see the miraculous around them leading them into disobedience?
It is odd that people so close to Jesus and what he was doing would still have hard hearts. You would think that witnessing miracles, exorcisms, authoritative teaching and the like would open their eyes, but ultimately a hard heart refuses to see, and in doing so refuses to believe. That’s what worries me about this text. Are there parts of me that refuse to see the miraculous right in front of me? Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
"Every uncorrected error and unrepented sin is, in its own right, a fountain of fresh error and fresh sin flowing on to the end of time."
Great thoughts from JD Walt on Lent, Amy Winehouse, and the need for change.
Lent is not New Years Part Deux. (Ash Wednesday Reflection)
I’ve been thinking a lot about sacrifices during Lent, and specifically on how I’ve used Lent in the past as an excuse to do things I should have been doing anyway, like giving up sweets as if I’m fasting when I’m really giving it up because I’m fat and need to give it up. And then it hit me:
Lent can easily become a religious do-over for our new year’s resolutions rather than a season of repentance and transformation.
Today, my wife asked me what I was fasting from during Lent this season. At first, I wasn’t really sure how to answer for this very reason. In the past, I have fasted from lots of different things, and many times my motives were horrible, or at least horribly off track from the season itself. I gave up things I should never have been doing. I replaced bad habits with good habits. I quit eating fast-food and started exercising. I rearranged my time and schedule for more time, or more efficient time, or just quit wasting as much time on worthless things.
All of these actions were worth doing, but Lent is not the reason I should be doing them.
The ash of Ash Wednesday reminds me what’s really at stake during Lent, and why my fasting has to move beyond self-improvement and into true repentance. In many ways it is the same choice set before Israel in Deuteronomy 30:15-20 - life and death. The ashes preach my mortality, my sinfulness; they remind me of the wage I’ve earned, that I came from dust, and to dust I will return. I don’t need Lent because I need to be better. I need Lent because I need to be made alive again.
You see, Lent is season of marinading our hearts in the sacrificing love of Jesus. As we fix our eyes on Christ’ journey to the cross, we see the measure of his love, the overwhelming cost he freely took on that the Spirit might breath God’s live into us again. Lent is about welcoming the work of the cross into our hearts, that like in the Garden, we might be enlivened and bear the image of God more and more clearly. That like in Ezekiel, these dry bones might live again. That like the baptismal waters, we might raise and walk in newness of life.
So what should I fast from? While the list could be very long, I have decided that this year, it will only be from things that have this in view: I repent, I fast, I give, I pray - all that I may know Christ and be known by Him, that I would know his great love more deeply and my desperate need for it.
"A truly repentant heart does not seek to justify its situation, it simply acknowledges that it is has sinned against God and stands in need of God’s mercy. It understands and admits that we all stand on the edge of our own demise."
