Preloader

Our sermon yesterday was about truth—and in it were dispersed some excellent truths. It was pointed out, though I had never thought about it before, that Pilate in John 18:38 asked Jesus, “What is truth?” and didn’t bother to wait for an answer. Obviously, he regarded truth a lot like many in our culture do—that politically correct group. Truth, to them, is totally subjective, whatever they want it to be, as long as their views and wishes are respected and upheld. Like Pilate, they ignore the real Truth.

“ Truth is only embodied fully and perfectly in God. ”



As with love, peace, mercy, forgiveness, and a great many other characteristics,
truth is only embodied fully and perfectly in God. Yesterday’s sermon elaborated on that, stressing that Jesus is God’s truth revealed in person and we were made to live in that truth and by it. It got me to thinking that it is only through God’s Spirit, showing us and guiding us into truth, that we are even able to know it. Like the Pharisees, it is so much more natural and easier to say we have the truth when we do not. 

So, we gradually grow as Christians as we seek Truth, helping one another to grow as well by speaking the truth, our stories giving off the radiance of the Giver of Light. As Living Letters progresses into its second year, we aim to keep telling stories of the truth seekers, sharing their visions and thoughts, and introducing new ministries and resources that help us to help others.

“ We aim to keep telling stories of the truth seekers, sharing their visions and thoughts ”

 

Some future topics with stories to portray them are on families, adoption, fostering, race, incarceration, God’s Word (the Bible), abortion, and life. I would love to have some feedback from you. If you have a story you’d like to share or know of someone else who does, please message me at the end of this blog. That goes for topics of interest or a unique ministry as well. Anything that clearly glorifies God—tell me about it!

If you haven’t subscribed so that you receive every blog in your email, please do. If you are reading these blogs on Facebook, please like the Living Letters FB page and follow us so that every new post will come into your feed. All of these things give me some measurement of activity, which is important to all of us who are contributing.

Back in January I said I was going to start writing book reviews in addition to the three monthly blogs. It won’t happen quite like that; instead, I decided to occasionally write the book reviews in the place of the resource/ministry blog on the 20th of the month. I have had a couple books in mind all along and so I will close this blog with a book review (and the next blog will contain two more reviews).

Again, thank you all for reading Living Letters, and enjoy the book reviews. Better yet, get the books and enjoy them!

Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers

by Dane Ortlund

Crossway 2020


During certain seasons of my life, it is hard to grasp God’s love for me. Sometimes, it is because of my tendency to rely only on myself. Other times, it is because I listen to accusations whispered in my head that my sin is constant, I am a guilty and shameful mess, and therefore, God has taken steps back from me. These are times—whether days or weeks—when it feels like the very heart of God has turned against me because of my repeated sin and failures. 

These are times—whether days or weeks—when it feels like the very heart of God has turned against me because of my repeated sin and failures.

But then I read this book. It came as a gift mid-quarantine when frustration and disappointment often caused my mind to go in negative directions. It describes the heart of Christ and His Father in simple, yet awesomely beautiful language based on Scripture and the writings of some godly giants of the past. The author points out that “the cumulative testimony of the four Gospels is that when Jesus Christ sees the fallenness of the world all about him, his deepest impulse, his most natural instinct, is to move toward that sin and suffering, not away from it.”


That would explain why he comes to each of us first, in love, reaching out to us when clearly, we are undeserving—but what about after that? How does God view us then? Based on the writings of Thomas Goodwin, an English Puritan theologian and preacher from the mid-1600’s, Ortlund so aptly describes: “If you are part of Christ’s own body, your sins evoke his deepest heart, his compassion and pity….He sides with you against your sin, not against you because of your sin….We understand this, says Goodwin, when we consider the hatred a father has against a terrible disease afflicting his child—the father hates the disease while loving the child. Indeed, at some level the presence of the disease draws out his heart to his child all the more.”


Through passages such as the one above, I thought back to how God was portrayed to me as a child, especially in the discipline I received. I accepted that my bad behavior was punished because it offended my parents and God. They were not happy. Rather than running to a compassionate Savior, I struggled toward perfect behavior which produced a measured judgement on myself and others as I compared myself to them. I became like a Pharisee, more commonly known as a hypocrite, avoiding my own faults but demanding others follow my own self-righteous set of standards. All the while, never understanding or truly seeing the heart of Christ.

In my parenting, I followed much the same philosophy as my parents had. Even now, though my children are grown, there are times I find myself like Job (in Job 1), intervening in prayer for them when I fear they may have offended God, fending off His wrath on their behalf, rather than trusting His merciful compassion to guide them to repentance and to lovingly forgive them.  This book helped me to see that since my children profess love for Jesus, His heart for them is the same as for me—for every believer. “He does not get flustered and frustrated when we come to him for fresh forgiveness, for renewed pardon, with distress and need and emptiness. That is the whole point. It’s what he came to heal.” I can trust Him to love my children and heal their sin because His heart for their good is more than mine can ever be. “When a body part has been injured, it requires the pain and labor of physical therapy. But that physical therapy is not punitive; it is intended to bring healing.”

We are pieces of art, designed to be beautiful and thus draw attention to our artist.

The book goes on to describe Jesus’ ability to sympathize with us, having felt the same feelings we do: weeping, laughing, discouragement, anger. He opens His arms to us so gently and promises never to forsake us. The author uses Scripture to support every description, every thought, and truly paints a beautiful portrait of the deepest thoughts and feelings of each Person in the Trinity and their united purpose in creating their namesake family. “We are pieces of art, designed to be beautiful and thus draw attention to our artist,” Ortlund writes. How little most of us think about ourselves in those terms! Yet, that perspective best inspires us to increase our love, devotion and obedience to our Savior.


When a book speaks to me, I read it through again and again, dissecting it, taking notes on it, learning and practicing the new truths and understanding it conveys to me. I’ve only done the first reading with this book, but can’t wait to start the second. 


Gentle and Lowly will encourage and benefit every believer. I cannot recommend it too highly. I immediately purchased three copies to give away and haven’t even told the intended recipients that they are getting one. I was sad to learn that the book is back-ordered and the ship date keeps getting extended. Covid-19 has held up a lot of work. But I am glad to say that this also means the orders have quickly depleted the initial printing! And whenever my friends receive their copy, tardiness won’t diminish the content.


https://www.crossway.org/books/gentle-and-lowly-hcj/

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