Sheep Without A Shepherd

"When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." (Matt. 9:36)

Harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. I think the translation, and the way we've heard these words preached on, doesn't help us. We may be tempted to think that there is silliness, confusion, lostness as the main problem that faces these shepherdless sheep.

Harassed - the Greek word contains the idea of being flayed, skinned, mangled. And even possibly of these being self-inflicted.

Helpless - the Greek word contains the idea of being violently cast down or cast away.

The problem for sheep without shepherds is not so much that they are lost and leaderless; it is that they face terrible danger and even death.

So, when Jesus looked compassionately at the crowd, he was moved with deep pity because they were in mortal danger and there was no one to help.

But there was him! He had a gospel to proclaim, and kingly authority to exert. And this gospel and this kingdom would take him to a cross where he would be violently cast away and mangled by the angry mob of humanity. And entering our lostness, he found us to bring us home to Him who clothes and heals us, and who will in no way cast us down. To the Father of all grace and mercy.

Let Your Light Shine

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." (Matt. 5:16)

Why is it so commonly assumed that the light Jesus speaks about here is the same as the good works that are done?

The light enables seeing. The things to be seen are the good works. Until the light shines the good works are in shadow and darkness, and their form and reality are not truly perceived. What is it that is mistaken about these works, whilst darkness prevails? It is the origin of the works that is not clear.

Until the light shines, the person seeing the works in the shadows assumes that works arise from the human do-er. That is the normal assumption of self-justifying humanity: "Our good deeds arise from ourselves. We are not really rightly judged by God."

When the light shines, suddenly something very shocking is exposed. There is no one who does good, no not one. No one is good but God alone. All that is true and good is wrought in God. I of myself am an unprofitable servant.

The light is not the works. They cannot light themselves. The light is the gospel. The works do not give light to the gospel; the gospel gives light to the works.

Without the light of the gospel, what is done is inherently misinterpreted. The best man in the world, who went about doing good and healing and releasing men and women, was crucified as a sinner by the "righteous" who judged him. Without the clarifying light of the gospel, good works will be misinterpreted as bad.

The good works we are to do must be good not in unenlightened eyes but good in God's eyes, who alone is good. Every person, since our fateful upward Fall, thinks he or she knows what is good, what is evil. But if the light within us is darkness, what then? What God calls good, rebellious humanity calls bad, inhuman, degrading, repressive. But what if our seeing were blinded, lit not by light but darkness?

Let your light shine: proclaim the gospel. Only this gospel brings reconciliation to the Father, and so enables true seeing from His side and in His light.

The Problem of Perpetual Adolescence

Mark Driscoll is a very funny guy, but he always has a point to make. Here he tackles the Peter Pan culture that seems to afflict Western Christian guys. You may feel battered and flattened by the end, but there is something to learn from it!

Getting Along Very Well Without God

'God is teaching us that we must live as men who can get along very well without him.' 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This startling quote was brought to my attention by my son, Toby, and it has prompted a lot of thinking on my part. I have to say, I haven't chased up Bonhoeffer's context, and so my reflections are more on the simple idea of the statement, not on the wider argument that Bonhoeffer follows wherever it is he makes this statement: my thoughts in no way claim to mirror those of the great Dietrich.

In our contemporary evangelical culture, the idea of dependence upon God is stressed. Bonhoeffer's statement seems to say that in fact the opposite is the will of God, that, as we grow in Him, we become less dependent and reliant upon him, and more dependent and reliant upon ourselves. This progress is virtuous. This is a shocking idea to evangelical people! Try saying it in a Bible study group and see what reaction follows! 

It would be fairly obvious that there are many people who, at the level of day to day life, get along very well without God. The thoughts of God, of heaven, of hell, would not pass through their minds in many, if any, days. They are like those Jesus spoke of: "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark.... It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building (Luke 17:26ff)."  Jesus points out the foolishness of such an approach: the end of the age is coming, and account must be given to God of our relation to Him.


But Bonhoeffer is speaking of something other than this practical atheism. His statement encourages us to see ourselves in a very responsible light.


Geoffrey Bingham used to speak of the intention of God in creation as being that we become a peer community with Him in His action in  history and into eternity. The intention of God at the creation of the man and the woman in Genesis 1 is that they be fruitful, fill the earth, subdue it, and to rule over all the living creatures. Humanity has a given co-regency with God. The broad parameters of humanity's serving of God are given in the commission but not the day to day nitty-gritty of it.  All of the gifts and talents given to humanity are with a view to our responsibly taking up this commission and making something of it.


Life in the fulfilling of this commission involves the making of a multitude of decisions every day. Humanity must make these decisions. We must weigh the options, consider the possibilities and then finally we must act. The person unable to make decisions is a crippled person. Such a person cannot be entrusted with responsibility. 
 
In many decisions—most in fact—we are faced with the fact that God Himself does not tell us what to do. We have to act on what we know of God, what we know of His will for creation, and what we know of our partnership with Him in the outworking of that will. In this way we have to get along very well without God. We don't have Him looking over our shoulder telling us what to do next. It is a truth that ennobles us enormously. We are truly peers alongside Him.


Of course it is true that all the gifts and abilities and resources we bring to this task are gift to us from Him. There is a deep and fundamental dependence. But it is not a dependence which results in a perpetual infancy or adolescence before Him, but which grows into a maturity, in which finally we stand in equal stature with Him as His son.


Perhaps it is the favour and kindness of God our Father that in our first days and early years as Christians He leads us with a greater immediacy than is so later. And it is the same favour and kindness that the immediacy of that direction is lessened and removed as we grow in maturity. We become men and women grown up.

From Horatius Bonar: When God's Children Suffer

Sickness prostrates us. It cuts into the very centre of our carnal nature; it exposes in all their deformity "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life". What vanity is seen in these upon a sickbed! These are our three idols; and these, sickness dashes down into the dust. 

Sickness takes us aside and sets us alone with God. We are taken into His private chamber, and there He converses with us face to face. The world is far off, our relish for it is gone, and we are alone with God. Many are the words of grace and truth which He then speaks to us. All our former props are taken away, and we must now lean on God alone. The things of earth are felt to be vanity; man's help useless. Man's praise and sympathy desert us; we are cast wholly upon God, that we may learn that HIs praise and His sympathy are enough. "If it were not for my pain," says one, "I should spend less time with God. If I had not been kept awake with pain, I should have lost one of the sweetest experiences I ever had in my life. The disorder of my body is the very help I want from God; and if it does its work before it lays me in the dust, it will raise me up to heaven." It was thus that Job was "chastened upon his bed with pain, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain", that after being tried he might "come forth as gold" (Job 33:19; 23:10).

Sickness teaches that activity of service is not the only way in which God is glorified. "They also serve who stand and wait." Active duty is that which man judges most acceptable; but God shows us that in bearing and suffering He is also glorified. Perhaps we were pursuing a course of our own and required to be arrested. Perhaps we were too much harassed by a bustling world and needed retirement, yet could find no way of obtaining it till God laid us down, and drew us aside into a desert place, because of the multitude pressing upon us.

None of the family rods is more in use than this, sometimes falling lightly on us, at other times more heavily. Let us kiss the rod. Let us open our mouth wide to the blessing, seeking so to profit by each bodily ailment, slight or severe, that it may bring forth in us the peacable fruits of righteousness. "I know," says one, "of no greater blessing than health, except pain and sickness."

The Reason We Live

This is a cool new song by Joe Romeo. Really catchy chorus. Thanks Joe!

Excerpts on Revival

The following video contains excerpts from various preachers (Leon Ravenhill among them, and I think Ian Paisley, but not sure) on the matter of revival. Not sure how I think about each particular, but the overall effect causes me to search myself and to seek the Lord for that fiery love of the glory of God which will be seen when He is glorified in joy and holiness among His people. Why do we settle for so much less than that?