Whose weapon?

Like the belt of truth and breastplate of righteousness, the gospel is not about us but about someone else: Christ and his proclamation, “It is finished!”
     ~ MICHAEL S. HORTON

I don’t like war movies.

Especially the kind that show blood and guts. I know such injuries and deaths happen in real life, but I’d rather not be exposed to the imagery of their reality.

Perhaps God knows I can’t handle seeing the reality of spiritual warfare either.

So he usually keeps it invisible, hidden from visual sight.

Except when it bleeds over into the physical realm. And vice-versa.

There is an “interconnectedness of body and soul, and therefore of physical and spiritual battle.”

In A Place for Weakness, author Michael Horton points out that “life’s crises, whether they start out as physical or spiritual, end up involving the whole person in any case.”

Both the physical and spiritual battles are real,
whether we see them or not.

And the weapons we fight with are real, too,
whether we see them or not.

The beauty of our spiritual weapons—the most effective ones—are that they come from outside us. Not made by our own hands or human intelligence, they come straight from Christ and his righteousness.

Of our weapons listed in Ephesians 6:10-18,

None of these defenses mentioned are our own.

We do not read here about our marvelous Christian experience, our love for the saints, our progress in obedience, our passion for God.

…To be sure, we find calls to obedience in Scripture, and heeding these is an unmistakable mark of a Christian. But they are not the Christian’s defenses in wartime.

Every item mentioned in Paul’s list is external to us. Donning someone else’s armor, we are standing in someone else’s strength.

The testimony that prevails in this battle is not about us and what we have done or how we have improved, but a witness to God and what he has done in Christ.

Living a Christ-centered life means we’re privileged to fight
with Christ-centered weaponry,
using his strength, not our own—
     when we see it and when we don’t.

* * *

How do you succeed in living a Christ-centered life?

This is our last week to discuss A Place for Weakness at Elizabeth’s.

When faith doesn’t “fix” you

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17

If you saw me Monday, you might have wondered: 
     “She’s been a Christian for how long? 38 years? No way!”

Sigh.

Ever have those moments? Those mornings? Those days?

When things aren’t going right.
And you’re dreading what’s next.
And self-pity walks in to finish you off.

All for no good reason.

So when I read Chapters 7 and 8 of A Place for Weakness, I wanted to cry more. But this time due to grace.

Author Michael Horton reminds us that our faith is not a “fix.”

If we’re expecting it to prevent all conflicts with our spouse and eliminate communication problems with our kids and make our selfish temptations disappear, think again.

Those who expected to be free of all their sinful habits, temptations, and desires after a conversion in which sudden victory was promised may find themselves disillusioned with God altogether, when they realize they are still sinners saved by grace.

But that doesn’t mean Christianity doesn’t work.

We just need to understand the problem it clearly solves first.

The Big One.

The one that doesn’t just make us uncomfortable,
but the one that will kill us: our sin/death problem.

So when we ask, “If Christianity is supposed to transform me, why am I still a grouch today?” we need to remind ourselves that we ARE a new creation, whether we feel look like one or not.

Of immeasurable comfort in such circumstances is the certain knowledge that God has reconciled us to himself, regardless of what our daily spiritual temperature might be.

The truth we find in scripture is what we are to believe, not what our experience screams at us. There is no “Good Christian Lisa” versus “Failing Christian Lisa” depending on my experience of the day.

I am just as saved when I feel like a jerk (although not as God-honoring!) as when I’m feeling spiritually enlightened.

Because I have received…

a real change in status before God, a change in status from standing guilty before God to standing righteous before him.

This status is the objective possession of even the weakest believer.

All Christians are victorious Christians.
Whether we feel like it or not.
Whether we look like it or not.
And, gulp, whether we act like it or not.

Because our biggest problem has been fixed.
Jesus saves.

Whew.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay,
to show that the surpassing power belongs to God
and not to us.
2 Corinthians 4:7

* * *

Will you thank Jesus for receiving HIS righteousness instead of expecting it from us?

And thank him for continuing to transform us day by day, even when we don’t see it?

We’re talking more today about A Place for Weakness at Elizabeth’s.

Is it enough that God knows why?

---

The last thing at least some believers need in their trials is the added burden of trying to figure out why it is all happening.

And the good news here is that nowhere in Scripture are we expected to do that.

God’s secrets remain just that.

We must try to avoid two extremes:
   one, suggesting that God’s secret purposes in our lives and in providence generally are available to us;
   and the other, usually in reaction, concluding that God does not actually have a purpose for all of the details of our lives, from the smallest to the greatest.

   ~ Michael S. Horton, A Place for Weakness

---

But you just want to understand why.

If you just knew why, you could take it better.

That’s how I often feel. I have an almost insatiable desire to understand. Whatever the situation, I want to know why.

But it ain’t happening.

And that’s probably a good thing.

Sometimes God chooses to reveal why.
Sometimes he doesn’t.

Either way, he expects the same response out of us—trust him.

Trust him when you understand what he’s doing.
And trust him when you don’t.

Because whether you know or not, be confident that he knows why.

Can knowing God knows be enough?

* * *

How well do you accept things that you can’t understand?

Is God with you?

Where do you think God is right now?

Are you in his presence?
If so, how does being in his presence affect you?

Is it dangerous to have him around you?
Do you waver between hiding from God and hiding in God?

Is he both the one who saves you and the one you need saving from?

However you answer these questions, one thing is for sure:
Don’t rely solely on your own experiences for the answers.

Your experiences and interpretations can deceive you. (Sometimes when you feel most alone, wouldn’t you surely deny that God is with you?)

In “Is Anybody Up There?”, Chapter 5 in A Place for Weakness, author Michael Horton says,

There is no comfort in knowing that God is “everywhere” in the abstract unless I know that he is nearby for my good.

…Until that is settled, no general knowledge of God from his visible works will bring me to any place except despair.

While we may know from his works around us that God is here in general,
we need more. We need it to be personal. We need it to matter.

We need promises and good news. And help.

We need the Word to eliminate the ambiguity of God’s presence.

The good news comes through the cross. Only because of the presence of Jesus on it and off it do we find peace in the presence of God.

While we cannot leap across it or pull God down out of heaven by our rational, moral, or emotional strength, God has come down to us.

…At long last, God’s presence among us is forever only good news, filling our hearts with delight instead of terror.

God’s presence, however, doesn’t mean he fills us in on everything he is doing. In Chapter 6, “If We Just Knew Why God Let It Happen,” Horton says,

God has revealed everything we need to know but not everything we might like to know.

God’s presence also doesn’t mean everything he does appears miraculous. He works through ordinary graces as well as spectacular ones. Both through believers and through nonbelievers. In nature and outside of it.

What matters for us is to believe he is working and that his works are for the ultimate good of his children, for his glory.

Whether we understand it or not,
God is here.

* * *

Do you know if God is present with you? 
How can you tell?

We’re talking about God’s presence and more at Elizabeth’s. Come on over.

Do you suffer on purpose?

The crucifixion is not something that happens to Jesus on his way to doing something else.
   ~ Michael Horton
   A Place for Weakness

Jesus walked headfirst into suffering. Not because he was a masochist, but for the joy and glory to God that would result from it.

Who wants to suffer?
Certainly not me.

But I suffer better when I know there’s purpose in it.

Jesus’ mission was widely misunderstood. His disciples thought they would hit the big time with him. But what they often missed in his amazing signs—and often we do too?—is that the signs were there to point to greater things. Don’t just look at the sign; look at what the sign is pointing to.

Jesus pointed to the Father. Everything he did was for God’s glory.

Like the signs, there’s no glory alone just in suffering. Lots of people suffer and do it poorly.

But what can the suffering point to that makes it done well?

Gentile power brokers put their enemies on crosses in order to get to the top; this ruler puts himself on one for his enemies.

The disciples didn’t like for Jesus to talk about death and crosses. Who deserved suffering less than Jesus? Yet it was all according to plan, all for God’s glory.

Horton tells the story of his pastor and mentor James Montgomery Boice dying of pancreatic cancer. Boice asked his congregation, “I am not asking that you pray for my recovery, but that in my death I will bring glory to my faithful Savior.”

He saw God giving him grace not to go around trials, but to go through them.

Scripture says we share in the sufferings to share in the glory (Romans 8:17; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Philippians 1:29; 1 Peter 4:13). We voluntarily surrender to death to gain new life (Matthew 10:39).

The message we are given to proclaim is not that God has come to make our lives better, more interesting, more influential, more virtuous, or more successful, but to bury us and make us truly alive.

We will have sorrows and grief. But if we pick up the cross—not step around it—we can find joy and purpose in those sufferings because of Who we’re doing it for.

* * *

What helps you find joy even in suffering?

We’re discussing Chapter 3, “Suffering on Purpose” and Chapter 4, “Is Your God Big Enough?” in A Place for Weakness today at Elizabeth’s.

More A Place for Weakness

What do you do with death?

---

Whenever a people seem outwardly prosperous,
they are less prepared to spend time thinking about tragedy, while times of great suffering can get people thinking
a lot about something other than
the season finale of their favorite TV show or the big game.
~ Michael S.Horton

---

My grandparents’ church at Pine Bluff in Mississippi, like many older churches, has a cemetery on the grounds. When we’d visit church, we’d visit graves too.

At the cemetery where my daughter is buried, we were frequent visitors when our other daughters were young. Death wasn’t/couldn’t/shouldn’t be avoided.

A healthy respect for dying leads to
a healthier respect for living.

The newspaper headline in last Sunday’s edition:
     APRIL 27 TORNADOES, DEATHS IN ALABAMA

The details included:

• Age 55. Died when the vehicle he and his nephew were in was blown off the highway.
• Age 13. Trapped under her home along with her mother, who survived.
• Age 61. She and her husband were in their home on their knees praying when the tornado hit. He survived, but she was killed.
• Age 54. His house was blown in the lake. He grabbed some debris and held on until rescuers could pull him out. He died the next day at the hospital. His wife also was killed.
• Age 81. Died in the storm 12 days after the death of her husband.
• Age 20. Died with her grandmother.
• Age 67. Died while driving to a storm shelter. A tree crashed through the vehicle, killing him. His wife was able to crawl to the floor bed and survive.
• Age 34. Died with his wife and daughter when the storm struck their home.
• Age 68. A veteran of two tours in Vietnam. Killed by a falling tree top. Entered a demolished house and pulled a woman and two children to safety shortly before his death.
• Age 10. Died while he was with his grandmother at their home. She was holding him in her arms when the storm struck.
• Age 47. Died in her home after telling rescue workers to save the mentally disabled adults who lived with her instead.
• Age 42. Died when the chimney of his home fell on him as he covered his daughter.
• Age 61. Died after being thrown from his cousin’s house as it was lifted, spun and demolished by a tornado.
• Age 72. Died from an apparent heart attack as his neighbor’s house was hit by a tornado.
• Age 44. Died with her husband after being thrown from their home.
• And on and on and on...

Death is no respecter of persons. Obviously.

---

Our feeble sentimentalism simply cannot handle
the tragic side of life:
discomfort, sickness, disabilities, death,
evil, depression, fear, anxiety.

They are not realities to be faced, we tell ourselves,
but symptoms of an ignored disease that we can treat
with the proper medication, entertainment,
therapy, and technology.  

---

But of all people who should know what to do with death,
shouldn’t it be Christians?

Michael Horton titles chapter 2 in A Place for Weakness as “Good News for Losers.” He notes that Christianity is not meant to make you look cool, prosperous, or famous. It’s not just for the healthy and strong. “Feeling good” is not its goal and “just keep it happy” doesn’t work.

We do not know what to do with sin, evil,
and death in this culture,
but by suppressing the question
we deprive people of the comfort
that comes from the answer.

So believers in Christ should be the people with hope.
The people who console.
The people who point to a higher purpose
instead of “a resignation to meaningless tragedy.”

Horton gets it right that when we anchor our hope in God, the goal of our life changes. And I add, the goal of our death.

---

The goal of life is not to be happy, but to be holy;
not to make ourselves acceptable to ourselves and others,
but to be made acceptable to God by God;
not to be gathered together with all
of the successful people in the prime of our life,
but to be gathered unto our fathers and mothers in the faith.

---

I can’t explain the deaths in the tornadoes.
Why some lived; why some died.

But because I know the One who does know, I’m asking him:

Lord,
     Use us to send hope to the lives of survivors just as You opened Your arms to the souls of dying believers.
     Because death isn’t our enemy.
     Being without You is.

O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?
...But thanks be to God,
who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:55, 57

* * *

We’re talking more about A Place for Weakness at Elizabeth’s.

How comfortable are you around death?

Stay prepared for trials. Again.

• From the tone of her “Mom...” (and almost from the phone’s ring itself), I know what has happened: her car broke down. Again.
• To pick her up, I have to drive past some severe tornado damage. Again. It’s hard the first time. But it stays equally hard the second, third, fourth times. This time.
• Kathy calls for advice. Her friend’s grandchild, due in a few weeks, had no heartbeat yesterday. Today she’ll be born without life. What should she do? Death has struck. Again.

Trials.
I get tired of them. Over and over. 
Is this the good life?

Yet...
...the car was only overheated, not mangled in a wreck.
...the downed electrical lines were covered with dozens of electrical workers along with multiple volunteers cleaning up debris.
...baby Anna is leaving behind devastated family and friends but she is safe, face to face with Jesus.

Sanctification keeps pace with decay, says Michael Horton in A Place for Weakness. But I’ll up him one higher: sanctification stays a step ahead.

I’m glad.
Otherwise, who could bear the weight?

The Lord prepares and equips us to deal with what’s next.

God knows what he’s doing.

But don’t wait until the trial is here to come to that conclusion. Learn his promises ahead of time. Build your faith in the easier times. As Horton says,

...learning theology is very difficult to do in the trial itself. It is not a good time for being taught. The wounds are too open to the elements. This doesn’t mean it cannot be done, but it is more difficult, at least for many.

So in my mini-trials of today, I knew I could cry out to God and he would hear. I knew that the “Fresh Strawberries” sign on my way home was a sweet gift from God to stop and taste how good he is. I knew that these trials, too, shall pass.

Stay prepared for trials. They will come. Again and again. But the promises will keep coming true too. Again and again and again.

That makes for a very good life.

* * *

We’re discussing Chapter 1, “When Tragedy Strikes”, at Elizabeth’s today, if you’d like to join us.

What strengthens your hope in times of trials?