Weekly Words of Wisdom...Carson on God and the Problem of Suffering

"(I)f we expend all our energies pondering providence and wondering how to exonerate God, we may lose sight of the obvious. If at some point we stop worrying about whether God can vindicate himself this time, and start worrying about how we ought to be responding, under the God of the Bible, to this or that case of suffering, we may learn a little earlier to call upon the Lord for help, not for self-justification; in faith, not in bitterness. That we come to an end of ourselves will then be an incentive to sue God for grace, rather than an incentive to curse God and die."

D.A. Carson
How Long, O Lord?

Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor

A couple weeks ago I made reference to D.A. Carson's wonderful biography of his father, Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson.
It was recently brought to my attention that the downloads of the book are available for FREE in PDF form thanks to The Gospel Coalition.

If you are a pastor, please read this book. It is certainly on my short list of those books which have had the most profound impact on me. In an age when we are especially prone to idolize "celebrity pastors" who have gifts and opportunities that most of us will never experience, Carson extols the virtue of faithfulness, which each one of us has the capacity to exercise.

The Virtue of Ordinary Faithfulness

A few years back, Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck co-authored Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion. I was reminded of what a helpful book that is this morning when I saw a number of friends on Facebook linking to this post at Ligonier.com by Kevin (which is an adaptation of the book's epilogue). In it he calls us to the following:

What we need are fewer revolutionaries and a few more plodding visionaries. That’s my dream for the church — a multitude of faithful, risktaking plodders. The best churches are full of gospel-saturated people holding tenaciously to a vision of godly obedience and God’s glory, and pursuing that godliness and glory with relentless, often unnoticed, plodding consistency.

It's well worth reading the whole post -- or the whole book for that matter! I know I need to remind myself often that God doesn't necessarily call me to turn the world upside down, but he does call me to be faithful. This is a good word for us all, but especially essential for pastors to remember.

Another must-read for pastors that helps remind us of this fact is D.A. Carson's Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson. In the book, Carson weaves together his father's journal entries with biographical information to give a sketch of a man he profoundly respects and admires, even though the depth of his own direct impact and the level of his own fame have far outreached those of his father, who spent the vast majority of his life pastoring rather small churches. Carson notes in the book's preface:

(F)ew assessments of Dad's journals are likely to prove more penetrating than that of Michael Thate, my administrative assistant. Michael cheerfully transcribed the English parts of the journals. When he sent me the last digital files, he accompanied them with an e-mail that said in part, "I used to aspire to be the next Henry Martyn [heroic British Bible translator and missionary to the Muslim peoples of India and Persia]. However, after reading your dad's diaries, the Lord has given my heart a far loftier goal: simply to be faithful. I know we men are but dust, but what dust the man I read about in these diaries was!" And after proofing the manuscript he sent me a note telling me he was reminded of Tolkien's lines about Strider:

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

All true. And yet Tom was a most ordinary pastor.

Some of us are indeed called to wield massive influence. The vast majority of us are called to more ordinary things. Instead of seeking to revolutionize the world, let us simply seek the far loftier goal of being faithful. If God desires to use our faithfulness in ways that are beyond our wildest imagination, then so be it. May he receive all the glory. And if he should choose to use us only in the smallest of ways, then so be it. May he be glorified just as much.

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Carson on Sanctification

"People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated."

D.A. Carson
For the Love of God, volume 2

The Gospel Coalition Women's Conference

From time to time I try to recommend good conferences to readers of this blog.  Though it obviously won't work for many of my readers, one such conference is The Gospel Coalition Women's Conference next June 22-24 in Orlando, with the theme Here is Our God: God's Revelation of Himself in Scripture.

If you are a woman, I highly recommend you look into this conference, and consider registering before the early registration deadline of December 31.  Among the main session speakers will be Tim Keller, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, John Piper, D.A. Carson, Paige Benton Brown and Jenny Salt, the final two of which can be seen on the video below discussing their views on teaching the Bible to women.


Dare to Go Where Few Women's Studies Will Go from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...D.A. Carson on Mystery

"Some of us have absorbed a form of theology with all the answers. We can offer standard answers to every problem that comes along, especially if the problem is afflicting some other person. Our certainty and dogmatism give us assurance, our systematic theology so well articulated, that we leave precious little scope for mystery, awe, unknowns. Then, when we ourselves face devastating catastrophe, and we find that the certainties we have propounded with such confidence offer us little relief, our despair is the bleaker: we begin to question the most basic elements of our faith. Had we recognized that in addition to great certainties there are great gaps in our comprehension, perhaps we would have been less torn up to find that the mere certainties proved inadequate in our own hour of need."

D.A. Carson
How Long, O Lord?: Reflections on Suffering and Evil, 26.

What Makes a Remarkable Elder?

In this clip, D.A. Carson takes a look at the biblical requirements for elders/overseers.  Ultimately, as he points out, "elders are first of all to be exemplars of the Christian graces that are presupposed as mandated on all Christians."



(HT: Todd Rhoades)

Preaching Christ from the Old Testament

The Gospel Coalition has a blog post today with cautions on how we preach Christ from the Old Testament from three men who do so wonderfully: Tim Keller, D.A. Carson and David Murray. All three had very helpful comments, but I was especially struck by some of Murray's closing words:

I’d also like to encourage preachers and teachers to be clear and consistent on the question: "How were Old Testament believers saved?” The most common options seem to be:

1. They were saved by obeying the law.
2. They were saved by offering sacrifices.
3. They were saved by a general faith in God.
4. They were saved by faith in the Messiah.

Unless we consistently answer #4, we end up portraying heaven as not only populated by lovers of Christ, but also by legalists, ritualists, and mere theists who never knew Christ until they got there...

Click here to read the entire post.

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...D.A. Carson on the Gospel

"An historical gospel that is not personal and powerful is merely antiquarian; a theological gospel that is not received by faith and found to be transforming is merely abstract. In reality, the gospel is personal"


D.A. Carson

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

"What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything else of that sort. Christians come together because they have all been loved by Jesus himself. They are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus’ sake"

D.A. Carson

You Are the Salt of the Earth

In 2011 I've had the pleasure of teaching an adult Sunday School class on The Sermon on the Mount.  One of my favorite parts of teaching is all the learning that I get to do.  In my preparations for class, I try to glean insights from a number of scholars who are far more learned than I am (there's no shortage!).  To this end I have loved studying a number of fine commentaries on The Sermon on the Mount (Carson, Doriani, Ferguson, Stott) in addition to commentaries on Matthew from my two favorite sets by Calvin and Hendriksen.

Another commentary on Matthew that was recently introduced to me by a friend is Frederick Dale Bruner's Matthew: A Commentary. Volume 1: The Christbook, Matthew 1-12.  I've only had the commentary for a couple weeks and I can't speak to all of Bruner's theology.  What I can say though, is I have already been richly blessed by the devotional nature of his writing and some of the insights he offers on Matthew 5.  Included in this would be the following words I came across today preparing for this week's lesson on being "the salt of the earth":

"Blessing is given to believers so that they will be blessings -- to the world (cf. especially the seminal promise of Gen 12:1-3: "I will bless you and make you a blessing; and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed"); salt is made salt in order to be salty in food.  We are put on notice that while it is from nothing (gratis) that we have been made salt, it is not for nothing (frustra).  We are to live for other people.  Christians, we learn here for the first time explicitly, are in danger if they do not live as Christians.  This is what is meant by the warning's sad conclusion, "It is absolutely useless except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot."  Here is deserved persecution.  In the world this "persecution" often takes the form of simple contempt or of complete disinterest."

May we always remember how very blessed we are to have found favor in the eyes of God in spite of our sin. And may we also remember that we, like Abraham, are blessed that we might be a blessing.

West Cannon Pastors' Seminar

If you're a pastor in or near Michigan, let me recommend a great conference to you. Each year West Cannon Baptist Church in Grand Rapids puts on a pastors' seminar. I went last year and was greatly edified by both the teaching and the fellowship with other pastors.

This year's theme is Strength for the Inner Man and the speakers will be D.A. Carson & Voddie Baucham. The conference is September 27 & 28 and is very reasonably priced at $50. You can get more information here.

The 2011 Gospel Coalition Conference

If you are interested in such things, please allow me to recommend to you the 2011 Gospel Coalition Conference. I attended the 2009 conference and it was fabulous. I was greatly blessed by both the quality of the teaching and the richness of the fellowship.

This year's conference promises to be even better. It will be held April 12-14 in downtown Chicago and the list of speakers sparkles with such names as Alistair Begg, D.A. Carson, Tim Keller, Al Mohler and many others.

Carson and Keller discuss the conference in the video below.

Responding to Trials

What is your response to trials in your life? Whether they are big or small, I know that my natural reaction is to be discouraged by them. Even when I have passed through whatever difficult situations I might face, there is a tendency on my part simply to be wearied. On my best days, I might be thankful to God for getting me through it, but there is no question that I would have rather avoided the situation altogether.

D.A. Carson suggests that my response to trials ought to be altogether different. In his daily blog last Friday, Carson made the following observation from Psalm 66:8-12:

There the psalmist begins by inviting the peoples of the world to listen in on the people of God as they praise him because “he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping.” Then the psalmist directly addresses God, and mentions the context in which the Lord God preserved them: “For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance” (66:10 -12).

This is stunning. The psalmist thanks God for testing his covenant people, for refining them under the pressure of some extraordinarily difficult circumstances and for sustaining them through that experience. This is the response of perceptive, godly faith. It is not heard on the lips of those who thank God only when they escape trial or are feeling happy.

This is the same kind of thought we find in James 1:2-4 - "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

Okay. It's great to say that I should do this. But the reality is that I don't. How do I get from where I am to where I should be? The answer lies (as so often is the case) in the Gospel. As I consider the trials that Christ Jesus endured for me, primarily in his sacrificial death on our behalf, I realize a number of things:

• My trials are relatively small compared to those of Christ, who gave up everything so that we might know him.
• Just as God was faithful and trustworthy to provide the way to salvation, so too he is faithful and trustworthy in the midst of my trials.
• Though I may lack the ability by my own strength to have the right mindset, Christ who lives in me has demonstrated that he lacks nothing, and by the Holy Spirit he empowers me to do his will by his strength, not my own.
• My trials are passing, but there lies in store for me an eternal crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him (James 1:12).
  

In light of these facts, may we all have the type of attitude toward trials that is described in 1 Peter 1:6-7 - "In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, as was necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith - more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."