By the book – A Quote from Henry Halley

Posted on July 2, 2014 Written by Mark McIntyre 4 Comments

Israel had a Book. It was only a fraction of what we now have in God’s Word, but oh how important! God’s solemn warning to Joshua, standing at the threshold of a gigantic task, was to be very careful to keep close to the words of that Book. Joshua listened and obeyed, and God honored him with phenomenal success. What a lesson for church leaders!
-Henry Halley

The danger is that we can ignore the bits of Scripture that make us feel uncomfortable and emphasize the bits that make us feel superior to others. The point is that we need to be diligent to be obedient to all of Scripture and seek to understand it and apply it to our lives.

We should not add to Scripture and fall into the error of the Pharisees, both modern and ancient. Nor should be subtract from Scripture and fall into the error of the main line denominations that have abandoned their belief and commitment to Scripture. We should rather be like the Bereans (Acts 17:10-11) who searched the Scriptures to conform their belief to what has been revealed. Their commitment to the Book was commended and we should follow their example.

Pursue the reality beyond

Posted on June 30, 2014 Written by Mark McIntyre 5 Comments

Having been born at the tail end of the baby boom, I have the dubious distinction of being part of what the psalmist describes as being “a generation that did not prepare its heart” (Psalm 78:8 NASB) or “A generation that did not set its heart aright” (NKJV). The point is that the psalmist laments the lack of intentionality of that generation in following God.

Matthew Henry, in commenting on this Psalm makes the statement, “hypocrisy is the high road to apostasy.” This makes sense to me. If one generation is paying lip service to the Gospel but not living it out, it will make it difficult for the next generation to pay the Gospel any attention at all.

Unfortunately, I have seen this played out. Too often, a church does a good job of preaching grace, but the church culture is one of legalism and works-based acceptance. It is not surprising that such a church has a poor track record for retaining its youth. The pattern is too often repeated where a student leaves for college and drifts away from following Christ, many never to return. The hypocrisy in the practice of the church provided a ready excuse for the claims of Christ to be rejected.

To the generations that follow us “boomers” I offer the advice given in vv. 7-8 of Psalm 78:

“That they should put their confidence in God
And not forget the works of God,
But keep His commandments,
And not be like their fathers,
A stubborn and rebellious generation,
A generation that did not prepare its heart
And whose spirit was not faithful to God.” (Psalm 78:7–8)

Don’t be like the previous generations that willfully ignore God. Don’t give yourself the option of being blind to any reality beyond the physical universe. Don’t summarily reject the God of the Bible without examining the revelation he entailed to us. Don’t let the gap between what my generation says and what we do be an excuse to reject the God we claim to worship.

For my generation, I would also offer the hope that it is never too late to return and see the reality that you’ve been ignoring. I must constantly remind myself that there is a reality beyond the thing that consumes me at the moment. I must, as the psalmist reminds me, “prepare my heart” to be conscious of the eternal. I must not let good things become ultimate things in my life.

Please God alone

Posted on June 22, 2014 Written by Mark McIntyre 5 Comments

My greatest struggle in being part of the church has been when leaders possessed a certitude about how things should be done that borders on presumption.

If I have learned one thing about humanity, it is that we are all inherently flawed. I have ample evidence in myself and others of the depravity of man. We are broken and that brokenness affects everything that we touch. As a result, we should have a healthy distrust of ourselves and a confidence in God alone.

If we are flawed, we must assume that those who initiated what we now call tradition were similarly flawed and therefore the traditions are flawed. We should constantly acknowledge that our idea of how church should be conducted may not be according to God’s plan. Jesus tells us:

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1, ESV)

I had previously written about this verse in a post entitled Righteousness before men, In the previous post, I identified pride as the reason that we try to appear holier than we are. The provided antidote is humility. In this post, I would like to examine the results and practical implications of our desire to look cleaner than we are.

Somewhere in between complete denial of our dysfunction and a wallowing in it is an appropriate response. Not everyone I meet at church or at work needs to know all of my struggles. Wisdom is required to know what is appropriate to share and when it should be shared. But we must admit that there is something inside us that seeks to present ourselves as better than we are. We are all hypocritical to some extent.

This hypocrisy can works itself out in a variety of ways. First, we can be overly concerned with what other people think of us. This can influence who we associate with and where we go. Our Enemy wants nothing more that to have all Christians think that non-believers are not to be associated with. This will prevent them from hearing the Good News.

“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”” (Romans 10:14–15, ESV)

Thus, we limit our usefulness to God when we are too concerned about our reputation. Jesus was criticized as being a friend to sinners, perhaps we would do well to be the same.

Secondly, our pride and hypocrisy can manifest itself in our thinking that our efforts are essential for the work of God to continue. God may choose to use us in a particular situation, but when we feel that it is entirely up to us to accomplish God’s purpose, we have ceased to be truly useful to God.

It is one thing to be responsive to the prompting of God to accomplish a certain task. It is entirely another thing to take something on just because we think it needs to be done. How many church programs are begun and continued by man’s effort and produce little or no fruit of eternal value? How many people enter “vocational” ministry feeling pressured to do something for God that God has not prompted them to do? How many of our traditions and doctrinal litmus tests inhibit rather than promote our usefulness to God?

The “King James Only” crowd comes to mind as an egregiously negative example. In their pride in using the “correct” version of the Bible, they are limiting their ability to minister to their community. We are to make the Bible more understandable, not less. I grew up with the KJV and still have to work hard to get the meaning when I read it; how would someone with no exposure to 17th Century English get anything at all out of it?

The point of this post is to remind myself and others that our fallenness taints everything that we do. If we are to be confident, it should be confidence in the providence of God rather than in our ability to sort things out. We should be responsive to the prompting of God rather than certain of our own assessment of how to proceed. We should spend more time in prayer seeking God’s opinion and less time figuring out what is best.

Rather than play to the crowd around us, we should seek to please God alone.

It is worth doing badly

Posted on June 14, 2014 Written by Mark McIntyre 11 Comments

Recently, a coworker informed me that he discovered this blog and gave me some positive feedback about it. I am grateful for the compliment, but then a little bit of panic set in because there is a gap between what I say and what I actually do. I don’t live out what I know to be right and true. This guy has seen how far short of ideal I really fall.

But then the thought struck me; any activity in life that is worth doing, is worth doing badly. Let me explain.

When a new endeavor is taken up, the first attempts almost always fall short of the desired goal. Hence, the phrase “practice makes perfect” comes into play. With the exception of Harry Potter flying a broom, I can think of no activity which is begun with perfect results. Whether it be a sport, craft or an intellectual pursuit, the initial results are less than satisfactory. The fact that an activity is not done well is not an indication that that activity is not worth doing.

Many pursuits are never done perfectly. Take golf for instance. Even the best golfers have a shot or two in each round that they would love to take back and do over. The same is true for the Christian life.

In Romans 7, the Apostle Paul laments his inability to live out his faith completely:

“For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” (Romans 7:19, ESV)

But Paul, like the rest of us, is not stuck there. He offers hope just a few verses later:

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1, ESV)

I like the words that I have heard ascribed to John Newton:

“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am”

Christians are not the only ones who struggle with living out what they know to be true. This is the universal condition. Even Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. In other words, everyone has to compare how they are actually living with how they would like to live and work to bridge the gap. To one extent or another, we are all hypocrites, we don’t live up to our own standard.

The good news for the Christian is that we do not have to rely on our own power to keep the growth process moving along. We have Jesus beside us along the way (Matthew 28:20) and we have the Holy Spirit to guide us into truth (John 16:13).

The fact that I sometimes do the Christian life badly does not diminish the truth of who Jesus is and what he came to accomplish. The Christian life is worth living, even if I fall short of where I think I ought to be in my level of spiritual maturity.

By the book – A Quote from Henry Halley

Pursue the reality beyond

Please God alone

It is worth doing badly

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