The Dark Knight
08/06/2008 06:42 Past Posts &
ThoughtsPersonal
There was a nearly tangible feel to the air, an electricity of anticipation by the crowd, just waiting for the show’s beginning. All kinds of people were there: young & old, parents with children (one father in front of us had, what appeared to be, a 5-year-old boy, along with three of the dad’s buddies), high schoolers and college-aged students. All were talking, in none too hushed tones, about the film. Jonathan and I were also genuinely excited for it. We’d probably bought into the hype.
My overall impressions of The Dark Knight: dark, sad, cynical, yet with a faint glimmer of hope near the end. I hink I can easily believe that Heath Ledger’s death in real life has played a part in the tremendous fascination, not only with the movie overall, but with the Joker in particular. Several people I’ve spoken with have remarked how totally “into” the part he seemed to be. I think he did “get into” the part well - he played a person who truly cared for no one (I’m not sure he even cared for himself or was afraid of death - perhaps this was his real life oozing over into the part?). The Joker believed there was no good left in the human heart, mind or will; that each person would seek to survive, doing what was necessary to live, no matter how morally repugnant the act appeared to be. There is one blogger’s review of the Joker in The Dark Night, who felt this was the only honest character portrayal due to the biblical notion of man’s total depravity (although I highly doubt the screenwriters intended this perspective to be seen as anything but “a dak blot on a vast minority of humanity”).
Did I see any redeeming value in The Dark Knight? Perhaps. Police Chief (soon to become Commissioner) Gordon and Batman engage in a dialogue at the end that, at least for this viewer, helped pull the whole thing off the sludge heap of despair entirely. I’ll attempt to re-crete it to the best of my memory:
Gordon: You can’t take Dent’s crimes upon you. This city needs a hero.
Batman: Sometimes we don’t always get the the hero we want. We have to get the hero we need.
Again, I’m sure this is a terrible rendering of the actual dialogue, but it captures a hint of the redemption offered. Batman’s right: the hero we need is seldom the hero we want. After all, who would want a non-descript son of a non-descript carpenter from a backwater town who came talking about being last, not first; about being the servant of all rather than the leader of all; of losing your life in order to gain it; and other such “drivel”. I mean, really, who would want a hero that announces, at every key moment when he could have risen to command and power, “I’ve come to die.” So, yes, I think it’s accurate: the hero we need is not always the hero we want.
In him, we have redemption, through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ...
Ephesians 1.7-9, ESV
|
Selfishness
01/17/2008 14:00 Past Posts &
ThoughtsDoctrine
At first,
I didn't even want to write about this chapter of
Bridges' book, Respectable
Sins:
Confronting
the Sins We Tolerate. I wanted
to just not do anything; it made me tired just
thinking about posting today (that's why you won't
find a post for yesterday, Wednesday, January 16).
But when I realized this was the chapter, I thought
to myself, "It's pretty selfish to
not write,
don't you think?" So, after wrestling with
conviction, I'm posting about what I was feeling,
experiencing and reading.
Chapter 12 of Bridges' book is on selfishness: a sin that we are clearly born with. Don't believe me? Before you even read about it in Scripture, look to an infant, who cries the very moment he/she is hungry. Observe preschoolers trying to play together during recess at school. Watch a basketball game with the 9th Grade team or the Varsity from our kids' school (lots of talent; too much selfishness). Bridges points out that the reason selfishness is so difficult to expose in our own life is because it is so easy to spot in others. He then goes on to deal with four areas of selfishness:
1. Interests. Philippians 2.4 says: "Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." We're to look out for the concerns and needs of others around us; mighty hard to do when it's our own concerns that consume us. Our interests change, often depending upon the season of life we're going through. The author offers a test for us in this area: "A good test of the degree of selfishness in our interests would be to reflect on the conversation after you have been with someone and ask yourself how much time you spent talking about your interests compared to listening to the other person."
2. Time. Presently, this currency is more valuable than money to many of us. We don't have enough of it and we want more of it. When we get it, we don't want to save it up, we want to use it up upon ourselves. When we neglect the needs of others, it not just because our own interests are taking a higher place; it's also because we think our time is more valuable than theirs. Need an example: just watch the way you drive and think about driving next time. If you're zipping around people, muttering under your breath (or shouting out loud) about how much they're impeding your progress, then you need to examine your heart. In Galatians 6.2, God tells us to "bear one another's burdens." Put aside selfishness by helping others, giving them of your time.
3. Money. This would have been obvious to most of us. But Bridges doesn't talk about the selfishness of greed, at least not in the sense of gaining more. He directs our attention to the selfishness of not giving. Each year, WORLD magazine lists the results of surveys about the state of financial charity and giving. It's never encouraging. And when it comes to the church in this country, it's down right abysmal. If I remember last year's stats, it was somewhere around 2.5% given by church-going people. The observation was made, that if all who go to church (and surely, not all these would be truly regenerate) would double their present giving, there would be sufficient monies to feed nearly every starving person in Africa. Imagine what would happen if we'd tithe? John addresses our need to give to others and not be selfish in 1 John 3.17: "But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?"
4. Inconsiderateness. This gets worked out when we fail to think about how our actions or words affect someone else, whether they were the intended target or not. The person who is always late exhibits this sinful tendency. (Don't start making excuses for why you're always late; just repent, change and don't be late any more! Plan better and think of those you're holding up while they wait for you.) Cell phone etiquette is non-existent in our culture; which is an outworking of our selfish way of thinking and using this little device that has become so indispensable. Too many, especially among Christians, just have the attitude: "I say what I think. I call'em like I see'em. I speak my mind and I try to speak the truth." But do you try to speak the truth in love? (Ephesians 4.15)
The unselfish person seeks the other's good, concerns and interests ahead of his own. She seeks to balance her own longings with those of others around her. Obviously, our greatest example is Jesus Christ – "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich." (2 Corinthians 8.9) I'm wondering if more families in their own homes would seek to put this sin to death, what difference would it make? At home, with our own families, we often put off all restraints, which means our own personal needs begin to take precedence over that of other family members. May we all ask the Holy Spirit to show us the evidence of selfishness in our lives. Then, may He grant us grace and strength to put off this besetting sin.
Chapter 12 of Bridges' book is on selfishness: a sin that we are clearly born with. Don't believe me? Before you even read about it in Scripture, look to an infant, who cries the very moment he/she is hungry. Observe preschoolers trying to play together during recess at school. Watch a basketball game with the 9th Grade team or the Varsity from our kids' school (lots of talent; too much selfishness). Bridges points out that the reason selfishness is so difficult to expose in our own life is because it is so easy to spot in others. He then goes on to deal with four areas of selfishness:
1. Interests. Philippians 2.4 says: "Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." We're to look out for the concerns and needs of others around us; mighty hard to do when it's our own concerns that consume us. Our interests change, often depending upon the season of life we're going through. The author offers a test for us in this area: "A good test of the degree of selfishness in our interests would be to reflect on the conversation after you have been with someone and ask yourself how much time you spent talking about your interests compared to listening to the other person."
2. Time. Presently, this currency is more valuable than money to many of us. We don't have enough of it and we want more of it. When we get it, we don't want to save it up, we want to use it up upon ourselves. When we neglect the needs of others, it not just because our own interests are taking a higher place; it's also because we think our time is more valuable than theirs. Need an example: just watch the way you drive and think about driving next time. If you're zipping around people, muttering under your breath (or shouting out loud) about how much they're impeding your progress, then you need to examine your heart. In Galatians 6.2, God tells us to "bear one another's burdens." Put aside selfishness by helping others, giving them of your time.
3. Money. This would have been obvious to most of us. But Bridges doesn't talk about the selfishness of greed, at least not in the sense of gaining more. He directs our attention to the selfishness of not giving. Each year, WORLD magazine lists the results of surveys about the state of financial charity and giving. It's never encouraging. And when it comes to the church in this country, it's down right abysmal. If I remember last year's stats, it was somewhere around 2.5% given by church-going people. The observation was made, that if all who go to church (and surely, not all these would be truly regenerate) would double their present giving, there would be sufficient monies to feed nearly every starving person in Africa. Imagine what would happen if we'd tithe? John addresses our need to give to others and not be selfish in 1 John 3.17: "But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?"
4. Inconsiderateness. This gets worked out when we fail to think about how our actions or words affect someone else, whether they were the intended target or not. The person who is always late exhibits this sinful tendency. (Don't start making excuses for why you're always late; just repent, change and don't be late any more! Plan better and think of those you're holding up while they wait for you.) Cell phone etiquette is non-existent in our culture; which is an outworking of our selfish way of thinking and using this little device that has become so indispensable. Too many, especially among Christians, just have the attitude: "I say what I think. I call'em like I see'em. I speak my mind and I try to speak the truth." But do you try to speak the truth in love? (Ephesians 4.15)
The unselfish person seeks the other's good, concerns and interests ahead of his own. She seeks to balance her own longings with those of others around her. Obviously, our greatest example is Jesus Christ – "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich." (2 Corinthians 8.9) I'm wondering if more families in their own homes would seek to put this sin to death, what difference would it make? At home, with our own families, we often put off all restraints, which means our own personal needs begin to take precedence over that of other family members. May we all ask the Holy Spirit to show us the evidence of selfishness in our lives. Then, may He grant us grace and strength to put off this besetting sin.
Let Me Wrestle
01/10/2008 06:21 Past Posts &
ThoughtsDoctrine
The group over at Challies, will at some time
today, be chiming in together on the reading of John
Owen, Overcoming Sin and Temptation (check the link
at the right). Today's reading, chapter 8, from the
first section "Of the Mortification of Sin in
Believers" has been one of the best, and perhaps,
most convicting I've read in a long
time.
The heading for this section (if I understand correctly, Owen didn't really use chapters in his original) is this: There Will Be No Mortification of Any Sin Without Sincerity and Diligence in a Universality of Obedience. That's quite a mouthful sort of way of saying, "If I don't apply sincere diligence in my obedience in all areas of my life, especially in order to kill the desire to sin in my life, then I won't really be killing sin." To help better explain this, let me cite the first paragraph:
A man finds any lust to bring him into the condition formerly described; it is powerful, strong, tumultuating, leads captive, vexes, disquiets takes away peace; he is not able to bear it; wherefore he sets himself against it, prays against it, groans under it, sighs to be delivered; but in the meantime, perhaps, in other duties – in constant communion with God – in reading, prayer, and meditation – in other ways that are not of the same kind with the lust wherewith he is troubled – he is loose and negligent. Let not that man think that ever he shall arrive to the mortification of the lust he is perplexed with.
In other words, if I simply try to fight one area of sin, and not all others, and if I don't apply the same effort through the means of grace God has given me to commune with Him and grow in holiness, why on earth would I have any inkling that the one sin I want to be rid of will be got rid of? As Owen points out, it is all rooted in self-love: this one sin – or area of sin – bugs the daylights out of me; enough to make me go to great lengths to have some measure of peace in my heart against it. At the same time, however, I allow so many other areas to run full of neglect and sin and vile wickedness; or, I neglect my duties before God and man, in such a way as to show I really only want a bit of relief from the guilt of this sin, not the actual killing of it.
I was once asked by a young person, why God allowed us to continue in sin once we've become a Christian. Why didn't He simply blot out all sin in our life? Or, if I might add to that question, why doesn't He help me to blot out this one area of sin in my life that seems to beset me more than any other? Owen replies thusly:
Now, can you think that God will set in with such hypocritical endeavors – that ever his Spirit will bear witness to the treachery and falsehood of your spirit? Do you think he will ease you of that which perplexes you, that you may be at liberty to that which no less grieves him? No. God says, "Here is one, if he could be rid of this lust I should never hear of him more; let him wrestle with this, or he is lost."
Lord, let me wrestle. Grant me strength to do it, but let me wrestle. If You were to truly find me forsaking fellowship and communion with You simply because I pinned one sin to the mat and felt I had victory in my life, then let me wrestle! Do not leave me alone. Do not forsake me. Drive me to my knees in seeking all those areas in which I need kill sin.
The heading for this section (if I understand correctly, Owen didn't really use chapters in his original) is this: There Will Be No Mortification of Any Sin Without Sincerity and Diligence in a Universality of Obedience. That's quite a mouthful sort of way of saying, "If I don't apply sincere diligence in my obedience in all areas of my life, especially in order to kill the desire to sin in my life, then I won't really be killing sin." To help better explain this, let me cite the first paragraph:
A man finds any lust to bring him into the condition formerly described; it is powerful, strong, tumultuating, leads captive, vexes, disquiets takes away peace; he is not able to bear it; wherefore he sets himself against it, prays against it, groans under it, sighs to be delivered; but in the meantime, perhaps, in other duties – in constant communion with God – in reading, prayer, and meditation – in other ways that are not of the same kind with the lust wherewith he is troubled – he is loose and negligent. Let not that man think that ever he shall arrive to the mortification of the lust he is perplexed with.
In other words, if I simply try to fight one area of sin, and not all others, and if I don't apply the same effort through the means of grace God has given me to commune with Him and grow in holiness, why on earth would I have any inkling that the one sin I want to be rid of will be got rid of? As Owen points out, it is all rooted in self-love: this one sin – or area of sin – bugs the daylights out of me; enough to make me go to great lengths to have some measure of peace in my heart against it. At the same time, however, I allow so many other areas to run full of neglect and sin and vile wickedness; or, I neglect my duties before God and man, in such a way as to show I really only want a bit of relief from the guilt of this sin, not the actual killing of it.
I was once asked by a young person, why God allowed us to continue in sin once we've become a Christian. Why didn't He simply blot out all sin in our life? Or, if I might add to that question, why doesn't He help me to blot out this one area of sin in my life that seems to beset me more than any other? Owen replies thusly:
Now, can you think that God will set in with such hypocritical endeavors – that ever his Spirit will bear witness to the treachery and falsehood of your spirit? Do you think he will ease you of that which perplexes you, that you may be at liberty to that which no less grieves him? No. God says, "Here is one, if he could be rid of this lust I should never hear of him more; let him wrestle with this, or he is lost."
Lord, let me wrestle. Grant me strength to do it, but let me wrestle. If You were to truly find me forsaking fellowship and communion with You simply because I pinned one sin to the mat and felt I had victory in my life, then let me wrestle! Do not leave me alone. Do not forsake me. Drive me to my knees in seeking all those areas in which I need kill sin.
Discontentment
12/20/2007 16:38 Past Posts &
ThoughtsDoctrine
What a
great time of year to give a review of chapter eight
of Jerry Bridges' work, Respectable
Sins: Confronting the Sins We
Tolerate. If
anxiety is a "fearful uncertainty over the future"
and if frustration is "the result of some immediate
event that has blocked my plans or desires", then
discontentment "most often arises from ongoing and
unchanging circumstances that we can do nothing
about." (Bridges, page 71)
Bridges
quickly acknowledges that there is a place for
legitimate discontentment: when it is over the state
of our spiritual life. We should all want to grow in
our maturity in Christ. And we can be discontent with
the spiritual nature of our church, should it need to
grow as well. Plus, given the moral plight of our
country, we can be given over to a legitimate degree
of discontentment.
Usually, when we talk about discontentment, we discuss matters financial and material. "I wish I had ...." or "I don't have enough..." However, Bridges goes the path of unchanging circumstances, which probably gets closer to the heart of what Paul meant when he said he'd learned to be content in whatever circumstance he found himself (Philippians 4.11-12). Drawing from his experience of a long-time single prior to marriage, Bridges lends very credible advice anecdotally.
So, how do we fight this sin (and remember, discontentment is a sin, which must be put to death)? Grim resignation is not a solution. That's simply acceptance without a heart's change. We must truly trust the Lord, that He knows what's best for us in every single circumstance. We must accept His sovereign providence, His goodness toward us and His unfailing mercy, even if those situations seem so difficult for us.
There's a moving response from a friend sent to him after the death of his first wife which helps:
Lord, I am willing to –
Receive what you give,
Lack what you withhold,
Relinquish what you take.
The powerful truth of God's Word can come to bear in killing this sin. Psalm 139.13 says, "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb." And Job is also helpful "Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." (Job 1.21, ESV) I've already mentioned Philippians 4.11-12: "Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need."
So, I trust no matter what circumstance you find yourself in during these special holy days, that you'll find yourself laying hold with great dependence upon God who knows what's best for you, has planned nothing but good for you and is with you all along the way. He is Immanuel.
Usually, when we talk about discontentment, we discuss matters financial and material. "I wish I had ...." or "I don't have enough..." However, Bridges goes the path of unchanging circumstances, which probably gets closer to the heart of what Paul meant when he said he'd learned to be content in whatever circumstance he found himself (Philippians 4.11-12). Drawing from his experience of a long-time single prior to marriage, Bridges lends very credible advice anecdotally.
So, how do we fight this sin (and remember, discontentment is a sin, which must be put to death)? Grim resignation is not a solution. That's simply acceptance without a heart's change. We must truly trust the Lord, that He knows what's best for us in every single circumstance. We must accept His sovereign providence, His goodness toward us and His unfailing mercy, even if those situations seem so difficult for us.
There's a moving response from a friend sent to him after the death of his first wife which helps:
Lord, I am willing to –
Receive what you give,
Lack what you withhold,
Relinquish what you take.
The powerful truth of God's Word can come to bear in killing this sin. Psalm 139.13 says, "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb." And Job is also helpful "Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." (Job 1.21, ESV) I've already mentioned Philippians 4.11-12: "Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need."
So, I trust no matter what circumstance you find yourself in during these special holy days, that you'll find yourself laying hold with great dependence upon God who knows what's best for you, has planned nothing but good for you and is with you all along the way. He is Immanuel.