I want to thank you for reading our blog. Than you as well to those of you who have followed us and have interacted with us by contributing your thoughts and comments. As I’m sure you have noticed, blog posts during the last few months have been few and far between. Due to busy schedules and life transitions we have not been able to post as frequently as we would like, and we have had to reduce the number of regular contributors.

Consequently, we have decided to put the blog on hold at this time. While there may be a few posts now and then, we will not be actively blogging at Looks Like Reign during the next few months. During this time we will be thinking about changes to the blog and possible new directions in which to take it. Once again, thank you for following and contributing. We look forward to picking it back up at the end of the Summer!

In Christ,

Winston

Posted by Winston

Long-suffering. This is the root of all self-denial. Wherefore also a certain wise man said, “A man that is long-suffering is of great understanding; but he that is hasty of spirit is mightily foolish.”

And comparing it too with a strong city, he said that it is more secure than that. For it is both an invincible weapon and a sort of impregnable tower, easily beating off all annoyances. And as a spark falling into the deep doth it no injury, but is itself easily quenched: so upon a long-suffering soul whatever unexpected thing falls, this indeed speedily vanishes, but the soul it disturbs not: for of a truth there is nothing so impenetrable as long-suffering. You may talk of armies, money, horses, walls, arms, or any thing else whatsoever; you will name nothing like long-suffering. For he that is encompassed with those, oftentimes, being overcome by anger, is upset like a worthless child, and fills all with confusion and tempest: but this man, settled as it were in a harbor, enjoys a profound calm. Though thou surround him with loss, thou hast not moved the rock; though thou bring insult upon him, thou hast not shaken the tower: and though thou bruise him with stripes, thou hast not wounded the adamant.

                        ~ St. Chrysostom (Homilies on 1 Corinthians)

Posted by Winston

In the context of a wedding charge, Peter Leithart highlights the relationship between faith and prayer:

The promises you’ll make in a moment are utterly open-ended.  You can’t be sure what will happen later today, much less for the rest of your life.  You can take these vows confidently only if you entrust yourselves to the God who is Alpha and Omega, the God who is before every past and waiting ahead of every future.

To live by faith is to live by prayer. Every time you pray, you confess that you don’t have what it takes, and that God does. You confess that you can’t see what’s ahead, and that God can.  Every prayer is a confession of inadequacy and need.  Since we are needy for everything at every moment, prayer should be as regular as breath.

As you commit yourselves to one another, commit also to continue steadfast in prayer.  Pray to be a faithful husband, a faithful wife. Pray for generosity in plenty, contentment in want. Commit yourselves to pray in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and health. Pray in life, and in the hour of death.  Drench, drown, immerse and inundate your marriage with prayer.

Pray as often as you have need.  Which is to say, Pray without ceasing.

Trevin Wax shares a prayer that he wrote from his seminary days:

Savior and King,
I find it so easy to revel in knowledge for knowledge’s sake,
avoiding the goal of instruction: to learn love.
A puffed-up mind may be able to hide an impure heart,
an aching conscience
or insincere motives from others,
but before you, all is laid bare.
The purpose of my training is to grow in love and faithfulness,
purity and authenticity.
Help me, O Lord, to keep in mind your purposes
for the instruction I receive.
I pray that when I leave here,
my love will have grown,
many sinful habits will have been left behind,
and any insincere motivations or spiritual facade will have been shattered.
May you work in my heart to draw me closer to yourself.
Help me to love, O Lord.
Give me a heart that breaks
for those held in the chains of sin.
Clear my conscience
and authenticate my faith.
May the knowledge I obtain be for your glory
and for the growth of your love in my all-too-hardened heart.
And help conform me to the image of Christ, in whose name I pray. Amen.

Douglas Sweeney discusses the need for pastor-theologians in the church today:

Indeed, as anyone who teaches in our churches can attest, few today know the Ten Commandments (I mean all ten, in proper order), the twelve apostles, the letters of Paul, or even the titles of the books included within the biblical canon. A basic grasp of Bible doctrine is also hard to find today. How many Christians do you know who can articulate what Scripture teaches about our Lord’s two natures, the ministry of the Spirit, or the nature of the church? Even first-year seminarians have trouble with these things.

The church wants education and needs theological leaders. In this day when many pastors lead non-theologically, and academics work in a way that is lost on the people of God, we need pastor-theologians who can minister the Word in ways that edify the saints and offer a winsome public witness to the goodness, truth, and beauty of the Lord and his will for us.

You can read the rest of the article here.

Enjoy this quote on preaching from John Broadus of Southern Seminary in years past:

It is so easy and pleasant for men of fertile fancy to break away from laborious study of phraseology and connection, to cease plodding along the rough and homely paths of earth, and sport, free and rejoicing, in the open heaven; the people are so charmed by ingenious novelties, so carried away with imaginative flights, so delighted to find everywhere types of Christ and likenesses to the spiritual life; it is so common to think that whatever kindles the imagination and touches the heart must be good preaching, and so easy to insist that the doctrines of the sermon are in themselves true and Scriptural, though they be not actually taught in the text, – that preachers often lose sight of their fundamental and inexcusable error, of saying that a passage of God’s Word means what it does not mean. So independent too one may feel; so original he may think himself. Commentaries, he can sneer at them all; other preachers, he has little need of comparing views with them. No need of anything but the resources of his own imagination, for such preaching is too often only building castles in the air.

Have you heard about the “mom-culture war” on Twitter? It was recently sparked by some comments from Democratic pundit Hilary Rosen regarding Ann Romney, a stay-at-home-mom and wife of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. While discussing Mitt Romney’s economic policies, Rosen mentioned that he often asks his wife what she thinks concerning American women when it comes to economics. In critique, Rosen said something about how Ann has “never worked a day in her life.” As you can imagine, this did not go over well. Twitter was ablaze with responses of all shapes and sizes, including one tweet from Ann Romney herself.

Hillary Rodham Clinton made a similar comment in the 90’s about stay-at-home-moms, suggesting that instead of becoming a lawyer she “could have stayed at home and baked cookies.” These kinds of sentiments are disappointing to say the least and I would suggest they stem from an attitude cultivated in the women’s liberation movement that began in the 60’s, a movement which has heavily impacted our culture. Although there are certainly a number of different types of feminists with varying agendas (some sensible in certain ways and others not so much), the feminist movement as a whole sought to throw off the “roles” of women, arguing that men and women can do all things equally and should be allowed to do so (the biological barriers to this seem obvious to me, but what do I know, I am not a political pundit or scientist).

What seems odd to me is that Rosen automatically assumes that because Ann Romney does not receive a paycheck she cannot possibly have any knowledge of economics. That would be as silly as stating that simply because I have worked steadily since the age of 15 (which I have) I have a firm and thorough grasp on economic theory (let it be known – I do not have any such grasp). But more than anything I think that this kind of talk proves something even more dangerous about our culture: we do not value children. If a stay-at-home-mom who teaches her children or stays home to spend more time with her children (noting, of course, that many moms would love to stay home with their children but cannot) is of little value to address major issues in our society, what does that say about those children? Perhaps if children were more highly prized we would prize those who serve them more as well.

Now, that is not to say that all women who stay at home are great moms, or that those who work outside the home are not. I think Amy Wilson, a speaker and author sums it up well. Here is an excerpt:

I hate when people say that. I really do. ‘Motherhood is the hardest job in the world.’ Because the person who says it is usually someone who couldn’t have any idea whether that was true or not. (viz: Oprah. Joe Scarborough.) It’s patronizing, devoid of meaning, and wrong. Was getting my kids to school this morning harder than working in a Chilean mine? Of course not. Is juggling dinner, homework, and bath time harder than rush hour air traffic control at JFK? (About the same, I’d say.) There are times when being a mother is way, way harder or soul-sucking or monotonous or impossible than anyone who hasn’t been one can imagine. But painting us all as selfless saints is a ridiculous generalization that allows public figures to pay lip service to motherhood without standing behind it.

Yes, I was bothered by what Rosen said. But I’m even more bothered by the rush to respond with this head-patting ‘mothers are so wonderful’ nonsense that is meaningless and does nothing to promote mothers’ standing in the world. …

Please, pundits, spare us SAHMs [stay-at-home-moms] the patronizing pats on the head and the empty plaudits about how you think we have the hardest job in the world. Rosen will suffer the consequences but she told the truth: people who aren’t SAHMs think being a SAHM isn’t a job at all. And until that conviction changes, on both sides of the aisle, the real issues facing women — childcare, pay equity, health care, and the freedom to work outside the home or in it — will never get any better.

Well-known pastor and author David Platt has taken the evangelical world on a journey with his church as they seek to radically demonstrate the gospel in their community and around the world. His popular “Secret Church” events have opened the eyes of many believers to the reality of persecution for most of the world’s Christians. For those of you who haven’t had an opportunity to attend one of these events or participate in a simulcast, you may not be aware that you can access audio, video, and notes from each session for free from the Secret Church website here. I would encourage you to check it out!

Something that we Americans assume without much question is that we should only believe what we can experience with our senses, especially sight. This comes from the philosophical traditions of empiricism and pragmatism and is imbedded into us unconsciously from an early age. Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t trust your senses. Please don’t here me say that. One of the ways the disciples knew that Jesus is Lord is because they saw him after his resurrection. What I am attacking are those people who refuse to believe in anything they cannot see and take their senses to be the standard of what they know. Here are the problems with that:

1. If you only believe what you can see you run into a problem when your eyes constantly deceive you. Anyone who has ever seen a mirage, looked into a mirror in a fun house, or thought they saw something in the distance that turned out to look different up-close can testify to the fact that, although your senses may be accurate sometimes, they are not accurate all the time. Sticking your hand in hot water feels cold at first and then feels hot. This is another example of your senses deceiving you. Senses fail. You need something more to find truth.

2. If you only believe what you can see then you have no way of determining what is real and what is not. Crazy people “see” objects that are not there. You constantly “see” things in dreams that do not exist in reality. The problem with only believing in things you can see is that it is your mind, not your eyes that allow you to interpret images and our minds can trick us.

3. If you only believe what you can see then you cannot believe in many areas of science. The smallest bits of “matter” are called “quarks” they are smaller than atoms and scientists believe they are the foundational building blocks of everything. There is one problem…no one has ever seen a quark. They are hypothetical things needed to make sense of physics but they cannot be seen, even under the world’s most powerful microscopes. Not to mention that no one has ever seen a black hole. No one has seen the big bang. If you only believe what you can see then you will disagree with science in many areas as they postulate things that they cannot see to make sense of what they can see (sounds a lot like…faith).

4. If you only believe what you can see then you shouldn’t believe in non-material entities, yet you do. Numbers are a great example. No one has ever seen the number “3.” Now, you might have seen a picture of a three scribbled on a piece of paper (we call that a “numeral”) but you have never actually seen a number “3” because it is not made of matter. If you think you did see one, let me ask you, what was it made out of?  Numbers, thoughts, propositions, minds/souls and many other entities exist that we cannot see.

5. If you only believe what you can see then you cannot believe the following proposition: “I will only believe what I can see.” The reason is that this very proposition is something that you believe but you did not come to this belief by sight. In fact you reasoned to this first, apart from your senses, and then used it as a method for finding truth through your senses. What I am saying is that the phrase “I will only believe what I can see” is self-refuting because that claim itself is not something to be seen. You can see the words but the proposition and the idea of it you don’t see.

6. If you only believe what you can see then you cannot believe in ethics since the ideals of “good” and “bad” are not physical entities to be seen. You can see acts that seem to be good or bad to you but you cannot actually hold that things are good or bad because “good” and “bad” are non-material ideals. “Goodness” is not made of, say, water molecules like a cube of ice is and the only things you can see are physical entities.

All this is to say that your senses are great. But they are not the exhaustive key to determining knowledge. You cannot build a coherent worldview and just trust your senses. There are some things that you will find yourself believing in that you cannot see, whether that is the fact that you are awake right now, or that 2+2=4, or that quarks exist, or that murdering people is bad, or maybe even…God.

I would like to suggest that Moses and Aaron had superior cardiovascular systems thanks to the frequent disobedience of the children of Israel. This may not seem like a very serious topic yet, and you may think it doesn’t apply to you as well, but I hope to prove otherwise.

Let’s begin with the recounting of the interaction between the people of Israel and the spies that returned from the land of Canaan. Because of the size of the people in the land and their military prowess (translate as distrust of God) the Israelites refused to enter the land God had promised them. The people began to lift up their voices, weep, and complain saying,

Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? So they said to one another, Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.

What follows seems to be an ongoing exercise routine when responding to the rebellion of the Israelites, on the part of Moses and Aaron:

Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.   Numbers 14:5

As you read through Numbers you get the feeling that Moses and Aaron spent more time on their faces than actually standing upright:

Numbers 16:4 – So when Moses heard it he fell on his face (Korah’s complaining)

Numbers 16:22 – Then they fell on their faces, and said, “O God the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and you be angry with all the congregation?” (Korah’s punishment)

Numbers 16:45 – And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Get away from this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.” And they fell on their faces. (Complaints of the people after Korah’s death)

Numbers 20:6 – So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting and they fell on their faces. (People complaining about lack of water)

Moses and Aaron really got a workout thanks to the children of Israel. There were even several occasions that Moses had to convince God not to wipe the people from the face of the planet.

Have you ever thought about how easy or difficult it is for your spiritual leaders to lead you? We live in a very individualistic society and the idea of someone having authority over us, well it just cramps our style, really. We know that there are elders and such people . . . somewhere in our churches doing . . . something, but do we ever really consider how our actions affect their well-being? The author of Hebrews instructs his readers to

Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.

Unprofitable, to be sure. Looking back at the Israelites, those whose carcasses were scattered in the wilderness, their rebellion cost them everything – not just their lives but also a promise from God and a legacy to pass on to their children. Let’s just say it would be in everyone’s best interest if the Moses and Aarons in our lives spent a lot more time rejoicing than that aerobic activity of falling on their faces. Let’s make it so.