Psalm 104: A Meditation

31 January 2010

The psalm we considered this morning covers a lot of territory, from the forces of nature to human culture, from the food the animals eat to the thoughts that men think.  In all of these things, the psalmist points to some common themes:

  • First, there are no ‘forces of nature’ in the way we commonly mean it, any more than there are ‘creations of man’ in the way we commonly mean that.  All these things come from the hand of God.
  • Second, there is only one proper response to this: to praise the Lord, and to make your thoughts sweet to Him.

We find it difficult to do this, because we focus on the things we do not like, and so zoom in on those tiny things that we refuse to see anything else.  You must praise God even for those things, and my charge to you this week is to follow the strategy of the psalmist.  Back off, look at the whole world, and praise God for all of it.  Then, in that context, re-examine your discontents, and praise God for those things too.

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Posted by Tim Nichols

The Lord’s Supper, Part 2: What’s Actually Happening?

24 January 2010

Last week, we saw that the Corinthians had permitted their actual practice of the Supper to become a way of reinforcing divisions in the Body of Christ.  For this, many of them were weak and sickly, and some of them were killed.  This week I’m offering you a similar warning, not about the practice of the Supper, but about our understanding of what is happening in the Supper.

God requires us to believe His word, and sanctified imagination is absolutely necessary to faith.  But there are temptations here that we must avoid.  When you allow your imagination to carry you so far that in doctrine or in practice, you are contradicting Scripture, you have gone too far.  Even if you don’t do that, if you allow your particular way of imagining the thing to become a point of contention so that the argument divides the body, you have sinned.

There is a parallel temptation in the other direction: the temptation to say “It’s all a mystery” and then ignore the things the Scripture does say.  You must subject yourself to the discipline of the Scripture; you must believe what it says, not cultivate a sort of devotional ignorance.

And so the charge is this: Submit to the Scripture.  All of it, straight up the middle, with no fancy footwork.  Whatever the Bible teaches you to believe and do, make it a part of you.  Let your sanctified imagination roam free on the mountains of the Bible—but stay within the limits that the Bible prescribes for you. Sanctified imagination is only sanctified so long as it is obedient.

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Posted by Tim Nichols

Introduction to the Lord’s Supper

17 January 2010

The Corinthians’ worship was lacking. The flaws in their practice of the Lord’s Supper in particular were very real, and glaringly obvious. Paul does not sugar-coat any of this; he tells it exactly like it is. But he does this for a purpose, and the purpose is to restore them so that they will stop dividing Christ’s body, and instead unite with each other and worship God together in a way that glorifies Him.

The evangelical world is filled with bad worship. Many believers are disregarding what they do know about God’s requirements for worship, utterly ignorant of the rest, and terribly arrogant in their disobedience—which is to say, they are like the Corinthians. Do not dare to think that this is not your problem. Christ is not divided; these people are wounded and disobedient parts of the same body that you are a part of.

At the same time, do not dare to approach the issue in an arrogant, divisive way yourself. If you do this, your reformation in worship will drive other people away from whatever you are doing—and the more truth you are applying, the more truth you will drive them away from, and the more damage you will do to the body. We must not allow our obedience to become a weapon that further fragments the body. Listen to the Lord’s leading, look for an opening, and be very, very wise. The goal is to stir people up to love and good works, not to alienate them from the very good works they should be doing.

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Posted by Tim Nichols

The Image of God: Principles and Rescue

10 January 2010

We have been looking for the past few weeks at being God’s image, and at Paul’s stunning statement, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”  We must continue to seek that practical, day-to-day salvation that comes from Christ living in us.

The Bible gives us principles to live by, and those principles are reliable and important.  But apart from Christ, those principles become instruments of death in our fleshly hands.    We got principles at Mount Sinai; if that was all we needed, Jesus didn’t need to come and die.

We needed rescue.  Jesus provided it for us, and He continues to provide it, if we will walk with Him.  My charge to you is to do just that.  Do not make your life a Pharisaical concoction of divinely revealed principles and fleshly application of those principles.  Rather, seek the rescue that Christ provides, abide in Him, and through Him those same principles will become life-giving tools in your hands, which you can incarnate in the world as Christ’s Body, the very Image of God.

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Posted by Tim Nichols

The Incarnate Church

3 January 2010

We are sinful people living in a broken world; the days are evil.  Evil days bring many temptations: some people are just waiting for it to be over, just hanging on by their fingernails until they die or the rapture comes.  Others delude themselves into a false cheer, a Pollyana view of the world where they pretend that the days are not evil at all.  Others—especially political conservatives—fall into the temptation perfectionism.  They proceed to take the evil days as an excuse to complain about everything, and their shrill voices fill the airwaves.  If we succumb to those temptations, we are fools who use the evil days as an excuse not to redeem the time.  The charge this week is simple enough: be wise.  Redeem the time because the days are evil.  Now is our chance to sing heartily, to each other and to God.  Now is the time to be grateful for everything.  Now is the time to submit to each other’s needs and care for one another.  Whatever we do, let’s do it thankfully, caringly, and singing to each other and the Lord.

We can do this because we are Christ’s body, connected to our Head who has already won His victory on the earth, which will one day be covered with the knowledge of God’s glory like water covers the sea.  The question is not how we can sing, but how can we not?

We are Christians; we are Christ’s body, and Christ’s body sings.  So sing!

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Posted by Tim Nichols

The Incarnation and the Church

27 December 2009

As we have pursued a more formal approach to worship, I have had occasion to formulate a compact charge to the congregation at the close of the service.  Barring the necessity for some specific application to be kept in-house, I will be sharing these charges here.  Below is the charge from this week:

When we sit at the Lord’s Table, Christ teaches us that we eat and drink Christ: He says “This is My body; This is My blood.”

You are what you eat.  To eat and drink the body and blood of Christ is to be the body and blood of Christ in the world.

As Christ allowed His body to be broken and His blood to be shed to purchase life for the world, so He will allow His church to be spent for the life of the world.  Your job—and my charge to you this week—is to reflect that mission in your own life.  Go out and minister the healing of Jesus of Nazareth, first to your brothers and sisters in the body, then to a world that is sick unto death in body and soul.  Do not delude yourself that this will have no cost.  It will cost you your life. But you have already died with Christ.  It is no longer you who live, but Christ lives in you, and you cling to Him, trusting Him to love you, and love others through you.

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Posted by Tim Nichols

The Incarnation in Your Life Today

25 December 2009

The charge from this past Sunday’s sermon follows:

Gregory the Theologian said, “What is not assumed cannot be healed,” and this is true.  For exactly that reason, Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Triune God, assumed full humanity at His incarnation.  In Jesus, we have a spectacular demonstration that man, the image of God, is an accurate image, and can partake in the divine nature.  Nothing human is foreign to Him; there is no part of you that you can point to and say, “Jesus didn’t have to deal with this.”

The Incarnation strips us of our excuses, but in exchange it gives us hope, hope that we can be holy as He is holy.  God designed every part of you to partake of the divine nature.   God in Christ redeemed every part of you in order to cause you to fulfill God’s design.  In the coming week, you will face the temptation to keep parts of yourself, or parts of your life, to yourself, and to keep the divine nature away from them.  The charge I leave you with is simple: Don’t give in to that temptation.  Hand that area to Christ, so that you may say with Paul, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

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Posted by Tim Nichols

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