I wanted to drop a request to everyone to pray for us over the next week or so. I am speaking or teaching 7 times in the week 9/30-10/7 – I wanted to ask everyone to pray that God’s strength would sustain me while on the road and bring his Word through me with grace, conviction, encouragement and power. Here is the schedule

9/30 – Inversion (new young adult ministry) Leaders gathering
10/1 – NC/SC Campus Crusade Catalytic (Non-staffed campuses) Retreat – first message
10/2 – NC/SC CCC – 2 messages
10/3 – NC/SC – last message
10/5 – Wake Forest Athletes in Action meeting
10/7 – First public Inversion Meeting starting the new work…

There are over 300 students signed up for the Crusade event – close to double its size from last year – I am praying the Lord really moves in the lives of the students…

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Chapter 10 begins with a very brief treatment of God’s attributes separating them into the classic categories of communicable (attributes which Man shares with God in being created in his image) and non-communicable (that which apply only to God)

Wisdom, as a shared attribute of God and Man, is treated in this chapter…what does it mean for man to receive Wisdom from God? Packer says clearly that it is not a God’s eye view of all things, all acts of providence so that we see clearly all pieces of every puzzle. Believers asking for this, and expecting this will indeed be disappointed (even depressed – see page 103)

To describe what wisdom is, Packer employs a great analogy of driving a car. As we learn to drive, we then begin to get to the point, to see and do the right thing at the right situations. Such is the way we garner divine wisdom for life – we learn to do the right things at the right times. Not only this but we learn to SEE the world in its proper light – Packer calls this a proper realism (Packer 103, 104) – seeing the world for what it is. Living in unrealism (as Packer puts it) is cured by wisdom not simply orthodox doctrine. Wisdom is expressed greatly in the Biblical text of Ecclesiastes…

What remains in the chapter is a short but excellent introduction to Ecclesiastes, what do we see in life if we take of the unrealistic “rose colored glasses”:

• Life’s background is the seemingly meaningless cycles of nature
• Death visits all – whether wise or foolish, man or animal, good or evil – all die
• Evil is afoot on many corners of our world
• One sees all this and despairs, even contemplates if all of life is a mere vanity.

Indeed, one is very frustrated trying to see every purpose under heaven to which we have not been given full knowledge. What then of wisdom? What is wise for the finite human being to do?

• Fear God, Keep his commandments
• To Do Good
• To enjoy the Present
• Realize certain pleasures are good gifts from God
• Seek his grace to labor hard at whatever we do
• Enjoy your work
• Enjoy God in the process

Such is the wisdom of God that he gives to us – a wisdom that has us to cling to him, love him, seek knowledge in faith or as the medievals taught us – to have a faith that seeks understanding…St. Anselm was right in saying – in our pursuits of knowledge of understanding a certain posture must be assumed:

God created man in his image, that he might be mindful of him, think of him, and love him. The believer does not seek to understand, that he may believe, but he believes that he may understand: for unless he believed he would not understand.

St Anselm – The Proslogion – Chapter 1

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“Wisdom is the power to see, and the inclincation to choose, the best and hightest goal, together with the surest means to ataining it”

Quoted in JI Packer, Knowing God, Americanized Edition (Downers Grove: IL, Intervarsity Press, 1993) 90.

So begins, chapter 9, Packer’s discussion of the wisdom of God. God’s wisdom is infinite in its bounds, he knows the right thing to do, for the highest ends he has, and he has the sure means of attaining it. God’s wisdom, combined with his omnipotence means, ultimately, what he wants done is done. These two attributes combined together form a fearsome beauty in which I find great trust. Packer alludes that wisdom without power is pathetic, and cannot accomplish anything. On the other hand, power without wisdom, is a recipe for brutality and is quite frightening.

God’s wisdom is known only in conjunction with the ends which he pursues. If we do not know what God desires, if we do not know the goal he has in his mind, if we do not know why he created, then his wisdom will be cloaked forever from our eyes. Many think that the comfort and happiness of people is the only end or goal for a loving God. With such ideas, many people are disappointed at even the slightest inconvenience and certainly at even the lightest brushstroke of pain. Packer makes a great statement in relation to this:

“God’s wisdom is not, and never was, a pledge to keep a fallen world happy, or to make ungodliness comfortable. Not even to Christians has he promised a trouble free life; rather the reverse. He has other ends in view for life in this world than simply to make it easy for everyone”

Packer 91,92

Obviously this continues to raise the question – what is the end toward which God created the world (This, mind you, was the topic of a book published by Jonathan Edwards, and republished in its entirely in 1998 within John Piper’s God’s Passion for His Glory – Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards)

The end of God? His end is his own renown and glory to be magnified and enjoyed…that people might see and savor him and respond in love, honor, praise, and in turn be satisfied and find joy in Him. God created the world not out of need, but out of a desire to show and display all that he is to creatures he created. Is God a show-off – appropriately so. As he shows himself – reveals himself to us – we find the greatest longings we have are fulfilled in him. Infinite Love, Infinite Beauty, the fountain of all Truth, the deepest relationship we are created for – creature and creator together.

The remaining parts of the chapter deal with God’s teaching of various OT patriarchs (Abraham, Jacob, Joseph) and how God taught them to value what is valuable throughout their lives. Perhaps a great definition for human wisdom was given in Packer’s thoughts on Abraham. I will close with his words:

“What Abraham needed most was to learn the practice of living in God’s presence, seeing all life in relation to him, and looking to him, and him alone, as Commander, Defender, and Rewarder.”

Packer 93.

Such is a proper end for our lives as well…

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Most nights I speak blessings over my oldest daughter - tonight I found out she had been listening. Tonight at bed time - Kayla laid her hand upon my cheek and said "God, may you bless Daddy, may you grant him peace, may you protect him all of life, amen!"

Melted...

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Lation – majestas – greater – God is majestic in his character, he is unparalleled in his lofty position of highest greatness. Packer tells us that the word majesty when applied to God is always a declaration of his greatness and an invitation to worship. (Packer – 82). So many of the people we meet today are in no way majestic. In fact it is very rare that you meet a woman or man today that inspires much of anything in you. But O’ to know one who is great, pure, wondrous, and inspiring – the heroes of men inspire such thoughts, but how miniscule in comparison to the majesty and greatness of God.

Packer discusses the seeming lack of knowledge today of the greatness of God. Even though our doctrine may be correct, we may state to ourselves God is great, yet it seems like a child’s prayer at meal time rather than the apprehension of divine greatness. Today’s evangelical landscape is littered with small thinking about God – there are very few breath taking visions of God today. Packer echos this feeling as one reads many of our evangelical forbearers – Luther, Edwards, Whitfield. Our God is the same, but our modern vision of him seems stuck in neutral in comparison to the awe felt upon the soul of these great men as they meditated on the nature of God.

Packer seems to indicate that by over emphasizing the personal nature of God, that modern believers have domesticated God into a small, close, and the same type of thing we are – he is personal, like I am personal (weak, inadequate, needy, dependent on human responses or not, waiting helplessly for people to give him a hand…a little pathetic). This is not the Biblical view of the personal nature of God. Personal in his nature, not an impersonal force or principle, but lofty and majestic in his person – yet he chooses to relate to his created order…including me.

Packer goes on to give us to helpful points in forming our idea of God’s greatness:

1. Remove from our thoughts of God limits that would make him small – Completely explode all limitations from our thinking about God…His wisdom, knowledge, presence, etc. are infinite and should not be thought as small
2. Compare him with powers and forces which we regard as great – Nothing great in our world – our works, our nation states, our empires, our planet, great leaders, and the c-osmos itself (Carl Sagan had too small an object for his wonder and worship) are great in their greatness in comparison to God.

Packer closes the chapter with a comment on how finite, small, human beings ought to respond to the majestic creator. Remove from our minds wrong thoughts about God (that he is small and humanlike), remove from our thoughts wrong thoughts about ourselves (no room for pessimism about your state if you have been shown the grace and love of God), and finally in acknowledging God as God – the great one – we ought to wait in patient meditation on Him as he fills our hearts with adoration.

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Picking up again with my Journaling on Knowing God…

Chapter 7 is the first chapter of Part II of the book entitled Behold Your God! Packer begins the chapter 7 – which is on God’s unchanging or immutable nature with an interesting introduction. He digs into the existential angst felt by many a believer feels in connecting to the world of the Bible. The ancient world of the Scripture is very different than our own. It had its own languages, its own customs, many religions, and some forms of human existence that just seem bizarre to modern readers. Additionally, there are glorious and spectacular things at play in the world of the Bible – we feel our lives to be somehow disconnected from such divine movements in space and time.

Brief Aside For now I will just withhold comment on how that world as well as our own were not filled with “every day miracles” – but the miracles throughout history have served a specific purpose in revealing God’s redemptive plan. Equally, the every day regularity has a voice displaying God’s nature and glory to us as well – the vastness of the heavens speak of the glory of God (Psalm 19), the regularity of seasons speaks of God’s providential provision for us (Acts 14) … so I would say whether miraculous or gloriously “normal” – this world is infused with meaning and the fingerprints of God.

Packer’s solution to the time-epoch disconnect between or day and ancient days past is that we can be certain that the God who was at work in the Scriptures is the same God we walk with today. This truth is rooted in an attribute of the infinite one; the attribute of divine immutability.

Biblical data for God’s immutability is in abundance in this chapter and Packer goes to great length to establish the unchanging essence of God

His life does not change

• His is from all eternity – Psalm 93:2
• He is the eternal King – Jeremiah 10:10
• He alone is immortal – 1 Timothy 6:10
• He utterly stays the same Psalm 102:26, 27

A.W Pink summed it up well in stating this attribute in the light of God’s perfection: “He cannot change for the better, for he is already perfect; and being perfect, he cannot change for the worse.”

Quoted in JI Packer, Knowing God, Americanized Edition (Downers Grove: IL, Intervarsity Press, 1993) 77.

His character does not change

• God IS who He IS – Exodus 3:14
• He has no variation or shadow due to change – James 1:17

His truth does not change

• His Word will endure forever – Isaiah 40:6-8
• His Word is eternal and stands firm – Psalm 119:89
• His commands are true – Psalm 119:151-52

God’s ways do not change

God continues to act in the ways he did in the time of the Scriptures – we can be sure he will continue to be who he is, act in the ways he acted; he never will act out of character. This by no means makes God predictably, for he is mysterious in his ways, but it does make him incredibly trustworthy as we works out his good and perfect will in our lives.

God’s purposes do not change

• He does not change his mind (literally, have regret) – 1 Samuel 15:29
• He does not lie nor promise without fulfillment – Numbers 23:19

  Again a great quote from Pink:
  One of two things that cause a man to change his mind and reverse his plans: want of foresight to anticipate everything, or lack of foresight to execute them. But God is both omniscient and omnipotent there is never any need for him to revise his decrees

Quoted in JI Packer, Knowing God, Americanized Edition (Downers Grove: IL, Intervarsity Press, 1993) 77.

God’s Son does not change

• Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever – Hebrews 13:8

I thoroughly delight in the contemplation of God being an immutable being. How great it is to know, love and worship one who is not a fair weather person. A person who is one way when the fair winds blow east and the other when the gales blow westward.

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I love my family deeply and when they are sick or hurting it takes a toll on us all. The past few days our little baby has been sick and now my wife has come down with an intestinal issue as well. I hope that it will soon pass and their health will soon return.

Tonight we had our first gathering of leaders for our new young adult ministry - Inversion Fellowship. I am thankful to work with the next generation and to help them see and savor God - to love him with their minds, to think, to care, to set their hands to a Kingdom plow to be agents of redemption in culture and the world.

Continuing a read in the life of Jonathan Edwards - the question now is can one accept the theological vision of a thinker, yet reject parts of his metaphysical framework - I think yes. It has been good to linger some days in the 18th century - in the fresh and difficult soil of the new nation - soon to be called the United States. It has been a great progress for me not to romanticize eras past (be it the 13th century Christian philosphers, the birth of the University, and faith/reason in concert together, or the fresh fires of the Great Awakening in Edwards time) while feeling the fresh breeze of history upon the soul. It is a great debt I owe to many people who encouraged me to think, to read, to read old books, and history.

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We worship one God in trinity, and trinity in unity, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance. For the person of the Father is one; of the Son, another; of the Holy Spirit, another. But the divinity of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one, the glory equal, the majesty equal.

Such as is the Father, such also is the Son, and such the Holy Spirit. The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, the Holy Spirit is uncreated. The Father is infinite, the Son is infinite, the Holy Spirit is infinite. The Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, the Holy Spirit is eternal. And yet there are not three eternal Beings, but one eternal Being. So also there are not three uncreated Beings, nor three infinite Beings, but one uncreated and one infinite Being.

From the Athanasian Creed — 5th century

The Christian faith is centered on the triune God. The trinity, trinitas, the divine three-in-one is not an old relic of ideas believed in days past, but the essential metaphysical reality of the creator God himself. One being, one essence, eternally existent in three persons – this is our God.

I had often wondered why in our leading and discipling the teaching of the doctrine of the Trinity has not taken a more central role. In my former campus ministry, we would teach new believer follow-up without a strong a focus on the Trinity. God the Father? Yes. Jesus the Son? Yes. Even, the role of the Holy Spirit, yes we teach this to new Christians. But the godhead – the Trinity is left for later days with new believers. I was a bit uncomfortable with this as the very uniqueness of the God of the Bible (as opposed to many flavors of Theism which abound) was being overlooked at times.

Packer does a great job in laying out a brief statement of the Trinity:

• The Son is Subject to the Father, for the Son is sent by the Father in his (the Father’s name)
• The Spirit is subject to the Father, for the Spirit is sent by the Father in the Son’s name
• The Spirit is subject to the Son as well as to the Father, for the Spirit is sent by the Son as well as the Father

JI Packer, Knowing God, Americanized Edition (Downers Grove: IL, Intervarsity Press, 1993) 67, 68.

The chapter closes with a discussion of the various roles and importance of the Holy Spirit. He is the source and inspiration of the New Testament – inspiring the biblical authors. He is the reason people are convicted of sin and converted to be followers of Christ. He is the source of power which accompanies the preaching of the gospel, which no human device or gimmick can mimic.

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Classic, goofy, cold war, US vs. USSR movie last night - spent a little down time watching Rocky IV. Great soundtrack - At UNC we used to lift weights to that pumped up, fighting against all odds, kinda music. Though the music is good, the movie is very cheesy...probably wasted an hour on that one. --------

I have recently begun an adventure that I am currently calling Logic with a Three Year Old. I am seeking to acquaint my daughter Kayla with the fundamentals of thinking (and a philsophical realism) and it has produced some fun and hilarious moments. We may not make it all the way towards something like this:

1. Being Is (B is) = The Principle of Existence.
2. Being Is Being (B is B) = The Principle of Identity.
3. Being Is Not Nonbeing (B is Not Non-B) = The Principle of Noncontradiction.
4. Either Being or Nonbeing (Either B or Non-B) = The Principle of the Excluded Middle.
5. Nonbeing Cannot Cause Being (Non-B > B) = The Principle of Causality.
6. Contingent Being Cannot Cause Contingent Being (Bc > Bc) = The Principle of Contingency (or Dependency).
7. Only Necessary Being Can Cause a Contingent Being (Bn → Bc) = The Positive Principle of Modality.
8. Necessary Being Cannot Cause a Necessary Being (Bn > Bn) = The Negative Principle of Modality.
9. Every Contingent Being Is Caused by a Necessary Being (Bn → Bc) = The Principle of Existential Causality.
10. Necessary Being exists = Principle of Existential Necessity (Bn exists).
11. Contingent being exists = Principle of Existential Contingency (Bc exists).
12. Necessary Being is similar to similar contingent being(s) it causes = Principle of Analogy (Bn — similar → Bc).

Geisler, Norman L. Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics. Baker reference library. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1999.

But we have started with 1 (being) and 2 (indentity) and are slowly moving to non-contradiction and excluded middle. Methodilogically we are using funny little song/poem/couplets to have fun with this - we giggle and laugh and have a great time :)

She already gets #1 (in fact, most of these are self-evident to most people).
1. Something is!
2. Here is where we are today:

Something is, what something is
A dog is a dog, a cat is a cat
Annnnnnnnd a cat's not a dog and a dog is not a cat
The Law of Identity - how about that!

Anyway, further evidence that I am weird.

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The crucial significance of the cradle at Bethlehem lies in its place in the sequence of steps down that led the Son of God to the cross of Calvary.

JI Packer, Knowing God, Americanized Edition (Downers Grove: IL, Intervarsity Press, 1993) 58.

Packer then delves into some discussion of kenosis theory (see link for explanation) – rejecting it for many problems, primarily it does violence to the New Testament teaching that Jesus exhibited the attributes of deity – and in no way laid them off in becoming man. I don’t have the time today to go into all the issues surrounding this discussion – but found it interesting. I do think that Packer’s solution in the Father by his will constrained the action and knowledge of the Son is on its face satisfactory – but, I already sense he has unsolved problems that remain. For instance, if by fiat the Father constrained the knowledge of the Son for a time on earth – then it seems we cannot avoid the conclusion that their was a time that in the Son – omniscience was not quite “omni” – The essential divine trinity maintained omniscience – but the person of the Son had less than full knowledge at a certain time. This perhaps can be focused in the person of the Son and not in the essence of God – but this starts to sound like some sort of kenotic theory. But perhaps this is where Packer lands on Page 59 – a voluntary laying aside of certain glory, restraining his power to take on a poor and lowly estate on our behalf. Interesting but I must move on

Packer sees the Incarnation – the highest of beings, stooping low to serve, to redeem, to be made poor and die on our behalf as something which should cause us a believers to be humbled and serve likewise. I could not agree more with his assessment of many of us today on page 63:

Nor is it the spirit (of the incarnation) of those Christians—alas, they are many—whose ambition in life seems limited to building a nice middle class Christian home, and making nice middle-class Christian friends, and bring up their children in nice middle-class Christian ways, and who leave the submiddle-class sections of the community, Christian and non-Christian to get on by themselves.

JI Packer, Knowing God, Americanized Edition (Downers Grove: IL, Intervarsity Press, 1993) 63.

Packer says this is not the way of Jesus in the Incarnation but rather:

For the Christmas Spirit is the spirit of those who, like their master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor – spending and being spent – to enrich their fellow humans, giving time, trouble, care and concern , to do good to others – and not just their own friends – in whatever way their seems need.

Ibid, 64.

I must echo an Amen and a Prayer – Lord rescue me from such ends as well.

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