Some time ago, I preached on Nehemiah 5:1-13. This text provides us with a vivid example for how God’s people ought to respond to the plight of the exploited and oppressed. In verses 1-5, we see that the poor are crying out in anguish because of the oppression of the Israelites. As verse 1 says, “Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.” The following verses explain the ways in which they're being oppressed and exploited. But then in verses 6-13, we see Nehemiah’s Christ-like response to their cries.
First, Nehemiah listens (vs 6). He doesn’t dismiss them. He doesn’t try to explain away their suffering. He doesn’t tell them that they should have been more responsible. Instead, he opens his ears and listens. Likewise, we are called to listen to the cries of the exploited and oppressed. We ought not dismiss the oppressed as if they can’t be relied upon to testify to the injustices they’ve experienced. They know more about their own experiences than we do.
Second, Nehemiah gets angry (vs 6). Anger is a dangerous emotion. It is a sneaky and intoxicating thing. And yet, there is such a thing as righteous anger. God gets angry at injustice and so should we. If we don’t get angry at injustice, something is wrong with our moral compass. Our anger should never be inordinate or misdirected, and we should never let it control us or cause us to sin. But we should be angry over what makes God angry.
Third, Nehemiah defends (vs 7-13). He holds a great assembly, rebukes those who oppressed their brothers and sisters, and establishes reforms the city of Jerusalem. This reflects the hearts of our God as the one who is the “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows” (Psalm 68:5), the Refuge of the poor (Psalm 14:6), and who rises to the defense when the poor and needy groan (Psalm 12:5).
Church, how we treat the poor and the exploited is a true and telling test of our character. Do we listen to the poor and exploited? Do we get angry about the injustices they face? Do we defend them? These are important questions because ultimately they’re questions that reflect the heart and character of God. As a community we’re called to reflect the character of God. And he is the God who is the defender of the poor, who listens to the cries of the weak and oppressed.
And not only that, but realize that we a worship a God who became poor, needy, and helpless. We worship a God who subjected himself to injustice so that we could be forgiven, restored, and included in his family. He heard our cries as we sat under the oppression of satan, sin, and death. He came to us, as Mark 10:45 tells us, not be served, but serve and give his life as a ransom for many. Now, he commissions us to go tell the world that good news and to reflect his care and concern for the oppressed and exploited as we do. And as we do so, our service is counted as service to him (Matthew 25:40). May we hear and heed this call.
- Pastor Garrison Greene
Love is Owed
Do you owe your neighbor love? The Apostle Paul says yes:
“Owe no one anything, except to love each other.” - Romans 13:8
“Owe no one anything” is in reference to the verse above it, where the Apostle Paul exhorts God’s people to pay taxes and others debts they’re obligated to pay. He wants God’s people to have integrity in their financial obligations. However, he says that one thing we will always owe others is our love. Love is a debt we will never pay in full. This flies in the face of the way that many of us think about love in our society. We often think of love for neighbor as a favor or a mercy, not an obligation. But in fact, the testimony of Scripture would condemn this.
Going all the way back to the beginning, in Genesis, we find that humanity is made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-28) and that we all descend from the same first parents. One implication of this, as Herman Bavinck put it so well, is that “Humanity is not an aggregate of individuals but an organic unity, one race, one family.” This is the basis for why we owe love to one another. John Calvin reasons this way when he wrote, “whatever man you meet who needs your aid, you have no reason to refuse to help him. Say, ‘He is a stranger’ but the Lord has given him a mark that ought to be familiar to you, by virtue of the fact that he forbids you to despise your own flesh (Isa 58:7).”
No doubt, by now you have heard the news about George Floyd and his being mercilessly killed by a Minneapolis Police officer several days ago. And no doubt, you have heard the cries of lament resounding from the mouths of many black Americans across the United States. The fact that George Floyd was, along with all our black neighbors, created in the image of God, demands that we respond with listening ears, compassionate hearts, and hands ready to act. To do so is not a mercy; it’s not a favor. It is an obligation. It is owed.
- Pastor Garrison Greene
Pillars of Truth
“A pillar and buttress of the truth.” (1 Timothy 3:15)
This is what the Apostle Paul calls the church. Admittedly, if this were not in Scripture and I heard someone refer to the church as such, my inclination would be to correct them by letting them know that the Scriptures are the pillar and buttress of the truth. Not the church. However, the Apostle’s view of the church is that she upholds the truth concerning our God and our Christ which is found in the word of God. She upholds it by understanding it, defending it, and propagating it throughout the world. This is a high calling, and one that we still must aspire to today. And today, there are a couple matters of application that we should consider:
First, as a pillar and buttress of the truth, we must be people who spread truth instead of lies. In our cultural moment, the truth is a precious commodity. Social media has made it far too easy for lies and half truths to be propagated. Because this is true, we should refrain from propagating conspiracy theories, news reports that are so obviously swayed by extreme bias, and unverifiable claims. If we can’t be trusted to propagate the truth in these matters, we won’t be trusted concerning the truth of Christ and his gospel. Furthermore, these fast paced forms of communication have decreased our capacity for nuance and multi-perspectival understandings of complex realities. This should give us pause before hitting the retweet button or publicly sharing our thoughts prematurely. Our failures on this front compromise our witness as a pillar and buttress of the truth.
Second, as a pillar and buttress of the truth, we must be people who are primarily concerned with communicating and defending the truth concerning Jesus Christ. As God's people, we're called to be more passionate about sharing the truth of the gospel than we are our opinions on political issues or current events. If we find that the content of our conversations and our posts on social media are dominated by politics and current events, we can be confident that our hearts are not dazzled by the beauty and goodness of Jesus Christ like they should be. The gospel of Christ is the truth the church upholds. But we won’t seek to uphold the truth concerning Jesus Christ if our hearts are not compelled to do so by love and adoration of him.
Friends, we’re called to be a pillar and buttress of the truth, even in the midst of a relativistic age. If we have failed in this, then we must again return to Christ, set the eyes of our hearts upon him through his word, and be dazzled by his beauty and goodness.
- Pastor Garrison Greene
Talk to Yourself
In a recent sermon, I gave the application that sometimes we need to talk to ourselves. We need to address ourselves and give ourselves a heavy dose of truth—especially when we’re most tempted to believe in the lies of the world, the flesh, and the devil. This is not an idea that originated with me. It’s something the Psalmist does:
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God. (Psalm 42:5-6)
The great expositor, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, wrote a wonderful book called Spiritual Depression wherein he advises those of us struggling with depression to begin practicing this discipline. He says:
Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in Psalm 42] was this: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says, “Self, listen for moment, I will speak to you.
No doubt, many of us are experiencing seasons of darkness and difficulty. In such seasons, we must remind our hearts of the truths and promises of God’s word. And in order to do that, we must occasionally talk to ourselves.
- Pastor Garrison Greene
Pray Without Ceasing
Rejoice always,
pray without ceasing
give thanks in all circumstances;
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thess. 5:17-18
“A prayerless person is ungrateful because he doesn’t thank God. He is self-righteous because he doesn’t confess his sins to God. He is self-centered because he doesn’t ask God to bless other people. He is presumptuous because he doesn’t pray for his daily needs. He is irreverent because he doesn’t praise God. And he is unfriendly to God because his prayerlessness evidences that he doesn’t enjoy being with God.” - Greg Nichols
Meditation
In our first blog post, you were encouraged from Psalm 1 to base your life on and to meditate upon Scripture. This invitation included the promise that, by doing so, you will truly flourish as a human being. Even in the midst of bleak circumstances and desert conditions, you can be like a tree whose leaves never wither and who’s spiritual fruit is yielded in season (Ps. 1:3).
Returning to this particular text, we would do well to reflect on the nature of meditation. The flourishing human is one who “delights in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1:2). What is meditation? The biblical concept of meditation is much different than what many understand meditation to be, in that it is often conceived as the pursuit of emptying the mind. In contrast, the biblical concept involves filling the mind with Scripture. J.I. Packer defines it as “prayerfully [reading] and [reflecting] upon Holy Scripture according to its intended meaning, with openness to personal spiritual direction from God.”
Such a practice would involve marinating in Scripture. Marinating is slow work. Some poultry can marinate for even up to 24 hours. For you vegetarians, I imagine tofu takes even longer because it tastes so bad. Similarly, marinating your mind in Scripture would take a slow, repetitive, gentle reading of Scripture. Read it over and over, reflecting on every word and phrase. It could also include memorizing. Reading and repeating a text over and over again, and thereby committing it to memory will help you return to it throughout the day. Which will help, lastly, with minding the text. We don’t simply meditate on Scripture to receive new information, but for the purpose of transformation. In it, we receive spiritual direction from God which we’re to apply to our lives. Is there a promise to trust, a statement to believe, or a commandment to obey? The text we’ve marinated in and memorized, ought to always lead to our minding what it says.
And if we do marinate in, memorize, and mind the Scriptures, we can rest assured that even in the desert of this pandemic, we can bear spiritual fruit for our good and the good of our neighbors, and for the glory of God (For further reflection, read Psalm 1 and Galatians 5:16-26).
- Pastor Garrison Greene
Lament
I cry aloud to God,
aloud to God, and he will hear me.
In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;
in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;
my soul refuses to be comforted.
When I remember God, I moan;
when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah
(Psalm 77:1-3)
Psalm 77 belongs to the category of Psalms often referred to as “Psalms of Lament.” If you’ve been at Veritas for any length of time, you are likely familiar with these Psalms and with the practice of lament. The idea is basic enough: we bring our sorrows to God in prayer and song. Sometimes this takes place communally, and sometimes individually, like in Psalm 77.
A significant question put to us when we read such Psalms is this: What do we do with our sorrows? The reality is, we all face adversity and affliction in this life. We all face what is often referred to as “the dark night of the soul.” We are in the midst of a kind of collective dark night of the soul right now. The entirety of the globe is walking through the valley of the shadow of death. So, in the midst of this valley, what do we do with our sorrows and sadness, our difficulties and distress, our fears and feelings of brokenness?
The Psalmist, here Asaph, shows that the proper place for our sorrow and sadness is not in the driver’s seat of our lives, nor in the trunk. We might all have our particular proclivities: some of us are tempted to put our feelings in the driver’s seat, letting them control our thoughts and lives. Others might be tempted to put them in the trunk, and pretend they’re not there or that they’re not significant. Here, Asaph shows that the proper place for these feelings is in dialogue with the Triune God. If you are scared, sad, or suffering, your God and Savior invites you to bring your troubles to him and lay them at his feet.
- Pastor Garrison Greene
Spiritual Warfare
Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might (Ephesians 6:10)
For several weeks, I have been reflecting on Ephesians 6:10-20. If you’re not familiar, this is a passage of Scripture that speaks to our calling as Christians to engage in spiritual warfare. Now it might be tempting for your mind to immediately think of The Exorcist and extraordinary phenomena that typically is associated with the phrase. However, to think of the term in that way is to define it too narrowly.
We should, rather, think of spiritual warfare as part of our vocational call as Christians to push back darkness and to battle against the schemes of Satan. Those schemes could at times involve extraordinary encounters. And yet, more often than not, the tactics of Satan and demons are far more subtle and subversive. As Dallas Willard once pointed out, when Satan attacked Eve in the garden, he didn’t hit her with a stick but with an idea. His sly tactics usually involve undermining the word of God and calling into question the truths therein. During these difficult times, he might be calling into question the truth that God is your ever watchful Shepherd; that God has promised to always care for you, provide for you, and protect you. He might be calling into question the certainty of your salvation in Christ, and thus trying to steal away your assurance and joy.
What then shall you do? Engage in spiritual warfare. How do you do that? Read Ephesians 6:10-20 and see exhortations that involve prayer, taking up God’s word, living in obedience to God’s word, enlisting others in your church family, and more. But it all begins with the most foundational truth of living and fighting from your union with Christ. Notice how Paul says to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Where does your strength to fight come from? Christ. To whom are you covenantally and spiritually united forever, through the Holy Spirit? Christ. He is with you. He is your strength. And he fully equips you. Therefore, as you battle to believe God’s word and to be assured of your salvation in these troubled times, let your union with Christ be your foundation.
- Pastor Garrison Greene
A Good Friday Meditation
Psalm 22 describes the sufferings of Jesus of Nazareth on a Roman cross. The Psalm begins with the cry of dereliction, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (22:1)—words we hear from Jesus’s mouth while he hangs on the cross, arms stretched wide (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34). Despised and rejected, mocked and mutilated, he says of himself, “I am a worm and not a man” (22:6-8). His enemies surround him, his strength dries up, his body declines (22:14-18). Suffering. Asphyxiating. Tortured. He finally breaths his last and dies on a Roman cross like so many before him.
And yet this is no ordinary death. Psalm 22 was written around a thousand years before the actual event of Christ’s crucifixion and death, reminding us that “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3). This was planned. Who would plan such a thing? The One dying. Why? Because this is the penalty that we deserve for our rebellion against the God who created us, and his dying in our place is the only way that we can be forgiven, reconciled, and saved. As a fourth century pastor named Ambrose once said about Psalm 22, “[Christ] became all these things so that he might dull the sting of our death, that he might take away our state of slavery, that he might wipe away our curses, sins, and reproaches.” He became a slave so that you might be free. He suffered so that you might flourish. He died so that you might live. Therefore, on this Good Friday, remember him, turn to him, and worship him as your Savior and Redeemer (22:27).
- Pastor Garrison Greene
Resilient Hope
Psalm 1 depicts a person who is flourishing. The Psalmist describes this person as being “like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither" (vs. 3). Being a Psalm that was likely written in exile, the vision one should have is a tree one might find in the middle of a desert land. The stream is likely an irrigation canal dug so that people had access to water. Because of this canal, a tree is able to be planted and to flourish in a place where trees are a rarity. In this analogy then, this flourishing person is able to abound and flourish even in the midst of bleak and dismal circumstances.
The reason this person flourishes? Instead of basing their life on the ways and patterns of this world, this person bases their life on the precious word of God. Instead of walking on the path of wickedness and sin (vs. 1), “his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night” (vs. 2).
No doubt, we find ourselves living in bleak and troubled times. But even in the midst of them, we can be people who flourish. Like a tree in the desert, we can be those who bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We can be a non-anxious presence in our society. We can be people of resilient hope. We can be this kind of people as we, empowered by God’s Spirit, root ourselves in God’s word.
Perhaps you have found yourself with more time on your hands due to the stay home order, issued by our Governor. Rather than seeing this as a time to cultivate an addiction to social media or binge watch every season of The Office on Netflix, receive this as a time to meditate on God’s word day and night. Receive this as a time to memorize particular Scripture passages that bring you comfort in these turbulent times. Receive this as a time to base your life on the truths and promises of God’s word. If you do, you will be like a tree planted by streams of water.
- Pastor Garrison Greene