• A yearly pension of £693,000 for the former boss of a bank which recorded losses last year of £24 billion.
• People investing for years in pension schemes only to see them crash and leave them with nothing.
• Banks pulling in loans on little customers while writing off colossal debts of bigger ones as ‘unrecoverable’.
• Bankers playing games with figures on paper, while mounting massive debts.
• Chairmen and directors creaming off profits while those at the bottom of the chain get ripped off.
• Developers and banks causing the problems, farmers and the man in the street left to shoulder the burden.
• Small businesses crushed out of existence because bigger ones wouldn’t pay what they owed.
• Faithful customers who regularly pay on time footing the bill for those who don’t.

**********

Countless other examples could be given.  It seems so unfair.  What do we do?  Four options are: join in, be indifferent, get angry, or despair.

Nothing much needs to be said about joining in.  It’s just wrong.

Indifference is a self-centred response—“Me and mine are ok, so I don’t care about anyone else”.  But it all changes suddenly when we find out that we are affected.

Anger is fruitless.  We get angry and frustrated because we feel—rightly—that something should be done about it, yet we feel so impotent.  Even at a basic level we have very little by way of comeback.

Or we despair, simply because we feel there is nothing we can do.  What’s the point of trying to be decent and save, and invest wisely, and be a good consumer?  And how are we going to cope with these difficulties?  It leads to cynicism and a consuming bitterness that eats away at our souls.

Thankfully there is a fifth option.  What does God’s word have to say?  Psalm 37 is particularly relevant; here are some of its verses (although I’d encourage you to read it all):

“Do not fret because of evil men
or be envious of those who do wrong;
for like the grass they will soon wither,
like green plants they will soon die away.
Trust in the Lord and do good…
Delight yourself in the Lord
Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him and he will do this:
He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;
do not fret—it leads only to evil.
The wicked borrow and do not repay…
those the Lord blesses will inherit the land…
For the Lord loves the just
and will not forsake his faithful ones.
They will be protected forever,
but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off.

The songwriter acknowledges that life is unfair, but the day is coming when all will give account—they will only get away with it for so long.  God sees, and God takes note.

Instead of anger, he calls us to trust in a God who promises to judge all injustice, especially that which oppresses the poor and the needy (v14).  Instead of despair he calls us to trust in a God who will provide for his people.  Instead of joining in, he calls us to continue living justly, knowing that the time will come when God will reward our obedience.

But there is little point taking comfort in the fact that God’s justice will catch up with others, for it will also catch up with us—and so we need someone to bail us out, not a bank, but the Son of God.

Mark Dever interviews Don Carson about his books – sounds tediously dull, but Don Carson has written some of the best books across a wide range of subjects for Christians.

Think of it more as an introduction to Carson’s books and what to look for. Its also has a couple of great insights into the man himself.

You can find it here

My picks of Carson’s books are:

Difficult Doctrine of the love of God – short and very sweet.  Top notch theology in asmall space.

Sermon on the Mount – first Carson I read

Basics for Believers – Philippians

A Call to Spiritual Reformation – Studies in Paul’s prayers which will deeply change your prayer life.

Letters along the way – as Dever notes a ridiculously underrated book, full of wisdom for students and anyone starting the Christian life.  Set in the form of letters to a young Christian.

King James Version Debate – sanity reigns amidst the silliness

John – Not like his other commentaries, this one is a biggie – but top notch.

Christianaudio.com is offering Don Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life for free. If you haven’t come across it, it’s a great book. Get it now while you can. Listen to it, and put it into practice.

(There’s probably an ironic kickback in the title somewhere!)

One of the problems with people finding the beautiful clear refreshing God-centred streams of the Bible’s teaching on God’s sovereignty in salvation is that it goes to their head.

Literally to their head – bypassing their heart.  It makes such beautiful sense, that ironically they begin to think that they discovered it, and that with simple brainpower alone it can be battered into the skull of anyone they come across.

But if it has only grabbed your head, and not yet your heart, then you aren’t ready to explain it to anyone–because you don’t get it.

Here’s a cracking cartoon which makes the same point.  Read and enjoy.

Garda (police for those of you not in Ireland) officers have at long last caught up with the notorious Polish driver Prawo Jazdy.  He has numerous offences all over the country, given a string of false addresses, and eluded fixed penalty charges.

Eventually some bright officer twigged the Prawo Jazdy means Driving Licence in Polish. Officers thought they were writing down a person’s name but were meticulously copying down the document name.

Almost too good to be true.

Read more here

Dan Phillips has a great series going on over at Pyromaniacs.  The posts consist of a very short response to common rubbish throw at Christians.  They aren’t just mouthiness, but deep.  They pull the rug out from under the person.  Consider dropping by and perusing.  Pay attention to the first post in the series, and also to the discussion of each post where he waits for input before unpacking the thing.

Next 1 – Homosexuality (including intro)
Next 2 – The invisibility of God
Next 3 – Is Jesus the only way?
Next 4 – Making whatever you want out of the Bible

From Ed Clowney in “Preaching Christ in All of Scripture”:

On one occasion I had tea with Martyn Lloyd-Jones in Ealing, London, and decided to ask him a question that concerned me. “Dr. Lloyd-Jones,” I said, “How can I tell whether I am preaching in the energy of the flesh or in the power of the Spirit?”

“That is very easy,” Lloyd-Jones replied, as I shriveled. “If you are preaching in the energy of the flesh, you will feel exalted and lifted up. If you are preaching in the power of the Spirit, you will feel awe and humility.”

I shriveled too in reading this.  I wonder if I have ever preached at all?  One or twice I can have felt utter awe.  Too often I have felt lifted up.

I’ve come to Lamentations on my way through the Bible.  It’s nice to get to those shorter books that you can scratch off the list in a single sitting.

Or so I thought.

But I’ve come to a screeching halt in Lamentations.  The car has broken down and I may be here for some time.

I want to suggest that you read Lamentations slowly.  Now I know about the original context–Jeremiah lamenting over teh fall of Jerusalem at the hands of Babylon.  It know that it’s theme is summed up in ch3:23 “Great is your faithfuless”.  But before you jump to that, stay a while a ponder the earlier chapters; ponder slowly.

And ponder with these thoughts in mind:

• This is the lament of someone who has seen the wrath of God close up
• This is the lament of someone who feels forsaken
• This is the lament for the wrath on God being poured out on his Chosen People (Jerusalem) who had rebelled
• Jesus came to take the place of God’s chosen people, to bear God’s wrath, to be in the place of the rebels who inhabited God’s Kingdom, so that we could be citizens of the new Jerusalem.
• In your reading let the phrases Jerusalem, Daughter of Zion, Zion, the city point you to Christ.  In Lamentations they refer to Jerusalem – I’m not even sure we can see them as a direct prophecy of Christ, but since this judgment is a foreshadowing of the great judgment, first experienced by Jesus, and then by all who reject Jesus’ offer to bear their judgment, then we are able to see them as pointing to the Great Sufferer.
• Now ask yourself – What glimpse to I get into the sufferings of Christ as I read these words?
• Then say to yourself – This is only the foreshadowing of the wrath he bore, the wrath he bore was far worse.

Then perhaps like me you will grind to a halt in Lamentations.

Over the next few days I’m going to post some verses and thoughts on where they point us.  But let me encourage you to read it for yourself.  Note – there will be details that don’t quite fit.  Leave them aside, and focus on what does fit.

“How deserted lies the city”
The abandonment of Christ, deserted, forsaken.

“She who was queen among the provinces has now become a slave”
He was the the King of Heaven, bedecked in splendour, who became a slave, to that we who were slaves to sin, could become Sons of the King

“Bitterly she weeps at night, ears are upon her cheeks.
Among all her lovers there is none to comfort her.
All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.”
Gethsemane, sorrowing unto death, his friends asleep, Judas coming to betray, his disciples fleeing.

Here’s what I’ve been listening to this last week or so that has been worth listening to:

Dale Ralph Davis on preaching the Old Testament -
Talk 1, Talk 2, Talk 3 - superb (recording quality not so good in places) Well worth listening to even if you are not a preacher.

Gordon Fee on How to read the Bible

First two lectures very good – third more of a bible overview and good, but I was familiar with the content.

Why Christians Read Their Bibles Poorly
Some Helps Toward Good Reading
Why Read the Bible Well?

If you have Dale Ralph Davis’ book The Word became Fresh and you are a minister you may be rather peeved that it has no scripture index.  That was my feeling this morning and so I went poking around the web before wasting a half hour making one, and I came across some genius who had already done it, far more comprehensively than I would have.

Here it is – if you print it out as two pages on one A4 it can be handily trimmed to fit in the back of the book.  He has also included an illustratin index.  The guy is a genius!

Well done Peter Whyte – we who are about to download salute you!