R. Albert Mohler Jr.'s Blog, page 206

Monday, Nov. 19, 2018

In victory for religious liberty, Trump administration grants relief from contraceptive mandate for religious organizationsWall Street Journal (Editors) — An Unnecessary Culture War

Journalism redefined: How the moral revolution requires changes in every dimension of the cultureNew York Times (Christina Caron) — In ‘Rainbow Wave,’ L.G.B.T. Candidates Are Elected in Record Numbers

Desperation of pro-abortion movement on full display as activists launch online abortion pill servicePhiladelphia Inquirer (Marie McCullough) — Online abortion pills come to the U.S., as the right to abortion is on the line

Why all of our political struggles shouldn’t be reduced to a Manichean conflict between absolute goodness and absolute evilNew York Times (Charles M. Blow) — You Have a Right to WearinessNew York Times (Timothy Egan) — Good News: Democracy Has a PulseNew York Times (Paul Krugman) — Real America Versus Senate America

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Friday, Nov. 16, 2018

Bringing together a divided America: Congress poised to pass bipartisan criminal justice reform New York Times (Nicholas Fandos and Maggie Haberman) — Trump Embraces a Path to Revise U.S. Sentencing and Prison LawsNew York Times (Shaila Dewan and Carl Hulse) — Republicans and Democrats Cannot Agree on Absolutely Anything. Except This.

Sovereignty, subsidiarity, and the future of Europe: What the Brexit deal tells us about the prospect of the EU

What Amazon's plans for HQ2 can teach us about the intersection of economics and the Christian worldview?New York Times (Karen Weise and J. David Goodman) — Before a Deal, Amazon Had to Know: Could Cuomo and De Blasio Get Along?Wall Street Journal (Editors) — What Is Amazon Getting From New York City and Virginia?

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Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018

Transgender rights trump protecting women as Anchorage women’s homeless shelter comes under fireAssociated Press (Rachel D’Oro) — Anchorage shelter seeks to exclude transgender people

The death of free speech in Berkeley: Students call for resignation of student senator who dared to challenge transgender orthodoxy San Francisco Chronicle (Nanette Asimov) — UC Berkeley campus senator abstains from a vote. Now students want her out

Liberalism beyond the classroom: New study reveals administrators are even more liberal than professors on college campuses New York Times (Samuel J. Abrams) — Think Professors Are Liberal? Try School Administrators

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Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018

What the legacy of Stan Lee teaches us about the reality of human beings as narrative creaturesUSA Today (Brian Truitt) — Legendary Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee dies at 95New York Times (Jonathan Kandell and Andy Webster) — Stan Lee Is Dead at 95; Superhero of Marvel Comics

High-profile trial of notorious drug lord ‘El Chapo’ poses unique security challenges in New York CityWall Street Journal (Nicole Hong and Zolan Kanno-Youngs) — Trial of ‘El Chapo’ Poses Unprecedented Challenges

Honor among thieves: How one mobster's demise reveals the inevitability of a moral orderNew York Times (Robert D. McFadden) — Whitey Bulger Is Dead in Prison at 89; Long-Hunted Boston Mob Boss

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Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018

Vatican bars U.S. Bishops from taking action on sex abuse scandal, exposes structural fault in Roman CatholicismBaltimore Sun (Jonathan M. Pitts) — Sex abuse crisis at highest levels of U.S. Catholic church to dominate agenda at bishops' meeting in BaltimoreWashington Post (Julie Zauzmer) — U.S. bishops will debate enforcing a code of conduct, in response to sexual abuse scandalsNational Catholic Reporter (Michael Sean Winters) — Bishops' meeting bombshell: Vatican says no voting on abuse crisisWall Street Journal (Ian Lovett and Francis X. Rocca) — Vatican Bars U.S. Bishops’ Action on Sex Abuse

New president of Planned Parenthood spends first day on the job trying to convince Americans Planned Parenthood has nothing to do with abortionNational Review (Alexandra DeSanctis) — Planned Parenthood’s New President Appears on CBS and Doesn’t Mention Abortion Once

Embracing insanity: In age of autonomous individual, one man takes this to its logical end, suing to lower his age 20 yearsUSA Today (Joel Shannon) — Man, 69, sues to lower his age 20 years. He says it will help him on Tinder

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Monday, Nov. 12, 2018

Two stories about death and evil—one moral evil, one natural evil—dominate weekend headlines out of CaliforniaLos Angeles Times (Louis Sahagan and Joseph Serna) — Death toll jumps to 29 in Camp fireNew York Times (Jose A. Del Real, Jennifer Medina and Tim Arango) — California Shooting Kills 12 at Country Music Bar, a Year After Las Vegas

Amidst charges and counter charges of election fraud, we still don’t know the outcome of major elections. What does this reveal about the nature of democracy?

On 100th anniversary of end of World War I, Christians must reflect with humility on the legacy of the Great War

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Friday, Nov. 9, 2018

Is there still a distinction between boys and girls? Lawsuit between Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts forces important cultural conversationReuters (Jonathan Stempel) — Girl Scouts sue Boy Scouts over trademark as boys welcome girls

How a change in one retailer's corporate policy reveals moral confusion of modern ageWall Street Journal (Khadeeja Safdar) — Under Armour’s #MeToo Moment: No More Strip Clubs on Company Dime

When a culture reevaluates how it is structured, even bake sales may seem out of stepNew York Times (Deb Perelman) — I Love Baking. I Hate Bake Sales.

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American Conservatism, Past, Present, and Future: A Conversation with David French

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Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018

Just how important should politics be? Why Christians should be the first to understand that politics, while important, is not ultimateWashington Post ( Devlin Barrett, Matt Zapotosky, and Josh Dawsey) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigns at Trump’s request

Welcome to the 2020 presidential campaign: the cycles of modern American politics

What the outcome of the midterm elections has to do with the resignation of Jeff Sessions

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“Give Us This Day”: Exalting God by Humbling Ourselves

This article is an excerpt from my book, The Prayer that Turns the World Upside Down: The Lord’s Prayer as a Manifesto for Revolution . This post is the fifth in an eight part series on the Lord’s Prayer. 

God’s Abundant Physical Provisions 

In his magisterial work The Institutes of the Christian Religion, the sixteenth-century reformer John Calvin remarked that we can never truly know ourselves without first coming to know the character of God. As Calvin famously stated, “It is certain that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God’s face, and then descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself.” God is our starting point in every theological and spiritual endeavor. God’s character and glory are our first frame of reference.

Up to this point, the Lord’s Prayer has revealed a great deal about the character of God. We have seen that for those who are in Christ, God is a caring Father. Jesus emphasized God’s transcendence and omnipotence by observing that he is “in heaven.” He established the worth of God and the value of his glory by teaching that God’s name should be hallowed. Finally, Jesus emphasizes that God is king–the sovereign Lord who will bring his kingdom to every corner of the earth.

Indeed, the first lines of the Lord’s Prayer paint an awesome portrait of God. In light of these truths, Jesus’ subsequent turn to consider our own needs–“Give us this day our daily bread”–serves as a clear and unmistakable reminder that we are merely creatures; God is the creator. We are needy; God is the provider.

God has designed humans to be dependent. From the moment of birth, we rely on the kindness of others to meet our needs. We need our parents to feed us, dress us, and even train us to sleep. Even as we grow older, we remain tremendously needy. We depend on others for relationships. We need communities in which to live and work. We depend on the government for safety and security. In other words, there is no such thing as the “self-made man.” We have no sufficiency in and of ourselves, and we delude ourselves by believing we can be truly independent of others. Luther once reminisced that our physical needs remind us that we are but creatures composed of dirt. Our lives are frail, fragile, and wholly dependent on the goodness of God.

The petition “give us this day our daily bread” reminds us of our dependence on God for even the most fundamental needs of life. The contrast with the depiction of God given earlier in the prayer is striking. He is glorious, hallowed, in heaven, and omnipotent. We, on the other hand, are incapable of even getting basic sustenance without his help. In these words, then, Jesus teaches us to exalt God while humbling ourselves. The radical God-centeredness of the prayer continues. Man’s pride has no place before the throne of God.

Physical Needs in Biblical Perspective 

We are dependent on God. Even prior to the fall, humans needed God to provide for them. Adam needed God to provide Eve to fulfill his need for a relationship. Adam and Eve could tend the garden, but only God could make it grow. Sin did not create our dependence; we are dependent simply because we are creatures.

Even though Adam and Eve were dependent before the fall, their only experience was one of surplus and abundance. They never knew a day of scarcity. After the fall, however, their experience was quite different, as is ours today. Our default experience is no longer abundance but scarcity. Food must be produced by the sweat of our brow, and its existence is never certain. Thus, after the fall we became even more dependent on God for our daily sustenance. We are no longer merely creatures in need of provision; we are sinners in need of the Creator’s mercy…

Bread of Earth, Bread From Heaven: Echoes of Eternity in Jesus’ Petition for Bread

This request also reminds us of our daily need for the Lord Jesus. Moses reminded the Israelites in Deuteronomy 8:3 that the reason God let the Israelites go hungry for a time before providing them with manna was so that they might learn that “man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” This passage teaches us that God designed physical needs to point to our deeper spiritual needs. Our need for daily physical sustenance is a faint echo of our daily need of spiritual sustenance and satisfaction from God. This was true for ancient Israel and is true for Christians today. The only way that we will taste the goodness of God’s provision is by living according to what comes from the mouth of God.

This is why Jesus regularly referred to himself as the “bread of life,” the true manna sent from heaven (John 6:35). He is God’s ultimate provision for our spiritual lives. Each day, as we pray for our daily bread, we should be reminded of our daily need for Christ to forgive our sins and empower us for obedience. Each time we pray for daily bread, we should recognize our deeper need for the bread of life–the only one who can truly satisfy.

To read more, purchase your copy of The Prayer that Turns the World Upside Down at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or ChristianBook.com.

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