Jared Longshore's Blog, page 40

Reformation Now or Else It’s the Great Evangelical Castration

I took a trip down to Leavenworth, Kansas where there is a wonderful work of God going on at Christ Church Leavenworth. I had several conversations with Christians about how potent the place seemed to be. These were Christians, many in their 30s with a satchel of kids. Several grew up Southern Baptist. Many tried out Acts 29. But through COVID, it was as if they joined that orphaned Arabian boy on a magic carpet ride. They came to discover a whole new world, a new fantastic point of view.

It was not merely a matter of disliking their spiritual leaders tying heavy mask burdens on their backs. These saints picked up on the sketchy root that produced the ugly fruit of their leaders bowing down before the CDC. They came to see the same through the BLM riots. The Reformed Worship and community of Christ Church Leavenworth, a CREC church, felt something like opening a steaming hot oven in the middle of a cold winter. It hit them in the face, and they were warmed, filled, deeply encouraged.

This trip reminded me of the state of Christianity in America. We really are dealing with a sheep without a shepherd situation. We are dealing with a chickens coming home to roost situation. We are dealing with a “we don’t know how many idols we’ve been bowing down to” situation. COVID and the BLM Riots were evidence. 

They were moments of unmasking. They were not the substance of the problem. If you grasp this last point, then you will be in a good position to lead your family in the coming days. If this point doesn’t make sense to you, then you really must spend some time with it. So I’ll take another stab at it.

Your churches requiring you to mask, or your churches politely recommending you to mask with pastors cool shaming you if you didn’t . . . was a symptom. Now, many of the symptoms have passed. Even the United Airlines flight that I took back from Kansas City the other day didn’t require me to wear a mask. So the masking is behind us. And the big, fat, whopping rot that motivated Christian Leaders to prostrate themselves before the CDC and bind you with burdens to heavy to carry is still right in our midst.

The kind of reformation we need is one that will displace people. The kind of reformation we need is one that will dissolve many of the present evangelical institutions that we know and love and reform others such that you couldn’t recognize them after that reformation.

You can find plenty of Conservative Christians who are not satisfied with the present order. They don’t want Drag Queen Story Hour, no matter how David French touts it as “a blessing of liberty.”[1] These right-minded conservatives are not happy with Obergefell. They will likely send their kids to Hillsdale or New Saints Andrews College. They will vote the right way in the coming election. And thanks be to God for all of that faithfulness. But here is the important message for these conservatives: The reformation work in front of us runs all the way down to the foundations. 

Like the temple mount in Jerusalem, those faithful foundations are way down there. Our fathers would not have abided Drag Queen Story Hour. Our fathers would not have winked at boys using the girls bathroom at their local tax-payer funded school. Our fathers would have snuffed out any hint of sending their daughters into military combat. They couldn’t even conceive of the perversion we permit in our land. Moreover, the freedom that they had, which is the freedom that we must recover, would scare many saints. 

Reformation Now

Many of the sheep do not know exactly what is going on. They are sheep without a shepherd. But many of the leaders, and I am referring to evangelical leaders who have drifted slowly and over time, do know what is going on, or at least they should. But to reform now would require heading back down the mountain like Christian’s repentance in Pilgrim’s Progress. Reformation would cost something. And the present order in American Evangelicalism is something like the Titanic. It is a big ship, sinking slowly. If you have a nice cozy spot high enough on that ship, you can ride it out in prosperity, even if that means your people drown and your sons become eunuchs in Babylon, where they celebrate the rights of the kiddos to sit at the feet of the gyrating transvestites at the public library. 

Several of these leaders are on their way out. And like Hezekiah, after hearing that all the treasure of the house which they lead will go to Babylon, after hearing that their very sons will be castrated servants in the palace of Babylon’s king, these leaders say, “Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my days” (2 Kings 20:19)?

Some may not care about the coming generations. But those who do must get down to the work of reformation. Here’s what a start looks like:

Find a church that cares more about what God thinks in its worship than what guests think. 

Remove your children from governments schools immediately and sacrifice to put them in a Classical Christian School.

Refuse to use the pronouns, and be willing to be fired for it.

Reject the language of diversity, equity, and inclusion outright. And chuckle at the well-to-do white liberals with their BLM yard signs who actually know nothing about black people and black culture.

Rejoice over your children. Catechize them. Remind them always that they are holy, loved by the Father, and that Christ has sanctified them by the blood of his covenant. Train them. And do this training in a holistic way, imbedding them in a community and family that worships the Triune God.

Sing the psalms, and find a church that will serve the Lord’s Supper every Sunday and know why they do it. 

Laugh, and make others laugh. Add to this hospitality with food. Kingdoms have been built from women who not only know how to cook but do it, and do it well. You cannot defeat people who are holy and having a good time. You cannot enslave women who laugh at the time to come and men who know that there are more with us than are with them. 

My encouragement to you is that you find saints who exude this kind of faithfulness. These are those who believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are dead with Christ. And they are risen with him. They are happy with the stream that makes glad the city of our God. It is past time to join them. Sacrifices are in order. I make no promise that the changes necessary will be comfortable. It is far easier to point out all of the problems than it is to start building brick by brick on the right foundation. It is far easier to disobey and remain disgruntled.

But the hard way is full of joy. It is laced with word, water, bread, and wine. 

Jesus said that the man who obeys will know the doctrine (John 7:17). But if you only observe the doctrine from afar without obeying, then you stop advancing in the truth. I have met several saints who eventually meet doctrines or practices that they know are biblical, but to actually believe and obey those doctrines is too costly. So they ponder them. They think about what it would look like if they actually got on with obedience. They debate the matter. But the debate is pointless. It is not a matter of them being intellectually convinced about what they need to do. It is a matter of them acting like men, and doing what God has said. They know what God has told them to do. But they will not do it. And they will pretend like they are not convinced of the truth to ease their conscience and keep their donor base, their comfortable circumstances, 

Going out like Abraham seems like too far a leap. But he is our father. Going to the cross like Christ seems like too much. But he is our Redeemer and we are dead with him—”I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20).

[1] https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/david-french-sohrab-ahmari-and-the-battle-for-the-future-of-conservatism

The Trees Are Alive With The Sound Of Music

The Bible is a book that won’t let you forget our Redeemer. The world is the same, if you have ears to hear. The trees don’t only come alive in the fairy books. They are very much alive here in the real world, which is more like the fairy books than moderns admit. The trees die every Fall. They are resurrected every Spring. These trees clap their hands while mountains sing (Isaiah 55:12). The trees tell you something. They have been doing so from the beginning when our father Adam walked in the garden God planted.

The trees tell us a familiar story in 2 Samuel 18.

The Text – A Summary

David was East of the Jordan, a reminder of Cain being East of Eden. He was in exile and his very own son brought about his departure from Jerusalem. David was in such a precarious position, he had just been served by the lowly. The Ammonites, that rebellious nation formed by Lot’s incestuous immorality with his youngest daughter, brought David provisions in the wilderness. The King of Israel also received blessings from the hand Machir who live in Lo-debar, or “no-pasture” (2 Samuel 17:27).

David’s son, Absalom, was coming for his life and kingdom. So David arranged his forces (2 Samuel 18:1). The king loved his rebellious son. He commanded the heads of his military to deal gently with Absalom (v. 5). He said this publicly and his army heard him. 

The battle was fought in the wood of Ephraim, just east of the Jordan River which Joshua had crossed some years before. 20,000 men were slain in a day, and the forest devoured more of the men than the sword (v. 8). The trees were on the side of David, one of them in particular. 

Absalom rode his mule under an oak. And the oak pierced through the shaggy hair of his head, suspending him between heaven and earth as the mule rode out from under him. 

A certain man saw him hanging there vulnerably and reported the news to Joab. Joab was indignant and would have been happy to pay the man pieces of silver had he slaughtered Absalom in the tree. Joab was willing to pay silver coins like the Jewish Leaders did in Christ’s day to get the bloody job done. 

Joab found Absalom, still suspended by the oak, and he drove three darts or javelins into his heart. David’s men took Absalom down and piled a heap of stones on him in that forest. Absalom had no son. But he wanted to be remembered. Upon Absalom’s death, we are told that in former times, he had set up a pillar in the king’s valley near Jerusalem so that he would be remembered. That is the same valley in which the King of Sodom once tried to enrich Abraham to no avail. Abraham was more concerned with God receiving glory in that valley.

News had to get back to David about his victory and his son’s death. Ahimaaz the son of Zadok the High Priest wanted to run to David to deliver the news. But Joab refused. Joab then sent a man named Cushi. This Cushi is likely a Cushite, a foreigner not an Israelite. And Ahimaaz is the well-known son of the High Priest himself. The foreigner sprinted to carry the news to David. And Ahimaaz asks Joab once again for permission to run. Joab granted it. And Ahimaaz, being more familiar with the land than the Cushite, outran him by taking a better route. 

Ahimaaz fell before the face of the king and shared news that his enemies were defeated. When the anxious king asked about his son Absalom, Ahimaaz avoided the question. The Cushite then arrived and broke the news that the king’s son was dead.

David cried out for his condemned son as he went to his chamber, weeping, “Absalom, my son, my son, would God that I had died for thee” (v. 33).

Hanged on a Tree

As I said before, the Bible is a marvelous book that won’t let us forget our Redeemer. Sometimes, we even question the way it reminds us, “Are you really making that comparison?” we ask.

The pattern is hard to miss. Absalom is a son of David. He rides a mule to be hung on a tree. And a soldier drives three javelins into his body. Our Lord is a son of David. He rode a colt to be hung on a tree. And a soldier drove a spear into his side while on that tree.

Deuteronomy 21:22-23 says, “And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.”

Absalom was certainly defiling the land. He had defiled his father’s wives in the sight of all Israel. He was a divider of the brethren. And God would not allow the Promised Land to be corrupted. 

But the ultimate fulfillment of this tree curse is found in our Savior. Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”

The curse of the law certainly involves condemnation, hell itself is the result of our sin. And so is pain in childbearing and the thorns and thistles that come from our labor. Israel was not the only people promised a land. We have been given all things in Christ. All things belong to the covenant people of God, including the world (1 Corinthians 3:21). We would corrupt the whole thing. We would pollute the land like Absalom. But the Greater Son of David was hung on the cursed tree like Absalom hung in that wood of Ephraim. 

We have been redeemed from the curse. The trees are now on our side. They join us in the joyful son—”Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice” (Psalm 96:12).

Kings Must Not Be Lazy

Laziness is the kind of sin that no one really wants to be seen in. There is your sister coming back from the gym, she’s got bread in the oven and morning devotions complete. Across the room, there you are reclined on the couch eating Cheetos, the blue glaze of your phone illuminating your orange-stained lips and fingers as you scroll with the free hand to your fourth cat video. No one wants a snapshot of that scene posted to the internet. 

In the first place, better things are determined concerning you. And everybody said, amen. In the second, you can slip into to the uglier manifestations of laziness by giving into the subtle manifestations of it. So here is some encouragement to pull the weed of laziness when it is small.

Proverbs 12:24 says that the hand of the diligent shall rule. You are a fulfillment of the promise made to our father Abraham that kings would come from him. You are a royal priesthood. You are categorically the diligent rulers. So you must be what God has made you to be. 

Laziness is laced with unbelief. God says that you reap what you sow. The lazy say, “We will find a shortcut.” And when their shortcut doesn’t work they say, “We don’t care about reaping,” which is both a lie and a twisted attempt to take God’s throne and call Deuteronomic blessings worthless. God says that vain pursuits at gaining wealth will fail but he who gathers by hard work will increase (Proverbs 13:11). But the lazy want wealth without the callouses, weightloss without the treadmill, godly children without the catechism, and sanctification without confession, Bible reading, and prayer. 

The lazy say there is a lion in the streets. The royal priesthood says, “That, friend, is the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” We have arise from sleep to rule with him. So let us be going.

When God Puts You On The Edge Of Your Seat

Life is not a lazy river. God is the kind of author that keeps the plot moving forward. He appears to like action thrillers. This is a point we should keep in mind so that we are not left thinking the world has gone out of control. Nothing is random. Your intense moments come from the Lord and he is doing something marvelous in them. Just hold on tight and remember that before you enjoy the bacon, it has to sizzle.

We see this very thing in 2 Samuel 17.

The Text – A Summary

Absalom had successfully taken over Jerusalem. His father David fled with many men. But Absalom had to figure out what to do next. Pursue his father to the death right away? Or take time to assemble more of a force against the rightful king of Israel. Ahitophel seemed to speak the very wisdom of God. People would come far and wide to hear his counsel. He had served David, but turned traitor when Absalom stormed Jerusalem. Ahitophel counseled Absalom, saying, “Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night” (v. 1). Ahitophel was no mere counselor. He was ready to do the dirty work of executing King David.

Absalom thought this counsel good enough. But he wanted to double check with Hushai. Husahai was a secret agent who remained faithful to David, but stayed in Jerusalem as Absalom took it over. Husahai counseled Absalom against Ahitophel, saying, “they father and his men . . . they be mighty men . . . they father is a man of war” (v. 8). Absalom took Hushai’s counsel to wait and gather a stronger force against his father. 

Hushai then sent word through a woman to two David-friendly men, Jonathan and Ahimaaz, who lurked just outside of Jerusalem so they could run to inform David of Absalom’s plan. But, a boy spotted them and fled to the city to tell Absalom. Absalom sent men after these spies. Jonathan and Ahimaaz made it to a house in Bahurim. A woman who received them had them shimmy down a well, after which she spread ground corn over the top so Absalom’s men wouldn’t think to look inside. Like faithful Rahab before her, this woman deceived Absalom’s servants, saying that Jonathan and Ahimaaz had passed on.

After Absalom’s men searched and failed, they returned back to Jerusalem, and the two messengers reported the news to David. David and his men then passed over the Jordan. Absalom and his men eventually passed over the Jordan River as well, soon to come into conflict with David and his men. This passage ends with three men bringing beds, vessels, and food to David and his men in the wilderness.

God Doesn’t Write Boring Stories

So we have a rebellious son in pursuit of his father in the wilderness. They are east of Jordan which reminds us that we are east of Eden. Cain went that way back when he murdered his brother Abel (Genesis 4:16). And Absalom has David on the run in the same direction. The wise Ahitophel was hanging from a rope by the neck. He killed himself after Absalom went with Hushai’s counsel. That brave woman at Bahurim risked her own neck. And she likely had a sister or a cousin who wouldn’t speak with her since she put the whole family in jeopardy by siding with the fleeing king. The two David-friendly men were sons of priests. And it was priests themselves that Hushai used to smuggle the news out of Jerusalem to David. 

Would you see the kingdom of God flourish on earth? Then find some priests who know how to spread news amid tyranny and find some courageous women confounding Pharaohs with their grains.

All of this is very exciting stuff and a reminder that we need to buckle up. God has not promised us an Amish romance novel where the biggest cliff hanger is, “Will Aaron and Stephen get their buggy out of the ditch by sundown?” God unfolds his plan such that you are always taken up to the brink. You will have to choose when the stakes are high. You will get stabbed in the back by friends. You will have to hide the good guys from the bad ones. You will have to be brave. 

None of your twists and turns are arbitrary. This is all a working out of the great war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The serpent’s seed did not like David sitting on the throne. And that serpent’s seed still does not like the Son of David sitting upon the throne. But sit there he does. And we are a kingdom of priests who by faith rule on this earth calling mankind to be reconciled to God. There is no greater story to be in. So trust God and hold on tight.

Why a Man Should Avoid Jezebels and Sleep With His Wife

Men need to stay away from the seductress for only fools go near her. In the book of Proverbs, the wise father recounts looking out of the window of his house (Proverbs 7:6–9). What has he seen? He has seen the simple young fool. What is the simple young fool doing? He’s passing near the home of the seductress. When is he doing it? At night in the darkness. He’s an ignorant guy doing an ignorant thing in an ignorant way. The father has told his son to avoid this strange woman many times. He has told his son not to go near her house. The fool thinks he can get close to sin. The fool puts himself in situations he should never have been in. 

The father explains that the seductress deserves to be avoided. He describes her ugliness (Proverbs 7:10–13). She is “dressed as a prostitute.” She signals men by the way she dresses. She wants men’s eyes on her. She wants to show them her sexual promiscuity. She is wily of heart. She is crafty or skilled at gaining an advantage. She is loud. She knows nothing of the “gentle and quiet spirit,” which is very precious in God’s sight (1 Peter 3:4). She is wayward. She’s stubborn against God and His commandments. She’s hardened in her crooked ways. Her feet do not stay at home. She is not satisfied with what God has given her. She is out and about always, coveting, looking for more than what is hers. She is covering every corner lying in wait for her prey. She’s not one who hopes in the Lord like the holy women of old (1 Peter 3:5). She’s not waiting on God to satisfy her desire. She seizes the fool, kisses him, and with bold face, speaks. The shock of such an encounter leaves the fool stupefied. 

But it shouldn’t. We call to mind a thousand images of such a woman suddenly kissing a man like this. In our day, such action is passed with a chuckle and a shaking of the head. But it should not be. What wicked sin is on display? Her pride. Her “bold face”—that is, her impudent, shameless, defiant face. She has not done anything attractive. She has done an abomination. She has not done anything cute. She reversed God’s good and right established order. 

The father warns his son to keep away from the seductress for she persuades with seductive speech (Proverbs 7:14–21). She pretends that all is right between her and God. She has, after all, offered her sacrifices. She flatters the fool. She’s come out just for him. She’s sought him out diligently. She’s now found just what she was looking for. She makes false promises of joy and passion and has taken great measures so they can delight themselves with sexual immorality. She overcomes his hesitations with false assurances, and she guarantees there will be no consequences, for her husband is on a long journey. Mark the tactics of the seductress. Note how many ways the truth can be manipulated, and keep away. 

The father warns his son that this woman has taken many an ignorant fool to death (Proverbs 7:22–27). The fool goes like an ox to the slaughter, like a stag pierced in the liver by an arrow, or like a bird in a snare. The fool has been played. He does not know his actions will cost him his life. See the danger. You can honestly think, “I’m good,” and can genuinely believe you have things under control, saying, “These words of warning don’t apply to me.” All your genuine feelings don’t mean a thing. You’re still dead. 

So, what should you do? Embrace your wife.

EMBRACE YOUR WIFE 

If a man would avoid the sexual sin that kills, then he must embrace his wife. He should do so because she is his permanent source of satisfaction. “Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well” (Proverbs 5:15). This well is a picture of a wife. A well supplies a home with satisfying water. Likewise, a wife supplies her husband with satisfying sexual love. It is significant that the picture is one of a well and not merely a vessel or a cup. The wife is not a paper cup to be used and discarded. She is the well-water system. She is the very source of sexual love and satisfaction for her husband. Ask yourself how valuable the water source for your home is. Without it, you die. Then you will know how noble the wife is as the permanent source of satisfaction for her husband. 

Moreover, embrace your wife because spending your sexual love on other women is a defiling waste. “Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?” (Proverbs 5:16). The picture is one of a precious resource ruined. When a spouse goes astray, the intimate passion once enjoyed in the marriage union is spilled out in the filthy streets. One of the most precious gifts God has given has been scattered on polluted street corners. Hebrews 13:4 says, “Let the marriage bed be undefiled.” This is no arbitrary rule. It is the wisdom of God. He wants his children to know the joy of going to an undefiled marriage bed in covenant love. 

In marriage, you are now one with your spouse in an exclusive sexual union. “Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you” (Proverbs 5:17). These waters of intimate love are not for foreigners. These waters are to be enjoyed by husband and wife, best friends in covenant with each other before God. Christ says in Mark 10:7–8, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh.” 

Embracing your wife includes rejoicing in her. You should be happy in your wife. Proverbs 18:22 says, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the L o r d .” A part of that rejoicing includes being intoxicated always in her love. “A lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love” (Proverbs 5:19). The Bible forbids drunkenness and commands drunkenness. It forbids being drunk with wine and requires that a man be drunk in the love of his wife. He is not only to be intoxicated every now and then but always. 

The son is encouraged to embrace his wife because embracing an adulteress is stupid. “Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?” (Proverbs 5:20). The answer is that there is absolutely no reason why. It is a senseless thing to do. She cannot provide satisfaction but only a bitter death. A God-given remedy to our sexually polluted age then is the regular enjoyment of the undefiled marriage bed. 

This blog is an excerpt from my book Wisdom for Kings and Queens which Canon Press has just published. I wrote this book because, well, let’s be honest—the train has gone off the tracks. We have manifestly entered Crazy Town. And insanity is never a good long-term strategy. What are Christians to do in such foolish and evil days? Get wisdom fast, quick, and in a hurry.

If you’d like to order the book, it is available for purchase right now at CanonPress.com.

Death to Worry

God tells us that we must kill the deeds of the body. So you should not be disheartened that you still have sin in the flesh to execute. No despairing allowed when sin pops up. You have executed sin before. You can do it again. As you do, you must show your sin no mercy. You are not your sin. Mercy is all over you. But your sin doesn’t get one drop of it.

With that foundation laid, let’s kill the sin of worry. Worry is a beast. Worry is a monster. But she’s a sneaky monster. Worry would have you think she is a weak, pitiable puppy who has lost her way down a dark alley in a bad part of town. She wants your sympathy. “I am a most reasonable sin,” she says. “We live in a fallen world with trouble around every corner.” She wants to woo you into an alternate universe where you rule and God doesn’t.

Worry is flamming pride in masquerade, which is why worrywarts regularly manipulate others. Worry is a momentary lapse of faith in the god of self that you never should have been trusting in the first place. The death blow to this sin involves you trusting the Living God who rules on the sunny mountain and in the dark alley.

So hear and believe these words from God, worry will then die and you will be moving on: “Thus saith God the Lord, He that created the heavens, and stretched them out; He that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; He that giveth breath unto the people upon it, And spirit to them that walk therein: I am the Lord: that is my name: And my glory will I not give to another, Neither my praise to graven images” (Isaiah 42:5, 8).

How to Stop Complaining

God does not mind speaking directly with us about our complaining. In Philippians 2:14, he says, “Do all things without murmurings and disputings.” Now “all things” is quite comprehensive. The question naturally follows, “But what about when I meet circumstances that are worthy of my murmuring? What if I murmur in private to my spouse? What if I murmur to myself in my head? Is there not any place for my murmurings? And now we have begun to murmur about the very Bible verse that tells us to stop our murmuring. The teaching is quite simple: All of our complaining has to die.

Faith is the key ingredient. By faith we mortify our complaining. By unbelief we pour gasoline on our complaining. Difficulties are a given. Adversity will not go away in this life. Amid a fallen world, the Apostle Paul says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” And he adds, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13). Now to the saint on the verge of a murmuring fit, the first command sounds like too much to bear: “I don’t work out anymore. I need a break. This cross is heavy.” 

But the promise that immediately follows provides the much needed energy: “God works in you to will and to do.” What do you do with that? You see, you are not allowed to complain. But you are allowed to believe. You are shut up in one way. And you are entirely free in another. Chirst died for you and liberated you from bitterness and the slavery of continual venting.