We had arrived at chapter 4, verses 13 through 15, which reads:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” – yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

The pastor shared an important observation from John Piper that should take us far beyond the routine habit of tagging all our plans with a wink and a “Lord willin’”.

James’ first statement about the future is that, first of all, if the Lord sees fit, we will LIVE.

Before you schedule anything of consequence, reckon with the basic truth that you’ve been granted the breath of life. Before you head off into the forest, to grant to every falling tree the permission to make the sounds they’ve been making for generations before you ever came along, humble yourself under the hand of the One who granted you life and breath, both of which are wasted in such pointless trips to the forest.

The moon moved past Nebraska and spilled laughter on them cold Dakota hills, and angels danced on Jacob’s stairs

Artists who do that – in my estimation – are really, faithfully pursuing their calling to bring to our attention whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and praiseworthy (or at least something of that list that can be captured in verse).

So, you can imagine my puzzlement when I encountered a song whose lyrics are nothing more than

In the morning, when I rise, give me Jesus

And when I am alone, give me Jesus

And when I come to die, give me Jesus

You can have all this world, but give me Jesus

I’m not sure who wrote the lyrics. Some sources say Fanny Crosby. Others say it was a spiritual from the days of slavery here in America. Either way, the words are blunt and unvarnished. A familiar, perhaps even “harmless”, statement of devotion.

I obtained Fernando Ortega’s recording of the song about ten years ago, and set myself to the task of sketching out his classy and sparse piano arrangement. Well, I don’t know what to make of it, but somewhere in my second run-through, with the ink still wet on the page, I collapsed in tears. I think I was reminded of an author who noted that we would not be as likely to so casually say “Jesus is all I need”, unless he’s all we’ve got.

Watch out for songs like that.

Oddly enough, I think the article’s author may have unwittingly resolved the whole issue in his concluding suggestions, as he encouraged drummers to find ways to adapt their equipment and technique to “low volume” situations. Out in the world of working musicians, that’s good advice: It may mean the difference between getting called to play a job once, and getting called back to play again.

But, remember now: The article was all about church musicians. So, is there no better motivation for a drummer in a church setting to “play well with others” than the promise of repeat business? I sure hope so.

A skilled drummer, with no regard for The Lord, may still play with the utmost delicacy, out of sheer love of music. That is to say, he believes it not only important that the drums sound good, but more so that the music in its entirety sounds good because of where the drums are placed in the spectrum (if they belong there at all).

My contention is that drummers who play in service to the saints are called to that and more! As powerful and captivating a gift as music is, a “church musician” is called to love the Bride of Christ all the more passionately. A “church drummer” had better love the Bride more than his own compulsion to dominate the band, or else he needs to re-evaluate his existence in that band.

In the preface to The Heart of the Artist, Rory Noland writes, “I wish we were more sensitive to the needs of artists. And I wish all artists loved the church….” (my italics). Thanks for that perspective, Rory. And thanks, to the saints who tolerate the sound of our drums in your midst. When we get a bit too thunderous and obnoxious, pray that we’ll listen more carefully and love you with more purity.

In the early verses of 1 Chronicles 21, David commands that the people of Israel be counted. His military commander, Joab, warns David of bringing guilt upon the nation through this exercise. It is possible that Joab was detecting a proud streak in his king that sought assurance in his military might rather than in the sovereign God who had given stunning victory thus far. In any event, Joab’s intuition was right, and David is shocked back into reality, confessing by the end of verse 8 that he had “sinned greatly” and “acted very foolishly”.

Now, the interchange that follows between The Lord, the prophet Gad and King David is noteworthy:

And the LORD spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying, “Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the LORD, Three things I offer you; choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’ ” So Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Choose what you will: either three years of famine, or three months of devastation by your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the LORD, pestilence on the land, with the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.’ Now decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercy is very great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

1 Chr. 21:9-13 (ESV)

The account continues in verse 14 to tell us that the LORD sends the third option, pestilence on the land. And it is here that I have often skimmed over the text and simply assumed that David chose option “C”. Isn’t it the obvious choice? If you’re going to take a licking, let it be for a period of days, rather than a period of months or years.

But recently I revisited that text and read it with more care. I realized that David did NOT choose option “C”. In fact, I dare say that a truly repentant heart finds it very awkward to pick and choose its own punishment.

David threw himself indiscriminately on the mercy of God. Any of the punishments were ultimately going to come from the hand of God anyway (read again the first sentence from Gad the seer). But beyond that, David knew the God with whom he was dealing; that he was known for his great mercy, unlike the enemies of Israel. So, Don’t miss this: Either option “A” or “C” would be better than the merciless siege to be suffered at the hands of hateful men. David was willing to endure more than ten times the duration of suffering if it meant that he would be chastised by the hand of a wise and merciful God, rather than by the rage of rival armies.

Despite David’s well-documented transgressions, history still remembers him as a man after God’s heart. I think this passage gives us a glimpse into the convictions that earned him that label.

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

2 Thess.1:3-4

Dr. Carson challenges us to pray for fellow believers by reorienting our prayers in such a way that we address our Father in gratitude for the evidence of his handiwork in their lives.

To that end, and in light of “Sanctity of Human Life Sunday” as well, I want to give thanks for a couple of dear friends for whom the sanctity of human life is a vivid banner over their home. At www.houseofgjertsen.info, you will follow the journey of a couple who can speak from profound personal experience on matters of life, loss, perseverance and the faith that emerges in the midst of all of those things.

You will also peek in on discussions dealing with the ethics of abortion and the alternatives thereto, and it is here where I have been so thrilled to witness the skill with which John and Abby have deflected a lot of napalm.

God is good, and faithful to us. Here is one place to look for proof.

“When he knew it” was during the reign of Josiah, king of Judah. Josiah was one of the rare cases of a king who “did right in the eyes of The Lord”; so much so that the writer of the Books of “Kings” pays him very high tribute (II Ki.23:25).

More importantly, though, what I think Zephaniah knew is that, centuries down the road, the great majority of civilized people would convince themselves that the ancient Hebrew mind was too dull to figure out how to enjoy a robust spirituality, free from the nagging God of Abraham.

Indeed, the modern (and post-modern) secular mind is committed to such a creed as penned by one satirical English journalist that reads, in part:

We believe that all religions are basically the same – at least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of creation, sin, heaven, hell, God and salvation.

You could easily add matters of origin, destiny and the identity of Jesus of Nazareth. But the make-believe “creed” goes on to say:

We believe that each man must find the truth that is right for him. Reality will adapt accordingly.

As if in response, the prophet Zephaniah announces early in his prophecy that The Lord will in fact bring judgment upon three distinct groups of people who might have subscribed to that creed.

In the first chapter, verses 5 and 6 name “those who bow down on the roofs to the host of the heavens, those who bow down and swear to the LORD and yet swear by Milcom, those who have turned back from following the LORD, who do not seek the LORD or inquire of him” as those under judgment. The modern mind reads such a list and shrugs, saying, “To each his own.  All religions are basically the same.  Each man must find the truth that’s right for him.”

Those in the first group have rejected The Lord in favor of astrology. Now, to be sure, the writers of Scripture acknowledge the constellations for their intended purpose (…to separate the day from the night.  And let them be for signs and for seasons… Gen.1:14) and are aware of their names (Amos 5:8; Job 9:9), but that’s it. To assign prophetic power to the stars is a decisive act of rebellion against God (Deut.4:19; Jer.8:1, 2).

Those in the second group (who bow down to the LORD yet swear by Milcom) are the contemporary voices who say that one’s approach to spiritual things should be like a buffet, where you decide which features of which religious school you prefer to adopt. The stubborn futility of this exercise becomes evident when one gets to the “bedrock non-negotiables” of the various worldviews and finds, as in the make-believe secular creed, that they differ on monumental issues.

Milcom, by the way, is variously rendered “Molech”, and was a detestable pagan god whose worship included child sacrifice.

It should be observed here that the stereotypical slobbering, wild-eyed pagan idol was not the only other “competitor in the ring”, in the eyes of the biblical prophets. The heart of man, as it turns out, will go after the starry hosts, the slobbering idol, the various combinations thereof and another dead end, as depicted in Zephaniah’s third group.

The third group are those who “have turned back” and “who do not seek the LORD”. Whether these are hardcore atheists, or those who pride themselves on having their own pliable undefined spiritual compass, or all points in between; they have walked away from the Source of all life and are adrift in a wasteland.  They demonstrate all too well, that:

The first effect of not believing in God is to believe in anything – Emile Cammaerts

I hope we consider a couple of things in light of this little excerpt from Zephaniah.  Firstly, that the biblical writers may have lived in a simpler time, but were not simplistic in their worldview. While they pointed to the one true God, they knew that there would be a wide variety of ways to miss the mark.

Secondly, I hope we see the harmony between Zephaniah’s desire for pure worship, and Peter’s conviction, when asked if he would abandon Jesus as the crowds did:

Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life…(Jn.6:68)