God and Injustice

It has been a while since I have written anything here (having a 3rd child changes things just a bit.) Also, with the added responsibility of being the interim preaching minister at Round Lake, I am finding that I have to be even more devoted in "making time". I actually intend to step up my blogging from once a week to twice a week now. Early in the week (usually Tuesday) I will post something ministry related, things that are coming out of my sermon preparation or that we as a leadership are dealing with. This is a way for anyone who reads to stay up to date with what is going on at Round Lake.

Later in the week (usually Friday) I will return to posting thoughts that come out of my thesis work. This has been a long journey and I find myself now faced with the task of writing the first chapter. The focus of this chapter is on how the Trinity is expressed through preaching and why God is the one responsible for preaching. It should provide for some interesting material over the coming months.

As I have been preparing for our new sermon series, Habakkuk: God and Injustice, I find myself wrapped up in a concept that Charles Spurgeon and John Piper brought to my attention. It has to do with sailing. If you have ever known the joy of having a moving religious experience, you know the momentum that this can give to your spiritual life. Maybe it was a conference where you first realized your need for the salvation that Jesus has to offer. Maybe it was alone in your room studying the word and having a moment where the lightbulb came on. Or maybe in a church service, God moved in such a way that you were brought to tears. When we have these moments, we often mark our lives by them. This is like the sails of a sailboat. These experiences puff us up and give us the opportunity to catch the "wind" also known as the Holy Spirit (see John 3). As these experiences prepare us for God's work, the Holy Spirit swoops in and moves us in God's direction.

I am not a nautical man (meaning I don't know much about boats) so this next part has been interesting for me. When sailing, it is important that the ballast of the boat is equivalent to the amount of force that the wind will apply through the sails. The ballast is the weight needed to keep the boat upright. Too much and you sink, too little and the boat goes tipping forward. When we have these moving religious experiences, it is critical that the weight of the glory of God helps keep our "experiences" in check. We need the ballast of God's glory. And this is where the sin of the world comes in.

Habakkuk 1:3a says, "why do you make me see iniquity?" There are many answers and God's answer is "because if I explained it to you, you wouldn't understand," (see Habakkuk 1:5). But let us consider something. Why does God allow us to see so much iniquity in the world? The answer is so that we are reminded of the weight of what God has done and is doing. Things like cancer, earthquakes in Haiti, lying politicians, murder, rape, abortion, and suffering of all kinds exist for the glory of God. They exist to remind us of our need and this world's need for a savior. They exist to bring some weight into our otherwise weightless lives. How much time have you spent today contemplating the sovereignty of God? How much time have you spent contemplating the new season of "Lost"? Or how your favorite sports team is doing? Or how much time have you spent watching the clock to see when work ends? We need to contemplate injustice in this world more, so that we might be reminded of how Glorious our God is.