Good thing he ran for congress

The fewer English teachers like this that we have in the world, the better.

My favorite correction is the one that says the bill is only 286 pages, by word count, instead of over 1000. Here’s the full bill, weighing in at 1190 pages. It may be that the word count to pagination ratios are different on a legal bill than on a term paper.

Overall, though, if you read through all the corrections, it’s pretty clear that “the teacher” gave “the student” an F, not because of poor logic or bad rhetoric, but because he didn’t like the student’s political goals. Yeah. And we wonder why kids hate school.

Desire and Personality

James is probably the closest you will get in scripture to the kind of “digging” you find in most pop psychology. Usually Scripture finds it sufficient to list out sinful actions and sinful intent. It’s bad to do these things, and it’s bad to want to do them. There’s very little teasing out the particulars of what makes a person want one sinful habit over another. James goes a little deeper:

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

That’s probably all the hint you need to work out all knotted details of a sinful psychology.

  1. You want things that you shouldn’t have.
  2. You can’t get the things you want.
  3. You use various combinations of force and guile to get what you want anyway.
  4. Your desires are diffused and multiplied, due to frustration
  5. Repeat.

What’s interesting to me is that you can see a lot of similarity between what James is saying here, and Buddhism. As best I understand, Buddhism teaches that the root of all evil can be summed up in desire. The goal is to come to a place where you have no desires whatsoever. If you desire nothing, then you are never disappointed.

But here’s a difference. Buddhism takes the position that all desire is bad, because all desires, being thwarted, lead to frustration (that is, pain and suffering). James, on the other hand, implies that some desires are good, and that there is a way to go about getting what you want that does not result in quarrels and fights.

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?

In other words, while Buddha promises ultimate hope in not caring, James promises hope in a person. The reason your desires lead to frustration is not because you have the inconvenience of bumping up against the hard edges of an uncaring universe. It’s much better and much worse than that. There is an active personality who is jealous over you – over the image in which you are created, and if you are a Christian, over the Spirit that he has put inside you. He is actively working against you, because his jealousy has determined that your desires will not be satisfied, so long as they can be satisfied in anything else but him.

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Christ Will Not Break the Bruised Reed (Pt 4)

In pursuing his calling, Christ will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, in which more is meant than spoken, for he will not only not break or quench, but he will cherish those with whom he so deals.

But Are We Not Really Bruised Unless We Grieve More For Sin Than We Do For Punishment?

Sometimes our grief from outward grievances may lie heavier on the soul than grief for God’s displeasure. In such cases, the grief works upon the whole man, both outward and inward, and has nothing under it but a little spark of faith. This faith, because of the violent impression of the grievance, is suspended in the throw of it.  This is most felt in sudden distresses that come upon the soul like a torrent or flash flood, and especially in bodily sicknesses which, because of the sympathy between the soul and the body, work on the soul so far as to hinder not only the spiritual, but often natural interventions as well.

Therefore James wishes us in affliction to pray ourselves, but in case of sickness to “send for the elders” (James 5:14). These may, as those in the Gospels, offer up to God in their prayers the sick person who is unable to present his own case.  Thereupon God allows for such a plea because of the sharpness and bitterness of the grievance, as in David (Psalm 6). The Lord knows our frame; he remembers that we are but dust (Psa. 103:14), that our strength is not the strength of steel.

This is a branch of his faithfulness to us as his creatures, where he is called “a faithful creator” (1 Pet. 4:19). “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able” (1 Cor. 10:13).  There were certain commandments which the Jews called the hedges of the law.  So as to fence men off from cruelty, God commanded that they should not take the dame with the young, nor “seethe a kid in his mother’s milk” (Exod. 23:19), nor “muzzle the mouth of the ox” (1 Cor 9:9).

Does God take care of beasts and not of his more noble creature? And therefore we ought to judge charitably of the complaints of God’s people which are wrung from them in such cases.  Job had the esteem with God of a patient man, notwithstanding those passionate complaints.  Faith overborne for the present will gain ground again; and grief for sin, although it come short of grief for misery in terms of violence, yet it goes beyond it in constancy; as a running stream fed with a spring holds out, when a sudden swelling brook fails.

For the concluding of this point, and our encouragement to a thorough work of bruising, and patience under God’s bruising of us, let all know that none are fitter for comfort than those that think themselves furthest off.  Men, for the most part, are not lost enough in their own feeling for a Savior. A holy despair in ourselves is the ground of true hope. In God, the fatherless find mercy (Hos. 14:3); if men were more fatherless, they should feel more God’s fatherly affection from heaven, for the God who dwells in the highest heavens dwells likewise in the lowest soul (Isa 57:15).

Christ’s sheep are weak sheep, and lacking in something or other; he therefore applies himself to the necessities of every sheep.  He seeks that which was lost, and brings again that which was driven out of the way, and binds up that which was broken, and strengthens the weak (Ezek. 34:16). His tenderest care is over the weakest.  The lambs he carries in his bosom (Isa. 40:11).  He says to Peter, “Feed my lambs” (John 21:15).  He was most familiar and open to troubled souls.  How careful he was that Peter and the rest of the apostles should not be too much dejected after his resurrection! “Go your way, tell his disciples and Peter” (Mark 16:7).  Christ knew that guilt of their unkindness in leaving him had dejected their spirits.  How gently did he endure the unbelief of Thomas and stooped so far unto his weakness, as to allow him to thrust his hand into his side.

Christ Will Not Break the Bruised Reed (Pt 3)

In pursuing his calling, Christ will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, in which more is meant than spoken, for he will not only not break or quench, but he will cherish those with whom he so deals.

Who Are the Bruised Reeds?

But how shall we know whether we are such as may expect mercy?

  1. “The bruised” here doesn’t just mean those that are brought low by crosses, but those that are brought by crosses to see their sin, which bruises most of all.  When conscience is under the guilt of sin, then every judgment brings a report of God’s anger to the soul, and all lesser troubles run into this great trouble of conscience of sin.  As all excess fluid runs to the diseased and bruised part of the body, and as every creditor falls upon the debtor once he is arrested, so when conscience is awakened, all former sins and present afflictions join together to make the bruise more painful. Now the one that is bruised will be content with nothing but mercy from the one who has bruised him.  He has wounded, and he must heal (Hos. 6:1).  The Lord who has bruised me deservedly for my sins must bind up my heart again.
  2. Again, a man truly bruised judges sin the greatest evil, and the favor of God the greatest good
  3. He would rather hear of mercy than of a kingdom.
  4. He has poor opinions of himself, and thinks that he is not worth the earth he walks on.
  5. Towards others he is not censorious, like somebody taken sick at home, but is full of sympathy and compassion to those who are under God’s hand.
  6. He thinks that those who walk in the comforts of God’s Spirit are the happiest in the world.
  7. He trembles at the Word of God (Isa. 66:2), and honors the very feet of those blessed instruments that bring peace unto him (Rom. 10:15)
  8. He is more taken up with the inward exercises of a broken heart than with formality, and is yet careful to use all sanctified means to convey comfort.

But how shall we come to this state of mind?

First we must conceive of bruising either as a state into which God brings us, or as a duty to be performed by us.  Here, both are meant.  We must join with God in bruising ourselves.  When he humbles us, let us humble ourselves, and not stand out against him, for then he will redouble his strokes.  Let us justify Christ in all his chastisements, knowing that all his dealing towards us is to cause us to return into our own hearts.  His work in bruising should lead to our work in bruising ourselves.

Let us lament our own perversity and say, “Lord, what a heart I have that needs all this, that none of this could be spared!” We must lay siege to the hardness of our own hearts, and aggravate sin all we can. We must look on Christ, who was bruised for us, look on him whom we have pierced with our sins.

But all directions will not prevail, unless God by his Spirit convinces us deeply, setting our sins before us, and driving us to a standstill. Then we will cry out for mercy.  Conviction will breed contrition, and this leads to humiliation.  Therefore desire God that he would bring a clear and a strong light into all the corners of our souls, and accompany it with a spirit of power to lay our hearts low.

A set measure of bruising of ourselves cannot be prescribed, but it must be so far as

  1. that we may prize Christ above all, and see that a Savior must be had; and
  2. that we reform that which is amiss, thought be to the cutting off of our right hand, or pullout out of our eye

There is a dangerous slighting of the work of humiliation, some using as an excuse for their lackadaisical dealing with their own hearts, that Christ will not break the bruised reed.  But they must know that every sudden terror and short grief is not that which makes us bruised reeds.  It’s not a little “bowing down our heads like a bulrush” (Isa 58:5), but a working our hearts to such grief as will make sin more odious unto us than punishment, until we offer a “holy violence” against it. Else, favoring ourselves, we make work for God to bruise us, and for sharp repentance afterwards.

It is dangerous, I confess, in some cases, with some spirits to press too much and too long this bruising, because they may die under the wound and burden before they are raised up again.  Therefore it is good in mixed assemblies to mingle comfort that every soul may have its due portion. But if we have this for a foundation truth, that there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us, there can be no danger in thorough dealing.  It is better to go bruised to heaven than sound to hell.

Therefore let us not take off ourselves too soon, nor pull out the stitches before cure is complete, but keep ourselves under this work till sin is the sourest, and Christ is the sweetest, of all things.  And when God’s hand is upon us in any way, it is good to divert our sorrow for other things to the root of all, which is sin.  Let our grief run most in that channel, in order that as sin bread grief, so grief may consume sin.

Christ Will Not Break the Bruised Reed (pt 2)

In pursuing his calling, Christ will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, in which more is meant than spoken, for he will not only not break or quench, but he will cherish those with whom he so deals.

For Ourselves

1. What should we learn from this, but to “come boldly to the throne of grace” (Heb. 4:16) in all our grievances?  Shall our sins discourage us, when he appears there only for sinners?  Are you bruised?  Be of good comfort, he calls you.  Conceal not your wounds, open all before him and take not Satan’s counsel.  Go to Christ, although trembling, as the poor woman who said, “If I may but touch his garment” (Matt. 9:21).  We shall be healed and have a gracious answer.  Go boldly to God in our flesh; he is flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone for this reason, that we might go boldly to him.  Never fear to go to God, since we have such a Mediator with him, who is not only our friend, but our brother and husband.

Well might the angel proclaim from heaven, “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy” (Luke 2:10). Well might the apostle stir us up to “rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (Phil. 4:4). Paul was well advised upon what grounds he did it.  Peace and joy are two main fruits of Christ’s kingdom.  Let the world be as it will, if we cannot rejoice in the world, yet we may rejoice in the Lord.  His presence makes any condition comfortable. “Be not afraid,” says he to his disciples, when they were afraid, as if they had seen a ghost, “it is I” (Matt. 14:27), as if there were no cause of fear where he was present.

2. Let this support us when we feel ourselves bruised. Christ’s way is first to wound, then to heal.  No sound, whole soul shall ever enter into heaven.  Think when in temptation, Christ was tempted for me; according to my trials will be my graces and comforts. If Christ be so merciful as not to break me, I will not break myself by despair, nor yield myself over to the roaring lion, Satan, to break me in pieces.

3. See the contrary disposition of Christ on the one hand and Satan and his instruments on the other.  Satan sets upon us when we are weakest, as Simeon and Levi upon the Schechemites, “when they were sore” (Gen. 34:25), but Christ will make up in us all the breaches which sin and Satan have made.  He “binds up the broken hearted” (Isa. 61:1).  As a mother is tenderest to the most diseased and weakest child, so does Christ most mercifully incline to the weakest.  Likewise he puts an instinct into the weakest things to rely upon something stronger than themselves for support.  The vine supports itself upon the elm, and the weakest creatures often have the strongest shelters.  The consciousness of the church’s weakness makes her unwilling to lean on her beloved, and to hide herself under his wing.

I must be on vacation

Everything I read seems interesting, and worthy of comment.  Either everyone goes on vacation at the same time that I do, or I function more coherently with a little bit of rest.

Here’s five links, with some commentary:

  1. Polar Bears.  If you remember, a few years ago, polar bears got upgraded to protected status.  The story was that global warming was wiping out their habitat, which consists of ice floes.  Here’s an article on how Scientists count, and how easy it is to (mis)count them.  For instance, they only put radio collars on adult females because juvenile bears grow too fast and could choke on the collars, and the adult male bears necks are bigger than their heads.  It’s a common problem we have in the Army as well.
  2. Catholics usually make super-hero movies instead of zombie movies.  It’s because zombies are better left to people who don’t believe in purgatory.
  3. There’s a new concept floating around that it is impossible to unilaterally forgive somebody. One party has to forgive, and the other party has to receive forgiveness, repent, etc. You can see this concept at work in Salvation.  Nobody gets saved against their will, and nobody in hell will be allowed to offer the excuse that God should have just forgiven them instead of holding on to all that bitterness.  Presumably for God forgiveness ends in a restored relationship.

    But this makes me wonder what the right word is for this other stuff we’ve been pushing.  When you get mugged, and the next day you decide to write off the experience and offer the open hand to a fellow you will likely never see again, if that isn’t forgiveness in the Biblical sense, what is it?  For that matter, at the end of days, when God is judging the quick and the dead of all their deeds, and our hypothetical mugger comes up, having never repented, and the Lord of Heaven lays out a just sentence for all his crimes, do you stand up and say, “But Lord, I forgave him!”?

  4. It’s been a saying in my family for a long time that the best way to stifle a child’s love of reading is to put him in a primary or secondary English class.  Here’s a post that covers why.
  5. Last, a fascinating post on the trouble of translating mythological sounding words in scripture.  Are they Fauns or Jinn, or just plain old goats?  Well, it was fascinating until the part about Adam and Eve. That was just horrifying.