Thursday Thirteen: Jonathan Edwards Resolves...

Since we are at the beginning of a new year, I am in a resolution mood. I found the 70 resolutions written by Jonathan Edwards in 1722-23. They are so good and noble-spirited that I have decided to adopt some of them for my own. I want to share these with you; I have translated them freely into modern language (with apologies to Jonathan Edwards) so that they will be more understandable to the 2007 soul.

Edwards wrote (in Judy’s modern interpretation):

I know that I can’t do anything without God’s help. So, with humility, I ask him to help me, by his grace, to keep these resolutions, as long as they are in line with his will for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Edwards wrote himself this note: “Remember to read over these Resolutions once a week.”

1. I resolve that I will do whatever I think will be most likely to glorify God and be for my own good, benefit, and pleasure for the rest of my life, without considering the times, now or in the distant future. I resolve to do whatever I think is my duty and most for the good and benefit of all people. I resolve to do this, no matter what difficulties I encounter—no matter how many or how great.

2. I resolve to continually try to find new ways to accomplish these things.

3. I resolve, if I ever fail or fall short or forget and neglect any of these resolutions, that I will be sincerely sorry for all that I can remember that I did wrong and put things right again, when I come back to my senses.

4. I resolve never to do any kind of thing, either spiritually or physically, other than what contributes to the glory of God; I will neither be nor allow anything that does not glorify him, if I can possibly avoid it.

5. I resolve never to waste one minute of time, but to improve my time the best way I possibly can.

6. I resolve to live my life to the fullest, as long as I live.

7. I resolve never to do anything that I would be afraid to do if I knew I were about to die. (In other words, I would live as if I were in the last few hours of my life, doing only that which is right, good, and loving.)

8. I resolve to act and speak with the understanding that I am just as bad and mean-spirited as the worst person. When I become aware of wrongdoings or mistakes of others, I will take that opportunity to confess my own wrongdoings to God, rather than criticizing others.

9. I resolve to be aware that I will die eventually and to think about the circumstances surrounding death. I will be prepared for death.

10. I resolve that when I feel pain, I will think of the greater pain of people who have willingly suffered and died for their Christian beliefs, and the eternal pain of people in hell, suffering because of their lack of belief.

11. I resolve, when I think of any puzzling religious question, to do what I can immediately towards solving it, if circumstances do not prevent me from it.

12. I resolve to immediately give up anything that I find I delight in because of pride or vanity.

13. I resolve to always be trying to find people who need charity and generosity.

The 70 resolutions can be found, complete and original, at the site of the Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics, linked here.

Thursday Thirteen: Jonathan Edwards Resolves...

http://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/01/thursday-thirteen-jonathan-edwards.html

Ted Haggard: More Thoughts

While I wrote this entry about Ted Haggard a few days ago, I had a hard time with one part. I said,

I hate when things like this happen. It is a tragedy for all of us. Nobody is perfect, and when one suffers, we all do. When a Christian is shown to have clay feet—especially a prominent one—the whole body of Christ suffers a tarnished reputation.

But at first, I wrote this: Nobody is perfect, and when one suffers, we all do. We all have darkness in our hearts. We all have secrets in our lives that we hope won’t come to the light. That’s because we are humans and therefore fallen creatures. We all would be entirely without hope if it were not for the mercy and gracious forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ.

I took out the last three sentences before I posted the entry—I don’t know why; I shouldn’t have.

When I said “the whole body of Christ suffers a tarnished reputation” when something like this happens, I meant that some people who are nonbelievers like to point out the hypocrisy. They say, see, here’s what you people are really like. And they use that as one more excuse for not believing in God. They form their clouded perceptions of God from their perceptions of his people, and when his people are exposed as sinners, they have what they think is ammunition against God. I know, because I know some people who do this.

The truth is, yes, we are really like that. Everybody is.

A friend sent me a link to this blog article by Tim Challies. In describing his changing emotions in the Ted Haggard situation, Challies says, “I went from wanting to know details, to feeling pity to feeling terror to pleading with God to continue to extend His grace to me that I would not fall.”

He quotes Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” And he applies Edwards’ thoughts to this situation. He says, “What is true of eternity, is equally true of the temporal. Just as nothing but God's hand keeps both Christian and non-Christian from death at any given moment, the same hand is all that restrains any of us from falling into sin as dreadful as Haggard's, or sin that is far worse.”

We should examine our own hearts before we get too tangled up in criticizing Haggard.

Ted Haggard: More Thoughts

http://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/ted-haggard-more-thoughts.html