Man of Sorrows, What a Name!

In His wisdom, God has blessed His church with amazing diversity (see 1 Corinthians 12:12-31).  This diversity is evident when one surveys the various men and women who have contributed to the rich hymnody of the people of God throughout the centuries.  One thinks of Martin Luther. Luther was a giant of a man; he had a giant passion, a giant faith, and a giant intellect. By contrast, Phillip Bliss, the writer of the hymn Man of Sorrows, What a Name, was not an educated man. He was an poor American, who grew up in the eighteen hundreds in rural Pennsylvania.


In this post I’d like to offer a brief biographical sketch of Phillip Bliss, as well as a sort of exegesis of his most beloved hymn, Man of Sorrows, What a Name.

The Connected Kingdom Podcast: A Great Tool for Short Devotional Listening

Many people I know try to supplement their devotional life (or, as providential circumstance may have it, preserve their devotional life) by listening to solid sermons during the day.  This can be a great habit to get into, although there is at least one practical challenge.  If the sermons you are listening to are of the Reformed variety, your average audio file is going to be clocking in somewhere from 45-60 minutes in length.  Even if you are listening while folding laundry or wrenching on the car, good luck going that long without interruption. 

I'd like to point out a resource I've been benefiting from recently- the Connected Kingdom podcast.  CK is co-hosted by Tim Challies and David Murray, and until recently it has been produced in a fairly straight forward interview/Q and A/discussion format.  However, the first two episodes produced in the new season they have launched have been ten to fifteen minute monologues- perfect for devotional listening.  I have found them to be very listenable and spiritually rich.  I've embedded the first two episodes below.  If you find them helpful, check out either Tim or David's blog for new installments.

Ordinary



Crushed

Psalm 19: A Blueprint for Instilling the Wonder of God in the Hearts of our Children

My wife and I had the great privilege of attending a Paul Tripp parenting conference in Seattle this past weekend. I love how Paul (I'm using his first name because we sat in the front row and chatted with him a few times. I think that qualifies us as homeboys.) emphasizes the family as a "theological community," a place where the realities of the God in whom we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28) are constantly at the forefront of conversation, activities, and decisions.  Parents are to actively seek to impart  the knowledge of God to their children (Ephesians 6:4) rather than passively hoping that the Spirit will move within them apart from external means.  Some of the sweetest moments of parenting I have enjoyed with my three children have been moments wherein I have sought to be faithful to this command, moments where I have taken one of my sons or my daughter up in my arms and wondered together with that small child at the glory of our big God.  In these moments, the passage of Scripture I have continually returned to with them is Psalm 19.  In this post, I'd like to take a few minutes to show how this Psalm functions as a blueprint for instilling the wonder of God in the hearts of our children.

Two Cups Part Two: While We Were Yet Sinners...

Note: This series is adapted from speaking notes, which only partially excuses the sometimes awkward prose.

The reality of hell as historically understood (which is to say the understanding of hell as unending eternal torment for all those who are outside of the salvation of Jesus Christ) has been much discussed within the church in recent days and not without considerable angst.  This is of course not shocking, as a more uncomfortable and devastating topic could not be proposed.  If the idea of a perfect and holy God punishing men with hell for eternity on account of their sins seems hard for you to fathom, you must surely admit that this is even more amazing: that God the Son would take all of that wrath, all of that hell for those who put their faith in Him.  What is more shocking: that a place like hell would exist in God’s creation, or that God incarnate would bear its fury for those who truly deserve it?

Two Cups Part One: The Greatest Exchange

Note: This series is adapted from speaking notes, which only partially excuses the sometimes awkward prose.

In Mark 14:32-46 we read of the spiritual agony of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane, of the failure of that inner circle of Apostles to fight off the temptation of sleep, and of the chilling betrayal of one of the very Twelve against his Master. Thus began the great ordeal- the events that culminated in Jesus Christ hanging on a wooden cross until his life had left his body, being sealed in a tomb, and then walking out alive three days later.

This is a passage of heartbreaking neglect on the part of the three apostles, and even much more heartbreaking betrayal on the part of Judas. But it is not that neglect and it is not that betrayal that I want to look at now. Rather, it is something from the Lord's prayer in Gethsemane.  And he said

Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will. (Mark 14:36)

Remove this cup from me.  I would like to use that phrase from the lips of our Lord Christ to consider something of the shocking and scandalous grace offered to sinners in the pages of the Bible.