Tag: god

What is Babylon?

Meredith BeattyLeave a comment

They thought it was a good idea, building a tower to the heavens. They had the will, the manpower and the materials. What could go wrong? Brick after brick, layer after layer went up, up, up to the clouds. Nothing man had done could compare with this. Using language reminiscent of Genesis 1, they said let us make, let us build, but they ignored God’s command to Noah to multiply and fill the earth. Instead, they turned inward, desiring to concentrate their power and make a name for themselves. But God was not ignorant of their plans. As they laid each layer of bricks higher than anyone had ever seen, God was higher still, and he came down to assess their work. The result was Babel, the city where languages were confused and man was dispersed throughout the earth. Man’s attempt to be God was thwarted, at least for now.

Centuries later another building project reached its zenith. Nebuchadnazzar, the king of Babylon, believed in the lie of his own greatness even despite the warnings God gave him in his dreams. One day, twelve months after the Jewish exile Daniel had given him the interpretation of his second dream and warned him to repent, the king found himself walking on the roof of his palace, surveying the majesty of what he thought belonged to him. He said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” Though God had given him time to repent, that time was up and immediately the judgment came down from heaven. The kingdom would depart from Nebuchadnezzar and he would lose his faculties, dwelling with the beasts of the earth, and eating grass like the oxen until he recognized that the Most High rules over all.

Nebuchadnezzar died and the kingdom of Babylon was replaced by another, but the spirit of Babylon endures. It has been a subtext in the story of redemption all along. Any time man turns inward, exalting himself and believing in his own greatness, Babylon is there. Many themes in the Bible find their full flowering in Revelation, and in Revelation 17 we get a full picture of how God sees Babylon and her relationship with those who dwell on earth and the saints of God:

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.” And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: ‘Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.’ And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. — Revelation 17:1-6 (ESV)

Notice the contrasts in the description we’re given above. An alluring and beautiful woman dressed in royal attire and yet she is called a prostitute, one who traffics in sexual immorality and leads the people on earth astray with her abominations. The last line emphasizes her deadly intentions – she desires to destroy the saints and is drunk with their blood. Is Babylon a real woman? Technically no. But what John is doing here, and what all apocalyptic literature does is use symbols to represent real things. Babylon then is the embodiment of the spirit of the age concentrated in the image of a worldly city, attractive and beautiful on the outside, promising all kinds of wealth and prestige and power but ultimately bringing her worshipers down to death. According to Vern Poythress, “Babylon sums up in herself the worship of the godless world.”

As you look at the whole book, you see there are two women portrayed in Revelation. We have Babylon, the prostitute, arrayed in costly attire and jewels, riding the beast who represents worldly power, intent on the destruction of the saints. In contrast, we have the Bride of Christ, the faithful ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes, the ones who have washed their robes white in his blood and will rejoice in the consummation of their relationship with him at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

This is powerful imagery, and I’m convinced it’s meant to shake us out of our spiritual lethargy. As you go about your ordinary day, doing your ordinary things, remind yourself of Babylon. Be alert and watchful for signs of her seduction. We (in the comparatively free and relatively peaceful West) may not be experiencing the kind of suffering and persecution that our brothers and sisters in North Korea or Nigeria are experiencing, but that doesn’t mean Satan has left us alone. In his commentary, Dennis Johnson differentiates between three kinds of Satanic attacks. Satan can attack with head-on persecution, by slow infection, or with insidious temptations to compromise. I believe that Babylon the prostitute is meant to represent that insidious kind of seduction that’s presented to us every day, an attraction to worldly power and success that seems good at first but will eventually cause us to compromise. The way of the world is so alluring! Thankfully, we are given a clear picture here in Revelation of what it really is, and what will become of it in the end.

We are also given a clear warning as God prepares to exact judgment on Babylon.

Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.” — Revelation 18:4 (ESV)

The Bible gives us language and imagery to help us grasp spiritual truth. To pull back the curtain on what reality actually is. The next time you read Revelation try to trace the imagery backward. Where have you seen it before? How has it been developing? What may seem strange to us at first may actually be the culmination of a theme that began in seed form long ago. The Bible is the true story of the world and acts as a corrective lens through which to understand what is really going on around us. What began on the plains of Shinar in Genesis 11 will experience a great and mighty fall as described in Revelation 18 but the saints of God will find their rest in the New Jerusalem.

The Lord is my Song

Meredith Beatty3 Comments

“The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”

Psalm 118

The first record of music in the Bible is in Genesis 4:21 where we read of Jubal, the father of those who play the lyre and the pipe. The first recorded song is the song of Miriam in Exodus 15. The Psalms are full of commands to sing. God is said to sing over his people in Zephaniah 3 and Jesus sang a hymn with his disciples after the Passover meal.

But why music? What caused mankind to want to create instruments and sing? Seen from a purely utilitarian perspective, it seems like a very inefficient thing to do. But that’s only true if man’s sole purpose is to produce and accomplish. What if we were created to worship? And what if part of being made in God’s image is to reflect the love and joy that exists among the persons of the Trinity? And what if the best and most satisfying way to express that love and joy is through singing?

C.S. Lewis imagines God singing at creation. He portrays that through the character of Aslan in “The Magician’s Nephew”:

“A voice had begun to sing. It was very far away and Digory found it hard to decide from what direction it was coming. Sometimes it seemed to come from all directions at once. Sometimes he almost thought it was coming out of the earth beneath them. Its lower notes were deep enough to be the voice of the earth herself. There were no words. It was hardly a tune. But it was beyond comparison, the most beautiful sound he had ever heard.”

The Magician’s Nephew

Where did Lewis get this idea? Perhaps from the words of God to Job.

“Where were you when I established the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? What supports its foundations? Or who laid its cornerstone while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

Job 38:4-7

We sing because words are not sufficient. We sing because we love and that love cannot find its fullest expression until it is turned into song. Have you ever considered it odd that God would command his people to sing? If God were a despotic tyrant ruling from on high, if he were not good and holy and righteous, the command to sing would be an exercise in stroking his ego. But God is good and holy, and he is worthy of all praise. And in his wisdom and grace, he has given us this command for our good, that we may experience complete satisfaction in him. He is the one who is most worthy of our song.

In the beginning the newborn stars sang in chorus together. In the Psalms we’re given language to praise our God and King. And at the end of the Bible we encounter over a dozen songs to the one who will bring all of redemptive history to its consummation. In Revelation we read of living creatures, elders, angels, and the redeemed breaking out in worship and song to the only one who is worthy.

Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.

Revelation 15:3-4

Though it’s vitally important to define and defend what we believe about God, the Bible says the Lord is my song. It doesn’t say the Lord is my doctrine. Faith is not a cold calculated affair, a reasonable decision made with the mind based on the evidence. It is an engagement of the heart that cannot help but praise. We don’t just sing about him. We sing to him. Our praise now is a participation in the praise of heaven and a preview of what’s to come when all of God’s people will join in praise together to the one who sings over us.

Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil. On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”

Zephaniah 3:14-17

The Value of the Old Testament

Meredith BeattyLeave a comment

Some years ago I was driving into the city of Augusta, Georgia, to see my mother. She was having a medical procedure at the hospital so I made the short trip from Atlanta to see her. I had never driven the streets of Augusta so I just followed the voice of Google Maps. Exiting the highway on Washington Road, I started noticing a fenced off area to the right. “What could this place be?” I wondered. The fences continued for more than a mile. It seemed exclusive and significant especially compared with the strip malls, vacant lots, and pawn shops on the left side of the road. Gates were locked and the fences were lined with green so you couldn’t see. But one entrance was open as I drove by and one glance revealed the truth of what I was driving past. Augusta National Golf Club. I remember gasping in recognition.

What’s the big deal? It’s only a big deal if you understand the history of the game. I don’t play golf. The one time I tried was a disaster. But my parents have played for years and I used to be a rabid sports fan. If there was a ball and a score, I would watch it. So I had watched many hours of golf in my lifetime. It gave me an easy entre into conversation with my dad and besides, Tiger Woods was popular with everyone, until his personal troubles happened. I had also put my name in the ticket lottery for many years hoping to get a look at the extraordinarily beautiful course. (I have never succeeded by the way.) The history and significance of all of it and all the hours I had spent watching those Sunday final rounds had created a mystique for me that resulted in surprise and awe when I finally realized I was driving right by the place. Without the knowledge of its history or my personal investment in the tournament year after year, I would have driven by with only mild curiosity.

What does this have to do with the value of the Old Testament? To many Christians the Old Testament is a murky place, a confusing set of archaic books that contain some inspiring stories, but also raise a lot of unanswered questions. So they hardly read it, thinking that only the New Testament applies to their lives. One of my classmates last semester, in a class on the Old Testament prophets, sheepishly but honestly admitted that he pretty much only read the New Testament. And this was his first seminary class! That’s like walking into Augusta National Golf Club without knowing who Bobby Jones is. It’s just not advisable! Bobby Jones designed Augusta National, co-founded the Master’s Tournament, and was one of the best to ever play the game. You can’t understand the significance of the game of golf without knowing the history of one of its most iconic places and players. That’s true in any sport. Just as the history of golf didn’t start with Tiger Woods, the history of the NFL didn’t start with Tom Brady.

In a similar yet much more profound sense, this history of Christianity didn’t begin with the gospel of Matthew and the Incarnation. You cannot understand the significance of Jesus Christ and his mission without the history of the Old Testament. It’s all one story. I’ve been thinking more about this lately while working on teaching parts of Exodus and the book of Leviticus. Leviticus is the proverbial graveyard of Bible reading plans. Many good intentions have come to a grinding halt in this book. But if we ignore it and the rest of the Old Testament, the gospel loses much of its power and worth.

In Matthew 5 Jesus says he is the fulfillment of the Law. How can we understand what he is fulfilling if we ignore the giving of that Law in Exodus? In John 1 we read of the Word being made flesh and dwelling among us. How can we understand what it means for God in the flesh to dwell on earth without an understanding of the tabernacle? During Jesus’ ministry on earth, he touched lepers and dead people and a woman with an issue of blood. These episodes lose their provocative intensity if we don’t dig into Leviticus and understand the concepts of being clean and unclean. Jesus touched lepers and did not become unclean!? That should stop us in our tracks. When John the Baptist sees Jesus he declares, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Only someone who has spent time in the Old Testament with its instructions about the sacrificial system and the Day of Atonement can appreciate the magnitude of this title.

And that’s barely scratching the surface. The book of Hebrews is an extended argument about how Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all the types and shadows introduced in the Old Testament. He is better than the angels, better than Moses, our great high priest who has offered himself as the final and complete sacrifice in order to fulfill the New Covenant and save to the uttermost those who have faith in him. The rest of the New Testament is replete with references, quotations and allusions to the Old Testament. This only makes sense if the Bible really is one book telling the one true story of the world and God’s plans to redeem it in Christ. If you have not spent much time in the Old Testament, only driving by from time to time with mild curiosity and many unanswered questions, I encourage you to try again. Go slow. Ask someone else to join you on this journey. Don’t give up when you have questions. There are good resources out there. Ask the Lord to give you understanding and open your eyes to how everything in the Old Testament is pointing to Jesus. As you do this, I pray that you will have many moments of surprise and awe as you see how everything connects to him.

Being the Best Christian

Meredith Beatty2 Comments

There once was a girl who wanted to be the best. She was pretty good at school and half decent at swimming but one day she took up the clarinet and after a few years realized she was more talented than most. So she practiced. She took private lessons. She received recognition and was rewarded with solos and awards. Being first, being the best, felt good.

Moving to a new state to start high school was tough, but this girl soon found her niche in the band. Her parents found her a new private teacher and drove many miles each week to take her to all her lessons and rehearsals. Then came auditions for honor bands and big city youth orchestras. She continued to succeed in capturing one honor after another, more solos and first chair placements. When she failed to beat out the competition, she felt bad and tried not to get discouraged, but it was impossible for her to keep from comparing herself with others. That mentality had become a default switch. She wanted to be the best.

The clarinet was the center of this young girl’s life and her talent eventually brought her to one of the best music schools in the country. Filled with ambition, she set out, at least subconsciously, to find out that first year in college who all the clarinet players were and where she ranked. She wanted to be the best after all. That was the only way to get the awards and the recognition and to one day get the coveted symphony job she so desired. As she labored daily in the practice room, it felt really good to see her name rise in the ranks after each audition. By the end of that first year she found herself sitting in the top orchestra next to the number one player. She saw nothing wrong with her ambition.

Early in her second year, some things went seriously awry in this girl’s personal life and she found herself lonely and lost. But in the midst of this lostness, the Lord was seeking her. Friends invited her to church and she began to read the Bible. She met Jesus Christ and realized she was not the best after all. She came face to face with who she really was at heart – a sinner in need of redemption. Within a short time after placing her faith in Jesus Christ, she found a kind of fulfillment and joy in her relationship with God that the clarinet couldn’t give her. There were brand new desires planted within her reborn self. Music started to become something different and her relationship with Jesus Christ slowly began to reshape her goals and ambitions. For sure, being the best clarinet player was still a goal, but others around her started to become people to love instead of people to impress or obstacles to climb over in getting to the top.

That girl with the clarinet who wanted to be the best was me of course. I turned 53 this year and have now been following Christ for almost 34 years. The girl who came to faith at 19 seems like a world away and I am filled with thanksgiving for how God has worked in me, as Paul says in Philippians, “to will and to work for his good pleasure.” But that desire to ‘be the best’ followed me into my Christian life and still lurks in the shadows, subtly trying to exert its influence. Being born again doesn’t completely rid us of the ingrained habitual sin that’s shaped us. Some habits of the flesh, some ways of being and thinking and operating in this broken world, cling so closely and are so multi-layered that it takes decades to see progress. And certainly the renewal of the mind that is part of the sanctification process won’t end until we are free of this flesh and stand glorified in the presence of God.

But how has this particular sin pattern followed me into my Christian life and what has that looked like these past 34 years? What God has shown me is that the genuine zeal he gave me in pursuing holiness can be intertwined with legalism and pride, turning my motivation from pleasing the Lord to ‘being the best’. Not the best clarinet player, but the best Christian.

As a new Christian, it looked like trying to have my ‘quiet time’ every day, because all the books on spiritual growth advised that and all the ‘best’ Christians did that. When I succeeded I felt good. When I missed a day or two or maybe a week, I lamented about how bad I felt in my journal. Over the years the Lord has been faithful to teach me that this ‘quiet time’ is really about cultivating communion with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and that can be done in the morning but also throughout the day as I learn to delight myself in him.

As a young mom, this ‘be the best’ mentality made me think that being at home and having my babies follow a strict schedule was the only way to be a good mom. That’s what Elisabeth Elliot and Growing Kids God’s Way recommended after all. I remember meeting another young mom who carried her baby in a sling and silently judging her, thinking she was really spoiling her baby. As my children grew, the Lord has been faithful to convict me and chip away at my pride, teaching me that parenting is not a competition and my children are not trophies.

As I’ve grown in my faith, I have faced the temptation to look at others and what they are doing, whether serving the needy and vulnerable, or giving to missionaries, and think that I have to do all those things and do them better. I have sometimes approached the Christian life like a Girl Scout, ambitious to fill my sash with all those merit badges. But the Lord has taught me about the goodness of my limitations and the body of Christ who works together, each member needing the other to serve the Lord and love others all for his glory, not mine.

You would think that after almost 34 years of walking with the Lord, this ‘be the best’ mentality would hardly be a problem anymore, a thing of the past that I’ve outgrown. While the Lord has given me more wisdom and discernment to see it, it still entangles me from time to time. When I entered seminary in 2023, it reared its ugly head and manifested as anxiety over grades and a desire to impress my professors. It’s been surprising and humbling to see how important a GPA can be to me after all these years.

As I’ve come up against this latest temptation to ‘be the best’ I’ve thought about the roots of that mentality. Lurking underground is a root of insecurity, a fear of not being enough. We look at ourselves and the things we’re good at, trying to maximize them so we have some proof of our own worth. But all that is an unending construction project doomed to failure from the start because we’re looking at the wrong person. Being the best falls apart when instead of comparing ourselves to others we reflect on the perfections of God and his Law. It is in that mirror that we see our true selves and our devastating lack. We’re not enough! We’ll never be the best! But praise the Lord for the gospel because instead of leaving us to ourselves, God condescended in love and sent his own Son to not only forgive and redeem us but to bring us into union with Christ so we can be remade into his image. The Christian life is not a spiritual self-help program, a way to become a better version of ourselves. This is where our security lies – in him, not ourselves. As Paul explains at the end of 1 Corinthians 1, our salvation did not come about because we were the smartest or the strongest. In his wisdom:

“God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.'”

It is out of that security we’re freed from this insatiable need to prove ourselves and compare ourselves with others. We’re also enabled by the Spirit who lives in us to live a life that’s truly pleasing to the Lord, working heartily for him as we love others and point them to the only One who is the best.

His Name

Meredith Beatty2 Comments

My name is often misspelled. The day of my college graduation, I opened my diploma to see Meridith. Disappointing for sure, especially since it had never been misspelled on any other college documents, but when I sent it back for a replacement, it came back with the same mistake! It’s happened so often that I have actually come to expect it at places like Chick-Fil-A and Starbucks where they print your name on the sticky ticket they attach to your bag or coffee. One time I gave the barista a different name altogether, but now I find it funny.

The latest example

In Isaiah 44 God rebukes those who take a block of wood, carve an idol out of it and bow down to it. We would never do that, right? But there are many kinds of idols. Tim Keller defined an idol as “anything that absorbs more of our attention and imagination than God.”

Idolatry is one of the main reasons I have, for the most part, gotten off social media. I used to have a podcast. I enjoyed the process of writing and recording each episode. But when you create content online, there is another thing that comes with it – growing an audience. You make a podcast so that people will listen. But how can people listen if they don’t know about your podcast? You have to spread the word through social media. So I created an Instagram account for the podcast, requiring me to spend even more time creating content that would build an audience. But in the midst of all that I realized I was wading into some dangerous spiritual waters. The promoting of the podcast started getting entangled with the promoting of myself. I found myself constantly checking stats to see how many had listened, commented or liked. Pretty soon the creation of content got wrapped up in the temptations of idolatry.

Is it even possible to create content online and promote it without falling into the idolatry of self where your identity becomes a brand and you’re constantly curating your own reputation, making sure your name is noticed? How does a Christian blog, podcast, YouTube without losing their soul? The idolatry of self has always been a temptation for the essence of sin is to curve inward on yourself. But in our age of the expressive individual when the temptations are embedded in the technology we use every day, how freeing would it be to look away from yourself and focus on the name above all names?

My reputation has often been too important to me, something I have jealously but secretly guarded even without me realizing it. But lately I’ve been realizing how little my name and reputation matters. The truth is that my name will be forgotten in a couple generations but his name endures forever. That future and certain anonymity (at least among men) should not lead me to despair though, for, if I am in Christ, then I have taken on a new identity and bear his name. I am no longer just Meredith, or Meridith or any other way you want to misspell it! I am Meredith-in-Christ, Christ-in-Meredith, a new creation who is not losing her own personality and uniqueness but one who has been grafted into another, buried and raised with Christ.

Identity and names are a theme that runs through Revelation. In the letters to the seven churches, Jesus commends those who bear up under persecution for his name’s sake (2:3). They hold fast his name, not denying the faith (2:13). They may be weak but they keep his word and do not deny his name (3:8). As a reward, those who endure to the end will be given a white stone with a new name written on it (2:17). Jesus knows their names and they will never be blotted out of the book of life because he will confess their name before the Father (3:4-5). Even more precious, the name of God will be written on them: “The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.” (3:12)

How silly and shortsighted is it for me to worry about my own name and my own reputation when my whole life is bound up in Christ! Yes, my name will be forgotten by men, but not by the Lord. He knows my name, it is written in his book. And I will bear his name forever in the New Jerusalem.

“They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” Revelation 22:4

God’s 1000 Keys

Meredith BeattyLeave a comment

I’ve written about the Puritans before and today I’d like to introduce you to Samuel Rutherford. He was a Scottish Presbyterian minister and theologian who lived during the 17th century. For a time he was exiled from his own congregation because of conflict with Church authorities. During his time of exile he wrote an immense amount of personal letters which went on to be published. Charles Spurgeon said these letters were the closest thing to inspiration written by a mere man.

It’s tempting to think we’re smarter than those who lived 400 years ago. But while we can fly around the world, map the human genome, and access more information than we know what to do with, we tend to have a shallower understanding of God and the human soul.

I’ve been reading slowly through Rutherford’s letters and came across this quote below. Take your time reading this.

Providence hath a thousand keys, to open a thousand sundry doors for the deliverance of His own, when it is even come to a conclamatum est [Latin for ‘all is over’]. Let us be faithful, and care for our own part, which is to do and suffer for Him, and lay Christ’s part on Himself, and leave it there. Duties are ours, events are the Lord’s. When our faith goeth to meddle with events, and to hold a court (if I may so speak) upon God’s providence, and beginneth to say, ‘How wilt Thou do this and that?’ we lose ground. We have nothing to do there. It is our part to let the Almighty exercise His own office, and steer His own helm. There is nothing left to us, but to see how we may be approved of Him, and how we may roll the weight of our weak souls in well-doing upon Him who is God Omnipotent: and when that we thus essay miscarrieth, it will be neither our sin nor cross.

If I may try to summarize what he’s saying in modern English – let God be God. So many of our anxieties are caused by trying to take on what is not ours. But God’s providence means he has innumerable ways to accomplish his will, to work all things to our good. Our job is to just do the next right thing in front of us and commit the rest to him.

My Struggle with Productivity

Meredith Beatty1 Comment

I have a love hate relationship with the whole productivity industrial complex. Why do I call it that? Because it’s a thing. You see it all over social media and the publishing world. How to maximize time. How to get things done most efficiently. This appeals to a lot of us, especially people like me who are prone to perfectionism. Mondays are the perfect day for me to plan, strategize and make lists. I love lists. On Mondays I usually make a list called a ‘Brain Dump’. This is where I just list everything I can think of that I want to get done in the week. It helps to download all of it onto paper.

But how does God see productivity? I have been asking myself these questions lately. Going back to school has added a lot to my list and the old perfectionism rears its head when I look at the syllabi for my classes filled with hundreds of pages of reading and parameters for research papers. How to get it all done? How can I schedule my day in a way to not get behind? What about all the other responsibilities in my life? Someone has to cook dinner and clean toilets after all.

The first class I took in seminary was called “Redemption Unfolded”. The class covered the overarching story of Scripture and while the subject matter made an impact on me, the teacher also left an indelible mark. He wasn’t a professor at the seminary, but a local pastor, and this was his first class. After introductions he had us read out loud the following Scripture and meditate on it silently:

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.

Colossians 3:23

Work heartily? Yes! This was why I was in seminary. I was eager to work heartily, to read widely and deeply from authors I’d not been exposed to, to learn the original languages in order to peel back and expose the beauty and depth of God’s word, and to enjoy all kinds of theological conversations with my professors and classmates. But wait. There’s more to this command.

Work heartily as for the Lord and not for men. This is what cut me to the quick that day. The Holy Spirit put his finger so to speak on this area of my heart, this place that still needed to undergo his refining work. And this area is still under construction, two years later, as I make my way through another semester. This semester has been very difficult because of the added stress of caring for my aging parents and grieving the loss of my father-in-law. As I saw the amount of work in front of me, I began to panic, and I grasped for ways to perfectly organize my time and my assignments. Being organized is good, but panicking is not and the Lord showed me exactly where that panic was rooted – in idolatry. When I work heartily for man and not the Lord, I am motivated by grades and reputation. I get consumed with anxiety about what others will think if I don’t maintain a certain standard. Not only that, but what will I think about myself?

I don’t know all the answers when it comes to a faithful approach to productivity, but I have begun to recognize the traps that I fall into. One of those is the idolatry of achievement and reputation as I described above. The other is believing the lie that I am the master of time. If I could only organize each hour perfectly according to the priorities that I have established, then I could lay my head down on the pillow at night fully satisfied. But this mindset encourages us to live contrary to our natures as limited creatures. We are not master manipulators of the minutes of our lives. We are not God! And it also goes against how God sees growth and productivity in our lives. First of all, he is in charge. Yes, we are called to work out our salvation but that is rooted in and empowered by the work that God continually does in us for his good pleasure. (Phil. 2:12-13).

We are the clay and not the potter.

We are the branches and not the vine.

We are the sheep and not the shepherd.

Second, growth is slow. While we’re focused on speed and efficiency, God is calling us to learn from his creation about faithfulness and perseverance over a long period of time. Clay takes time to be molded by the careful and loving hands of the potter. Branches take time to develop and grow until the buds form and fruit appears. Sheep take time to learn their master’s voice and follow his commands. Think about how ridiculous it would be for the potter, the gardener, or the shepherd to stand over his work, hands on hips, impatiently crying out, “Will you just hurry up!” But we look at our lives, our children, and our work like this, as if everything could be microwaveable and should progress onward and upward in an unbroken line.

There’s a fig tree planted in my backyard. We planted it almost five years ago and it still hasn’t borne fruit. Last year it came close. As I observe the tree out of my kitchen window this spring, again putting out buds and then leaves, I think about the patience and kindness of God and I ask for wisdom. Wisdom to realize that I am not a machine but a limited creature who is dependent on the Lord for life, health and breath. Wisdom to see when my work becomes more about me and less about him and those I’m called to serve. With my mind renewed I can then reframe what productivity means. I’m coming to realize that it has much more to do with faith-filled patient work that bears fruit over the long haul.

Why Seminary?

Meredith Beatty5 Comments

This is a question I receive regularly when people learn I am going to seminary. For those who don’t know me, I am a middle aged woman with adult children who has an undergraduate degree in music but has also homeschooled her children and cleaned other people’s houses for a living. So why am I going to seminary? And why now?

In the early years of my Christian life, back in college, God gave me a desire to learn. I joined a women’s small group and did fill in the blank Bible studies by Cynthia Heald. I dove in head first, eagerly absorbing all the truth I could. The leader of that small group was going to seminary nearby at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. She brought me to the bookstore one day and I remember buying this big blue book.

Not the typical book for a new Christian, I know, but it intrigued me and in the following decades I made my way slowly through most of it as I got married and had kids and had time for more theological reading. I was drawn to deep theology because I saw the difference it made in my own soul.

About ten years ago I started teaching Bible study in my local church, desiring to share what I had learned. But it became more than that. After reading Jen Wilkin’s book Women of the Word, I was convicted that teaching wasn’t about showing off how much I knew, but loving the women God had given me to teach. Did I love them? That has changed the way I teach for the better. Instead of filling my lessons with cool Bible facts, I try to focus on the women in my classes and what they need. That requires a lot of prayer and a lot of editing.

This gets me to why I decided to go to seminary. During those days of cleaning people’s houses I would binge on podcasts, especially Nancy Guthrie’s How To Teach the Bible. There were many times while I was vacuuming or cleaning a kitchen when I would have to stop and pray while listening to her podcast because there was this deep and overwhelming urge in my own spirit to teach more and to serve women better by giving them the Word.

Several years ago, I happened upon a Facebook group dedicated to encouraging women in the Bible. I can’t remember the name of it or who was sharing this post, but I do remember my reaction to the post. The best word to describe it is visceral – it was a deep angst in my spirit. Let me explain the post for you and then hopefully you can understand my reaction. The post centered around an obscure verse in Nahum 3. Verse 13 says, “Behold, your troops are women in your midst…” The woman commenting on this verse ripped it out of its context declaring that the Lord had given her this verse that day and wanted her to communicate to her readers that they should have courage as women warriors for God.

I hadn’t studied Nahum, but I had read enough of the Old Testament to know that this verse was never meant to be understood as a way to say, “You Go Girl!” It’s actually an insult! Nahum 3 is a declaration of woes from God upon Nineveh and to say that your army is a bunch of women is not meant to be a compliment and it’s certainly not meant to be an empowerment message to modern women. And guess what, the woman who wrote the post knew that too! But she pushed back against those who would question her interpretive methods by marginalizing those who desire to handle the Bible responsibly according to things like context, and elevated her own experience and what she thought the Lord was telling her.

As I said, my reaction to this post was visceral, it was like a boiling over in my spirit. No! This is not what women need! They don’t need to learn irresponsible ways of handling the Scripture. It’s not about plucking verses out of their context and then applying them to yourself according to how you feel that day. Responsible Bible study methods are not boring and dry. They actually get you deeper into the text and deeper into the heart of God. And they also honor the God who gave us his Word. He wants us to know him but he also wants us to handle his Word rightly.

Sadness accompanied my visceral reaction as I read the comments on this post. Most of the comments were filled with thankfulness for the message of empowerment. It was obvious that many were focused more on the immediacy of application instead of the priority of rightly handling God’s Word.

Soon after reading this Facebook post I began researching how to go to seminary. I wasn’t sure at the time whether I was experiencing a true calling or not, but I knew that God was doing something in my spirit, stirring up a passion that had been growing in me for a long time. That passion centers around helping women understand the importance and the benefit of rightly handling God’s Word. I want them to be anchored in the whole truth of Scripture, rooted deeply in the complete picture of God. This is how I want to love women well and this is why I’m going to seminary.

The Deeper Magic

Meredith BeattyLeave a comment

In The Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis uses the metaphor of deep magic to describe the atonement Aslan accomplishes on Edmund’s behalf at the stone table.

“It means,” said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.”

With poignant power, Lewis creatively recasts the death of Christ in a way that children (and adults!) could never forget. What happened at the Cross was a deeper magic, but how many of us have really plumbed the depths of that holy transaction?

Puritan theologians were active mostly in the late 16th and 17th centuries. I affectionately call them “the good old dead guys.” One of their common strategies was to take one verse and wring out of it every drop of gospel sweetness. These were men who plumbed the depths, who took the time to think deeply about every theological implication. John Owen, in his exposition of Psalm 130, spends 227 pages exploring the depths of verse 4. Yes, you read that right. Over two hundred pages on one verse. I encourage you to read the whole psalm for context because verse 4 begins with an important transition word: “But with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared.” The psalmist is crying for mercy and knows that if God were to mark our every iniquity, every single transgression in thought, word, and deed, we would rightly perish. What Owen does in his lengthy exposition of verse 4 is explore the inner logic of the gospel, what Lewis called the deeper magic. How can a holy God who demands perfect righteousness, forgive sinners?

Have you ever thought to ask that question? Have you presumed God’s forgiveness without ever realizing what it cost? These are the questions Owen asks as he challenges his readers to go deeper. Here is one quote that stunned me:

To see into the mystery of the love of the Father, working in the blood of the Mediator; to consider by faith the great transaction of divine wisdom, justice, and mercy therein,—how few attain unto it! To come unto God by Christ for forgiveness, and therein to behold the law issuing all its threats and curses in his blood, and losing its sting, putting an end to its obligation unto punishment, in the cross; to see all sins gathered up in the hands of God’s justice, and made to meet on the Mediator, and eternal love springing forth triumphantly from his blood, flourishing into pardon, grace, mercy, forgiveness,—this the heart of a sinner can be enlarged unto only by the Spirit of God.

Go back and read that again, and maybe again, not only because of the clunky 17th century English, but because of the profound truth that’s contained there. Take time to savor the sweetness like a Werther’s Original melting in your mouth. We may think that our generation especially doesn’t have time for this, or it’s just too hard, but look at what Owen says about his own! Few in his time attained to this understanding of what the blood of Christ accomplished and so few came to a deep understanding of the mystery of the love of the Father. A shallow understanding of forgiveness will lead to a shallow understanding of God’s love.

Let’s pray that the Spirit of God, who alone can stir within us to desire this, will work in us to enlighten the eyes of our hearts to comprehend this deeper magic.

How to Calm and Quiet your Soul

Meredith Beatty1 Comment

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.

But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.

Psalm 131

Unless you’ve nursed a child you can’t understand the intimate and visceral connection that exists between mother and child. A simple cry of her infant at just the right time can cause a mother’s body to produce milk. As the baby nestles into the crook of her arm he roots around using sight and smell to find the source of food. When the baby is only weeks old, still learning the steps of this dance with his mother, he is fidgety and frustrated until he successfully latches on.

This is not the picture that’s painted in the second verse of Psalm 131. Here we see the picture of a weaned child with its mother. But in order to understand the image of a weaned child it’s helpful to dwell on the negative image, the one of an unweaned child: fussy, hungry, and impatient.

Weaning represents an important stage of growth for the child. He is now no longer dependent on his mother for food. But that doesn’t mean he’s completely independent of her. It just means that his relationship to her has changed. He has learned to trust his mother and be content in her arms, no longer impatiently waiting to be fed. Calmly and quietly, he can rest knowing that she will provide.

How does this picture help us? If the weaned child with its mother is a picture of a soul who has found rest in God, how do we get there? Bookending this image are three things the psalmist doesn’t do and then a command of what to do. (I am indebted to Jim Hamilton’s excellent commentary for many of the following insights.)

Some Things are Beyond Us

One of the characteristics of Hebrew poetry is to use parallelism, a device that compares and contrasts in order to give meaning. The three things spoken of in verse 1 are actually three ways of speaking about the same thing. He says that his heart is not lifted up, his eyes are not raised too high, and he doesn’t occupy himself with things too great or too marvelous for him. Did you realize there are some things we are just not meant to understand? Proverbs 25:2 may declare that it is the glory of kings to search out the things God has concealed, but Deuteronomy 29:29 assures us that the secret things belong to the Lord. We may be able to peer into the far reaches of the galaxy and map the human genome but we are not God. We are not omniscient, nor omnipotent. But the temptation is to act like we are and to even assume God expects this of us. No. We are limited, time bound creatures made for dependence on our Heavenly Father.

The next time you are filled with anxiety about all the things you think you should be able to handle, or are overwhelmed by the news of the day that’s just a swipe away on your phone, say to yourself, “I am a limited creature and that is good.” (See this excellent book for more on that.) Question the expectations you place on yourself and the messages you receive through the media. Do they appeal to a desire to know everything and accomplish everything? Push back against that with the good news that you are not God! To constantly live in a way that denies this makes us like that unweaned child, always fussy and never trusting.

Hope as Trust

There are some things that are beyond us, things that we should be content not to know and not to be able to handle. That would unsettle us if not for verse 3 which says, “O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.”

We oftentimes say things like, “I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow,” or “I hope the Braves win the Word Series this year.” But meteorologists are often wrong, and don’t even get me going on the futility of hoping in Atlanta sports teams. But true, Biblical hope is not wishful thinking. It has deep roots in the character of a sovereignly good and loving Heavenly Father. It is a firm trust that God is who he says he is and will do what he has promised to do. Hope equals trust. Psalm 130 ends in a similar way. The focus there is on the promise of forgiveness, but it elaborates on the reasons why we can and should hope in the Lord. Notice how it focuses on the character of God: “O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.” (Psalm 130:7)

An active hope and trust in the Lord adjusts our perspective. Instead of straining our eyes and hearts to figure out the universe and our place in it, the child of God who consistently sets the Lord before him, cultivating communion with him, realizes like David in Psalm 16:8 that God is at his right hand, he is near, and because of that he will not be shaken. Let us continually remind ourselves of who God is in comparison to who we are. Let us accept these truths as good. This will free us to exhale and settle down into the place of quiet trust, both today and forevermore when we enjoy our ultimate Sabbath rest in the arms of God.