The Flaw of the Excluded Middle

    I have been recently reading a book given to me by a friend on evangelism. In it the author points to an article by the late missiologist Paul Hiebert entitled “The Flaw of the Excluded Middle”. The article is about how people live life at three levels.

    The bottom level involves those aspects of life directly encountered with the senses. At this level we plant and harvest crops, build homes, take out the garbage, fix broken stuff and other seemingly simple things.

    The top level deals with those things which are beyond what the mere senses can grasp, the things that are transcendant such as the meaning of life, destiny, true beauty and the infinite nature of God.

    The middle level is that between the bottom and the top where we deal with more immediate yet still profound questions to do with the past, the present and the near future. Things like accidents, tragedies, serendipitous discoveries and unexpected turns of events occupy the middle and it is here that much of life is interpreted and experienced.

    Many people experience their Christianity in the top level but not in the middle or bottom level. Heibert himself found this to be a challenge in his work in missions in India. He found that professing believers would often turn to shamans and luck charms when it came to dealing with life in "the excluded middle." I have found it a challenge at times in my own life to experience God in "the excluded middle." "Can I really trust God to provide for my children's college education?" "Will I be able to perform well in my vocation over the long haul?" "Will I have to endure this arthritic knee and locking shoulder for the rest of my life?" "Why do I feel depressed in the morning so often and how can I change?" Do you identify? I don't think I'm alone.

    Yet, the testimony of scripture is that God is present in the bottom, the top and the middle and calls us to invite him to bring the experience of salvation and the truth of the gospel into every level of life. His word is replete with this invitation both implicitly and explicitly.

Psalm 139 says,
“ ⁸ If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
¹² even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.”

And Mt. 28:20 - “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age!” .

And the cry of the Seraphim in Isaiah 6:3 -
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
(note - the whole earth, not just the transcendent!)

    So much of the exhortations in scripture that flow from the context of the grace of God have all three tiers in mind. Take a look at Ephesians and watch how Paul masterfully blends the transcendent with the seemingly mundane and everything in between. The celebration of the glorious grace of God, his eternal decree in election and the revealing of his great mystery in Christ flows into the call to practically love and enjoy our church, our families, our spouse, our employees in every aspect of life. All of life is to be worship and the experience of God.

    I have found two things to be very helpful in this – remembering the gospel & prayer. In every situation and challenge I am learning to ask “What does the gospel say about this?” "Do I need to apply the forgiveness purchased by Christ's atonement?" "Is their a promise inherent in the gospel that I must cling to?" "Is their a truth about God and myself from the gospel which I must understand?" There are a number of these sort of “gospel questions” we can ask. I recommend Mike Bullmore’s article and teaching entitled, “Applying the Gospel to All of Life” to get a more complete picture of this.

    And the other thing is prayer – learning to take all things – whether issues at the bottom, middle or top of life and bringing them before our ever near God in prayer, crying out to him and depending on him, seeking his presence. As I have been able to do these two practices, with the help of the Holy Spirit and those around me, I have been able to avoid living life without God in the normally, “excluded middle.”

Hope this helps!

God Bless,
Paul

The Rock

I just read this morning a portion of "Preaching Christ in All of Scripture." Wow! Around page 29 Edmund Clowney has a excellent section on Christ as the Rock that was struck in Exodus 17. Take some time today to read 1 Cor. 10:1-5 and then Exodus 17:1-7 and consider these items. 1) The people accused Moses and therefore God of murdering them in the desert. 2) God tells Moses to assemble the elders for judgement 3) Moses is to bring his staff of judgement. 4) God himself will stand on the Rock. 5) Moses passes judgement on the Rock and strikes it with his staff of judgement. 6) God takes the penalty and punishment as the Rock 7) The struck Rock provides water for the people to drink.

What an incredible God we serve – we have accused him, we have maligned him and spurned him yet in Christ he bears the punishment of our sin that we might drink of the eternal waters!

Glory to God!

The End of the Beginning of It All

Wow - sorry for the 4 month hiatus from the blog. It is hard to find the time amidst the many time consuming blessings of walking with God, being a husband, dad, pastor and friend.

Anyhow, here we go.

We just ended a series from Genesis entitled, "The Beginning of It All". Wow a wonderful time it has been. I trust God has blessed others as much as I have been blessed studying this book. We so need the book of Genesis. In it we find, in story form, the following key truths:

1. The origin and therefore the purpose of all creation - God! (Genesis 1:1)
2. The purpose and uniqueness of mankind - imaging God. (Genesis 1:26-2:25)
3. The importance of resting in God's finished work - the Sabbath. (Gen. 2:1-3)
4. The original and future realm of man & woman - in the royal garden paradise with God. (Gen. 2:4-25)
5. The God given blessing of gender roles - manhood & womanhood . (Gen. 1-3.)
6. Our unique God given role - to work with & for God. (Gen. 1-3)
7. The tragedy of life apart from God - sin. (Gen. 3:1-20)
8. God's amazing promise - gracious & sovereign redemption. (Gen. 3:1-24)

This book is so much more than children's bible stories - it sets the themes for the entire rest of the bible. How rich the word of God is and how wise its Author!!

Spend some time in Genesis 1-3 and enjoy its riches!

Paul

p.s. You can access the audio files from this series at http://www.kingofgrace.org/SundaymessageFILE/genesis1t3/genesis1t3.htm.

The Beginning of It All

We are beginning a summer series in Genesis 1-3 entitled, "The Beginning of It All". It's amazing to see in God's word the key themes of His glory, his covenant with man, the fall & redemption in Christ all appear in the first three chapters of the bible. We are excited to see what God will do through this series. Come visit us or check out the messages as they appear on the website.

Message for June 4th "In the Beginning, God..." Genesis 1:1

Check out these resources as well:

The End for Which God Made The World - Jonathan Edwards

The Glory Is All His - John Piper

Van Til's Most Succinct Synopsis - Greg Bahnsen

Two Adams, Two Covenants of Works- Meredith G. Kline

Creation as Miracle or Blind Fools - Ed Walsh

The Days of Creation - First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS

The Framework Interpretation - Meredith G. Kline et al

Monergism Web Site on Creation - Many Excellent Resources

I Don't Know Him from Adam

Sorry for being off-line. I'm back.

I have been recently studying my bible and considering the importance of Gen 1-3. So often we breeze over these passages as almost trivial information best suited for children's Sunday school. At least I've kinda thought like that. I am beginning to see how important these three chapters are in determining the whole storyline of the bible. Understanding the Covenant with Adam (also known as the Covenant of Works) is key to understanding Christ, Christianity, Life and ultimately the trajectory of all creation.

Check out what Meredith Kline has to say on this: Two Adams, Two Covenants of Works. It may make you dizzy at first but invest the time - it will be worth it.

Let me know what you think.