“I am sorry I can say nothing more consoling to you, for love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.  Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in the sight of all.  Men will give their lives if only the ordeal does not last long but is soon over, with all looking on and applauding as though on the stage. But active love is labor and fortitude, and for some people too, perhaps, a complete science.  But I predict that just when you see with horror that in spite of all your efforts you are getting farther from your goal instead of nearer to it – at that very moment I predict that you will reach it and behold clearly the miraculous power of the Lord who has been guiding you.”

–Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Brothers Karamazov

I’ve been reading R.L. Dabney’s discussion on “The Uses and Results of Church History.” Here are a few quotes that I found interesting, and its style is characteristic of Dabney’s rugged strength: 

I may illustrate the importance of history as a school of experience by its warning and purifying effect upon the moral judgments of men. It teaches us to beware of the estimate which the seductive brilliancy of present success might entice us to make of the doubtful acts of our contemporaries, by pointing us to the end of similar acts and principles in others…

The man who undertakes to teach, to legislate, or to govern, either in church or state, without historical wisdom, is a reckless tyro. His wicked folly is like that of the quack who should venture upon the responsibilities of the physician without having either seen or read practice. For, a series of human generations constitute but one lifetime of a political or ecclesiastical institution. The incidents of one human lifetime, or one era, constitute but a single “case,” a single turn of the diseases of society. And no man has experience of those diseases who has not studied the symptoms and results through many generations…

Man has no pole star and no compass, by which he may boldly break away from the track of experience and navigate the ocean of the future. The province of his wisdom is to follow the ways explored by previous voyagers, and only to venture into the uncertain storms of the untried so far as the light of the past is reflected forward upon it. All the safe and successful progress which has been made in human institutions has been from changes made under the guidance of history…

“Faith and love are often thought of as easy things to do, but they are not thought of in this way by those who put them into practice.  As they are the only springs of obedience toward God and usefulness toward other people, so they are greatly opposed from within and from without.”

John Owen on Hebrews 6:10 (from abridged version)

Love is hard work– loving each other, selflessly loving our wives and families, loving the lost, loving our Lord, none of these are easy, and often it feels nearly impossible.  Sometimes, our self-love is gratified by the good feelings and returned affections we experience when we love others.  So, during those times  loving seems easy, but  doesn’t that have more to do with loving ourselves?  That’s one love that is not hard.

But what about when our families are noisy and bothersome, what about when our fellow Christians are irritating and awkward, what about when God feels far away and when unbelievers act so offensively and so irritatingly… unbelieving?  What about when there is no gratification to our self-love?  Is there some trick?  Is there someway to make it easy again?  Nope, as Casey Kirkman exhorted us Sunday night: Hold Fast!   This is the work of the Christian, this is the love that is demanded, this is the life to which we are called (Col 3: 14-17).

Hold fast to Christ. Keep going back, keep filling your mind with Him, with His work, with His love, with all He has done for you.  Christ’s love is the foundation of absolutely everything we do, there is no short cut around it, no special program to make it easy, in fact it’s not supposed to be easy (Phil 1: 27-30) so don’t expect it to be!  Expect to have to work at it, to struggle with it.

But God has not left us here alone to struggle against ourselves, our sin, and the world, God has been gracious to give us many things to help us along this Way.  Perhaps it’s good to meditate on these truths so well known to us:

1. God has given us His Holy Spirit!  (John 14: 15-29 – These are awesome words)
2. God has given us prayer and Christ to always be our mediator! (Heb. 4: 14-16)
3. God has given us His Word. (2 Tim. 3: 16,17)
4. God has given us His Church (Col. 3: 14-17, Heb. 3: 13-14, Heb. 10:24, 25)

Love is hard, in fact love is war!  This is not some sentimental mushy nothing!  But it is emotional!  Let us strive to keep stirring each other up to love!  Let our hearts be enlivened. Let our wills be engaged. Let our imaginations be filled with the dreams of God’s kingdom and glory!  Let us press on!  Let us hold fast!  Remember this is a fight, so don’t forget all the weapons God has given us to wage this war!

God bless you in the battle!  The war is already won!

Fishermen!  Remember to check out the “Upcoming Events” link on the right of the blog.

I’m putting all the preaching opportunities of the fishermen that I know about on the calendar.  The upcoming events section will give you a heads up as to who will be out in the world doing the Master’s business.

So, let me know when you’re preaching (or add it to the calendar yourself) and check the “Upcoming Events” often, and keep praying for each other.

It is wonderfully exciting to see the Fishermen going out to preach!  May God grant many more opportunities! May the Kingdom be expanded by these labors!  May the name of our Lord Jesus Christ be exalted in all the Earth!

God bless you in your labors.  Hold Fast!