Ben Zornes

Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ

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Flamethrower or Cranes

Flamethrower or Cranes

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Your words are powerful. The Bible tells us that our mouth can either be a flamethrower for the fires of hell, setting everything around us ablaze (Jas. 3:5-6). Or it can be like construction equipment erecting a glorious skyscraper (1 Thes. 5:11 & Eph. 4:29). You are Christians, and as such must learn to think God’s thoughts after Him, and speak His word after Him.

So ask yourself before you speak, “Are my words going to be a flamethrower or a crane? Am I going to bring ruin, or am I going to build a monument?” In all this, God is our example, and what did He speak? He spake the Word and through that Word made flesh gave us life and forgiveness. So speak like God, and always let your words be about Jesus.

Book Review: “Happily Ever After” by Desiring God

Book Review: “Happily Ever After” by Desiring God

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Happily Ever After: Finding Grace in the Messes of MarriageHappily Ever After: Finding Grace in the Messes of Marriage by John Piper
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Being a collection of short devotionals for couples, with various authors, giving a review is a mixed bag. Occasionally you reach in and grab your favorite candy bar. Next time, you reach in and find a Werthers Original from 1993 that’s spent the last several decades under the back seat of Uncle Lester’s car. In other words, some of these are really helpful insightful and useful for helping couples think biblically about marriage (i.e. husbands loving their wives sacrificially, wives submitting to their husbands, etc.). I’m biased towards John Piper’s and Douglas Wilson’s contributions. Other entries were just not a nice flavor, sort of like the aforementioned half-melted caramel. In other words, either not enough depth to make it worth the while, or some advice that leans a little bit too much in the direction of our egalitarian culture at large.

However, for a mature Christian couple the good chapters provide some helpful fodder for conversation and marital “weeding”. The “less good” chapters gave us something to enjoy mutual disgust, sort of like when you both have to choke down an unpleasant meal while at a dinner party…not fun in the moment, fun to reminisce about later. Fortunately, most of the devotionals are well-written, helpful, wise, and just the right length for a busy couple.

View all my reviews

Glory in Christ

Glory in Christ

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But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
Galatians 6:14

Paul here uses pronouncedly strong language to make it clear that the only thing worth glorying in is the ben zornes - 04-26-16 - cross - galatianscross of our Lord Jesus. He has spent the whole book arguing for justification by faith alone, and that our works of righteousness will not and can never justify us before a holy God. This is how Paul chooses to close this great epistle: glorying in the cross of Christ.

As good Christians, however, we are ever so tempted to boast in my accomplishments, attainments, talents, and goodness. We are quite prone to be able to effectively outline and exegete the Gospel, but fail to truly glory and believe that same Gospel. We “men of the book”, especially, must stay vigilant on the watchtower for the sniveling worm of pride, who is ever clever at breaching the walls of our heart and infecting even our best of labors with self-glorifying motives. [Read more…] about Glory in Christ

The God Who Came Down

The God Who Came Down

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And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.

—— Exodus 2:11-12——

As humans we seem to be fixated with fixing. We want to find solutions to the problems, answers to the moses slays egyptianriddles. While the instinct to fix things surely derives from our longing to return to Eden, we, as Christians, must avoid the danger of healing this earth’s troubles via the strength and might of man.

We read (in Ex. 2:11-12) that Moses assesses the problem and discerns the injustice accurately. Tyranny, government overreach, racial tensions, and high taxes were all in play here. However, his solution was built on the sandy soil of humanism; he endeavored to accomplish God’s purposes using the devil’s tools. [Read more…] about The God Who Came Down

It Begins At A Tomb

It Begins At A Tomb

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And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan.

—— Genesis 23:19——

Abraham’s beloved wife, who had travelled with him through all his sojourning, endured the testing of God alongside of him, and walked through trial and temptation with him, was dead. The freewoman (Gal. 4:23) had borne the promised seed through whom the Messiah would come, and now like Eve before her, succumbed to the death which sin brought into the world. The womb, which had been cursed at the fall, was yet the means whereby God would redeem the world.

Yet now Sarah and her womb were dead. Abraham, we are told in Genesis 23:2, grieves over her, and seeks a burial place for her among the sons of Heth (vs. 3-4). The sons of Heth haggle for a bit, and finally Abraham convinces them that he must purchase the field of Ephron for 400 shekels of silver, and use the cave of Machpelah as his burying-place (vs. 5-16).

[epq-quote align=”align-right”]The very first plot of ground which the father of faith owned in God’s promised land was a tomb.[/epq-quote]For the first time since God had promised the land of Canaan to him and his descendants, Abraham possessed territory in the promised land. Until that point, he had only been a nomadic sojourner, and treated as such by all the surrounding nations. However, the very first plot of ground which the father of faith owned in God’s promised land was a tomb.

The lesson for us is this: the blessings of inheriting the promised land always begin at a tomb. Would we have the blessing of tasting the fruit of God’s Spirit? Then we must reckon ourselves buried with Christ, dead with Christ, entombed with Christ, yet also risen with Christ. All things must be counted loss–as it were, beloved Sarah must die and go to the grave–before the blessings of the Promised Land are to be enjoyed. It is no accident either that the Christian eon began at a tomb as well and Christ’s rulership over all things began there.

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Understand the Shaking

Understand the Shaking

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And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the countries; and they shall know that I am the Lord. 

——Ezekiel 30:26——lightstock_2581_xsmall_user_5740715

Throughout Ezekiel, the phrase (or a turn of it) “they shall know that I am the Lord” makes 60+ appearances. This phrase is used often throughout the whole OT, frequently in Exodus, but in no other book do we find it so oft repeated. It’s striking how often this phrase occurs as you read through Ezekiel, and what’s so fascinating about its repetition is that it mostly occurs right in the thick of “doom and gloom” passages of God’s judgement on Israel, Tyre, Egypt, Magog, etc.

Essentially, we read over & over in Ezekiel, that when we see the tumult, the chaos, the shaking of earthly kingdoms, we are to understand that there is a purpose to all these happenings. They aren’t accidental, erratic, or meaningless; rather they are deliberate, poignant, profound and entirely purposeful. These shakings all occur so that the peoples of the earth “shall know that I am the Lord God.” [Read more…] about Understand the Shaking

Our Old Rag Collection

Our Old Rag Collection

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I’m reading through a book right now called “Essentialism”, and apart from being a really helpful book, it is also full of several anecdotes, illustrations, etc. One of them has really struck me and stuck with me. There is a term called “sunk-cost bias” and the basic idea of it is that once we’ve invested our resources into something, we tend to have an irrational loyalty to it, despite the fact that the continued pursuit or investment isn’t solvent, is a wasted ventured, or is heading towards disaster.

This is why casinos work so well, because they exploit this irrational tendency to continue to invest in Titanic-sinkingsomething, even though we’re losing money and gaining nothing, simply because we’ve invested in it. The classic example of this was the Concord planes that Britain and France built; it became clear very quickly that these planes cost more to build, run, and maintain than they were worth. The market was never there, and never would be there and still the governments continued to prop these planes along, despite continuing and increasing losses. [Read more…] about Our Old Rag Collection

Ben Zornes