"Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips! Do not let my heart incline to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with men who work iniquity, and let me not eat of their delicacies! Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness; let him rebuke me—it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it. Yet my prayer is continually against their evil deeds." Psalms 141:3-5 (ESV)
This has been today's meditation. As I was reading the Psalm this morning, it rang of intellectual comfort. But there were other things aside from the intellectual that really struck my heart's cord; it is the act of the heart. I recently posted a corrective of some of Van Til's critics who have written "glaringly against Van Til" (taken from my video blog). Part of my response was to note that Van Til's emphasis was to show that these reasonings are reasons from the heart and not merely "noetic" (=heady or cerebral) in nature. The reason it was such a blessing emotionally is that apologists and individual Christians tend to forget that personal piety has always been part of the apologetic task. Some so-called Calvinist claim to proclaim the gospel without personal piety. Calvin would have some words for these people. Personal piety should be the first task before the person goes out to witness at all! After all, isn't the task to go and make disciples? What sort of disciples are we making? Do we laud the way David did, or do we merely subject our lives to the intellectual? The intellectual is only half the battle. We need to pray the way David did: "…Do not let my heart incline to any evil…" and evil could disguise itself under the intellectual as well, in the name of piety.
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