Report from a Japanese Christian

John Starke at The Gospel Coalition blog shared an email he recently received from a Japanese Christian friend. I know many of you have been wondering how the Christian minority are faring in Japan. It's not something we've heard much about up to this point. The following is excerpted from John Starke's post and includes portions of Keiko Takahashi's email from Japan.



"She writes:

Among those killed [were the] many churches planted by the missionaries sent by the same denomination as John Piper’s denomination, called “Rengo” in Japanese. Their church planting efforts have been predominantly focused on these east coast areas that were just swept all away!!!

According to Keiko, biblical Christianity thrived in these eastern regions that were devastated by the tsunami waves. She writes, “People in this area have been traditionally known for poverty and enduring patience due to the severe weather. [They were] well prepared for the God of all mercies and comforts (2 Cor 1).” They were “precious believers” in a country that is less than 0.2 percent Christian...

How Can American Christians Help?

Keiko is clear that it’s not yet the time for material and human resource help. There is simply too much “traffic confusion and congestion due to the scheduled power outage in downtown Tokyo and because of the shattered roads in the areas hit.” But there are “460,000 survivors who lost everything in a few minutes, including their loved ones, and are impoverished in every possible sense.” So as we wait and pray, let’s pray that when the time comes to help, the means will be ready and effective.

The deep need in Japan from American Christians is prayer. Keiko writes, “Please pray and encourage us to fight a good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith until the Lord takes us home with him.” She is keenly aware that there will be temptations on every side in this fight for faithfulness. She reminds us, “I cannot choose to die to my flesh at all by myself, but only by the Spirit and by the power of his divine grace and his perfect righteousness. That is why prayer counts so much.”...

We sow and water but God is the one who actually brings them to growth, not to death. . . . We shine by showing them our full confidence in Christ, not on our character or our wisdom or even our faith, etc., but in our conviction that there is no sin that he cannot atone for his own pleasure. We must reflect such miraculous generosity of God solely by the living Spirit.

That is why our and your prayer counts so significantly. It makes so much theological sense to pray and express our dependency on him who sanctifies us and saves the lost beyond our imagination.

Pray for the suffering and the mourning. Pray for local church communities to be faithful lights of the gospel. Pray that the hope of God’s grace in Christ will rest upon many hearts in Japan over the coming months."

Holiness: The Heart God Purifies - Week #5 [Epilogue]

And from the throne came a voice saying, "Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great." Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure"-- for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, "Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb." And he said to me, "These are the true words of God."  (Revelation 19:5-9)

At the conclusion of her book, DeMoss brings to remembrance the glorious future of the bride of Christ,  individuals from throughout the ages who have been spiritually united to Christ through faith. As believers, we are being prepared for this blessed future event, we are being transformed into the image of the beloved. (2Cor.3:18; Romans 8:29)  And God calls us to participate in this preparation, i.e. our sanctification.  Paul gives a clear picture of the process in the opening verses of Romans 12. 

• "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." (Rom.12:1)

Worship isn't just what you do in church for a few hours on Sunday morning and evening.  It's how you live out your entire life in submission to God.  A believer's body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1Cor.6:19-20).  In contrast to OT sacrifices, we are to be LIVING sacrifices.  Day by day, moment by moment yielding every area of our lives and all of our activities to God's use.  Is that how you view your life?  When you awake in the morning, do you acknowledge God's presence in your life and take a few moments to communicate with Him before arising?  Do you spend time in His Word in the morning, giving your mind a biblical perspective for facing the day?  All of this service is based upon the mercies God has poured out upon us (Romans, Chapters 1-11).

• "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (Rom.12:2)

There is both a "stop" and a "go" in this verse, a "put off" and a "put on".  Notice how Scripture never tells us to "put off" an unrighteous behavior without telling us to "put on" a specific righteous behavior in its place.  We are to "stop" living according to the pattern of this evil age, out of which God saved us! (Gal.1:4)   Over time, believers are to increasingly be "putting off" conformity to the thinking of the world system, which is in stark opposition to God, and by means of renewing their minds with God's Word,  they are to be "putting on" God-centered thinking, making them able to discern the will of God as revealed in His Word.

• "For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned." (Rom.12:3)

Walk humbly before God.  Having a spirit of humility means you think soberly about yourself, shining the light of God's truth ever deeper into the recesses of your mind, the way you think, your expectations, the way you view others, they way you look at the world.  It means slowly taking on God's view as yours, not in order to raise yourself up above others, but in order to be God's servant to all.

• "For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another." (Rom.12:4-5)

The Christian does not live out his life as the "Lone Ranger," but is placed by God into a body of believers who are intended to function together as a unit.  God has chosen to work through local assemblies of believers in this age.  We are each just a small piece of a group that must function in coordination with one another in order to accomplish the work assigned us. That's why fostering unity within the local body is such an important biblical concept, stressed repeatedly in the New Testament (Eph.4:3, 13; Phil.2:1-5; 1Pet.3:8).

DeMoss closes her book by reminding us "there's a Wedding coming ...The bridegroom is a holy Bridegroom, and he must have a holy bride.  And our Savior will have a holy bride. That's why He loved the church and gave Himself up for her.  That's why He took all those stains and blots on Himself."  DeMoss invites us to share in a God-centered world-view of life, "My goal in life is not that I would be free from problems or pain ... not that I would have great relationships or be healthy and financially secure.  My deepest desire is that I would be a holy woman and that the church of Jesus Christ would be holy."  Amen?

[Based upon the book Holiness: The Heart God Purifies, Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Week #1; Week #2; Week #3; Week #4]

Raising Children in "the Discipline & Instruction of the Lord"

The following is excerpted from a Christian dad's blog concerning the importance of raising his children in the light of God and His Word. You should read his entire blog found here. He also has  links to a number of related posts concerning Christian child-rearing. I thought you would not only find his practical advice useful, but also appreciate his underlying philosophy of Christian parenting. The world has plenty of advice to give ...we need to make sure we're listening to God's voice above all the noise!

"Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." (Ephesians 6:4)

"This is what we do in our home. I am not saying it is for everyone, but we are supportive of it as a practice by conviction and experience. Our children range from 20 months to almost 16. There is quite a variety...

Family Devotions: As a family we work through books of the Bible. We typically do this after dinner in the evening. I read a section of Scripture and talk about it as we go. I weave in questions and application. I require everyone to participate and help the younger ones to do so...

Personal or Private Devotions: Once the kids are able to read we require them to read their Bibles, journal, and pray. In the morning, our older children get up, take care of their chores and hygiene and then sit down to do their devotions. We ask them to think through the implications of the passage, journal the main idea, confess sin, connect the passage to the gospel, and pray for grace filled obedience. They can expect questions about what they’ve read, not always, but often.

One objection to mandating Bible reading is that it may discourage the children who don’t believe.
First, I want to remember that I am responsible for my children. I am a steward of them. I want to do everything I can in my power to see them become faithful Christians. I understand that the way people become Christians and then grow to maturity is through the word of God (Rom. 1:16; 10:17; John 17:17). Therefore, I want to expose them as much as I can to the Bible. We do this as a family and then in their individual time. So, instead of discouraging them, if God is gracious, the exposure to the Bible will actually encourage them. It will be the means of opening eyes and hearts to believe.

Second, I want to remember that our home is a Christian home. While living here does not make you a Christian, it does mean that the home is going to reflect traditional Christian values and practices. Therefore, we are going to read, pray, sing, and talk about Christ and his word. I should never feel bad or discouraged about this. It is part of being a Christian...

After seeing this in place for several years now I can say that the kids have become more hungry for the Bible. The more they are exposed to it the more hungry they seem to become. They are reading and learning their Bibles. Of course it is always difficult with kids to have a perfect read on them, however, the mandated Bible reading seems to have had a positive impact on them. They are not just learning the Bible, they seem to actually have come to love it.

I should also note that this is not a pragmatic formula. It is not “Christian in a Box” just add water recipe. If there is true love for Christ and his Word I know that has come through the work of God the Holy Spirit. But I am also reminded that God uses means. This encourages me to persevere and continue being intentional with their exposure to the Bible. At the end of the day, if there is a Christian on the right of the equal sign, it is because the Spirit of God and the word of God are on the left of it."

We Will Always Need the Gospel

B.B. Warfield (1851 – 1921) on the Christian's lifelong dependence upon the gospel:

"There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be true as long as we live. Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in behavior may be. It is always on His “blood and righteousness” alone that we can rest."

"Tekhelet" Colored Dye Found at Masada

For the first time an ancient example of a textile dyed with the Hebrew color tekhelet was discovered in a 1st Century AD fabric scrap found at Masada. It's much darker and more of a "blue" hue than I had imagined! Biblical Archaeology Review gives the following report on their blog...

"A scholar studying preserved textiles from first-century C.E. Masada has identified the precise shade of the mysterious and long-debated Biblical color tekhelet. The Bible often mentions tekhelet as the color of royal garments and priestly robes, and in later times, it colored the tasseled fringes, or tsitsit, of Jewish prayer shawls.

While Jewish tradition generally associated the color with the bluish dye produced from the secretions of Murex snails, no clear examples of tekhelet from Biblical antiquity had been found...until now. In studying a piece of 2,000-year-old embroidery from Masada, Israeli scientist Zvi Koren analyzed a distinct bluish-purple, almost indigo patch of dye and found that it had clearly been produced from the ancient Murex snail."

BAR blog, March 2 post

Holiness: The Heart God Purifies - Week #4 [Ch.7-8]

"People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, and obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.  We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated."  [D.A. Carson, For the Love of God]

I'll let you in on a secret.  When your child is in my SS class, I can tell  whether or not you're doing family Quiet Time with them at home.  I can tell if you've made it a priority to open up Scripture daily and reveal the beauty and wonder of God to your child.  I can tell if your child prays regularly and hears prayer regularly at home.  I can tell if they have been trained to look at life through the truth of Scripture.  When I see your child routinely skip worship service in order to participate in some activity or sport, I can tell what is and what is not a priority in your home.  When I never see you and your children at Evening Service, I can tell other things are more important to you than worship and Christian fellowship.  So can your child.

When you complain to me about someone, when you make disparaging comments, when you murmur and grumble, when you magnify the trivial and ignore the eternal, when you focus on the sin of others and not on your own heart, it tells me about your heart condition.   When I never hear you talk about serving others or what you're studying in Scripture or what you just discovered about God or how you see Him working, it tells me much about your spiritual condition.  You can tell the same kind of things about me.

Christianity is meant to be more than an outer veneer of morality.  It's meant to be more than the repetition of Christian "catch phrases" and putting a bumper sticker on your car.  It's meant to be more than having a group of friends to socialize with or a social cause to support.  It's meant to be a vital, abiding relationship with Jesus Christ, a continual renewing of our minds with Scriptural truth.  It means developing a humble and submissive Christ-centered spirit ... it means a life lived for God.  We as believers must realize that our heart condition manifests itself in our outward behavior ... and all can see it.  If our lives don't match up with our talk, it hinders our ministry to each other and to a lost world, and it hinders our spiritual growth.  More importantly, God can see it, even when others do not.  Unfortunately, saying we believe the Bible is God's revealed truth to us and living out our lives in obedience to it do not always match up.  We all struggle at times, which is why God has given us a local body of believers to encourage us on to godliness, to keep us on the path of righteousness, to help us persevere to the end.

In Chapter 7, "The Heart of Holiness", DeMoss leads us through a series of challenging questions based upon Ephesians, chapter 4.  She writes, "The New Testament authors challenge believers to recognize their position in Christ - justified, redeemed, chosen by God, set apart for His purposes. Then we are exhorted to live a life - inside and out - that is consistent with our position."  It's a process rooted in our spiritual union with Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, fed by God's revelation and manifested in our actions.

In Chapter 8, "A Passion for Holiness," she warns against a trend prevalent in the modern American church. "We have accommodated to the world rather than calling the world to accommodate to Christ. When will we realize that the world is not impressed with a religious version of itself?  Our greatest effectiveness is not to be found in being like the world; it is to be found in being distinct from the world, in being like Jesus."  I see another trend hindering our witness and spiritual growth.  How often do we view Christianity as a source of personal benefit, rather than as a living-out of the ministry of reconciliation God has assigned us to? (2Cor.5:18-20)  Too often a desire for personal blessing, for a fulfillment of all our "felt needs", rather than the pursuit and application of God's truth becomes our primary focus.  How is that any different than the followers of Jesus who sought the benefits of His miracles, but not Him. [John 2:23-24]?  Blessing does come from our union with Christ, but it's a result, not a goal.  And the pathway to "blessing" is really quite different from the ideas that might pop into our heads when we hear the English word "blessing". [Matthew 5:3-12]

These are hard things, but they are well worth thinking about, contemplating, examining in ourselves.  The Christian walk is not something we cut and paste onto our lives along with all our other interests and hobbies.  It IS our life if we're a believer.  "I ... urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." [Eph.4:1-3]

[Based upon the book Holiness: The Heart God Purifies, Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Week #1; Week #2; Week #3; Week #5]

Zahi Hawass Resigns ... and Is Reappointed...and is Removed!

Zahi Hawass, Egypt's Minister of Antiquities Affairs, has resigned following the political upheaval in Egypt with its related looting of antiquities sites... more widespread than we had realized, which so upsets me. If you've ever watched a PBS documentary or a video on Ancient Egypt or read an article in National Geographic or been informed of a tomb find on the Evening News, you've seen Zahi Hawass. His is the most visible face in Egyptian archaeology... almost embarrassingly so. I can't even recall an article, documentary or news story on Ancient Egypt without his face appearing in my mind!


Kate Taylor reports the following at the NY Times Art Beat blog.

Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s powerful and controversial antiquities chief, resigned on Thursday along with the prime minister, after posting on his Web site for the first time a list of dozens of sites that have been looted since the beginning of the uprising that led to the fall of President Hosni Mubarak.

Among the places Mr. Hawass named as having been looted were the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s storerooms at its excavation site in Dahshur, south of Cairo. In a statement the Met’s director, Thomas P. Campbell, described that incident as having taken place several weeks ago. Mr. Campbell expressed alarm about continuing looting, calling it “a grave and tragic emergency.” In a statement, which was issued before Mr. Hawass’s resignation was confirmed, he said:

         “The world cannot sit by and permit unchecked anarchy to jeopardize the cultural heritage of one
         of the world’s oldest, greatest and most inspiring civilizations. We echo the voices of all concerned
         citizens of the globe in imploring Egypt’s new government authorities, in building the nation’s future,
         to protect its precious past. Action needs to be taken immediately.”

Dr. Hawass' blog

Persevere, Believer!

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,  

 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect
and complete, lacking in nothing."  (James 1:2-4)

In his comment on a Koine Greek translation, William "Bill" Mounce made the following comments recently concerning James 1:4...

"The reason we must be patient with the maturing process is that perseverance must finish its task if in fact we are going to be perfect and complete ... If we are to be spiritually mature, then perseverance must complete its work. If it doesn’t, if we don’t embrace the pain but run from it, it can’t complete its God-given task .... It is like you are stuck in the middle of the road, cars coming and going both directions, and all you want to do is get out of the road.  All you want to do is make the pain go away.  You want to run away.  But God calls us to persevere, to hang in there, to lean into the pain, to sit in the middle of the road even though it feels like your life is being threatened every day.  And then someday, as we lean into the pain, as we cry out to God, as we choose to persevere in our faith and lean into the pain, as we stay in the middle of the road, we realize that we are growing into spiritual maturity, and some day God calls us to leave the middle of the road and come to the other side, perfect and complete, lacking nothing."

[His complete blog post can be read here.]

Holiness: The Heart God Purifies - Week #3 [Ch.5-6]

"Pride is more than the first of the seven deadly sins;
it is itself the essence of all sin." (John Stott)

As I read through Chapters 5 and 6,  I began to think about the one area of our lives that causes the most damage to our Christian walk - pride.  Pride prevents us from learning from God.  One must have a lifelong teachable spirit in order to grow spiritually.  Pride also engenders a critical spirit towards others, which leads us into a downward spiral of anger, bitterness and disunity in home and church.  Pride prevents us from truly loving others in the way God desires.  Pride is a universal, life-long battle for the believer.  Even writing about it makes me uncomfortable because I know how pitifully and how often I fail in this area.  But I am encouraged when I recognize God's hand slowly reforming my inner man, my heart.  

C.J. Mahaney writes, "Pride is when sinful human beings aspire to the status and position of God and refuse to acknowledge their dependence upon Him ... Pride takes innumerable forms but has only one end: self-glorification. That's the motive and ultimate purpose of pride - to rob God of legitimate glory and to pursue self-glorification, contending for supremacy with Him. The proud person seeks to glorify himself and not God, thereby attempting in effect to deprive God of something only He is worthy to receive.  No wonder God hates pride.  Let that truth sink into your thinking."  Pride is a funny thing ... it's so easy to see in others and so hard to see in ourselves.

The opposite of pride is humility.  If you're not constantly cultivating humility into your life, don't expect to ever find victory over besetting sin.  But how exactly do we go about doing that ... in a humble manner?  David Tripp writes, "My self-perception is as accurate as a carnival mirror.  If I am going to see myself clearly, I need you to hold the mirror of God's Word in front of me.  Hebrews 3:12-13 clearly teaches that personal insight is the product of community.  Since each of us still has sin remaining in us, we will have pockets of spiritual blindness ... The Bible says that we can be spiritually blind and yet think that we can see quite well."  (Proverbs 12:1)

What steps, then, can we take to build humility into our lives?  I propose five ways a believer can develop the mindset of humility:

First, acknowledge the battle.  Know God and know yourself from God's point of view.  If you're not consciously watching out for the sin of pride in your life, you are courting disaster. (1 Cor.10:12)  Having an accurate view of who we are before a holy and righteous God is the first step toward change.  Put off any critical spirit toward others.  It's a hindrance and does not glorify God.  Matthew 7:1 warns against judging to condemnation.  The reason we are so unqualified to condemn other believers is because, unlike God, we are neither omniscient nor omnipresent.  Too often we condemn on the basis of limited knowledge colored by much presupposition and vain imagination.  We put ourselves in God's place.  "Who are you to judge the servant of another?  To his own master he stands or falls..." (Romans 14:4)  That doesn't mean we don't help one another grow more Christ-like by shining the light of God's truth onto sin.  It means we do so in a manner that is edifying, that builds up, rather than in a manner that is critical and tears down.  It means that we do it by using God's truth as the authority and not ourselves.  It means we have the best interests of the individual in mind.  We don't gossip and slander, murmur and complain about their sin to others.

Second, approach God's Word with a humble attitude, ever seeking to understand what God is saying, the main point He is making.  Every time you approach the Bible, consciously put off all of your preconceived notions about what you WANT it to mean and pray that the Holy Spirit will illuminate your understanding of what it REALLY means within its context.  Seek the whole counsel of God, don't pick & choose verses out of context to back up you're beliefs.  Be willing to be wrong.  Be willing to be challenged.  Be willing to learn.  Have a "teachable spirit" no matter how old you are or how long you have been walking in Christ.  We all need to be both disciples and disciplers. 

Third, place yourself in the company of believers who will lovingly encourage you to godliness, rather than reinforce your sin.  Welcome correction from others.  It hurts.  It stings.  It's painful.  But it helps us grow. Self-defensive maneuvers only hinder our spiritual growth and joy in the Lord.  [If you're reading this and someone else pops into your mind ... go back to Point One.]

Fourth, confess your sin. (Ps.32:5)  Regularly examine yourself, be sensitive to your own sin and confess it to God.  If your sin impacts another, confess it to that person and seek their forgiveness.  Let awareness of your own sin become a natural response in your life.  When the jab of recognition is most painful, take it to God for forgiveness and press on.  (1 John 1:9)  [If you're reading this and someone else pops into your mind ... go back to Point One]

And finally, be patient - with yourself and with others.  Pride is the essence of our indwelling sin nature.  There is just so much pride and self-promoting tendency in our hearts.  God will reveal more and more of it to us as we obediently move forward in our Christian walk.  Let us encourage one another toward godliness. (1 Tim.4:8)  Let us hunger and thirst after righteousness. (Mt.5:6)  Let us be the light God wants us to be in this dark world. (Phil.2:14-15)  Constantly dealing with our own pride underlies any true service to the Lord.  "And God will exalt you in due time, if you humble yourselves under his mighty hand..." (1 Peter 5:6)

[Based upon the book Holiness: The Heart God Purifies, Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Week #1 here; Week #2 here; Week #4 here]

A Clear View of God In the Midst of Trials

Elyse Fitzpatrick, well-known nouthetic counselor & author, recently wrote about "cascading trials." That is, those times believers experience overlapping trials all within a short period of time. In such circumstances, it can become easy to lose your eternal perspective and forget the character of God. May this reminder of God's love and faithfulness to His people help keep you focused upon Him and strengthen you during such times. May you not be deceived concerning God's love and care for you, the one spiritually united to Christ.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.  (James 1:16-18)

Fitzpatrick writes...
"When we face loss, death, change, or concern about future provision, we need a clear vision of the Lord who never changes his disposition toward us. He has chosen to bless us with salvation, and he takes pleasure in us. He is good, and his disposition toward us is one of showering us with good gifts.

James speaks powerfully: Don’t be deceived! The strength that you need to walk faithfully through a torrential downpour comes from remembering how he has covenanted to love you and sustain you, no matter what. The ability to fight against the unbelief in my own heart is fueled by remembering his love and determination to bless me. Am I in a cascade of trial? Yes. But there is another truth here: I am standing under a cascade of good gifts from a Father who never changes, no matter how I doubt, and who loved me enough to save my soul.

What do I need to remember when I’m under that cascade of trial? Simply this: He didn’t choose me because my faith was so strong or my record meritorious. He won’t continue to love me because I believe so perfectly. He loves me because he has chosen to love me in his Son, and nothing ever changes that. Yes, we suffer, sometimes grievously. But that cascade of trial is overwhelmed by a deluge of good and perfect gifts coming down from a faithful Father who loves us, no matter what."

[Elyse Fitzpatrick's entire post may be viewed here under February 20th.]

Holiness: The Heart God Purifies - Week #2 [Ch.3-4]

Before coming to the Lord, I can still recall my utter blindness to spiritual truth.  It wasn't just a matter of lacking information.  The Bible was readily available to me, but I had no sincere interest in wanting to understand it.  God sent people to explain the gospel to me, but I could not get past the idea that I was a sinner.  That just stuck in my throat and angered me.  My problem, of course, was that I couldn't see God for who He really is, nor could I see my precarious position before Him.  I certainly had ideas about who God was, but they were influenced more by watching movies and by my own ideas of who I wanted God to be than by His revelation of Himself in Scripture.  But God, in His mercy, placed me in the hearing of Scripture and one night... BAM!!... the piercing flood light of God's Word reached into my heart and I SAW my situation before a holy God who had created me, who sustained my every breath, who knew me intimately, who loved me while I was yet a sinner by providing a way for me to be forgiven & reconciled with Him, and who was calling me to follow Him!  I came to realize the "problem" with my view of sin was my "horizontal" gaze.  I was comparing myself to everyone around me, when God wanted me to look "vertically" and compare myself in the light of His righteousness, so that I might become aware of my own spiritual bankruptcy.

The story of David's sin with Bathsheba provides a clear picture.  When you read through 2 Samuel 11-12, you are struck by David's heinous sin against both Uriah and Bathsheba.  Plainly put, David forced Bathsheba into sin, stole her away from her husband Uriah and had his loyal soldier murdered in an attempt to hide his own sin.  Yet when God used the Prophet Nathan to bring David to repentance and David wrote about the experience in Psalm 51, he perfectly understood that ultimately his sin was against God.  "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment." (Psalm 51:4)  This is precisely what DeMoss points out in Chapter 3, "The Enemy of Holiness."  All sin is ultimately against a holy God.  The more clearly we see that, the better we understand the true nature of sin and the more we will abhor it.

J.C. Ryle wrote, "A holy man will follow after purity of heart. He will dread all filthiness and uncleanness of spirit, and seek to avoid all things that might draw him into it. He knows his own heart is like tinder, and will diligently keep clear of the sparks of temptation.  Who shall dare to talk of strength when David can fall?  Few Christians are ever too watchful and too particular about this point."  What a clear word picture... our hearts are like "tinder", susceptible to the "sparks of temptation."  We need to remember our vulnerability.  The Apostle Paul warned, "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall." (1Cor.10:12)

The Bible is very clear - not only is sin to be put off/mortified, but righteousness is to take its place.  The balanced Christian life has one eye on removing and avoiding sin and the other eye on pursuing righteousness. The two work hand-in-hand.  Jesus said those blessed by God "hunger and thirst after righteousness." (Mt.5:6)   DeMoss introduces Chapter 4 with a quote from H.A. Ironside, "Be killing sin or it will be killing you."  I've heard believers express shock, amazement, even discouragement that the struggle against sin requires such effort.  There is often the idea that the Christian life should be easier, that as we progress in our spiritual walk we should struggle less.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  You need only observe Scripture.  "Put on the entire armor of God..." so you may do daily battle with sin! (Eph.6:11-13)   "In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood ...  strive/pursue/make every effort...to be holy." (Heb.12:4, 14)

The battle against the flesh, the indwelling sin nature, will last until we're home with the Lord.  Christ's substitutionary death and resurrection removed us from bondage to our sin nature (Rom.6:6), but in this life we will struggle against it (Rom.7:18-25) and through Christ have been given the ability to choose righteousness. The believer has spiritual resources to fight against "the flesh", but it requires putting on ALL of God's armor and engaging in battle daily.  Particular sins might be dealt with, but God will continue to shine His light onto our hearts and progressively reveal other areas that need addressing.  This process of sanctification, making us in experience what we are in position, continues until we're in glory.  Rather than becoming discouraged about fighting sin, we need to build up one another in God's truth, helping each other suit up for the battle.

That's one of the reasons God places each of us in a local body of believers to grow among.  We complement one another in spiritual gifts and are given opportunities to encourage one another in righteousness, so that together we may do the work of the ministry (Eph.4:11-14).  Take advantage of sitting under the biblical teaching in your local church - attend Sunday services, morning & night, go to Bible studies, take Bible Institute classes whenever they are offered. Band together with like-minded believers to serve in ministry together.   And spend consistent, daily time in prayer. Find prayer partners and participate in corporate prayer.  [Did you know that Spurgeon had a group of women praying in the basement of the church during every one of his sermons?  No wonder his messages were so powerful!]

Expose yourself daily to the truth of God's Word (in context!!).  Purposefully look for ways to apply it in your life with the empowering help of the indwelling HS.  There's a reason the Apostle Paul compares the Christian life to a race and  a battle.  Those metaphors imply effort, striving, patience, obedience, endurance and perseverance.  As Paul wrote to the believers at Philippi, "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.  Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain."  (Phil.2:12-16)

[Based upon the book Holiness: The Heart God Purifies, Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Week #1 (Chapters 1-2) here; Week #3 (Chapters 5-6) here]

A Healthy Christian: Learning to Listen to God

I've found a new little book I want to hand out to everyone! I've mentioned Thabiti Anyabwile's recent book, What Is A Healthy Church Member? before. What a gem of a little book! If the local church is to be what God wants it to be, the individuals sitting in the pews need to have a clear idea of what God expects of them as individuals. Here's one element to start working on when you attend church this Sunday - "Learn to Be an Expositional Listener". Excerpted from this chapter ...

Expositional preaching uses the main point of the Bible passage, in its context, as the main point of the sermon. "If churches are to be healthy, then pastors and teachers must be committed to discovering the meaning of Scripture and allowing that meaning to drive the agenda with their congregations. So too should the Christian's listening agenda be driven by the meaning of Scripture. When we listen to the preaching of the Word, we should not listen primarily for "practical how-to advice," nor should we listen for messages that bolster our self-esteem or that rouse us to political and social causes. As members of Christian churches we should listen primarily for the voice and message of God as revealed in his Word. Expositional listening is listening for the meaning of a passage of Scripture and accepting that meaning as the main idea to be grasped for our personal and corporate lives.

Expositional listening benefits us by cultivating a hunger for God's Word. We grow accustomed to listening to God. His Word, his voice, becomes sweet to us (Ps.119:103-104) and as it does we are better able to push to the background the many voices that rival God's voice for control over our lives.

It helps us to focus on God's will and to follow him. Our agenda becomes secondary. God's agenda for his people takes center stage, reorders our priorities, and directs us in the course that most honors him. (John 10:27)

It protects the gospel and our lives from corruption. The failure to listen expositionally has disastrous effects. False teachers enter the church and hinder the gospel. Ultimately, the truth is displaced by myths and falsehoods. (Jude 1:3; 1Tim.3:15)

It encourages faithful pastors. Those men who serve faithfully in the minstry of the Word are worthy of double honor (1Tim.5:17). As church members, we can care for our pastors and teachers and help to prevent unnecessary discouragement and fatigue by cultivating the habit of expositional listening.

It benefits the gathered congregation. Repeatedly, the NT writers exhort local churches to be unified - to be of one mind. (1Cor.1:10; 1Pet.3:8) As we gather together in our local churches and give ourselves to hearing the voice of God through his preached Word, we're shaped into one body. We are united in understanding and purpose. And that unity testifies to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ (John 17:21).  But if we listen with our own interest and agendas in mind, if we develop "private interpretations" and idiosyncratic views, we risk shattering that unity, provoking disputes over doubtful matters, and weakening our corporate gospel."

Pastor Anyabwile gives Six Practical Steps you can take to become an "expositional listener":

1. Meditate On the Sermon Passage During Your Quiet Time. Read through the text ahead of time. Either ask the pastor what passage he intends to preach the next week or go to the next verses in the Book he's preaching his way through. "Outline the text in your own daily devotions and use it to inform your prayer life. Learning to outline Scripture is a wonderful way of digging out and exposing the meaning of a passage. You can then use your outline as a listening aid; compare it to the preacher's outline for new insights you missed in your own study."

2. Invest in a Good Set of Commentaries  "Study the Bible with John Calvin or Martin Lloyd-Jones by purchasing the commentaries on the books of the Bible as you read and study through them.. Let these scholars and pastors help you hear God's Word with a clear ear and discover its rich meaning. The Bible Speaks Today commentary series is an excellent starting place for those wanting to build a library of good commentaries."

3. Talk and Pray with Friends About the Sermon After Church  "Instead of rushing off after the service is over, or talking about the latest news, develop the habit of talking about the sermon with people after church. Start spiritual conversations by asking, "How did the Scripture challenge or speak to you today?" Or, "What about God's character most surprised or encouraged you?" Encourage others by sharing things you learned about God and his Word during the sermon. Make particular note of how your thinking has changed because of the meaning of Scripture itself. And pray with others that God would keep the congregation from becoming "dull of hearing" and that he would bless the congregation with an increasingly strong desire for the "solid food' of his Word (Isa.6:9-10; Heb.5:11-14)."

4. Listen To and Act On the Sermon Throughout the Week  "We  can cultivate the habit of expositional listening by listening to the sermon throughout the week and then acting upon it. Don't let the Sunday sermon become a one-time event that fades from memory as soon as it is over (James 1:22-25). Choose one or two particular applications from the Scripture and prayerfully put them into practice over the coming week." Listen to the audio ministry on your church's website. "Take advantage of these opportunities to feed your soul with the click of a mouse." Review the sermon in your family devotions that week. [At my daughter's church, the sermon is the subject of the Home Study that week.]

5. Develop the Habit of Addressing Any Questions About the Text Itself  "Jonathan Edwards resolved that he would never let a day end before he had answered any questions that troubled him or sprang to mind while he was studying the Scripture. How healthy would our churches be if members dedicated themselves to studying the Scripture with that kind of intentional effort and resolve? Follow up with your pastors, elders or other teachers in the church about questions triggered by the text. Moreover, don't be passive in your private study; seek answers by searching the Scripture yourself. But don't forget the pastor has likely spent more time than most in thinking about that passage and is there to feed you God's Word. Follow up the sermons with questions and comments that would be an encouragement to your pastor and a blessing to your soul."

6. Cultivate Humility  "As you dig into God's Word, listening for his voice, you will no doubt begin to grow and discover many wonderful treasures. But as you grow, do not become a "professional sermon listener" who is always hearing but never learning. Mortify any tendencies toward pride, the condemnation of others and critical nit-picking. Instead, seek to meet Jesus each time you come to the Scripture; gather from the Word fuel for all-of-life worship."

[May that little taste make you interested enough to read the entire book! That's just one area covered! You will mature in your Christian walk by learning to focus on and take heed to God's ideas. Don't make me buy you a copy!]

"Holiness: The Heart God Purifies" - Week #1 [Ch.1-2]

"Oh, God,

show me more of Your holiness.

Show me more of my sinfulness.

Help me to hate sin and to love righteousness as You do.

Grant me a deeper conviction of sin

and a more thorough spirit of repentance.

And make me holy as You are holy."

Thus begins Nancy Leigh DeMoss' book on holiness.  Reading through this book gives each of us an excellent opportunity to honestly examine ourselves. (1Cor.11:28; 2Cor.13:5)  Our sin nature makes us naturally good at examining others, but few are consistently good at pointing their finger where God wants it to be ... evaluating ourselves in light of who God is, what He HAS done and what He IS doing in our life.  He demanded holiness in the lives of His people Israel, those whom He had redeemed from bondage in Egypt (Lev.11:45) and He demands the same of Christians, those whom He has redeemed from bondage to sin (Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:15-16).  By the end of this book, may we realize with DeMoss that "holiness and sin both matter"- more than we can imagine.  They matter to God, and the more we comprehend their true nature, the more they will matter to us."  For one who is spiritually united with Christ, to be holy is "to be wholly satisfied with Christ ... to reflect the beauty and the splendor of our holy Lord in this dark world."

The realization that holiness and true joy are inseparably bound to each other provides powerful motivation for the believer.  The pleasures of sin are fleeting (Heb.11:25).  Sin is deceitful.  IT is the real burden in life, yet it seeks to promote itself as something attractive (Gen.3:1-5).  J.C. Ryle defines sin as, "doing, saying, thinking or imagining anything that is not in perfect conformity with the mind and law of God. ... Men try to cheat themselves into the belief that sin is not quite so sinful as God says it is, and that they are not so bad as they really are. ... Sin rarely seems sin at first beginnings."

"True holiness is cultivated in the context of a relationship with God."  But God doesn't stop with the demand that His people be holy, set apart TO Him and FOR Him, He also empowers them to become progressively holy in practice through the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  And He provides the means, the graces, by which the Holy Spirit conforms each believer to the image of His beloved Son (Romans 8:29).  Our appropriation of these graces (e.g. knowing & obeying His Word, prayer, sitting under godly preaching & teaching, meeting together to encourage one another to godliness) affects the rate of our individual spiritual growth.  Having a heart tender to the commands of God, a "soft heart" sensitive to Him, one that is quick to repent, quick to forsake sin, quick to obey, also impacts the rate of our spiritual growth.  Holiness starts with our heart attitude, then manifests itself in our actions.  Just like sin, holiness is rooted in the heart.  Any attempt to change our outer actions without first changing our inner heart attitude is not holiness at all and is doomed to failure, nor does it bring any pleasure to God. One need only observe Christ's attitude towards the scribes and Pharisees.  

"True holiness starts on the inside - with our thoughts, attitudes, values and motives - those innermost parts of our hearts that only God can see."  I would add to that list our "inward expectations".  An honest evaluation to make sure our expectations in life are, in fact, biblical, goes far towards helping us to "be renewed in the spirit of your mind and to put on the new man who has been created in God's image — in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth." (Eph.4:22-24)

My prayer for all of us, as we read through this book, would be that we would develop an honest hunger for holiness, that we would appropriate the God-given means/graces to reject anything less and that each of us would respond in humility of mind, which would allow us to honestly evaluate ourselves in the light of God's truth. May our motivation for doing so be a sincere and overwhelming desire to love God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind.



[Based upon the book, Holiness: The Heart God Purifies, Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Week #2 (Chapters 3&4) may be found here. Related Post: Expectations]

Do You Really Know What Biblical Love Is?

It can be easy to mistake a cultural view of love with the Biblical view of love. Doing so can lead us astray in our thinking and subsequently in our actions. J.C. Ryle (1816-1900) writes about what biblical love is and what it is not in his book Walking With God. Hopefully his thoughts will help you develop a God-honoring biblical view of Christian love. Don't settle for a cheap imitation.
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Love is not just giving to the poor. Paul says plainly that someone may 'bestow all his goods to feed the poor' (1 Corinthians 13:3) and not have love. Love does not mean that we never condemn anybody's behavior. Biblical love does not mean we are to ignore sin or to speak well of immorality. Biblical love does not mean that we should never disapprove of anyone's religious opinions. True love says, 'Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." (1 John 4:1)

Let us consider what love is. First, it is love to God. Whoever has this love wants to love God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength. Secondly, it is love to man. Biblical love will show in a Christian's actions, making him ready to do good to everyone, without looking for any reward. It will show itself in willingness to bear evil. It will make him patient when provoked, forgiving, meek and humble. He will often deny himself for the sake of peace and will be more interested in promoting peace than in securing his own rights. True love never envies, and never rejoices in people's troubles.

The perfect pattern of this love is found in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus was hated, persecuted and criticized, but he endured patiently. He was always kind and patient to everyone. Yet he exposed wickedness and rebuked those who sinned. He denounced false doctrine and false practices. He spoke as freely of hell as of heaven. He showed that perfect love does not approve of everybody's life or opinions, and that it is possible to condemn evil and still be full of love. This, then, is what true Christian love is.

Raising Men

On his blog today, Tim Challies commented on a phenomenon I have also noticed ... one I was probably guilty of perpetuating a time or two! If you drive around neighborhoods on a snowy day, you'll notice a lot of Moms shoveling driveways. Many of those households have able bodied older boys, teens and young adult men ... yet it is the mom who is out there shoveling. It made me think about the need to raise children intentionally. I certainly tried to do that as our kids were growing up, but know there were times I chose expediency over character building. I wish I had thought more about long-range consequences. We have become a culture of delayed childhood. Particularly as Christians we need to be careful we don't perpetuate that viewpoint. We're raising our kids to be adults ... not children. That means we have to start building responsibility into their lives as their maturity level allows. The time to begin paying attention to that is now ... not when they are nearly grown and about to leave home.

These days I watch my kids raise their children and I notice how much more they think about parenting. Nehemiah recently shoveled the landlady's walkway [and sidewalk and started in on the neighbor's walkway ;)] when the snow wasn't too deep and Micah goes out to help his Dad whenever he shovels. They are little guys and may not be accomplishing huge amounts, but they are learning to take responsibility and to look for ways to serve others. That's a good thing. Challies writes...

"I remember being a rebellious, listless teenager. I remember how little I wanted to do much of anything for anyone else. I remember our elderly next-door neighbor had a heart attack and was unable to do any strenuous labor. We had a good snowfall one day and I was enjoying the day in the refuge of my basement bedroom, lying across my bed reading a book and listening to some music. My father came down and told me in no uncertain terms that I was to go upstairs, get my winter gear on and get outside to shovel the neighbor’s driveway. He gave me a figurative (and perhaps literal—my memory is a little hazy) kick in the rear-end and sent me on my way. I went outside and there was my neighbor’s wife, shoveling the drive. I pitched in and soon had it cleared. The lesson has stuck.

Dad had high expectations of me, but reasonable, biblical ones. He wanted me to be active and proactive in service to others; he wanted me to be looking for opportunities to serve and for opportunities to serve as a man serves; he wanted me to use my growing strength to serve other people.

I have a boy of my own now and I can see that some of what was in me is in him. He is a good kid, a kind soul. Yet he is sometimes as reluctant to serve as I was when I was young. I am seeking to teach him that he is to use his strength, his ability to serve others and especially to serve those who are weaker or less able than he is. It will not be long before my son is stronger than my wife. Already when they goof around together I can see that she does not have a whole lot on him. What becomes of a mom when she has children who are bigger than she is, stronger than she is, and yet with so little maturity, so little restraint? ...

This is a lesson a father [and mother!] needs to pass to his son. It’s a lesson that no one has taught to so many of the boys who live around me. A little while ago I saw a mother struggling with a load of groceries while her boys pushed past one another and past her to get into the house. I stopped them and told them to get back to the car to help their mother. They looked at me blankly and walked into their house, mumbling an excuse. Mom struggled down the walkway she had shoveled with the groceries she was forced to carry ... There was no one to give these boys the good, swift kick to the posterior that would get them acting like men."

Read the entire blog here.

Perseverance in Holiness

My 5th/6th grade SS class just finished studying the Book of Joshua and  began the Book of Judges last week. Joshua, for the most part, is a story of obedience, blessing and success. Judges, on the other hand, is a story of disobedience, loss of blessing and failure. We noticed in SS class that the change had occurred within ONE generation. Now that leaves me wondering, "Why?"  Why was Joshua's generation, a generation so intent on trusting God and obeying Him, followed by a generation where "every man did what was right in his own eyes"?  Did the older generation fail to teach that next generation about God?  Were they so caught up in possessing the land, they forgot who had given it to them and that God desired to use them as His witness to the nations? [Ex.19:5-6]  Did they become a little too relaxed and comfortable at the end of their lives and their "almost complete obedience" failed to remove the pagan influence on their children?  Did they just get caught up living from day to day and push God into the background, allowing other issues and interests to capture their attention?  Did they start to spend more time looking "horizontally" than they did "vertically"?  Maurice Roberts, in his book, The Thought of God, wrote the following about the importance of persevering in holiness:

"Godliness is soon lost ... Holiness is vulnerable in this world. It is like snow that is quickly melted or mist which disperses when the sun rises up. In one single generation of a family or of a church the power of godliness which it previously had may be lost totally.

If we are to maintain and preserve the spirituality of our homes and churches we must act decisively and purposefully. This we shall not be prepared to do unless we are first convinced of the fact that godliness is the greatest blessing we can wish for our children and for all others over whom God gives us influence. We ought therefore to begin with the conviction that neither health nor happiness, wealth nor education, nor any other thing is comparable in importance to knowledge of God. If our children, our families and our congregations are poor in all else yet rich in their love to God, they are rich indeed. But if they are rich in all else and poor in love to Christ, they are miserably poor indeed. There can be no doubt that this is God's view of the matter and that it ought therefore to be ours also."

What is most important to you? Where do you place your priorities? On what do you expend your money, your time and your thoughts?  As Paul exhorted Timothy, "Be conscientious about how you live and what you teach. Persevere in this, because by doing so you will save both yourself and those who listen to you."  (1 Timothy 4:16)

Timeless Truth

I hear much discussion these days concerning what "modern" Christianity should look like. Particularly for those who were raised in Bible believing churches, there is often a comparison between "the old" and "the new", usually with a great deal of enthusiasm for "the new". I also hear a lot of buzz about adapting the message to fit the audience or the particular culture. Certainly forms can vary, but there are key aspects that never change, no matter the era, no matter the location. The Bible wasn't intended to be written anew for every generation. It's a place to find God's timeless truth. Throughout thousands of years of human history, certain things remain constant.

1.  God's Word is the source of truth.  "...Your word is truth" (John 17:17)
For the issues it chooses to deal with, God's Word presents accurate truth. Truth is not found in surveys. Truth is not determined by majority rule. Truth is not found in the devices nor the wisdom nor the logic of men.

2.  Salvation is "a gift of God, not of works". (Ephesians 2:8)  Christ's work is completely sufficient. He is able to save to the utmost. There is nothing we could possibly add to His finished work. It is done. Grace, by definition, is unmerited favor.

3.  There is one gospel.
"But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!" (Galatians 1:8)

4. "The gospel... is the power of God unto salvation".  (Romans 1:16)
It's not the music. It's not the rhetorical ability of the speaker, nor the length of his message. It's not the fashion choices of the preacher, nor his hip and up-to-date language. It's not the decoration of the sanctuary... nor the type of seating... nor the hymn / praise music ratio. It's the power of God in the gospel.

I came to Christ as a young adult. I can honestly tell you I was completely headed away from God. I might have told you I believed there WAS a God if push came to shove and no one else was listening, but I had no desire to know Him, learn from Him, love Him, obey Him. I was young. I was hip. I was bright. I was intricately bound up in my culture. I was utterly lost.

So how did I come to place trusting faith in the real God, the God who reveals Himself in Scripture?  Did I attend an "attractional" church? [Hardly!]  Did I hear an "attractional" message?  [Absolutely not! I heard I was a sinner separated from a holy God...and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. But God, in His love, HAD done something about it!]  Was I drawn by an "attractive" and "cool" crowd?  [If you've heard this story before, you're probably on the floor laughing by now!]

I simply heard Biblical truth. God providentially put me in the right place at the right time and He opened my understanding. Someone used God's Word to explain the gospel, God's good news, to me ... and suddenly I understood my position before a holy God and His precious provision for me. What happened to me was the very same thing that had happened to the believers in Colossae so many, many years before.. "...the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing--as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth." (Colossians 1:5-6)  It was true then. It's still true now.

Teaspoon Christianity

"For those of us who have been Christians for a while, it becomes easy to think that we've pretty much exhausted the possibilities of the Christian life. We can settle into a routine of activities at church and in our small groups and Bible studies, with little expectation of anything new. The familiar becomes the predictable, and everything from here on out will be more of the same. We dip our teaspoon into the vast ocean of the living God. Holding that teaspoon in our hand, we say, 'This is God.' We pour it out into our lives, and we say, 'This is the Christian experience.' God calls us to dive into the ocean. He call us into ever new regions of His fullness, His immensity, His all-sufficiency. There is more for us in Christ than we have yet apprehended. Let's never think that we have Him figured out or that we've seen all He can do. The Bible ... is a road map showing us the way into neglected or even forgotten glories of the living God."

[Ray Ortlund, When God Comes to Church]

Parenting As an Opportunity, Not an Inconvenience

I've ordered the 3-DVD Parenting Seminar by Paul Tripp [Shepherding a Child's Heart] and am making it available to all  my "mom friends". Just ask! To whet your appetite, here's a recent post from Tripp's blog:

"We had planned a day at a local theme park with our children. I was anticipating a day of familial amusement park bliss. I was hoping that on this day my children would be self-parenting, and if God could throw in a fully sanctified wife, that would be cool!  Well, we’re getting out of the van at the park and one of my children said, “Dad, may we have something to drink before we go into the park?”  It didn’t seem like a dangerous request.  I opened the cooler, which was full of soft drinks, and all of my children sighted in on the one can of soda that they all knew was the best. Immediately global nuclear war broke out. They were pushing and shoving, grabbing and pulling, throwing ice at one another, saying unkind things and hitting one another’s hands out of the way. I couldn’t believe it. We weren’t even in the park yet, and my day was already ruined!

So I jumped in and said, “Do you want to fight? We don’t have to pay all this money for you to fight. I’ll take you home, put a cooler in the backyard with one can of soda in it, and you can fight forever!”  Soon my children aren’t fighting anymore because they’re watching the crowd gather as I lose it in the parking lot of the theme park.

Let’s analyze what’s going on in this moment and what’s happening inside of me. What’s going on is that a God of grace is taking a mundane moment of daily family life and using it to do something wonderful for my children and for me.  He is making the condition of their hearts visible in order to produce concern in me that would hopefully result in awareness and a desire to change in them.  But I’m not at all encouraged in this moment with what God is doing.  You see, I’m not angry in the parking lot because my children are sinners. No, I’m angry that God has exposed their sin, and because He has, I have to forsake my agenda for the day and parent them!  It all seems like a huge imposition, a hassle that I just didn’t want to deal with.

But the reality is different from God’s perspective. The sin, weakness, rebellion, or failure of your children is never an imposition on your parenting.  It is never an interruption.  It is never a hassle.  It is always grace. God loves your children. He has put them in a family of faith, and in relentless grace He will reveal their need to you again and again so that you can be his tool of awareness, conviction, repentance, faith, and change.  And because in these moments He asks you to forsake your agenda for His, this opportunity of grace is not just for your children, it’s for you as well.

But my problem is that there are moments when I tend to love my little kingdom of one more than I love His. So I’m impatient, discouraged, or irritated not because my children have broken the laws of God’s kingdom, but the laws of mine. In my kingdom there shall be no parenting on family vacation days, or when I am reading the paper on my iPad, or after ten o’clock at night, or during a good meal, or . . . I could go on.  And when I’m angry about interruptions to my kingdom plan, there are four things I tend to do.

1. I tend to turn a God-given moment of ministry into a moment of anger.


2. I do this because I have personalized what is not personal.  (Before we left for the amusement park that day, my children didn’t plot to drive me crazy in the parking lot.)

3. Because I have personalized what is not personal, I am adversarial in my response. (It’s not me acting for my children, but acting against them because they are in the way of what I want.)

4. So I end up settling for situational solutions that don’t really get to the heart of the matter.  (I bark and order, I instill guilt, I threaten a punishment and walk away, and my children are utterly unchanged by the encounter.)

There is a better way. It begins with praying that God would give you new eyes; eyes that are more focused on His eternal work of grace than on your momentary plans for you. This better way also includes seeking God for a flexible and willing heart, ready to abandon your agenda for God’s greater plan.  And it lives with the confidence that God is in you, with you, and for you and will give you what you need so that you can face, with courage and grace, the parenting moment that you didn’t know was coming."

Ted Tripp's Complete Blog Post

Portrait of a Healthy Church Member

I recently posted a few things concerning key biblical elements indicative of a healthy church, such as expository preaching, biblical theology, the gospel, church discipline, evangelism, membership, discipleship and a biblical understanding of church leadership. [Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Dever]  Another pressing question would be, "What are the characteristics of a healthy church member?"  Many spend time evaluating the church. God instructs each believer to evaluate himself:
 
"Let a person examine himself..." [1Cor.11:28]; "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves..." [2Cor.13:5]; "... be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you." [2Pet.1:10]

Thabiti Anyabwile wrote a companion book to "Nine Marks" called,  What Is a Healthy Church Member?. Here is a summary of his main points:

1. A healthy church member is an expositional listener.[2 Tim.2:15]
2. A healthy church member is a biblical theologian.    [Acts 20:27]
3. A healthy church member is Gospel saturated.        [2 Pet.1:3]
4. A healthy church member is genuinely converted.    [Rom. 8:29-30]
5. A healthy church member is a biblical evangelist.     [2 Cor.5:20-21]
6. A healthy church member is a committed member.  [1 Tim.1:12]
7. A healthy church member is a seeker of discipline.  [1 Cor.9:27]
8. A healthy church member is a growing disciple.       [2 Pet.3:17-18]
9. A healthy church member is a humble follower.       [Heb.13:17; 1 Pet.2:13-14]
10. A healthy church member is a prayer warrior.       [Eph.6:18; 1Thess.5:17; James 5:13]

So, how are you doing?  This would be a good book to purchase with some of that money you received for Christmas! [Related post, A Healthy Church Member: Learning to Listen to God.]

A Horse of a Different Color...

Most of us are familiar with Read-Through-the-Bible-in-a-Year plans. While it's useful to do this periodically in order to refresh yourself with the big picture, I don't usually recommend it as a yearly pursuit. I believe there is greater benefit in repetitive reading of each book, one at a time. You remember better, you really get a handle on the context and repetitive readings give you increased awareness and better understanding. But many still want a little guidance, a little more structure to help them faithfully stick with it.

So here is a yearly reading plan that actually helps you THINK about what you're reading. It's goal is not to finish the entire Bible in a year, but to slow down and meditate upon what you've read. As the creator states, "The purpose of this Bible reading schedule (shortened considerably from schedules that get through the Bible in one year) is actually to limit the amount of Bible we read daily. Reading quickly through many verses may not be as profitable as savoring deeply a few verses. So the aim of this schedule is not to read less, but to meditate more."

If you'd like to take a look, you can download it here.

[I figured out how to connect the link! Maybe you CAN teach an old dog new tricks! ;)  If you have any difficulty, just let me know and I'll print off a copy for you.]

On Private Prayer: "Animated by the Humiliation of Penitential Love"

I've noticed how easy it is to tell people on facebook or other social media, "I'm praying for you." Yet I wonder how much time is actually spent doing so. How deep are our prayers? How frequent? How often do we approach God with the reverence He deserves and seriously contend in prayer? I find myself hesitating to say or write it too quickly because Scripture teaches me not to treat prayer lightly, nor to make rash vows. If I say I will pray, I want to devote myself to doing so. Our lives have become so filled with other activities, which possess so little eternal value, I fear our prayer life is too often approached rather lightly and haphazardly.

The following is an excerpt from The Valley of Vision, a wonderful little book of Puritan prayers and devotions. Whenever I read writings from this time period I find myself longing to be able to express myself this way. I fear we've not only lost the words, we've also lost the heart behind the words. I find it valuable to refresh my mind with their Christian worldview, which sought to honor God in every part of life.

I have been hasty and short in private prayer,
O quicken my conscience to feel this folly,
to bewail this ingratitude;
My first sin of the day leads into others,
and it is just that thou shouldst withdraw thy presence
from one who waited carelessly on thee.

Keep me at all times from robbing thee,
and from depriving my soul of thy due worship;
Let me never forget
that I have an eternal duty to love, honour and obey thee,
that thou art infinitely worthy of such;
that if I fail to glorify thee
I am guilty of infinite evil that merits infinite punishment,
for sin is the violation of an infinite obligation.

O forgive me if I have dishonoured thee,
Melt my heart, heal my backslidings,
and open an intercourse of love...
Let thy mercies draw me to thyself.
Wean me from all evil, mortify me to the world,
and make me ready for my departure hence
animated by the humiliations of penitential love.

My soul is often a chariot without wheels,
clogged and hindered in sin's miry clay;
Mount it on eagle's wings
and cause it to soar upward to thyself.

Eternal Perspective: On Being an Invalid in God's Hospital

[Excerpted from Rediscovering Holiness, J.I. Packer]

"We are all invalids in God's hospital. In moral and spiritual terms we are all sick and damaged, diseased and deformed, scarred and sore, lame and lopsided, to a far, far greater extent than we realize. Under God's care we are getting better, but we are not yet well. The modern Christian likes to dwell on present blessings rather than future prospects. We need to realize the spiritual health we testify to is only partial and relative, a matter of being less sick and less incapacitated now than we were before. Measured by the absolute standard of spiritual health that we see in Jesus Christ, we are all of us invalids in the process of being cured. The church is God's hospital. No Christian, and no church, ever has the clean bill of spiritual health that would match the total physical well-being for which today's fitness seekers labor. To long for total spiritual well-being is right and natural, but to believe that one is anywhere near it is to be utterly self-deceived. It is not always easy to grasp that one is ill. Pride and complacency blind us to this reality. We decline to be told when we are slipping; thinking we stand, we set ourselves up to fall, and predictably, alas, we do fall.

In God's hospital the course of treatment that the Father, Son and HS, the permanent medical staff, are giving to each of us with a view to our final restoration to the fullness of the divine image, is called sanctification. It is a process that includes medication and diet (biblical instruction & admonition coming in various ways to the heart) and tests and exercises (internal & external pressures, providentially ordered, to which we have to make active response). The process goes on as long as we are in this world, which is something that God decides in each case. "How come it's taking me so long to get better?" is often our heart-cry to God. The truth is that God knows what He is doing, but sometimes, for reasons connected with the maturity and ministry that He has in view for us, He makes haste slowly. That is something we have to learn humbly to accept. We are in a hurry; He is not."