New Year's Resolutions

http://paultrippministries.org/new-years-resolutions

New Year's Resolutions

Well, it's that season once again. It's the fodder for blogs, newspaper articles, TV magazine shows and way too many Twitter posts. It's the time for the annual ritual of dramatic New Year's resolutions fueled by the hope of immediate and significant personal life change.

But the reality is that few smokers actually quit because of a single moment of resolve, few obese people have become slim and healthy because of one dramatic moment of commitment, few people who were deeply in debt have changed their financial lifestyle because they resolved to do so as the old year gave way to the new, and few marriages have been changed by the means of one dramatic resolution.

Is change important? Yes, it is for all of us in some way. Is commitment essential? Of course! There's a way in which all of our lives are shaped by the commitments we make. But biblical Christianity - which has the gospel of Jesus Christ at its heart - simply doesn't rest its hope in big, dramatic moments of change.

Living in the Utterly Mundane

The fact of the matter is that the transforming work of grace is more of a mundane process than it is a series of a few dramatic events. Personal heart and life change is always a process. And where does that process take place? It takes place where you and I live everyday. And where do we live? Well, we all have the same address. Our lives don't careen from big moment to big moment. No, we all live in the utterly mundane.

Most of us won't be written up in history books. Most of us only make three or four momentous decisions in our lives, and several decades after we die, the people we leave behind will struggle to remember the events of our lives. You and I live in little moments, and if God doesn't rule our little moments and doesn't work to recreate us in the middle of them, then there is no hope for us, because that's where you and I live.

The little moments of life are profoundly important precisely because they're the little moments that we live in and that form us. This is where I think "Big Drama Christianity" gets us into trouble. It can cause us to devalue the significance of the little moments of life and the "small-change" grace that meets us there. And because we devalue the little moments where we live, we don't tend to notice the sin that gets exposed there. We fail to seek the grace that is offered to us.

10,000 Little Moments

You see, the character of a life is not set in two or three dramatic moments, but in 10,000 little moments. The character that was formed in those little moments is what shapes how you respond to the big moments of life.

What leads to significant personal change?

• • 10,000 moments of personal insight and conviction
• • 10,000 moments of humble submission
• • 10,000 moments of foolishness exposed and wisdom gained
• • 10,000 moments of sin confessed and sin forsaken
• • 10,000 moments of courageous faith
• • 10,000 choice points of obedience
• • 10,000 times of forsaking the kingdom of self and running toward the kingdom of God
• • 10,000 moments where we abandon worship of the creation and give ourselves to worship of the Creator.

And what makes all of this possible? Relentless, transforming, little-moment grace. You see, Jesus is Emmanuel not just because he came to earth, but because he makes you the place where he dwells. This means he is present and active in all the mundane moments of your daily life.

His Work to Rescue and Transform

And what is he doing? In these small moments he is delivering every redemptive promise he has made to you. In these unremarkable moments, he is working to rescue you from you and transform you into his likeness. By sovereign grace he places you in daily little moments that are designed to take you beyond your character, wisdom and grace so that you will seek the help and hope that can only be found in him. In a lifelong process of change, he is undoing you and rebuilding you again - exactly what each one of us needs!

Yes, you and I need to be committed to change, but not in a way that hopes for a big event of transformation, but in a way that finds joy in and is faithful to a day-by-day, step-by-step process of insight, confession, repentance and faith. And in those little moments we commit ourselves to remember the words of Paul in Romans 8:32

"He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us, how will he not also with him freely give us all things."

So, we wake up each day committed to live in the small moments of our daily lives with open eyes and humbly expectant hearts.

Story of Jonah

Do You Believe in a Santa Christ?

http://www.ligonier.org/blog/do-you-believe-in-a-santa-christ/

FROM Nathan W. Bingham Dec 14, 2012 Category: Articles

In Dr. Sinclair Ferguson’s book, In Christ Alone, he shares the sad reality that many Christians have a Christology that is more informed by Santa Claus than Scripture. For them, the message of the incarnation has been so twisted or diluted that they have in fact created for themselves a savior who is nothing more than a Santa Christ.

As you prayerfully read Dr. Ferguson’s words, ask yourself the following question this Christmas season: “Do I believe in a Santa Christ?”

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1. A Pelagian Jesus is a Santa Christ

Santa Christ is sometimes a Pelagian Jesus. Like Santa, he simply asks us whether we have been good. More exactly, since the assumption is that we are all naturally good, Santa Christ asks us whether we have been “good enough.” So just as Christmas dinner is simply the better dinner we really deserve, Jesus becomes a kind of added bonus who makes a good life even better. He is not seen as the Savior of helpless sinners.

2. A Semi-Pelagian Jesus is a Santa Christ

Or Santa Christ may be a Semi-Pelagian Jesus — a slightly more sophisticated Jesus who, Santa-like, gives gifts to those who have already done the best they could! Thus, Jesus’ hand, like Santa’s sack, opens only when we can give an upper-percentile answer to the none-too-weighty probe, “Have you done your best this year?” The only difference from medieval theology here is that we do not use its Latin phraseology: facere quod in se est (to do what one is capable of doing on one’s own, or, in common parlance, “Heaven helps those who help themselves”).

3. A Mystical Jesus is a Santa Christ

Then again, Santa Christ may be a mystical Jesus, who, like Santa Claus, is important because of the good experiences we have when we think about him, irrespective of his historical reality. It doesn’t really matter whether the story is true or not; the important thing is the spirit of Santa Christ. For that matter, while it would spoil things to tell the children this, everyone can make up his or her own Santa Christ. As long as we have the right spirit of Santa Christ, all is well.

But Jesus is not to be identified with Santa Claus; worldly thinking — however much it employs Jesus-language — is not to be confused with biblical truth.

Who is the Biblical Christ of Christmas?

The Scriptures systematically strip away the veneer that covers the real truth of the Christmas story. Jesus did not come to add to our comforts. He did not come to help those who were already helping themselves or to fill life with more pleasant experiences. He came on a deliverance mission, to save sinners, and to do so He had to destroy the works of the Devil (Matt. 1:21; 1 John 3:8b).

• Those whose lives were bound up with the events of the first Christmas did not find His coming an easy and pleasurable experience.
• Mary and Joseph’s lives were turned upside down.
• The shepherds’ night was frighteningly interrupted, and their futures potentially radically changed.
• The magi faced all kinds of inconvenience and family separation.
• Our Lord Himself, conceived before wedlock, born probably in a cave, would spend His early days as a refugee from the bloodthirsty and vindictive Herod (Matt. 2:13-21).

There is, therefore, an element in the Gospel narratives that stresses that the coming of Jesus is a disturbing event of the deepest proportions. It had to be thus, for He did not come merely to add something extra to life, but to deal with our spiritual insolvency and the debt of our sin. He was not conceived in the womb of Mary for those who have done their best, but for those who know that their best is “like filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6)—far from good enough—and that in their flesh there dwells no good thing (Rom. 7:18). He was not sent to be the source of good experiences, but to suffer the pangs of hell in order to be our Savior.

Adapted from In Christ Alone by Sinclair Ferguson.

The Garden as the Place of the First Mountain in a Series of Mountains

http://grbcav.org/2012/08/the-garden-as-the-place-of-the-first-mountain-in-a-series-of-mountains/

In G. K. Beale’s The Temple and the Church’s Mission, he says, “The prophet Ezekiel portrays Eden on a mountain (Ezek. 28:14, 16). Israel’s temple was on Mount Zion (e.g., Exod. 15:17), and the end-time temple was to be located on a mountain (Ezek. 40:2; 43:12; Rev. 21:10).”[1]

The fact that the Garden is viewed as the place of the first mountain is very interesting in light of the Bible’s emphasis on mountains and temples. Beale notes that early Jewish commentary also saw a unique relationship between Eden, a high mountain, and Israel’s temple. He references 1 Enoch 24-25 and comments:

The early Jewish book of 1 Enoch says the tree of life would be transplanted from Eden, which was on a ‘high mountain’, to the ‘Holy Place beside the temple of the Lord’ in Jerusalem…, implying that the tree’s former location in Eden was also a sanctuary.[2]

The entry for “Mountain” in Dictionary of Biblical Imagery reads:

Almost from the beginning of the Bible, mountains are sites of transcendent spiritual experiences, encounters with God or appearances by God. Ezekiel 28:13-15 places the *Garden of Eden on a mountain. *Abraham shows his willingness to sacrifice Isaac and then encounters God on a mountain (Gen 22:1-14). God appears to Moses and speaks from the *burning bush on “Horeb the mountain of God” (Ex 3:1-2 NRSV), and he encounters Elijah on the same site (1 Kings 19:8-18). Most impressive of all is the experience of the Israelites at Mt. *Sinai (Ex 19), which *Moses ascends in a *cloud to meet God.
A similar picture emerges from the NT, where Jesus is associated with mountains. Jesus resorted to mountains to be alone (Jn 6:15), to *pray (Mt 14:23; Lk 6:12) and to teach his listeners (Mt 5:1; Mk 3:13). It was on a mountain that Jesus refuted Satan’s temptation (Mt 4:8; Lk 4:5). He was also transfigured on a mountain (Mt 17:1-8; Mk 9:2-8; Lk 9:28-36), and he ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:10-12).[3]

Jesus also designated a mountain in Galilee from which he gave the Great Commission to the eleven (Matthew 28:16). Jesus is both the tabernacle of God among men (John 1:14) and a temple (John 2:19-22) who builds the new temple (Ephesians 2:19-22 [his body, the church]). Hebrews 12:18-24 contrasts Mount Sinai and Mount Zion in the context of the transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. God’s people have gone from one mountain to another. Surely these mountains are symbols of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant and have their foundation in the first mountain-temple, the Garden of Eden.

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[1] Beale, Temple and the Church’s Mission, 73.

[2] Beale, Temple and the Church’s Mission, 79.

[3] “Mountain” in Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarstiy Press, 1998), 572-74.

Holiness Beyond Words

 

  
http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/holiness-beyond-words
 by David Mathis | August 23, 2012

Holiness starts with God. Discussions about holiness get off on the wrong foot when they begin with what we don’t do, rather than with who God is.
This is essential to keep in mind as we talk about sanctification — the process of our becoming holy. Before we get too far down the road with the derivative holiness of the creature, let’s tune into the original holiness of the Creator.
The holiness of God, says R.C. Sproul in his classic book, is “one of the most important ideas that a Christian can ever grapple with. It is basic to our whole understanding of God and of Christianity” (12).

Holiness Carries Us to the Brink

In trying to define the almost indefinable, John Piper draws in an illustration from the end of C.S. Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. There Reepicheep, the gallant mouse, sails to the end of the world in his little coracle. Says Piper, “The word ‘holy’ is the little boat in which we reach the world’s end in the ocean of language.”

The possibilities of language to carry the meaning of God eventually run out and spill over the edge of the world into a vast unknown. “Holiness” carries us to the brink, and from there on, the experience of God is beyond words.
The reason I say this is that every effort to define the holiness of God ultimately winds up by saying: God is holy means God is God. . . . The very god-ness of God means that he is separate from all that is not God. There is an infinite qualitative difference between Creator and creature. God is one of a kind. Sui generis. In a class by himself. In that sense he is utterly holy. But then you have said no more than that he is God.
. . . God is the absolute reality beyond which is only more of God. When asked for his name in Exodus 3:14, he said, “I am who I am.” His being and his character are utterly undetermined by anything outside himself. He is not holy because he keeps the rules. He wrote the rules! God is not holy because he keeps the law. The law is holy because it reveals God. God is absolute. Everything else is derivative.

God’s Utterly Unique Divine Essence

Having set the table, Piper then asks, What is the holiness of God? Before venturing a definition, he bids us listen to three texts.

1 Samuel 2:2: “There is none holy like the Lord: for there is none besides you”
Isaiah 40:25: “To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.”
Hosea 11:9: “I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst.”

He draws it together with this explanation:

In the end, God is holy in that he is God and not man. . . . He is incomparable. His holiness is his utterly unique divine essence. It determines all that he is and does and is determined by no one.
His holiness is what he is as God which no one else is or ever will be. Call it his majesty, his divinity, his greatness, his value as the pearl of great price.
In the end, language runs out. In the word “holy,” we have sailed to the world's end in the utter silence of reverence and wonder and awe. There may yet be more to know of God, but that will be beyond words.

Once we’ve stood in utter silence, captured by his god-ness, speechless with wonder and awe, filled with reverence and unmatched admiration for our Creator and Redeemer, then we’re ready to talk about holiness in the created and redeemed. And only then.
How mind-numbing is it that this holy God not only stoops to pardon our sin, but also empowers us to share in his holiness? True to the word holy, it’s a reality that carries us beyond words.
http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/holiness-beyond-words

First Things First: Making the Most of Your Morning

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/first-things-first-making-the-most-of-your-morning

by David Mathis | August 9, 2012

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“Do first things first” is the takeaway from Laura Vanderkam’s new eBook What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast. Morning is “prime time for self-improvement,” USA Today reports in reviewing Vanderkam’s work. The article says,

Here are some of the things she says go-getters do before most people finish their first cup of coffee:
•Exercise. A dawn workout is common among CEOs and other high-powered types.
•Meditate or pray. Monks aren't the only ones who start the day on a spiritual note.
•Work, often on personal or long-term projects outside the scope of their daily duties.
•Fix a family breakfast — sometimes as a substitute for a family dinner — or play with their kids.

The counsel is to tackle the most important things first, “before the demands of the day intrude. Interruptions and emergencies tend to strike later in the day; motivation tends to wilt. And people who start the day with a win can build on the momentum all day long . . . .”
So it seems the old commonsensical proverb holds: Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Starting on a Spiritual Note

Family, work, and exercise are all important, but perhaps it’s the mention of meditation and prayer that most distinctively catches the Christian attention. Which raises the question, Vanderkam’s work aside, Is there a Christian way to make the most of your mornings?
While some may think of morning as “prime time for self-improvement,” would the Christian approach be to treat morning as prime time for sanctification — or at least as a spiritual fueling up for the day?

Early in the Morning

The history of the church is filled with men and women who put “first things first” through going Godward to start their day. This shouldn’t be that surprising given that it’s recorded of our great Hero himself that “rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed” (Mark 1:35).
And, of course, his “very early” morning resurrection (Mark 16:2) is pregnant with significance.

Getting Your Soul Happy in God

George Mueller (1805–1898) is remembered for his massive ministry to orphans in England over a century ago. But here’s something else to remember about Mueller. He writes in his autobiography about the life-changing find he made about the power of mornings. His discovery was that

the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was . . . how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished . . .

For Mueller, this meant that “the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, while meditating, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord.”

Obtaining Food for the Inner Man

And Mueller gets practical. He says that, after a short prayer, asking for God’s blessing on his time of reading, “the first thing I did . . . was to begin to meditate on the word of God, searching as it were into every verse to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the word; not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon; but for the sake of obtaining food for my soul.” This is not self-improvement, but feasting one’s soul at the banquet of God.
By meditation, Mueller means “not the simple reading of the word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts.”

A Happy State of Heart

Mueller found the result of such Bible meditation soon became prayer in its varied forms — whether confession, thanksgiving, intercession, or supplication — and “that my inner man almost invariably is almost sensibly nourished and strengthened and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not a happy state of heart.”
In short,

. . . it is as plain to me as anything that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for the inner man. As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time, except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. . . .
How different when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when, without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials, and the temptations of the day come upon one!

Encouragement and Challenge

Vanderkam’s book and Mueller’s experience should be no small encouragement for those who are naturally morning larks, bouncing out of bed before dawn, ready to face the challenges of the day with their best energies. If this is you, harness it. Make the most of your morning by seeking your soul’s happiness in God. When you think of “doing first things first,” consider going deep in the Scriptures, scouring them for fresh glimpses of Jesus, and daily rehearsing their central message — the gospel — that is always for the Christian “of first importance” (1 Corinthians 15:3).
For the in-betweeners who can do either late nights or early mornings (but not usually both in the same day!), you have your challenge — with good incentive — for taking intentional steps to seek the Spiritual discipline of getting to bed earlier. A practical key to getting up early, and getting right away to the day’s most important things, is getting to bed early. Which is so much tougher than it sounds. Vanderkam recognizes this is the deal-killer for many. "Going to bed early is not that easy for many people."

Jesus for Night Owls Too

For the natural night owls and late-risers — who may not feel motivated by this discussion, but discouraged, and even condemned, by the whole thing — consider this: The Jesus who got up early, while it was still dark, to pray, and rose from the dead very early in the morning, is the same Jesus who will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick (Matthew 12:20). He is not just our example, but our Substitute. He is the one who says,

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28–30)

In this Jesus is grace enough for utter freedom from condemnation, and grace enough for unexpected change and small strides forward over time. This Jesus is worth running to straightaway for soul-satisfaction — whether you’re up before the sun or rolling out of bed at the crack of afternoon.

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Prayer of St. Frances

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
    Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
    Where there is injury, pardon.
    Where there is doubt, faith.
    Where there is despair, hope.
    Where there is darkness, light.
    Where there is sadness, joy.

    O Divine Master,
    grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
    to be understood, as to understand;
    to be loved, as to love.
    For it is in giving that we receive.
    It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
    and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

    Amen.

If I Have Not Compassion

Amy Carmichael

IF I HAVE NOT compassion on my fellow servant, even as my Lord had pity on me, then I know nothing of Calvary love. If I can easily discuss the shortcomings and the sins of any; if I can speak in a casual way even of a child's misdoings, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I can enjoy a joke at the expense of another; if I can in any way slight another in conversation, or even in thought, then I know nothing of Calvary love. If I can write an unkind letter, speak an unkind word, think an unkind thought without grief and shame, then I know nothing of Calvary love. If I am afraid to speak the truth, lest I lose affection, or lest the one concerned should say, "You do not understand," or because I fear to lose my reputation for kindness; if I put my own good name before the other's highest good, then I know nothing of Calvary love. If souls can suffer alongside, and I hardly know it, because the spirit of discernment is not in me, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I myself dominate myself, if my thoughts revolve around myself, if I am so occupied with myself I rarely have "a heart at leisure from itself," then I know nothing of Calvary love. If I cannot in honest happiness take the second place (or twentieth); if I cannot take the first without making a fuss about my unworthiness, then I know nothing of Calvary love. If I do not give a friend "the benefit of the doubt," but put the worst construction instead of the best on what is said or done, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I take offense easily; if I am content to continue in a cool unfriendliness, though friendship be possible, then I know nothing of Calvary love. If a sudden jar can cause me to speak an impatient, unloving word, then I know nothing of Calvary love. For a cup brimful of sweet water cannot spill even one drop of bitter water, however suddenly jolted. If I say, "Yes, I forgive, but I cannot forget," as though the God, who twice a day washes all the sands on all the shores of all the world, could not wash such memories from my mind, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

Flame Of God

From prayer that asks that I may be sheltered from winds that beat on Thee, From fearing when I should aspire, From faltering when I should climb higher. From silken self, O Captain, free. Thy soldier who would follow Thee. From subtle love of softening things, From easy choices, weakenings, (Not thus are spirits fortified, Not this way went the Crucified).

From all that dims Thy Calvary, O Lamb of God, deliver me. Give me the love that leads the way, The faith that nothing can dismay. The hope no disappointments tire, The passion that will burn like fire; Let me not sink to be a clod; Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.

Branded for Christ

By Leonard Ravenhill  http://www.ravenhill.org/
		In a certain sense, all men are strangers to one another. Even friends do not really know each other. To know a man, one must know all the influences of heredity and environment, as well as his countless moral choices that have fashioned him into what he is.       Though we do not really know one another, tracing the course of a man’s life sometimes offers rich reward, particularly when we see the great driving forces which have motivated him.       For instance, how greatly your life and mine would be benefited if we could experience the same surge of Christ-life that moved Saul of Tarsus (later called Paul) and plumb even a little the hidden depths of the meaning in his words, "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus" (Gal. 6:17).       One thing is sure about these words: they were an acknowledgment of Christ’s ownership. Paul belonged to the Lord Jesus -- spirit, soul, and body. He was branded for Christ.       When Paul claimed to bear in his body the wounds of the Lord, he was claiming no "stigmata," as did Saint Francis of Assisi in 1224 A.D. It is not a bodily identification by outward crucifixion. He had been "crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2:20). Branded by Devotion to a Task       The marks of Paul’s inward crucifixion were plainly evident. First of all, Paul was branded by devotion to a task.       If, as tradition says, Paul was only four feet six inches in height, then he was the greatest dwarf that ever lived. He out-paced, out-prayed, and out-passioned all his contemporaries. On his escutcheon was blazed: "One thing I do." He was blind to all that other men gloried in.       Pascal was bitterly criticized because apart from the immortal soul of man, he could see no scenery anywhere worth looking at.       By the same token, the Apostle Paul might be castigated for saying not a word about Grecian art or the splendor of the Pantheon. His was a separation to spirituality.       After the Athenian clash on Mars’ Hill, Paul poured contempt on the wisdom of this world, dying daily to the temptation to outwit and out-think the wise. His task was not that of getting over a viewpoint, but of overcoming the legions of hell!       Somewhere, most likely in Arabia, Paul’s personality had been transfigured. Never after that was he listed as a backslider. He was too occupied with going on. It would have vexed his righteous soul to hear a congregation sing, "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it!"       Unsponsored, unwelcomed, unloved -- these made little difference to Paul. On he went, blind to every jewel of earthly honor, deaf to every siren-voice of ease, and insensitive to the mesmerism of worldly success. Branded by Humility       Paul was also branded by humility. Moths could not corrupt this God-given robe. He never fished for praise with humility’s bait, but in the long line of sinners, put himself first (where we would put him last).       The old Welsh divine said that if you know Hebrew, Greek, and Latin , do not put them where Pilate did at the head of Christ, but put them at his feet. "What things were gain to me," says Paul, "these things I count as loss for Christ."       What a heart’s ease is the virtue of humility -- the great joy of having nothing to lose! Having no opinion of himself, Paul feared no fall. He might have swaggered in the richly embroidered robes of the chancellor of a Hebrew school. But in the adornment of a meek and quiet spirit, he shines with more luster. Branded by Suffering       Next, Paul was branded by suffering. Consider the thing he mentions in Romans 8: famine, peril, nakedness, and sword (these belonging to acute discomfort in the body), and tribulation (perhaps of the mind), distress, persecution (of the spirit). Of all these sufferings the "little" minister partook.       This wandering Jew "made war on all that made war on God and on the children of men." This prince of preachers and his foe, the prince of hell, spared each other no beatings. It was a free-for-all and no holds barred!       Look closely at Paul -- at that cadaverous countenance, that scarred body, that stooped figure of a man chastened by hunger, kept down by fasting, and ploughed with the lictor’s lash; that little body, brutally stoned at Lystra and starved in many places; that skin, pickled for thirty-six hours in the Mediterranean Sea!       Add to this list danger upon danger; then multiply it with loneliness; finally, count in the 199 stripes, 3 shipwrecks, 3 beatings with rods, a stoning, a prison record, and deaths so many that count is lost.       And yet if one could add it up, all must be written off as nothing, because Paul himself thus consigned it. Listen to him: "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment..." That’s contempt of suffering, if you like! Branded by Passion       Furthermore, Paul was branded by passion. A man must be in the dead center of God’s will and walking the tightrope of obedience to call upon the Holy Ghost to bear witness to his witness. Yet Paul does this in Romans 9:1.       Oh, that from this wondrous flame every living preacher might capture just a little light! Beatings could not cast the flame out of Paul; fastings and hunger could not kill it; misunderstanding and misrepresentation could not quench its fire; waters could not drown it; prisons could not break it; perils could not arrest its growth. On and on it burned, until life ebbed from his body.       The living Christ who was within Paul (Gal. 2:20), as manifested by his soul-passion, was at once the despair of hell, the capital for enlarging the Church, and cheer to the heart of the Saviour, who was seeing the travail of His soul and was being satisfied. Branded by Love       Paul was branded by love. When Paul experienced becoming a "man in Christ," he developed the capacity for love. Only maturity knows love. How Paul loved!       First and supremely, Paul loved his Lord. Then he loved men, his enemies, hardship, and soul-pain. And he must have loved this latter particularly, else he would have shirked prayer. Paul’s love carried him to the lost, the last, the least. What scope of love! Mars’ Hill with its intellectuals, the synagogues with their religious traditionalists, the market places with their prodigals -- all these he yearned over and sought for his Lord. Like a mighty dynamo, love pushed him on to attempt great things for God.       Not many have prayed as this man prayed. Maybe McCheyne, John Fletcher, mighty Brainerd, and a few others have known something of the soul-and-body mastering work of intercession motivated by love.       I remember standing by the Marechale once as we sang her great hymn:            "There is a love constraining me                 To go and seek the lost;            I yield, O Lord, my all to Thee                 To save at any cost!"       That was not just a lovely sentiment. It cost her prison, privation, pain, and poverty.       Charles Wesley seemed to reach on tiptoe when he said, "nothing on earth do I desire but Thy pure love within my breast!" More recently Amy Carmichael uttered the heartfelt prayer; "Give me a love that leads the way, a faith which nothing can dismay!" These men and women were certainly on the trail of the apostolic secret of soul-winning.       Great soul-winners have always been great lovers of men’s souls. All lesser loves were conquered only by the greater Love. Great love to the Lover of their souls drove them to tears, to travail, and to triumph. In this evil hour, dare we love less? Let me love Thee, love is mighty            Swaying realms of deed and thought;            By it I can walk uprightly,            I can serve Thee as I ought.            Love will soften every trial            Love will lighten every care;            Love unquestioning will follow,            Love will triumph, love will dare!       Without any of their choosing, millions will be branded for the Antichrist one day. Shall we shrink to bear in our spirits, our souls, and our bodies our Owner’s marks -- the marks of Jesus? Branded means pain. Do we want that? Branded means carrying the slur of the servant. Will we choose to be branded -- for Christ?

A Simple Prayer for Bible Reading

 http://fighterverses.com/blog-post/a-simple-prayer-for-bible-reading/
  Jonathan Parnell

We need God to do a miraculous work when we read the Bible. So we must pray. In chapter nine of When I Don’t Desire God, John Piper introduces a memorable and helpful acronym for what to pray: I. O. U. S.

• Incline my heart to you, not to prideful gain or any false motive. (Psalm 119:36)
• Open my eyes to behold wonderful things in your Word. (Psalm 119:18)
• Unite my heart to fear your name. (Psalm 86:11)
• Satisfy me with you steadfast love. (Psalm 90:14)

An unfortunate side effect of repeatedly praying the same prayer is that, over a period of time, it can lose its sense of pertinence. One way to keep it fresh is to unpack the content with language that expresses what you mean in a new way.
For example, here’s an amplification of the I. O. U. S. prayer:

• Incline my heart to you, not to prideful gain or any false motive. That is, focus my affections and desires upon you, and eradicate everything in me that would oppose such a focus.
• Open my eyes to behold wonderful things in your Word. That is, let your light shine and show me what you have willed to communicate through the biblical authors.
• Unite my heart to fear your name. That is, enthrall me with who you are.
• Satisfy me with your steadfast love. That is, fulfill me with the fact that your covenant love has been poured out on me through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

As we continue hide God’s word in our hearts each week, let’s really ask that he do this inclining, opening, uniting, and satisfying work every time the passage comes to mind.

What Christians Do When They Believe and Feel about the Word of God Rightly

 http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2012/06/08/what-christians-do-when-they-believe-and-feel-about-the-word-of-god-rightly/
Kevin DeYoung

The Psalmist believed God’s word was true (Psalm 119: 42, 89, 96, 142, 160). He knew the Scriptures demanded what was right (Psalm 119:75, 86, 128, 137) and provided what was good (Psalm 119:1, 2, 6, 9, 24, 98-100, 105, 130). He delighted in God’s word (Psalm 119: 14, 24, 47, 70, 77, 103, 111, 129, 143, 174). He desired God’s word (Psalm 119:5, 10, 17, 20, 27, 29, 33-35, 40, 131, 135, 169). He depended on God’s word (Psalm 119:31, 50, 52). In other words, the Psalmist believed what we should believe about the word and felt what we should feel about the word.
And notice what happened as a result. When all this underground pressure of believing and feeling explode on to the surface it makes a splash. Our thoughts and our affections concerning the word of God can’t help but burst forth as a geyser of Spirit-led activity.
So what do Christians do when they believe and feel about the word of God rightly?
1. They sing (Psalm 119:172).
2. They speak (Psalm 119:13, 46, 79).
3. They study (Psalm 119:15, 48, 97, 148).
4. They store up (Psalm 119:11, 16, 83, 93, 148).
5. They obey the word (Psalm 119: 8, 44, 57, 129, 145, 146, 167, 168).
6. They praise God (Psalm 119:7, 62, 164, 171).
7. They pray for help (Psalm 119: 36, 58, 121-23, 147, 149-52, 153-60, 175-76).
These seven actions are the best indicator of what you and really believe and feel about God’s word. If you do these things, you probably believe what is right even if you can’t quite explain it; you probably have your affections in order even if they don’t always feel like much. And on the other hand, if there is no geyser bursting forth into these kinds of activities, you probably don’t feel what you should or really believe all that is true.
Sing, speak, study, store up, obey, praise, pray. That’s what Christians do with the word of God.

True Wholeness

 http://michaelkelleyministries.com/

The gospel is about wholeness. It’s about fractured, broken people being the gift of life through the life of another. In Christ we become complete and whole people—people who are in want for nothing.
Consider the amazing truth Paul expressed in Ephesians 1 when he said that we have been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing. Or again in Romans 8 that we will be given all things in Christ. Or back to Ephesians when he talked about the truly mind-boggling concept of inheritance.
In Ephesians 1:13–19, Paul used the word “inheritance” twice. The first occurs in verse 14: “He is the down payment of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory.”
Paul talked about the Holy Spirit as earnest money. If you’ve ever bought a house, you know that you have to put down some earnest money as part of the contract. The earnest money isn’t the full amount, but it’s the amount of money you have to forfeit if you back out of the contract. To Paul, the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence is like earnest money. It’s a deposit given to us by God that makes us sure He will uphold His end of the deal. It makes us sure that He will carry us onto completion, and we will receive our whole inheritance.
So what is that inheritance? We could say it’s heaven, eternity, mansions, streets of gold, no more tears, and all the other stuff heaven brings along with it. But ultimately, I think you have to say the inheritance is the thing which makes heaven so heavenly—our inheritance is God. It’s knowing Him fully and completely. That’s what makes heaven so good, and that is what’s waiting for us. The fact that God is giving us the greatest of all gifts, namely Himself, should bring us closer and closer to that sense of completeness.
But Paul wasn’t done.
If we skip down to verse 18, this is what we find: “I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe.”
Do you see the difference? In this verse “inheritance” isn’t talking about God or heaven; it’s talking about us. We are the inheritance. So who is inheriting us? Who is waiting for us? Who considers us so valuable? God. We are God’s inheritance.
It’s unfathomable to think about what Christ did on the cross, that He bought something for us, but He also bought something for God. Jesus secured both our inheritances, and now God waits in expectation to fully inherit His. And God’s inheritance? That’s us.
Not only do we have an inheritance stored up for us, but we are of such value to the Creator that we are stored up for Him to the praise of His glory. This is a good reminder to me as gas prices are high, the economy is down, and jobs are in question; . . . but we are nonetheless rich in God. And maybe He’s rich in us, too. The gospel reminds us that we are absolutely and completely whole. Complete. In Christ.
Is it any wonder, then, that in virtually all of his letters, Paul’s greetings to the followers of Jesus consisted of two words: “grace” and “peace.” Perhaps he chose those two words because they represent the gospel well. We are the beneficiaries of the lavish grace of God in Christ. And because of the gospel of Jesus, we are whole. We are complete. We lack nothing in Him. Now that’s shalom.

Anywhere, Anything: On Worship and Hyperbole

 http://howtotalkevangelical.addiezierman.com/?p=687

Addie Zierman blog
How to Talk Evangelical

Sometimes on Sunday morning our worship team does the song Burn for You by Steve Fee, and it suddenly feels hard to be there.
I have a tentative relationship with my church anyway, but when they start singing this song, it’s hard for me to stay in that dark room with all the drumming and the lights and the raised hands and promises.
It’s a song with a lot of fire imagery and power words. There’s a fire in my bones, uncontainable, and it’s causing me to burn for You.
As a person who has burned for Jesus, who has been burned, who knows the destructive nature of fire as well as the cold absence of it, this is a loaded metaphor for me to begin with.
And then you get to the chorus:
I’ll go anywhere
I’ll do anything
At any cost for you my King
And I have to sit down in my seat so that I can’t see the words. I have to fold up into my own smallness and remind myself that I don’t have to earn the love of God.
*
It makes me think of that Bruno Mars song that the pop radio stations had on all the time a couple of months ago. The one with the chorus that promises:
I’d catch a grenade for ya
Throw my hand on a blade for ya
I’d jump in front of a train for ya
You know I’d do anything for ya
It’s a song that annoys me for a couple of reason, the first of which is the word “ya.”
But also, it’s the audacity of those claims. The arrogance of them. The vague, unlikely promises that are easy to make, as chances are, no one will ever lob a grenade at her head.
When that song comes on the radio, I get irritable and start asking questions to my radio. Would ya do the dishes for her? Would ya change the dirty diapers for her? Pick up a box of tampons for her? Get up in the night with a crying baby for her? Would ya Bruno?
Would you listen? Would you stay if she failed you in the most unimaginable, heartbreaking way? Would you go to marriage counseling and sit there on the couch holding her hand, answering the hard questions? Would you do the work of forgiving, the work of being forgiven, in that moment where it would be easier to give up?
Because that’s love: not the proud vow that you would die for her if it came to that, but a hundred thousand little deaths that somehow add up to Life.
But, you know, who wants to sing about that?
*
The problem with hyperbole, with lofty promises, is that life is not lived in the grand gesture.
I have seen enough of my own dark heart to know that even though I might desperately want to believe that I’d do anything for God, go anywhere for Him, give up anything he asked of me, there is a breaking point for me.
I have been to the place where he has been silent and he has asked me to trust him anyway, and I couldn’t do it. I have been to the place where I have been lonely and hurt and instead of choosing faith, I chose tequila and denial and loud cynical anger.
Every day, I come to tiny little crossroads, places where I know what God wants from me and where I choose the exact opposite. Anger instead of love. Gossip instead of restraint. Bitterness instead of forgiveness.
So when they sing the song at church, I sit, because for me, it would be a lie. I sit and I try to remember that the God I believe in has already lived the hyperbole. He loves me to the ends of the earth, as far as East is from West, to the moon and back.
I believe that he pierced himself on the blade of my anger and sin and brokenness. That he gave it all and was not destroyed. That he loves me just the same, even when I fail miserably at loving him back.
*
I am trying this new thing.
Instead of promising God anything and anywhere and any cost, I am trying to stop in the moment and ask him. “What would you have me do here?”
I tried it at three in the morning when my son woke up whiny and needy and making demands like a little terrorist.
When he told me to put his blanky on his tummy and his sheet on his feet and his lion toy in a very particular spot on his pillow (NO, Mom. Not there. THERE!), I sucked in a breath, asked God my question, and heard the answer. Love.
When he screamed for me to come back and GET HIM A FRESH PULL-UP, I rallied, listened. Chose love one more time.
When he went into full meltdown mode ten minutes later because he wanted his turtle, a small plastic toy that could be buried at the bottom of any one of the 18 boxes of toys in my living room, I heard God say love, love, love, love, love, and I said, All out of love, God.
And then I went into Crazy Mode and shouted DANE. IT IS FOUR O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING! MOMMY IS ANGRY! And I called him a little shit under my breath while I went stomping into his bedroom to deal with the situation.
We try and try and then we fail. We cannot do the big things or the even little things, and God is well aware of it. In my failure, I am enough for him, and in my victory, I am enough for him too.
God’s love is big and small, more extreme than the greatest hyperbole, more concrete than the tiniest need. And wide enough to cover all of it.

I am the Captain of My Soul?

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced, nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeoning of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the horror of the shade;

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishment the scroll,

I am the master of my fate;

I am the captain of my soul.

William Henley

 
My Captain

Out of the light that dazzles me,

Bright as the sun from pole to pole,

I thank the God I know to be

For Christ the Conqueror of my soul.

Since His the sway of circumstance

I would not wince nor cry aloud.

Under that rule which men call chance

My head with joy is humbly bowed.

Beyond this place of sin and tears—

That life with Him! And His the aid,

That, spite the menace of the years,

Keeps, and shall keep, me unafraid.

I have no fear though strait the gate;

He cleared from punishment the scroll.

Christ is the Master of my fate;

Christ is the Captain of my soul.

Dorothea Day

http://articles.cnn.com/2001-06-11/justice/mcveigh.poem.cnna_1_timothy-mcveigh-poem-oklahoma-city-bomber?_s=PM:LAW

English professor Marion Hoctor: The meaning of 'Invictus'

OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBER

June 11, 2001

Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh left the Victorian poem "Invictus" as his last message to the world before he was executed Monday. (See image of McVeigh's handwritten statement)
An expert in Medieval and 19th century poetry, Sister Marion Hoctor, professor of English at Nazareth College of Rochester, New York, spoke to CNN.com about the poem and its author, British poet, critic and editor William Ernest Henley.
CNN: Why this poem?
HOCTOR: I think the fact that this poem spoke to (McVeigh) in such a way that he used it as his last statement -- I think Timothy McVeigh really understood what this poem says. Although it is sometimes viewed as inspirational, it is really about stoicism.

 McVeigh saw something of the anguish of this poem, but he uses it to justify something that neither the poet or anyone else would see as justifiable.

CNN: How does this poem fit in the prevailing philosophy of the Victorian age?
HOCTOR: What one would say about major Victorian writers and thinkers is that they set aside Christianity -- the dominant form of religion then -- some of them regretfully set it aside and said it belongs to another world. They believed there are dark and complex questions in this world that religion cannot address.
The poem is powerful expression of stoicism -- you fall back on your own resources, you dont fall back on religious resources. If you are going to truly be "invictus" -- which is Latin for unconquered -- you must be true to your own convictions.
So "Invictus" means "I have not been conquered." The business about the gods, where Henley writes "I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul", is quite dismissive. "Gods" is lower-case, and the line says they "may be." He's saying "I'm in possession of my fate, I have been strong, I haven't cried, or winced" in the face of the "bludgeoning of chance." Henley is referring to the death of his child and health problems -- which left him terribly wounded, but not unbowed.
The last two lines sum up stoicism beautifully -- I remember McVeigh's attorneys saying that McVeigh was not prepared to consider in any way that what he had done was wrong, and I think those lines express that.
He chose this four-stanza poem as a more eloquent way of conveying to the rest of the world what his philosophy is and his sense of self. One cannot help but wonder what William Ernest Henley would have thought of this.
The lines describe determination and a summoning up of every ounce of strength -- to overcome with courage and strength which is my own and is not siphoned off from an archaic religious tradition.
In Hebrew, "I am" is the word for God -- (I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul). I think Henley would have known that, but I'm not sure McVeigh would. It means the deity is within us, and was written by someone who had suffered terribly -- but, of course, had not inflicted suffering on anyone else.
The poem represents secular humanism, the spirit of the Victorian age, you could say, the rise of Darwin and the sciences as a challenge to traditional thought and creationism. Really Matthew Arnold, a contemporary of Henley's, wrote of the same spirit.
Henley's other poems wouldn't be recognized. Henley can't compete with his contemporaries, such as Tennyson, Arnold, Browning, and Thomas Hardy -- the real luminaries of this period.
"Invictus" was his 15 minutes of fame.

What Does Jesus Do With Sin?

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/gospeldrivenchurch/2012/05/22/what-does-jesus-do-with-sin/
by Jared C. Wilson

“The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’”
– John 1:29
John the Baptist commands a beholding of the sin-taking-away Lamb. What do we see in this beholding? How exactly does Jesus take away our sin?
Here are 6 things Jesus does with sin:
1. He Condemns It.
Jesus puts a curse on sin. He marks its forehead.
Romans 8:3 – “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.”
Jesus says to sin in no uncertain terms, “Sin, you’re going to die.”
2. He Carries It.
Like the true and better scapegoat, Jesus becomes our sin-bearer.
1 Peter 2:24 – “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 – “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
3. He Cancels It.
He closes out the account. (Even better, he opens a new one, where we’re always in the black, having been credited with his perfect righteousness.)
1 Corinthians 13:4-5 – “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful”
That word resentful is more directly “to count up wrongdoing,” which is why some translations of this text say that “Love keeps no record of wrongs.”
Colossians 2:13-14 – “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”
That last proclamation leads us into this great truth:
4. He Crucifies It
1 Peter 3:18 – “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.”
At the cross, Jesus dies and takes our sin with him. Only the sin stays dead.
5. He Casts It Away
Jesus takes the corpse and chucks it into the void.
Micah 7:19 – “He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”
Psalm 103:12 – “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”
6. He Chooses to Un-remember It.
Jesus is omniscient. He is not forgetful. But he wills to un-remember our sin.
Jeremiah 31:34 – “And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Hebrews 8:12 – “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”
Hebrews 10:17 – “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
Astonishing. We bring our sin to him, repentant and in faithful confession, and he says, “What’re you talking about?”
This is how Jesus forgives sin: He condemns it, carries it, cancels it, kills it, casts it, and clean forgets it. If we’ll confess it.
1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”