By Grace Through Faith

A New Identity in Christ

2010-10-09T10:55:00.000-04:00

“The gospel is the best news we could ever hear. The gospel is about Jesus Christ and his power to transform our lives and relationships, communities, and ultimately, the nations. Through this gospel, we are freely given a new identity — an identity not based on race, social class, gender, a theological system, or a system of rules and regulations. Rather it is a new and perfect identity based solely on faith in Jesus — an identity that defines every aspect of our lives. We are now forgiven, righteous, adopted, accepted, free, and heirs to everything that belongs to Christ. So even our sin, weakness, and failures do not define who we are. Because of this good news, we no longer have to hide from our sin and pretend that we have it all together, for God knows and loves us as we are, not as we pretend to be.”

~ Neil H. Williams, Gospel Transformation, 2nd ed. (Jenkintown, Pa.; World Harvest Mission, 2006), i.

Look To Jesus For True Happiness & Joy

2010-09-12T17:39:00.001-04:00

Would you like to be rid of this spiritual depression? The first thing you have to do is to say farewell now once and forever to your past. . . . Never look back at your sins again. Say, ‘It is finished, it is covered by the Blood of Christ.’ That is your first step. Take that and finish with yourself and all this talk about goodness, and look to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only then that true happiness and joy are possible for you. What you need is not to make resolutions and to live a better life, to start fasting and sweating and praying. No! You just begin to say, ‘I rest my faith on Him alone, who died for my transgressions to atone.’”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression, page 35.
It's A Beautiful Gospel

Why Are You Cast Down?

2010-09-08T19:29:00.000-04:00

This goes along with the last post...

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
Psalm 42 verses 5 and 11

Unhappy? Depressed? Preach To Yourself!

2010-09-06T10:12:00.000-04:00

“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc.

Somebody is talking. Who is talking? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you.’…

The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’– what business have you to be disquieted?

You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’– instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do.

Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God.’”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Its Cure (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965/2002), 20-1.

Your Hands

2010-09-03T11:17:00.000-04:00

I love the beauty and simplicity of this song and the comfort it gives in a Sovereign God.

Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;

your walls are continually before me.

Isaiah 49:16

What Must We Do To Love?

2010-08-30T16:53:00.001-04:00

Pharisees

Jesus' greatest enemy was a purity movement.

The Pharisees were a sect of Jewish leaders and teachers whose main goal was to purify Israel of its sin so that God would deliver Israel from Rome. In the law they saw the fundamental promise: "If you obey you will be blessed and dwell in the land." And so they took it upon themselves to be obedient and to enforce obedience across their small country.

The problem was that they thought they were the obedient ones.

Swallowing a Camel

The Pharisees were meticulous in following the law, while actually missing the grand intent of the law. It was not only to be pure and blameless, but also to be loving and good. That is why Jesus said that they would "strain a gnat, but swallow a camel." They neglected mercy and justice to their fellow countrymen.

But we ought not to just think that these men were more evil than any of us. They just had it in their mind that they were worthy of being blessed, and they tried to root out any people that would withhold the blessing from the nation—prostitutes, tax collectors, and "sinners."

The Fundamental Question

And that is the problem with all purity movements, whether they are doctrinal, methodological, or moral. The leaders see themselves as part of the solution, and act as referees in their culture—sitting in judgment of those who, in their minds, are withholding blessing from their nation. And so they have to be merciless and judgmental, because their fundamental question is "What must we do to be blessed?" instead of "God has already blessed us—what must we do to love?"

Dave Dorr

The Gospel of Everyday Life

2010-08-27T12:43:00.000-04:00

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.” 1 Timothy 4:1-5

As Francis Schaeffer used to remind us, the devil rarely gives us the luxury of fighting on one front only. We see a monster over on one side wanting to devour us, and we back away in dread. But if we’re not paying attention, we can walk right into the jaws of the other monster waiting for us over on the other side. We often fight on two fronts at once.

Today we fight against materialism, especially the so-called Prosperity Gospel. But there is also the danger of asceticism, the super-spirituality that denies the goodness of God in all things. An almost endearingly absurd instance was Simeon the Stylite (c. 390-459), who lived in austerity for 36 years on top of a pillar, elevated above ordinary life. This “holiness” is attractive, in a way. It’s serious. But it’s also fraudulent. It tells an audacious lie about God and about us.

The truth is, everything created by God is good and is to be received by us gratefully. This beautiful truth includes marriage and sex and food and mowing the lawn and flying a kite and paying the bills and sharpening a pencil and sitting on the porch in the evening and playing Monopoly with the kids and laughing at hilarious jokes and setting up chairs at church, and so forth. There is so much divine goodness all around. To push it away, to be above it, would insult our gracious Creator.

Our very earthly human existence is where true holiness can thrive. How? By thanking the Lord for it moment by moment, and by applying the word of God to it moment by moment. It is written, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).

Not ultimate, but good. Good enough for God. Good enough for us too.

Ray Ortlund

The Essence of Holiness

2010-08-26T19:15:00.000-04:00

“You will cleanse no sin from your life that you have not first recognized as being pardoned through the cross. This is because holiness starts in the heart. The essence of holiness is not new behavior, activity, or disciplines. Holiness is new affections, new desires, and new motives that then lead to new behavior. If you don’t see your sin as completely pardoned, then your affections, desires, and motives will be wrong. You will aim to prove yourself. Your focus will be the consequences of your sin rather than hating the sin and desiring God in its place.”

Tim Chester

Christ-Esteem

2010-08-19T19:20:00.000-04:00

Contrary to popular belief, it is not self-esteem we need but Christ-esteem.

Malachi 3:16-18 ~ Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him.

Philippians 3:7-11 ~ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ the righteousness from God that depends on faith – that I may know him and the power of the resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection of the dead.

Jesus: Clean + Unclean = Clean

2010-08-19T16:43:00.000-04:00

Then Haggai said, 'If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?' The priests answered and said, 'It does become unclean.' Then Haggai answered and said, 'So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the LORD, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean.

--Haggai 2:13

And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, 'If you will, you can make me clean.' Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, 'I will; be clean.' And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.

--Mark 1:40-42

In the OT, clean + unclean = unclean. In the NT, clean + unclean = clean. In the OT, defilement is contagious. In the NT, holiness is contagious.

Jesus brought in his train a whole new way of thinking, a new mental universe in which we do not see ourselves as basically clean in danger of defilement, but basically defiled in need of cleansing.

When Jesus arrived on the scene, he brought a new world of grace, the grace of God that was always there and fully accessible but muted, fuzzy, hazy, opaque. Calvin rightly speaks of the OT as the 'shadows' and the NT as the 'substance.'

Jesus Christ brought concrete, sharply defined, clearly contoured lines to that real but foggy OT grace. There he stood, right there before us, a flesh-and-blood man, Emmanuel. The Word became flesh. Full of grace and truth. Solid, substantive. The law came through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus.

The ultimate point?

The only clean man who ever lived became unclean on the cross so that you and I, unclean, can be freely cleansed by simply asking for it.

Hope for me.

Dane Ortlund

Living By Works Rather Than Faith

2010-08-14T11:57:00.000-04:00

My observation of Christendom is that most of us tend to base our personal relationship with God on our performance instead of on His grace. If we’ve performed well—whatever “well” is in our opinion—then we expect God to bless us. If we haven’t done so well, our expectations are reduced accordingly. In this sense, we live by works rather than by grace. We are saved by grace, but we are living by the “sweat” of our own performance.

Moreover, we are always challenging ourselves and one another to “try harder.” We seem to believe success in the Christian life (however we define success) is basically up to us: our commitment, our discipline, and our zeal, with some help from God along the way. We give lip service to the attitude of the apostle Paul, “But by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Corinthians 15:10), but our unspoken motto is, “God helps those who help themselves.”

Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace: Living Confidently in God's Unfailing Love

Take Your Vitamin Z

Jesus Is The True and Better

2010-08-12T12:32:00.001-04:00

“Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” (Luke 24:27)

Jesus is the true and better Adam who passed the test in the garden and whose obedience is imputed to us (1 Corinthians 15).

Jesus is the true and better Abel who, though innocently slain, has blood now that cries out for our acquittal, not our condemnation (Hebrews 12:24).

Jesus is the true and better Abraham who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar and go out into the void “not knowing wither he went!” to create a new people of God.

Jesus is the true and better Isaac who was not just offered up by his father on the mount but was truly sacrificed for us. While God said to Abraham, “Now I know you love me because you did not withhold your son, your only son whom you love, from me,” now we can say to God, “Now we know that you love me, because you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love, from me.”

Jesus is the true and better Jacob who wrestled and took the blow of justice we deserved, so we, like Jacob, only receive the wounds of grace to wake us up and discipline us.

Jesus is the true and better Joseph who, at the right hand of the king, forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them.

Jesus is the true and better Moses who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant (Hebrews 3).

Jesus is the true and better Rock of Moses who, struck with the rod of God’s justice, now gives us water in the desert.

Jesus is the true and better Job, the truly innocent sufferer, who then intercedes for and saves his stupid friends (Job 42).

Jesus is the true and better David, whose victory becomes his people’s victory, though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.

Jesus is the true and better Esther who didn’t just risk losing an earthly palace but lost the ultimate and heavenly one, who didn’t just risk his life, but gave his life to save his people.

Jesus is the true and better Jonah who was cast out into the storm so that we could be brought in.

Jesus is the real Rock of Moses, the real Passover Lamb – innocent, perfect, helpless, slain so the angel of death will pass over us. He is the true temple, the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the Lamb, the Light, the Bread.

The Bible is not about you — it is about him.

~ Tim Keller

Grace: Right Here, Right Now

2010-08-11T10:53:00.000-04:00

Do you understand the majesty and practicality of the grace you have been given? If you don't, in subtle and not so subtle ways, you are looking to other things to get you through. You don't need to go out searching for hope and help, because they are already yours in the resources of grace that you have been given as God's child.

Grace is the most transformational word in the Bible. The entire content of the Bible is a narrative of God's grace, a story of undeserved redemption. By the transformational power of his grace, God unilaterally reaches his hands into the muck of this fallen world, through the presence of his Son, and radically transforms his children from what we are (sinners) into what we are becoming by his power (Christ-like). The famous Newton hymn uses the best word possible, maybe the only word big enough, for that grace—amazing.

So grace is a story and grace is a gift. It is God's character and it is your only hope. Grace is a transforming tool and a state of relationship. Grace is a beautiful theology and a wonderful invitation. Grace is a life-long experience and a life-changing calling. Grace will turn your life upside down while giving you a rest you have never known. Grace will require you to face your unworthiness without ever making you feel unloved.

Grace will make you finally acknowledge that you cannot earn God's favor, and it will once and for all remove your fear of not measuring up to his standards. Grace will humble you with the fact that you are much less than you thought you were, even as it assures you that you can be far more than you had ever imagined. You can be sure that grace will put you in your place without ever putting you down.

Grace will enable you to face shocking truths about yourself that you have hesitated to consider, while freeing you from being self-consciously introspective. Grace will confront you with profound weaknesses, and at the same time bless you with new-found strength. Grace will tell you again and again what you aren't, while welcoming you again and again to what you can now be. Grace will make you as uncomfortable as you have ever been, while offering you a more lasting comfort than you have never before known .

Grace will work to drive you to the end of yourself, while it invites you to fresh starts and new beginnings. Grace will dash your ill-founded hopes, but never walk away and leave you hopeless. Grace will decimate your little kingdom of one as it introduces you to a much, much better King. Grace will expose to you the extent of your blindness as it gives you eyes to see what you so desperately need to see. Grace will make you sadder than you have ever been, while it gives you greater cause for celebration than you have ever known.

Grace enters your life in a moment and will occupy you for eternity. You simply cannot live a productive life in this broken-down world unless you have a practical grasp of the grace you have been given.

Are you living out of this amazing grace? Does it shape the way you respond to your personal struggles, your relationships, and your work? Does your trust in this grace form how you live with your husband or wife? Does it propel the way you parent your children? Does it give you comfort when friends have disappointed you? Does it give you rest when life is unpredictable and hard? Does it make you bold and give you courage in places where you would have once been timid? Does it make the idols that tempt you less attractive and less powerful? Do you wake up and say, "I don't know what I will face today, but this I do know: I have been given amazing grace to face it right here, right now."

May God help you to understand and rest in the grace that you have been given!

~ Paul Tripp

Paul David Tripp is the president of Paul Tripp Ministries, a nonprofit organization, whose mission statement is "Connecting the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life." Paul is an international conference speaker, Pastor (Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA), seminary professor (Redeemer Seminary, Dallas, TX), Executive Director of the Center for Pastoral Life and Care, and the author of many books.

Desiring God Blog

Our Identity in Christ

2010-08-03T10:29:00.000-04:00

When we understand that our significance and identity are in Christ, we don’t have to win-we’re free to lose. The gospel frees us from the pressure to generate our own significance and meaning. In Christ, our identity and significance are secure, which frees us up to give everything we have, because in Christ we have everything we need.

Tullian Tchividjian, Surprised By Grace, (page 104)
It's a Beautiful Gospel

Living By Works Rather Than Grace

2010-08-01T08:20:00.000-04:00

Love Misunderstood

2010-07-31T11:31:00.000-04:00

Our misunderstandings of God’s love towards us in Christ enslave us. God is continuously speaking to the lies that we believe, and thereby releasing us more and more into the freedom that He has secured for us in Christ’s finished work.

Primarily, these lies center on what we need to do in order to be loved. The truth is that you can’t do anything, but Christ has done everything.

If you are in Christ, God is infinitely pleased with you. The verdict is in. The court is adjourned. You are free in Christ – Now!

by Dan Orr, It's a Beautiful Gospel

The gospel is more astonishing than any miracle.

2010-07-25T08:17:00.000-04:00

In Acts 13 Paul shares the gospel with Sergius Paulus, proconsul of Cyprus. When the local sorcerer tries to turn him from faith in Christ, Paul pronounces judgment of temporary blindness, which falls upon the magician immediately.

Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. (AC 13.12)

Though the proconsul witnessed a stunning miracle, which definitely got his attention, what astonished him was “the teaching of the Lord.” The gospel is more astonishing than any miracles that accompany it. It is more astonishing that Jesus would become a man, take our sins, be punished for them, and rise from the dead than it is for a man to be blinded by God’s power.

Isn’t it amazing, astounding, incredible that God opened your blind eyes, gave life to your dead heart, justified you in his sight, adopted you as his child and made you an heir with Christ? I want to see miracles, but I want to be astonished at the gospel.

Written by Mark Altrogge

Let His Love Win Your Love

2010-04-21T22:25:00.000-04:00

“When we go to the cross, we see our God dying for us. If you let any other god down, it will beat you up. If you live for people’s approval or your career or possessions or control or anything else and you don’t make it or you mess up, then you’ll be left feeling afraid, downcast, or bitter. But when you let Christ down, he still loves you. He doesn’t beat you up; he died for you.

Let his love win your love, and let that love replace all other affections. The secret of change is to renew your love for Christ as you see him crucified in your place.”

Tim Chester, You Can Change (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2010), 128.
Of First Importance

Pleasure Ultimately Found Only in God

2010-04-17T12:55:00.000-04:00

The world is hell-bent on finding pleasure. That is why hedonism is the dominant philosophy in every age. But according to Christian Hedonism, pleasure can ultimately be found only in God. The pleasures of this world last only for a moment. They quickly thrill us and then just as quickly dissipate and disappoint. But the pleasure of being in God's presence and doing God's will and receiving God's blessings lasts forever and ever!

Sam Storms, Pleasures Evermore, page 53

You Are Free!

2010-04-14T09:47:00.001-04:00

“Telling a slave to be free is to add insult to injury. But telling a liberated slave to be free is an invitation to enjoy his new freedom and privileges.”

Tim Chester, You Can Change (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2010), 49.
Of First Importance

Galatians 4:4-7

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

Galatians 5:1

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Becoming By Beholding

2010-04-13T16:54:00.000-04:00

How do we become more like Christ? By beholding him.

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (2 CO 3.18).

“In what way do we behold his glory?…it’s the gospel that reveals Christ’s glory. Therefore, to behold his glory we must gaze into the gospel by faith. As we do this, the Spirit will transform us more and more into his likeness.” — Jerry Bridges, Bob Bevington, Bookends for the Christian Life
We become like the One we behold in the Word.

Written by Mark Altrogge

Higher Up And Further Back

2010-04-05T14:49:00.000-04:00

by Tullian Tchividjian:

In one of the most powerful and poetic paragraphs I’ve ever read on human yearning and the hope of the gospel, Cornelius Plantinga (President of Calvin Theological Seminary) writes:

The truth is that nothing in this earth can finally satisfy us. Much can make us content for a time but nothing can fill us to the brim. The reason is that our final joy lies “beyond the walls of this world,” as J.R.R Tolkien put it. Ultimate beauty comes not from a lover or a landscape or a home, but only through them. These earthly things are solid goods, and we naturally relish them. But they are not our final good. They point to what is higher up and further back…Even if we fall deeply in love and marry another human being, we discover that our spiritual and sexual oneness isn’t final. It’s wonderful, but not final. It might even be as good as human oneness can be, but something in us keeps saying “not this” or “still beyond”…What Augustine knew is that human beings want God…God has made us for himself. Our sense of God runs in us like a stream, even though, because of sin, we divert it toward other objects. We human beings want God even when we think that what we really want is a green valley, or a good time from our past, or a loved one. Of course we do want these things and persons, but we also want what’s behind them. Our inconsolable secret, says C.S. Lewis, is that we are full of yearnings, sometimes shy and sometimes passionate, that point us beyond the things of earth to the ultimate reality of God.

Engaging God’s World, pg. 5-7
On Earth As It Is In Heaven

There Are No Accidents

2010-03-30T10:54:00.000-04:00

You can look at providence through the lens of human autonomy and our idolatrous notions of freedom and see a mean God moving tsunamis and kings like chess pieces in some kind of perverse divine playtime.

Or you can look at providence through the lens of Scripture and see a loving God counting the hairs on our heads and directing the sparrows in the sky so that we might live life unafraid. “What else can we wish for ourselves,” Calvin wrote, ” if not even one hair can fall from our head without his will?”

There are no accidents in your life. Every economic downturn, every phone call in the middle of the night, every oncology report has been sent to us from the God who sees all things, plans all things, and loves us more than we know.

Whether it means the end of suffering or the extension of suffering, God in his providence is for us and not against us.

Kevin DeYoung
HT: Kingdom People

Wholehearted Christianity Is Very Happy

2010-03-27T13:01:00.000-04:00

“There is only one way to live: all-out, go-for-broke, risk-taking, pedal-to-the-metal, ferociously joyful and grateful enthusiasm for the Lord Jesus Christ. Halfway Christianity is the most miserable existence of all. Halfway Christians know enough to feel guilty about themselves but haven’t gone far enough to get happy in Christ. Wholehearted Christianity is very happy.”

Ray Ortlund, Sr.

On Earth As It Is In Heaven

Free Sons and Daughters

2010-03-26T17:21:00.000-04:00

The Christian life is the life of sons and daughters; it is not the life of slaves. It is freedom, not bondage. Of course, we are slaves of God, of Christ, and of one another. We belong to God, to Christ, to one another, and we love to serve those to whom we belong. But this kind of service is freedom. What the Christian life is not, is a bondage to the law, as if our salvation hung in the balance and depended on our meticulous and slavish obedience to the letter of the law. As it is, our salvation rests upon the finished work of Christ, on His sin-bearing, curse-bearing death, embraced by faith.”

John Stott, The Message of Galatians (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1968), 108-109.
Of First Importance

The Daily Battle With Legalism

2010-03-17T19:04:00.000-04:00

We all have a strong tendency to want to live by a list of rules—it’s called legalism.

Legalism is appealing for two reasons. First, it makes holiness manageable. A heart wholly devoted to God is a tough demand, but a list of ten rules I can cope with. That was the motivation of the expert in the law who asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” He wanted to justify himself, to tick the “love for neighbor” box. But Jesus’ story of the good Samaritan blew his manageable system apart. Second, legalism makes holiness an achievement on our part. “Yes, I was saved by grace,” the legalist says, “but I’m the godly per- son I am today because I’ve kept this code of behavior or practiced these spiritual disciplines.” One of its by-products is comparison with other people. We check whether we’re holier than other people or look down on those who don’t appear to be as good as we are.

No one thinks of himself as a legalist. Such persons just think of themselves as someone who takes holiness seriously. After all, it has the “appearance of wisdom” (Colossians 2:20–23). But if you want to see a legalist, take a look in the mirror. Deep in the heart of all of us is the proud desire to prove ourselves. Sin is wanting to live our lives our own way without God. The terrible irony is that we even want to overcome sin our own way without God. The struggle against legalism was not done and stored away two thousand years ago in Galatia or five hundred years ago at the Reformation. The battle with legalism takes place every day in our hearts.

This means we need to repent not only of our sin but also of our “righteousness” when we think of it as our righteousness, which we do to prove ourselves and which we think makes us better than other people.

Tim Chester
You Can Change: God's Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behavior and Negative Emotions

(HT Take Your Vitamin Z)

The Gospel Creates Sabbath From Works Righteousness

2010-03-14T08:07:00.003-04:00

But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. -- Hebrews 10:12

Why'd he sit down? Because the work of salvation was done. "It is finished."

How silly, then, are we when we scrape our meager religion into bowls to present to God as if this collection is needed to make up some perceived difference? As if the work of Christ is a down payment and now we're on the installment plan. The work of salvation is done; the gospel creates sabbath from works righteousness, or should anyway.

When we work as if our salvation or God's approval hinges on what we do, it is like thinking God left something undone in those 6 days of creation. He stopped too soon. The rest came too early.

We don't think that. We don't think we can improve upon God's creation. So why do we think we can improve upon his redemption? Christ is seated because the work lacks for nothing and always will.

Jared Wilson

A Healthy, Messy Church

2010-03-09T14:45:00.000-05:00

Is your church healthy?

There are all kinds of ways to answer that question. Is the Word of God regularly preached? Is it gospel-centered? Does it affirm the historical truths of Christianity? All good, necessary questions.

But let me throw out a church health question that you might not think about? Is your church full of messy people?

When the gospel is truly preached, sinners get truly saved. Jesus saves drug addicts. Jesus saves homosexuals. Jesus saves wealthy, self-righteous entrepreneurs. Jesus saves struggling couples. Jesus invades the darkness and rescues helpless sinners.

When these folks get saved, they bring their struggles into the church. This makes the church messy. In fact, the church is full of people who are being transformed from sinful messes into the image of Christ.

If the church isn’t messy, it probably means one of two things. Either, the gospel is being preached and sinners aren’t being saved, or people aren’t being honest about their sin.

Because when the gospel is preached, things are going to get messy. Wonderfully messy.

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17)

Stephen Altrogge - The Blazing Center

Joy In Christ

2010-03-04T09:03:00.000-05:00

Christians are motivated by joy and the treasure that is ours in Christ (Mt 13:44). Our treasure is Christ himself – knowing Christ and being righteous in him. This joy leads to a willingness to suffer for Christ (Philippians 3:7-11). Our treasure is also eternal glory = being with Christ forever (Philippians 3:20-21). Other Christians are also our joy (Philippians 4:1). Because we treasure Christ, it is a joy for us to see other people worship him and to see Christ formed in them.

Joy is commanded of Christians (4:4). Joy is an antidote to disunity because I delight in Christ rather than being preoccupied with myself and how others treat me (4:2-3). Joy is an antidote to worry because what I treasure is Christ and my possession of him is secure (4:6-7). Joy in Christ creates contentment whatever the circumstances of my life (4:10-13). Loss becomes an opportunity to treasure in Christ.

Tim Chester

Yet He Loves

2010-03-01T10:36:00.000-05:00

Let us take comfort in the thought that the Lord Jesus does not cast off his believing people because of failures and imperfections. He knows what they are. He takes them, as the husband takes the wife, with all their blemishes and defects, and once joined to Him by faith, will never leave them. He is a merciful and compassionate High Priest.

He knew what they were before conversion – wicked, guilty, and defiled; yet He loved them. He knows what they will be after conversion – weak, erring, and frail; yet He loves them. He has undertaken to save them, notwithstanding all their shortcomings, and what He has undertaken He will perform.

~ J.C. Ryle
http://jcrylequotes.com/2010/03/01/christs-compassion-toward-frail-sinners/

The Differences Between the Law & The Gospel

2010-02-28T22:14:00.001-05:00

“The law requires works of human achievement;
the gospel requires faith in Christ’s achievement.
The law makes demands and bids us obey;
the gospel brings promises and bids us believe.”

John Stott, The Message of Galatians (Downers Grove, Ill.; InterVarsity Press, 1968), 71.
Of First Importance

Election Fuels Evangelism

2010-02-25T09:22:00.001-05:00

And the Lord said to Paul l one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. (AC 18.9-11)

Election and evangelism work together. God had chosen many in Corinth – he called them “my people” – though they were not yet saved. Because they were elect, God told Paul not to fear but keep proclaiming the gospel. Far from producing apathy, God’s sovereignty fueled Paul’s evangelism.

God has people all around us that he sees as saved. Let’s go on speaking and not be silent.

Mark Altrogge The Blazing Center

You Must Suffer

2010-02-23T19:07:00.001-05:00

John Piper - You Must Suffer from I'll Be Honest on Vimeo.

For it has been granted to you...

2010-02-22T15:51:00.003-05:00

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Philippians 1:21

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. Philippians 1:27-30

I want the way I live my life to be worthy of the gospel of Christ, but to do so I can not be afraid, ashamed, or embarrassed by the gospel. I must daily die to self and be willing to suffer for His sake. Willing to be thought a fool. Willing even to be hated, persecuted or killed. Through it all, "looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." (Heb. 12:2)

The Good Shepherd

2010-02-17T22:20:00.000-05:00

“He restores my soul.” Psalm 23:3

“When we take the history of a child of God, compressed within the short period of a single day — mark what flaws, what imperfections, what fickleness, what dereliction in principle, what flaws in practice, what errors in judgment and what wanderings of heart make up that brief history — how we are led to thank God for the stability of the covenant, that covenant which provides for the full redemption of all believers, which from eternity secures the effectual calling, the perfect keeping and certain salvation of every chosen vessel of mercy!”

Octavius Winslow, Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul (London, 1962), page 169.
Ray Ortlund, Christ is Deeper Still

Counsel For Strugglers ~ Look To Jesus

2010-02-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

“When we are trusting Christ most authentically, we are not thinking about trusting, but about Christ. When we step out of the moment to examine it, we cease what we were doing, and therefore cannot see it. My counsel for strugglers therefore is relentlessly: Look to Jesus. Look to Jesus in his word. And pray for eyes to see.”

John Piper, Lessons from an Inconsolable Soul
Of First Importance

You have said, "Seek my face."

My heart says to you,

"Your face, Lord, do I seek."

Psalm 27:8

Sinful and Flawed, Loved and Welcomed

2010-02-13T10:17:00.000-05:00

“In order to grow in Christlikeness, we’ve got to intentionally apply the gospel to everything we are and everything we long to do. We’re not to sever our obedience from [Christ's] perfect sinlessness nor disconnect our mortal life from his resurrected life. We’ve got to understand ourselves in the light of our new identity, seeing ourselves as we truly are: sinful and flawed, loved and welcomed. Only these gospel realities have enough power to engender faith, kill idolatry, produce character change, and motivate faithful obedience.”

Elyse Fitzpatrick, Because He Loves Me (Wheaton, Ill.; Crossway Books, 2008), 158.
Of First Importance

Arguments Against Anxiety

2010-02-11T15:24:00.001-05:00

1. God is near me to help me.

Philippians 4:5-6: “The Lord is at hand; [therefore] do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

2. God cares for me.

1 Peter 5:7: “. . . casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

3. My Father in heaven knows all my needs and will supply all my needs.

Matthew 6:31-33: “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

4. God values me more than birds and grass, which he richly provides for and adorns; how much more will he provide for all my needs!

Matthew 6:26-30: “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”

5. What can man do to me?

Matthew 6:25: “Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” [I.e., you still have eternal life even if you have no food; you will still have a resurrection body even if you are physically deprived.]

Luke 12:4: “Do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do.”

Luke 21:16, 18: “Some of you they will put to death. . . . But not a hair of your head will perish.”

Romans 8:31-32, 35, 38-39: “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? . . . Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? . . . For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

6. Anxiety is pointless.

Matthew 6:27: “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” [Answer: no one.]

7. Anxiety is worldly.

Matthew 6:31-32: “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things. . . .”

James 4:4: “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

8. Tomorrow doesn’t need my anxiety.

Matthew 6:34: “Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Lamentations 3:23: “[God's mercies] are new every morning.”

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2010/02/04/arguments-against-anxiety/

Rejoice in Adversity

2010-02-10T14:37:00.000-05:00

Paul and James both say that we should rejoice in our trials because of their beneficial results. It is not the adversity considered in itself that is to be the ground of our joy. Rather, it is the expectation of the results, the development of our character that should cause us to rejoice in adversity. God does not ask us to rejoice because we have lost our job, or a loved one has been stricken with cancer, or a child has been born with an incurable birth defect. But He does tell us to rejoice because we believe He is in control of those circumstances and is at work through them for our ultimate good.

Jerry Bridges

A Likely Candidate For Salvation?

2010-02-09T11:37:00.000-05:00

“Were you a likely candidate for salvation? Yet didn’t God save you? And while he may have used some human instrument, don’t you see that he would have saved you with or without any instrument? And haven’t you seen other ‘impossible’ brothers and sisters delivered likewise by the incredible power of the invisible God?

Do you realize from whence you came? You were in the grip of hell. Demons had wrapped their chains about you. The god of this world had blinded your understanding. Yet God struck off your chains and the face of Christ illumined your soul. The damned around you are no more damned than you were, their chains no thicker, their darkness no deeper. Nor is the power of Christ to save them one whit less.”

John White, The Golden Cow, pages 151-152.
(HT Ray Ortlund)

Prayer Mirrors The Gospel

2010-02-08T17:00:00.000-05:00

The gospel, God’s free gift of grace in Jesus, only works when we realize we don’t have it all together. The same is true for prayer. The very thing we are allergic to—our helplessness—is what makes prayer work. It works because we are helpless. We can’t do life on our own.

Prayer mirrors the gospel. In the gospel, the Father takes us as we are because of Jesus and gives us his gift of salvation. In prayer, the Father receives us as we are because of Jesus and gives us his gift of help. We look at the inadequacy of our praying and give up, thinking something is wrong with us. God looks as the adequacy of his Son and delights in our sloppy, meandering prayers.

Paul Miller, A Praying Life (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress 2009), 55
Of First Importance

The Glorious Ragbag

2010-02-03T09:48:00.000-05:00

So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. (AC 2.41).

“There is no way of belonging to Jesus Christ except by belonging gladly and irrevocably to the glorious ragbag of saints and fat-heads who make up the one, holy and universal church!” – Bishop Geoffrey Paul

If our churches are to grow, we’ll be adding a lot of people not like us. Are you ready? What if a guy walks into your meeting with bright orange hair and wearing a skirt? It happened in our church a few years ago. People made a beeline to him and welcomed him warmly.

A few days later I saw him in a local restaurant. Only this day his hair was brown and he was wearing jeans. He looked like any other college student. I recognized him and said “hi” to him. He commented on how friendly everyone was, then said, “I dressed that way just to see what everyone would do.” He didn’t join the church, but I was glad to see our church would welcome anyone.

Are you ready?

Mark Altrogge, The Blazing Center

Be the Church in the Community

2010-02-01T17:01:00.003-05:00

(HT Zach Nielson)

Glory To God Forever

2010-01-29T11:19:00.000-05:00

Oh Lord,

Take my life and let it be

all for You and for Your Glory.

Take my life and let it be Yours!

Amen!

Are You Shocked At Sin?

2010-01-28T12:05:00.000-05:00

Question: Are you shocked by the sins of non-Christian?
Written by Stephen Altrogge

Let me bring this home a little bit. When your non-Christian son, daughter, neighbor, or friend takes part in some wicked sin, are you shocked? Disgusted? Do you want to stay away from them?

We shouldn’t be shocked by the sins of those who don’t know Christ. Romans 1:28 says of those who don’t know Christ:

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
Apart from Christ, our minds are debased. Darkened. Filled with wickedness. We can’t think correctly about spiritual things. The result of trying to live apart from God is a debased mind, which always leads to debased actions.

So how do you treat your homosexual neighbor? Your workaholic friend? Your arrogant coworker? Your rebellious son?

We shouldn’t expect them to be righteous people. We shouldn’t stay away from them. They’re debased and darkened. But they can be rescued, just like we were.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes… (Romans 1:16)

The Blazing Center

Guarding the Gospel is like David in Saul's Armor

2010-01-26T15:04:00.003-05:00

“Many good people think that they ought to guard the Gospel, but it is never so safe as when it stands out in its own naked majesty. It needs no covering from us.

When we protect it with provisos, guard it with exceptions and qualify it with observations, it is like David in Saul’s armor—it is hampered and hindered and you may even hear it cry, ‘I cannot go with these.’

Let the Gospel alone and it will save! Qualify it and the salt has lost its savor.”

Charles Spurgeon Of First Importance

For I am not ashamed of the gospel,

for it is the power of God for salvation

to everyone who believes,

to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed

from faith for faith, as it is written,

"The righteous shall live by faith."

Romans 1:16-17

By Grace Through Faith ~ From Start To Finish

2010-01-24T17:35:00.000-05:00

“From start to finish, the whole Christian life is by grace through faith. A new life in Christ commences with faith, continues by faith, and will be completed through faith. To put this another way, the Gospel is for Christians just as much as it is for non-Christians.

We never advance beyond the good news of the cross and the empty tomb… Therefore, the Christian always looks back to the Gospel and never to the law as the basis for his righteousness before God… There is no such thing as performance-based Christianity… Justification is a doctrine for the whole Christian life from start to finish. It is not simply a doctrine for coming to Christ in the first place… Justification is a doctrine to live by each and every moment.”

Philip Ryken, Commentary on Galatians, p90-92
Of First Importance

Repentance That Understands What Sin Cost God

2010-01-23T11:08:00.000-05:00

“In fear-based repentance, we don’t learn to hate the sin for itself, and it doesn’t lose its attractive power. We learn only to refrain from it for our own sake. But when we rejoice over God’s sacrificial, suffering love for us – seeing what it cost him to save us from sin – we learn to hate the sin for what it is. We see what the sin cost God. What most assures us of God’s unconditional love (Jesus’s costly death) is what most convicts us of the evil of sin. Fear-based repentance makes us hate ourselves. Joy-based repentance makes us hate the sin.

Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods (New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2009), 172.

Of First Importance

He was despised and rejected by men;

a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned - every one - to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

yet he opened not his mouth;

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

so he opened not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away;

and as for his generation, who considered that

he was cut off out of the land of the living,

stricken for the transgression of my people?

And they made his grave with the wicked

and with a rich man in his death,

although he had done no violence,

and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;

he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;

by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

make many to be accounted righteous,

and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,

and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,

because he poured out his soul to death

and was numbered with the transgressors;

yet he bore the sin of many,

and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 53:3-12

99 Balloons ~ Life, Death and The Glory of God

2010-01-21T18:06:00.000-05:00

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. Acts 17:24-25

And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Job1:21

Eliot was born with an undeveloped lung, a heart with a hole in it and DNA that placed faulty information into each and every cell of his body. However, that could not stop the living God from proclaiming Himself through this boy who never uttered a word.

Abortion Is About God

2010-01-20T09:56:00.003-05:00

John Piper explains the relationship between the supremacy of God and the issue of abortion.

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

How precious to me are your thoughts O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

Psalm 139:13-17

Abortion: Darkness Into The Light

2010-01-18T15:54:00.002-05:00

January 22, 1973 is the day that the Supreme Court issued it's decision that legalized abortion in the United States. It is hard to fathom all the death, pain and heartache that has followed in its wake thirty-seven years later. As with all sin, it is only when the Gospel is applied that grace and forgiveness can flow down to those whose lives have been broken because of abortion, and healing and restoration with Jesus takes place.

Below is a powerful poem that was written by Sarah Mae on her blog Like A Warm Cup of Coffee.

I encourage you to read her two-part posts:
My Abortion Story and
Part 2 - My Aboriton Story - Darkness Into The Light

Why I Worship

I worship God because He has freed me from the tight, painful, scarring bounds of sin.

Oh how wicked is my heart!

It sends sin cursing through my veins and finally pouring out of my flesh;

The intent of the thoughts of my heart are evil continually.

Yet, God lifted me out of the pit, out of the mud and mire, fulfilling His desire

to set me free

Free

I should be crushed, but instead, He was.

He got my sin and I got eternal life.

Everyday I battle with sin, the war within;

yet everyday His mercies are new and I can approach the throne of grace

without disgrace

but with confidence…how can it be?

Oh but for the grace of God!

In my failures, my legalism, my complacency,

my weakness, my pride, my foolishness and my fears;

I am an open book before the Lord that’s pages are covered in blood

covering the words and images of my old self.

The paint brush of my soul now dips its bristles in the blood and a new book is written,

one that He breathes life into,

guides through,

and speaks true.

My soul overflows with gratefulness, humility and joy.

I am awed at His love for me.

What can I offer? Nothing of myself is worthy, so I offer my open hands, my open heart,

and my open mouth that must speak of His glory, that must tell of His story!

My soul bows in worship,

true, unrestrained, vulnerable adoration for my King.

I cannot contain my soul,

for it,

glad.

Sarah Mae

What We Need Is The Gospel

2010-01-15T19:00:00.001-05:00

"It is unsettling and humiliating to realize how utterly dependent we are on having Someone Else do for us what we cannot do for ourselves: change our heart's affections and desires. As long as I have a "list to work on," I can keep my hands on the reins of my life and on my struggle against sin. So even though the gospel shouts to us that we are depraved, that we deserve a shameful death and an eternity in hell, that we must be given someone else's righteousness in order to stand before a holy God, we continue to think that if we could just find the key to holy living, we'd be able to work it out. Just give me a list! Teach me the right prayer! Introduce me to the right counselor!

It's no wonder that self-help books top the charts in Christian publishing and that counseling offices are overwhelmed. Our pride and our neglect of the gospel force us to run from seminar to seminar, book to book, counselor to counselor,* always seeking but never finding some secret to holy living.

Most of us have never really understood that Christianity is not a self-help religion meant to enable moral people to become more moral. We don't need a self-help book; we need a Savior. We don't need to get our collective act together; we need a death and resurrection and the life-transforming truths of the gospel. And we don't need them just once, at the beginning of our Christian life, we need them every moment of every day."

* It should be obvious that we're not saying that attending conferences, reading books meant to help us in our Christian walk, and seeking out biblical counsel are somehow wrong or futile. What we are saying is that most of us are thirsting for a drink of gospel truth, and we are searching for the soul-satisfaction that only a vigorous remembering of Jesus' work can accomplish.

Elyse M. Fitzpatrick and Dennis E. Johnson ~ Counsel From The Cross, page 30, (note * page 217) (emphasis theirs)

Resources for Today ~ New Resources for Tomorrow

2010-01-14T22:34:00.001-05:00

Part of saving faith is the assurance that you will have faith tomorrow. Trusting Christ today includes trusting him to give you tomorrow’s trust when tomorrow comes. Often we feel today like our reservoir of strength is not going to last for another day. The fact is, it won’t. Today’s resources are for today, and part of those resources is the confidence that new resources will be given tomorrow.

John Piper

Today's Mercies for Today's Troubles

The Infinite Beauty of Jesus

2010-01-13T19:52:00.000-05:00

One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple (PS 27.4).

Anyone who thinks heaven will be boring simply has no concept of the infinite beauty of Jesus.

First of all, Jesus’ beauty excels by an infinite amount all the beauty of this universe combined. The majesty of all created things – the galaxies, the grand canyon, all the symphonies ever written, and every “beautiful” human who ever lived, all the myriads of angels, every painting, forest, sunset and ocean – all these are finite. All this beauty is derived and created beauty, created by the One who is Beauty itself. All created beauty combined is less than a speck compared to the unlimited, boundless loveliness in the face of Christ.

The moment believers awaken in heaven, we will catch our first glimpse of the face of Christ.

We will be ravished, awestruck and astounded beyond anything we can imagine. Anything we’ve ever considered beautiful before will seem dull and insipid compared to the stunning loveliness of Jesus’ face. Our immediate response will be to gush forth in worship for several thousand ages.

For all eternity we’ll continuously be seeing new wonders of Christ’s inexhaustible, infinite glory.

There will always be more to see and each new glimpse will ravish us again. After 20 million years, Jesus will still be unveiling inconceivable and amazing jaw-dropping splendor to us. His beauty will be like a wonderful mysterious world of wonders and delights to explore and take pleasure in.

We’ll never come to an end of his glory.

In fact, because Jesus is infinite, there will always be aspects of his beauty that only he will ever know. So we will never exhaust his beauty, never tire of it, never cease to be dazzled and fascinated by it.

No, “boring” is not part of the vocabulary of heaven.

Mark Altrogge - The Blazing Center

The Two Edges of Sheer Grace

2010-01-11T15:03:00.000-05:00

"Some years ago I met a woman who began coming to Redeemer, the church where I am a minister. She said that she had gone to church growing up and she had always heard that God accepts us only if we are sufficiently good and ethical. She had never heard the message she was now hearing, that we can be accepted by God by sheer grace through the work of Christ regardless of anything we do or have done. She said, 'That's a scary idea! Oh, it's a good scary, but still scary.'

I was intrigued. I asked her what was so scary about unmerited free grace? She replied something like this: 'If I was saved by my good works - then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through. I would be like a taxpayer with rights. I would have done my duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of life. But if it is really true that I am a sinner saved by sheer grace - at God's infinite cost - then there's nothing He cannot ask of me.'

She could see immediately that the wonderful-beyond-belief teaching of salvation by sheer grace had two edges to it. On the one hand it cut away slavish fear. God loves us freely, despite our flaws and failures. Yet, she also knew that if Jesus really had done this for her - she was not her own. She was bought with a price."

Tim Keller, The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith, pp. 120-121

Take Your Vitamin Z

Our Hope of Glory

2010-01-08T21:28:00.000-05:00

“What hope of glory, of godliness, do we have? Do we have hope that one day, if we just try hard enough and make a detailed list and remember to pray and discipline ourselves, we’ll be godly? No, our only hope of glory is the gospel. The incarnate, resurrected, and ascended Son of God, the Christ, lives in us. Christ is in us, and because he is, his godliness (the only godliness there is) is ours. This mysterious truth is the sweetest, most liberating truth you will ever know. Christ is in you; he’s your hope of glory.”

-Elyse Fitzpatrick, Comforts from the Cross (Wheaton, Ill.; Crossway Books, 2009), 114.

Of First Importance

The Gospel Proclamation Must Be Backed Up by Radical Living

2010-01-05T09:25:00.002-05:00

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only,

deceiving yourselves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer,

he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face

in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and

at once forgets what he looks like. But the one who looks

into the perfect law of liberty, and perseveres,

being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts,

he will be blessed in his doing.

James 1:22-25

A Prayer for the New Year (adapted from Jonathan Edwards’ Resolutions)

2010-01-03T08:40:00.001-05:00

Lord God Almighty,

I understand that I am unable to do anything without your help,

so I ask you to enable me by your grace to fulfill your will.

Give me grace to do whatever brings most glory and honor to you,

pleasure and profit to me,

and life and love to others.

Help me to number my days,

spending my time wisely,

living my life with all my might while I still have breath.

Humble me in the knowledge that I am chief of sinners;

when I hear of the sins of others,

help me to not look upon them with pride,

but to look upon myself with shame,

confessing my own sins to you.

When I go through difficulties and trials,

remind me of the pains of hell

from which you have already delivered me.

Place people in my path who need my help,

and give me a compassionate and generous spirit.

Fill my heart with such love

that I would never do anything out of a spirit of revenge,

nor lose my temper with those around me.

Hold my tongue when I am tempted to speak evil of others.

Thank you for the gospel and for the hope of glory.

Help me to live in light of these truths every day of my life,

so that when the time of my death arrives,

I will rest assuredly in you,

and you will be most glorified in me.

In Christ’s name…

- Trevin Wax (adapted from the first 21 of Jonathan Edwards’ resolutions)

A Prayer for the New Year (adapted from Jonathan Edwards’ Resolutions)

A New Year to Live Dangerously In Christ

2010-01-01T09:24:00.000-05:00

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.

Romans 12:1

Clothed in Christ - My Righteousness

2009-12-31T11:41:00.001-05:00

Good News!

Resolving to Losing Weight - A Better Way!

2009-12-29T15:39:00.000-05:00

A Word About Resolutions
by Michael Kelley

I’m a resolution guy. Every year at this time, I evaluate my resolutions from the previous year and make some new ones for the coming year. I like to divide them into categories: financial, spiritual development, family, and ministry.

But here’s the thing about making resolutions like that: Often when you look back, you’re either disappointed by your lack of effort in the previous year. And when you look forward, you do so with the attitude of, “I’m really going to try hard and get it this year.”

Effort isn’t bad. Effort is necessary. But too often in my life, I find myself trying hard at the wrong thing.

Let’s take a physical goal, for example. Let’s say that in 2010, you want to lose 20 pounds. So you resolve that you’re really going to try hard to do it. You get ready to try hard by throwing away all the cookies in the house. You try hard by looking up all the low-calorie recipes you can find. Then you try hard by going to the gym every day.

Or you do for a while.

The problem with trying hard like that is that you run out of steam. Always. What if there was a better way to try? What if we are trying hard at the wrong thing?

This year, I’m going to try hard to believe. In the case of losing 20 pounds, I’m not going to focus my effort on the weight. Instead, I’m going to try hard to believe that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. I’m going to try hard to believe that God will empower me to honor Him with my body. I’m going to try hard to believe that He’s my sustenance, not another bad of Doritos.

There’s a huge difference. One is centered on sweat; the other is centered on faith. One lifts up the power of humanity; the other lifts up the power of God. One is about me; the other is about the gospel. Perhaps we should not be asking, “Why can’t I try hard enough to accomplish these things?” Maybe we should instead be asking what we should be trying hard to believe about God and His work in our lives. Perhaps it is that belief – that faith – that can result in the change we need.

Faith is the center of all things. Even trying harder.

(HT: Take Your Vitamin Z)

I'm Thankful For Pain

2009-12-28T21:29:00.000-05:00

Tullian Tchividjian writes powerfully on how God uses pain in our lives to draw us closer to Him.

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

For various reasons, this past year has been the most painful year of my life by far. As of late, God has graciously given me a mild reprieve, but I still spend a lot of time thinking about all that happened this year and the way God used trials and tribulations to remold and reshape me.

As crazy as this might sound, I have finally come to the place where I am genuinely thankful for all of the pain and difficulty and loss I experienced this year. As much as my family and I suffered, I look back on the way God used our desperation to make us more dependent on him and I am deeply grateful. In fact, I told a friend the other day that I wouldn’t trade one desperate, difficult day for all the dollars in the world. Seriously!

I’ve discovered that being thankful for pain is such a hard concept to grasp because many of us live in a country which has convinced us that the pursuit of happiness and comfort is our “inalienable right.” Therefore, when our comforts, conveniences, and cushions are threatened, we cry “foul.” This has deeply affected our understanding of what it means to give thanks and the types of things we are to be thankful for.

I love reading biographies. And one of the things I’ve discovered in reading them is that the greatest people in history have been just as thankful for their pains as they have been for their pleasures. They’ve given gratitude for their desperations as much as their deliverances; their grief as much as their glory.

Charles Spurgeon once said, “Health is a gift from God, but sickness is a gift greater still.” Throughout his time in this world, Spurgeon suffered with various physical ailments that eventually took his life prematurely. He longed to be well but he recognized the supreme value of being sick and he thanked God for it because it was his pain that caused him to desperately draw near to God.

Similarly, David Brainerd was a young missionary to American Indians who died in 1747 at 29 years old from tuberculosis. Toward the end of his struggle, he was on his deathbed coughing up blood and coming in and out of consciousness saying out loud, “Oh for Holiness! Oh, for more of God in my soul! Oh, this pleasing pain! It makes my soul press after God.”

The Puritans used to say that this life was the gymnasium, the dressing room, for the life to come and if suffering here and now better prepared them for the next world then it was welcomed.

To be thankful for our comforts only is to make an idol of this life. “God-sent afflictions”, says Maurice Roberts, “have a health-giving effect upon the soul” because they are the medicine used to purge the soul of self-centeredness and this world’s vanities. Pain, in other words, sharpens us, matures us, and gives us clear “eye-sight.” Pain transforms us like nothing else can. It turns us into “solid” people. Roberts continues, “Those who have been in the crucible have lost more of their scum.” All of this should cause us to be deeply thankful.

It’s been said that pain is the second best thing because it leads us to the Best Thing (God). For, it is only when we come to the end of ourselves that we come to the beginning of God. And it is only when we come to the beginning of God that we come to the beginning of life.

The paradox of Christianity is that if you want to find your life, you must lose it (Matthew 10:39). In the world’s economy, life precedes death. In God’s economy, death precedes life–the cross always precedes the crown. The good news, however–the thing that should cause us to be supremely thankful–is that when we lose our worldly comforts, we gain heavenly ones.

Thank God!

On Earth as it is in Heaven

Born A Martyr

2009-12-24T08:01:00.000-05:00

“The whole life of Christ was a continuall Passion; others die Martyrs, but Christ was born a Martyr… His birth and his death were but one continuall act, and his Christmas-day and his Good Friday, are but the evening and morning of one and the same day.”

John Donne, Christmas sermon (Dec 25, 1626).

Of First Importance

Face to Face

2009-12-23T10:48:00.000-05:00

Face to face with Christ my Savior,

Face to face, what will it be,

When with rapture I behold Him,

Jesus Christ, who died for me?

Refrain

Face to face I shall behold Him,

Far beyond the starry sky;

Face to face in all His glory

I shall see Him by and by!

Only faintly now I see Him,

With the darkening veil between,

But a blessed day is coming,

When His glory shall be seen.

What rejoicing in His presence,

When are banished grief and pain;

When the crooked ways are straightened,

And the dark things shall be plain!

Face to face! oh, blissful moment!

Face to face to see and know;

Face to face with my Redeemer,

Jesus Christ, who loves me so.

The Words to an old hymn, that Tim Challies quoted on his blog.

Looking For Blessings in All The Wrong Places

2009-12-22T11:53:00.002-05:00

“Have you heard God’s blessing in your inmost being? Are the words “You are my beloved child, in whom I delight” an endless source of joy and strength?

Have you sensed, through the Holy Spirit, God speaking them to you? That blessing – the blessing through the Spirit that is ours through Christ – is what Jacob received, and it is the only remedy against idolatry. Only that blessing makes idols unneccesary.

As with Jacob, we usually discover this only after a life of ‘looking for blessing in all the wrong places.’ It often takes an experience of crippling weakness for us to finally discover it. That is why so many of the most God-blessed people limp as they dance for joy.”

Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods (New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2009), 164.

Of First Importance

A Word about Family Tensions and the Holidays

2009-12-20T17:36:00.002-05:00

I thought the following blog post by Russel D Moore had such wisdom and could apply to how followers of Jesus should interact with anyone (family, co-workers, neighbors) at anytime (not just Holiday get-togethers).

There’s a reason the “Cousin Eddie” character in the movie National Lampoon Christmas Vacation resonates with so many. We’ve all got a Cousin Eddie, or two, in our extended families. Some of us are Cousin Eddie. Our families weren’t designed for a televised Christmas special.

And despite the idyllic picture in Christmas cards and carol lyrics, human depravity doesn’t go into hibernation between Christmas Eve and New Year’s.

This morning I talked with some folks in my church about an issue that will hit all of us sooner or later: tensions within extended families at the holiday time. Some of the people I was talking to will be visiting non-Christian family members. Some of them have family members who are contemptuous of the Christian faith, and are downright hostile to the whole thing.

Others are empty nest couples who now have sons- or daughters-in-law to get adjusted to, maybe even grandchildren who are being reared, well, not exactly the way the grandparents would do it. Still others are young couples who are figuring out how to keep from offending family members who are watching the calendar, to see which side of the family gets more time on the ledger. And others are new parents, trying to figure out how to parent their child when it’s Mammonpalooza at Aunt Flossie’s house this year.

And, of course, there’s just always the kind of thing that happens when sinful people come into contact with one another. Somebody asks “When is the baby due?” to an unpregnant woman or somebody blasts your favorite political figure or…well, you know.

Here are a few quick thoughts on what followers of Jesus ought to remember, especially if you’ve got a difficult extended family situation.

1.) Peace. Yes, Jesus tells us that his gospel brings a sword of division, and that sometimes this splits up families (Matt. 10:34-37). But there’s a difference between gospel division and carnal division (see 1 Cor. 1, e.g.). The Spirit brings peace (Gal. 5:22), and the sons of God are peacemakers (Matt. 5:9). Since that’s so, we ought to “strive for peace with everyone” (Heb. 12:14).

Often, the divisiveness that happens at extended family dinner tables is not because an unbelieving family member decides to persecute a Christian. It’s instead because a Christian decides to go ahead and sort the wheat from the weeds right now, rather than waiting for Judgment Day (Matt. 13:29-30). Yes, the gospel exposes sin, but the gospel does so strategically, in order to point to Christ. Antagonizing unbelievers at a family dinner table because they think or feel like unbelievers isn’t the way of Christ.

Some Christians think their belligerence is actually a sign of holiness. They leave the Christmas table saying, “See, if you’re not being opposed, then you’re not with Christ!” Sometimes, of course, divisions must come. But think of the qualifications Jesus gives for his church’s pastors. They must not be “quarrelsome” and they must be “well thought of by outsiders” (1 Tim. 3:3,7). That’s in the same list as not being a heretic or a drunk.

Your presence should be one of peace and tranquility. The gospel you believe ought to be what disrupts. There’s a big difference.

2.) Honor. The Scripture tells us to fear God, to obey the king, and to honor (notice this) everyone (1 Pet. 2:17). If your parents are high-priests in the Church of Satan, they are still your parents. If cousin Betty V. does Jello shots in her car, just to take the edge off the cocaine, well, she still bears the imprint of the God you adore.

Read the rest here:
A Word about Family Tensions and the Holidays

Posted using ShareThis

The Redemption of Our Bodies

2009-12-18T14:19:00.000-05:00

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Romans 8:18-25

Sinless Creatures in Deathless Bodies

“Glorification is the scriptural name for God’s completion of what he began when he regenerated us, namely, our moral and spiritual reconstruction so as to be perfectly and permanently conformed to Christ. Glorification is a work of transforming power whereby God finally turns us into sinless creatures in deathless bodies.”

—J.I. Packer, Concise Theology (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, IL, 1993), 256
Of First Importance

If Sinners Loved Jesus, Why Don't They Love Us?

2009-12-17T10:27:00.000-05:00

I recently heard someone ask the following, insightful question:

If sinners wanted to be around Jesus, why don’t they want to be around us? (Luke 15:1) If sinners crucified Jesus, why don’t they have a problem with us? (Acts 2:23)

Wow. That’s challenging.

from: The Blazing Center

Attacking Legalism

2009-12-13T08:42:00.000-05:00

The problem we face is this: “When could it ever be appropriate for us to speak to people with the severity of Jesus?” This is a very difficult question to answer, for unlike him, each one of us has a Pharisee in our own heart, a Pharisee who needs regular rebukes. This sad reality of our own inner lives should mean that our severity to the self-righteous and to the legalists around us must always be tempered by compassion borne of our own failings in these matters. Our severity should also always be tempered by the agonized prayer of the tax collector whom Jesus quoted: “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Is our denunciation of self-righteousness and legalism motivated by our own pride that “we are not like the self-righteous Pharisees of our time, and we are not legalists”? Or is our denunciation of these obstacles to the gospel motivated by a passion for truth and by compassion for the Pharisees?

Having made these necessary qualifications, we still must sit at Jesus’ feet and recognize that legalism is an implacable enemy of the gospel of grace. And we need to be prepared to fight against it, rather than bow to it or allow it to govern the life and outreach of our churches. Indeed, we may regard it as a principle: the more legalistic a church is, the less genuine outreach there will be.

Attacking legalism is necessary to bring about the salvation of the legalists themselves by humbling them before the Lord, before his truth, and before his grace. Attacking legalism is also necessary in setting people free from the rules that the legalists impose upon them. We are to proclaim liberty: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1). This proclamation of liberty from legalism is one of the great friends of true proclamation of the gospel, both to the church and to the world.

- Jerram Barrs, Learning Evangelism from Jesus, p. 177
Take Your Vitamin Z

Look Unto Jesus

2009-12-12T19:14:00.000-05:00

“Are you tempted? Look unto Jesus. Are you afflicted? Look unto Jesus. Do all speak evil of you? Look unto Jesus. Do you feel cold, dull, backsliding? Look unto Jesus. Whether you are weak or strong, in the valley or on the mountain, in sickness or in health, in sorrow or in joy, in going out or in coming in, in youth or in age, in richness or in poverty, in life or in death—let this be your motto and your guide, “LOOKING UNTO JESUS!”

J.C. Ryle

Thy Will Be Done

2009-12-10T17:25:00.000-05:00

A true recognition of God's sovereignty will avow God's perfect right to do with us as He wills. The one who bows to the pleasure of the Almighty will acknowledge His absolute right to do with us as seemeth Him good. If He chooses to send poverty, sickness, domestic bereavements, even while the heart is bleeding at every pore, it will say, Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right! Often there will be a struggle, for the carnal mind remains in the believer to the end of his earthly pilgrimage. But though there may be a conflict within his breast, nevertheless, to the one who has really yielded himself to this blessed truth, there will presently be heard that Voice saying, as of old it said to the turbulent Gennesareth, “Peace be still”; and the tempestuous flood within will be quieted and the subdued soul will lift but confident eye to heaven and say, “Thy will be done.”

Arthur W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God

Suffering Not Spared - But More Grace Given

2009-12-08T10:10:00.000-05:00

"Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me! But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you—for My power is made perfect in your weakness!'" 2 Corinthians 12:8-9

Many prayers which seem to be unanswered—are really answered. The blessing comes—but in a form we do not recognize. Instead of the very thing we sought—something better is given!

The burden is not lifted away—but we are sustained beneath it.

We are not spared the suffering—but in the suffering we are brought nearer to God, and receive more of His grace.

The sorrow is not taken away—but is changed to joy.

Our ignorant prayers are taken into the hands of the great Intercessor, and are answered in ways far wiser than our thought!

Instead of earthly trifles—heavenly riches!

Instead of things which our poor wisdom sought—things God's infinite wisdom chose for us!

Instead of pleasure for a day—gain for eternity!

J. R. Miller, "Miller's Year Book—a Year's Daily Readings"

His Rescue Produces Change

2009-12-07T09:44:00.000-05:00

“The good news of the kingdom is not freedom from hardship, suffering, and loss. It is the news of a Redeemer who has come to rescue me from myself. His rescue produces change that fundamentally alters my response to these inescapable realities. The Redeemer turns rebels into disciples, fools into humble listeners. He makes cripples walk again. In him we can face life and respond with faith, love, and hope. And as he changes us, he allows us to be a part of what he is doing in the lives of others. As you respond to the Redeemer’s work in your life, you can learn to be an instrument in his hands.”

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands (Phillipsburg, NJ; P & R Publishing, 2002), 16.

Of First Importance

How Firm A Foundation

2009-12-06T09:35:00.001-05:00

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said—
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

“Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismayed,
For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand.

“When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
For I will be with thee thy trouble to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

“When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not harm thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

“The soul that on Jesus doth lean for repose,
I will not, I will not, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.”

Walking THROUGH the Valley

2009-11-24T11:35:00.001-05:00

Even though I walk through the

valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me;

your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Psalm 23:4

My grandson Michael, St. Louis Science Center, June 2007

*not my real surgeon* :)

Having major surgery means going through all kinds of new levels of physical pain that bring about emotional highs and lows. I now understand what it means to tell a nurse that my pain level is a 10 and the hopefulness that comes from realizing when it goes down to an 8 a few days later. It was also interesting how even experiencing pain at a level 3 feels so much better than a 10 but still hurts. I had to learn early on to just breathe and push through the pain when it came to getting in or out of bed, sitting in a chair or just walking. The greatest changes in my life though during this time took place spiritually.

There is something about pain that draws one even closer to the comforting arms of the Lord. Pain also had a way of bringing in fear and doubts. An intense spiritual battle ensued the last evening I spent at the hospital. Instead of sleeping, the evening and early morning hours became a time of “destroying arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and taking every thought captive to obey Christ.” (2 Cor. 10:5). I literally felt like I was being tossed to and fro as I struggled to submit fully to God’s sovereignty over my life and the possibility of needing another surgery before even leaving the hospital. I had to cling to Truth and not listen to the lies that were swirling around me. I could easily say that I wanted to submit to Him and then just as easily say that I didn’t want to if it meant certain things He may require of me. Through out this whole time He continually spoke to me as “His daughter”. Praise God that He remained faithful and brought about the needed heart changes, making me willing to be willing to trust Him with everything. I had to learn once again to die to myself and follow Him. One of the verses that I had memorized many years ago kept coming to mind, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

I have so many things to be thankful for as we approach Thanksgiving Day. I have a Savior that not only died for my sins, taking the wrath of God in my place, but He even now is at the right hand of the Father, interceding for me! What an awesome, wonderful, faithful Sovereign God I serve!!!

The Work of the Holy Spirit In Our Lives

2009-11-07T08:37:00.000-05:00

“It is always the Holy Spirit’s work to turn our eyes away from self to Jesus; but Satan’s work is just the opposite of this, for he is constantly trying to make us pay attention to ourselves instead of to Christ. He insinuates, ‘Your sins are too great for pardon; you have no faith; you do not repent enough; you will never be able to continue to the end; you do not have the joy of His children; you have such a weak hold of Jesus.’ All these are thoughts about self, and we will never find comfort or assurance by looking within. But the Holy Spirit turns our eyes entirely away from self. He tells us that we are nothing, but that Christ is all in all.’”

Charles Spurgeon

Of First Importance

Passionate About The Gospel

2009-11-06T06:42:00.000-05:00

“If there’s anything in life that we should be passionate about, it’s the gospel. And I don’t mean passionate about sharing it with others. I mean passionate about thinking about it, dwelling on it, rejoicing in it, allowing it to color the way we look at the world. Only one thing can be of first importance to each of us. And only the gospel ought to be.”

C. J. Mahaney

Of First Importance

Trials as Precious Gifts

2009-11-05T08:18:00.003-05:00

"Whatever trial we are experiencing, we can be sure that God is at work in us. We must not reject the trial or irritation, because it is God's will for us at this point in our lives. When we recognize it as being from His hand (for our good and His glory), we can accept even our trials as precious gifts - wonderful opportunities to testify of His goodness."
~ Stacy McDonald

In the Valley

When You lead me to the valley of vision

I can see You in the heights

And though my humbling wouldn’t be my decision

It’s here Your glory shines so bright

So let me learn that the cross precedes the crown

To be low is to be high

That the valley’s where You make me more like Christ

Let me find Your grace in the valley

Let me find Your life in my death

Let me find Your joy in my sorrow

Your wealth in my need

That You’re near with every breath

In the valley

In the daytime there are stars in the heavens

But they only shine at night

And the deeper that I go into darkness

The more I see their radiant light

So let me learn that my losses are my gain

To be broken is to heal

That the valley’s where Your power is revealed

Words and music by Bob Kauflin

Listen to song here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT8aTjVZHVI

How to make God look as good as He really is

2009-11-02T10:49:00.001-05:00

Illustration for Children: Why Faith Glorifies God

John Piper, from a sermon in 1999:

Your daddy is standing in a swimming pool out a little bit from the edge. You are, let’s say, three years old and standing on the edge of the pool. Daddy holds out his arms to you and says, “Jump, I’ll catch you. I promise.” Now, how do you make your daddy look good at that moment? Answer: trust him and jump. Have faith in him and jump. That makes him look strong and wise and loving. But if you won’t jump, if you shake your head and run away from the edge, you make your daddy look bad. It looks like you are saying, “he can’t catch me” or “he won’t catch me” or “it’s not a good idea to do what he tells me to do.” And all three of those make your dad look bad.

But you don’t want to make God look bad. So you trust him. Then you make him look good–which he really is. And that is what we mean when we say, “Faith glorifies God” or “Faith gives God glory.” It makes him look as good as he really is. So trusting God is really important.

And the harder it seems for him to fulfill his promise, the better he looks when you trust him. Suppose that you are at the deep end of a pool by the diving board. You are four years old and can’t swim, and your daddy is at the other end of the pool. Suddenly a big, mean dog crawls under the fence and shows his teeth and growls at you and starts coming toward you to bite you. You crawl up on the diving board and walk toward the end to get away from him. The dog puts his front paws up on the diving board. Just then, your daddy sees what’s happening and calls out, “Johnny, jump in the water. I’ll get you.”

Now, you have never jumped from one meter high and you can’t swim and your daddy is not underneath you and this water is way over your head. How do you make your daddy look good in that moment? You jump. And almost as soon as you hit the water, you feel his hands under your arms and he treads water holding you safely while someone chases the dog away. Then he takes you to the side of the pool.

We give glory to God when we trust him to do what he has promised to do–especially when all human possibilities are exhausted. Faith glorifies God. That is why God planned for faith to be the way we are justified.

Between Two Worlds

Amazed By His Love

2009-11-01T08:28:00.000-05:00

The Lord your God is in your midst,

a mighty one who will save;

He will rejoice over you with gladness;

He will quiet you by His love;

He will exult over you with loud singing.

Zephaniah 3:17

but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

My Savior My God

2009-10-31T14:20:00.004-04:00

Now to Him who is able
to keep you from stumbling
and to present you blameless
before the presence of His glory
with great joy,

to the only God, our Savior,

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority,

before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Jude 1:24-25

Answering an insincere question with the sincerity of God and the weight of the Gospel

2009-10-29T09:47:00.004-04:00

Can God Make a Rock So Heavy Even He Can't Lift It?

I remember when I first heard this bit of immature atheistic reductio ad absurdum. I was in high school, and I didn't respond to it because the Nirvana-shirted, long-banged drama stud who said it didn't say it to me. He was laying it on his friend like it was theist's kryptonite.

My answer then, steeped in C.S. Lewis as I was, would have been along the lines of the nonsense of the question as framed. It is a rhetorical and hypothetical "gotcha" with no sincerity behind it, and in any event, it is sort of like asking, "Does the number nine smell red or yellow?"

My answer today is different. My answer today would not be to skewer the nature of the question but to inject its insincerity with the sincerity of God and all the weight of the gospel.

The truth is that God did make a weight so heavy he couldn't lift it. He did so not by building an immovable force -- we did that with our sin -- but by incarnating the frailty of humanity and willingly subjecting himself to the force. As one of us, yet still himself, he created the conundrum of the incarnate God, bearing a cross he both ordained yet could not carry by himself, becoming condemned in death and also victorious. And God was crushed according to the plan he himself projected from the foundation of the world.

So, can God make a rock so heavy even he can't lift it?

Yes. And he did. For three days only. And then he drop kicked it out of the mouth of the tomb.

Jared Wilson, The Gospel-Driven Church

God's Purposes In Our Troubles

2009-10-28T08:03:00.001-04:00

In Knowing God (p. 97) J. I. Packer writes about how to understand the “unexpected and upsetting and discouraging things” that happen to us. What do they mean?

Simply that God in his wisdom means to make something of us which we have not attained yet, and he is dealing with us accordingly.

(Suggestion: resist the skimming temptation and read that line over again.)

Then Packer ponders the possible purposes God might have in mind for you:

Perhaps he means to strengthen us in patience, good humor, compassion, humility, or meekness, by giving us some extra practice in exercising these graces under especially difficult conditions.

Perhaps he has new lessons in self-denial and self-distrust to teach us.

Perhaps he wishes to break us of complacency, or unreality, or undetected forms of pride and conceit.

Perhaps his purpose is simply to draw us closer to himself in conscious communion with him; for it is often the case, as all the saints know, that fellowship with the Father and the Son is most vivid and sweet, and Christian joy is greatest, when the cross is heaviest. . . .

Or perhaps God is preparing us for forms of service of which at present we have no inkling.

He goes on:

We may be frankly bewildered at things that happen to us, but God knows exactly what he is doing, and what he is after, in his handling of our affairs. Always, and in everything, he is wise: we shall see that hereafter, even where we never saw it here. . . . Meanwhile, we ought not to hesitate to trust his wisdom, even when he leaves us in the dark.

But how should we respond to baffling and trying situations when cannot now see God’s purpose in them?

First, by taking them as from God, and asking ourselves what reactions to them, and in them, the gospel of God requires of us;

second, by seeking God’s face specifically about them.

“If we do these two things,” Packer writes, “we shall never find ourselves wholly in the dark as to God’s purpose in our troubles.”

From the blog of Justin Taylor - Between Two Worlds.

The Enjoyment of God

2009-10-26T15:03:00.000-04:00

The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows, but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean.

Jonathan Edwards

Embracing Our Afflictions

2009-10-24T07:54:00.000-04:00

“If we are true Christians, we must not expect everything smooth in our journey to heaven. We must count it no strange thing, if we have to endure sicknesses, losses, bereavements, and disappointments, just like other men. Free pardon and full forgiveness, grace by the way and glory to the end – all this our Savior has promised to give. But He has never promised that we shall have no afflictions. He loves us too well to promise that.

“By affliction He teaches us many precious lessons, which without it we should never learn. By affliction He shows us our emptiness and weakness, draws us to the throne of grace, purifies our affections, weans us from the world, makes us long for heaven. In the resurrection morning we shall all say, ‘it is good for me that I was afflicted.’ We shall thank God for every storm.”

J.C. Ryle

Uncovering Idols

2009-10-21T19:26:00.001-04:00

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Colossians 3:5

For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world. 1 John 2:6

“An idol is not simply a statue of wood, stone, or metal; it is anything we love and pursue in place of God, and can also be referred to as a ‘false god’ or a ‘functional god.’ In biblical terms, an idol is something other than God that we set our hearts on, that motivates us, that masters or rules us, or that we serve.”
Ken Sande

"Idolatry is taking a good thing and making it an ultimate thing."
Tim Keller

For This is the Will of God - Your Sanctification

2009-10-19T08:30:00.000-04:00

"Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: "

"For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you."

1 Thessalonians 4:1-3a; 7-8

Sanctification means intense concentration on God’s point of view. It means every power of body, soul, and spirit is chained and kept for God’s purpose only. It will cause an intense narrowing of all our interests on earth, and an immense broadening of all our interests in God. Are we prepared for God to do all in us that He separated us for? The reason some of us have not entered into the experience of sanctification is that we have not realized its meaning from God’s standpoint. Sanctification means being made one with Jesus so that the disposition that ruled Him will rule us. Jesus has prayed that we might be one with Him as He is one with the Father. The one and only characteristic of the Holy Spirit in a person is a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ and freedom from everything that is unlike Him.
Oswald Chambers

Born Again to a Living Hope

2009-10-16T08:51:00.002-04:00

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith - more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:3-9

The Glory of the Cross

2009-10-15T15:21:00.000-04:00

What wisdom once devised the plan

Where all our sin and pride

Was placed upon the perfect Lamb

Who suffered, bled, and died?

The wisdom of a Sovereign God

Whose greatness will be shown

When those who crucified Your Son

Rejoice around Your throne

And, oh, the glory of the cross

That You would send Your Son for us

I gladly count my life as loss

That I might come to know

The glory of, the glory of the cross

What righteousness was there revealed

That sets the guilty free

That justifies ungodly men

And calls the filthy clean?

A righteousness that proved to all

Your justice has been met

And holy wrath is satisfied

Through one atoning death

What mercy now has been proclaimed

For those who would believe

A love incomprehensible

Our minds could not conceive?

A mercy that forgives my sin

Then makes me like Your Son

And now I’m loved forevermore

Because of what You’ve done

Words and music by Bob Kauflin
As recorded on Songs for the Cross Centered Life

Picture by CrossDaily.com

View "The Glory of the Cross" music video

Every Element of Joy in the Gospel of Christ

2009-10-14T07:59:00.001-04:00

The religion of Christ is the religion of joy. Christ came to take away our sins, to roll off our curse, to unbind our chains, to open our prison house, to cancel our debt; in a word, to give us the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Is not this joy? Where can we find a joy so real, so deep, so pure, so lasting? There is every element of joy – deep, ecstatic, satisfying, sanctifying joy – in the gospel of Christ. The believer in Jesus is essentially a happy man. The child of God is, from necessity, a joyful man. His sins are forgiven, his soul is justified, his person is adopted, his trials are blessings, his conflicts are victories, his death is immortality, his future is a heaven of inconceivable, unthought-of, untold, and endless blessedness. With such a God, such a Savior, and such a hope, is he not, ought he not, to be a joyful man?

Octavius Winslow

Jesus Can Cleanse the Unclean

2009-10-12T17:57:00.001-04:00

The Great Reversal

Things start to go backwards when Jesus gets involved.

If you read the Old Testament you’ll notice that the unclean always infects the clean. Not the other way around.

If a clean person touches a carcass or eats an unclean animal, they’re unclean. If they touch an unclean person, they’re unclean. If they commit adultery, they’re unclean.

If they worship false Gods, they’re unclean.

That’s one reason why God instructed Israel to wipe out foreign, pagan nations. If Israel intermingled with pagans, Israel would become unclean. The hearts of the Israelites would be seduced away from the true and living God.

The unclean always infects the clean.

Which is a massive problem, because all of us are unclean. Filthy thoughts and desires swirl in our hearts. Bitter words drip from our lips. Is there any way for us to be clean?

But when Jesus gets involved, things are different.

Jesus touches a leper, and the leper becomes clean. He touches the dead body of a little girl, and the little girl is raised. And he touches sinners, and they are forgiven. Unfaithful adulterers, greedy tax collectors, tanked drunkards. All forgiven. The unclean made clean. Christ is full of such purity and power that he can cleanse the unclean.

Jesus still makes sinners clean today. Like me and you. Aren’t you grateful?

Stephen Altrogge

Fight Your Sin

2009-10-11T08:09:00.001-04:00

"See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you."

John 5:14

The aim of healing is holiness.

Restless Hearts Resting in Him

2009-10-09T07:08:00.000-04:00

OUR HEARTS ARE RESTLESS
Everlasting God, in whom we live and move and have our being:
You have made us for Yourself, and hearts are restless until they rest in You.

YOU ARE MY HEALTH
Great are You, O God, and greatly to be praised;
great is Your power, and Your wisdom infinite.
We who are but a particle of Your creation, praise You.
You awaken us to delight in Your praise;
for You made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.

What are You then, my God?
Most high, most good, most omnipotent;
most merciful, yet most just;
most hidden, yet most present;
most beautiful, yet most strong;
stable, yet incomprehensible;
unchangeable, yet all-changing;
ever old, ever new;
supporting, filling, and overspreading;
creating, flourishing, and maturing;
seeking, yet having all things.
You, O God, are my life, my joy, my health.

A PERSONAL PRAYER
O God, the Light of the heart that sees You,
The Life of the soul that loves You,
The Strength of the mind that seeks You:
May I ever continue to be steadfast in Your love.
Be the joy of my heart;
Take all of me to Yourself, and abide therein.
The house of my soul is, I confess, too narrow for You.
Enlarge it that You may enter.
It is ruinous, but do repair it.
It has within it what must offend Your eyes;
I confess and know it,
But whose help shall I seek in cleansing it but Yours alone?
To You, O God, I cry urgently.
Cleanse me from secret faults.
Keep me from false pride and sensuality
That they not get dominion over me.

A PERSONAL INVOCATION
O Love of God, descend into my heart;
Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling,
And scatter there Your cheerful beams.
Dwell in the soul that longs to be Your temple;
Water that barren soil overrun with weeds and briars
And lost for lack of cultivating.
Make it fruitful with Your dew.
Come, dear Refreshment of those who languish;
Come, Star and Guide of those who sail amidst tempests.
You are the Haven of the tossed and shipwrecked.
Come now, Glory and Crown of the living,
As well as the Safeguard of the dying.
Come, Sacred Spirit;
Come, and fit me to receive You.

~Prayers of Augustine~

Jesus - My Righteousness

2009-10-08T11:16:00.001-04:00

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinithians 5:21

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith - that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Phipippians 3:7-11

Lord Jesus,
You are my righteousness,

I am your sin.

You took on you what was mine;

yet set on me what was yours.

You became what you were not,

that I might become what I was not.

- Martin Luther

Abandon All Despair

2009-10-06T17:24:00.002-04:00

From The Gospel-Driven Church blog.

What is your only comfort in life and death? (Question 1)

“That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.”

- The Heidelberg Catechism

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
-- Hebrews 7:25

I really like the "to the uttermost" of the ESV there.

The gospel is a door with a sign overhead that reads,

Abandon all despair ye who enter here.

What will the world admit to when they see your light shine?

2009-10-04T08:17:00.001-04:00

Matthew 5:14-16 reads:

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works, and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

John Piper summarizes:

This text shows that there is an attitude and lifestyle that is so distinctive that when it appears in the arena of fallen humanity it gives valid evidence that there is a God and he is a gloriously trustworthy heavenly father. When the reality of God’s promises to take care of us and to work everything together for our good grips our hearts so that we do not fall prey to greed or fear or vainglory but rather manifest a contentment and a love and a freedom for other people, then the world will have to admit that the one who gives us hope and freedom must be real and glorious.

Hide it under a bushel? No!

Chris Brauns

By Your Side

2009-10-01T08:54:00.001-04:00

There are times in my life that I can clearly see God's hand moving so directly and perfectly in my life at just the right moment to really get my attention. One of those moments happened this morning. I had come to a point in a study I'm doing where I was pouring out my heart and some hurts to the Lord. As I was in that process, Cathy, my dear sister in Christ, emailed me the video to this song that I had never heard before. The Lord knew how deeply this would touch the very core of my soul with His healing love! I am putting it here so that I can have easy access to it and so that you may also be blessed by it. Thank you Cathy for being an instrument the Lord used to love me this morning!

Punishment and Righteousness

2009-09-30T06:05:00.000-04:00

“God requires two things of us: punishment for our sins and perfection in our lives. Our sins must be punished, and our lives must be righteous. But we cannot bear our own punishment, and we cannot provide our own righteousness. Therefore, God, out of His immeasurable love for us, provided his own Son to do both. Christ bears our punishment, and Christ performs our righteousness. And When we receive Christ, all of his punishment and all of his righteousness is counted as ours.”

- John Piper, This Momentary Marriage (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2009), 46.

Of First Importance

Not What I Was

2009-09-29T05:53:00.002-04:00

I am not what I ought to be

I am not what I want to be

I am not what I hope to be

But by the grace of God

I am not what I was

John Newton

"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain."

The Apostle Paul

1 Corinthians 15:10

Honorable People Avoid Strife

2009-09-27T08:28:00.003-04:00

Chris Brauns:

Honorable people avoid strife. Foolish people are quick to quarrel.

Proverbs 20:3 in four different translations:

It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling. ESV

It is to a man’s honor to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel. NIV

It is an honor for a person to cease from strife, but every fool quarrels. The NET Bible.

Keeping away from strife is an honor for a man, But any fool will quarrel. NASB

John Frame offers one explanation of why we are sometimes critical and quick to quarrel, even though wisdom counsels against it:

Because we want glory for ourselves, we seek to find fault in others. Contentious people are constantly looking for something to argue about, some way to start controversy and disrupt the peace.” John Frame*

*Quoted in Jim Belcher, Deep Church, page 66, originally found in Evangelical Reunion (Baker, 1991).

(HT: Take Your Vitamin Z)