Practical Help in Sanctification

Some quotes I've come across in different books I'm reading:

"So the more Christ’s Word dwells in us "richly" (Col. 3: 16), the less room will there be for the exercise of sin in our hearts and lives." A.W. Pink, Profiting from Scripture

"Fill your affections with the cross of Christ and you will find no room for sin.” John Owen, quoted by C. J. Mahaney in Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World

Just So You Know

I don't want to make a big deal of it, but also don't want to needlessly cause any confusion. So, just so you know, if you happen to notice I'm no longer your facebook friend, it's not because I dropped you, its because I dropped facebook. I wrote a little poem about it.

If once you saw my face in your book
and now its not there when you look
its not 'cause you I forsook
I just decided to leave.

Poetry never really has been my forte.

The King of kings

I wrote this several weeks ago but never posted it:

I just finished reading through II Chronicles. That ends a 260 page, 6 book trek through a mostly horrific history of the kings of Israel (and of Judah after the kingdom split). Thankfully, there were some good kings along the way, most notably David. But even this, the greatest of Israel's kings was a murderer and adulterer. And his poor judgment and disobedience in demanding that a census be taken in Israel led to the death of 70,000 men of Israel as punishment.

Solomon, David's son, began his reign well, following after the Lord. But he "clung...in love" (I Kings 11:2) to foreign women that God had specifically commanded the Israelites not to intermarry with and they "turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God." (11:4)

What about king Asa? He "did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God." But, by the end of his life, he has drifted away from the Lord. After relying on the king of Syria instead of the Lord in a battle, the Lord sent a prophet to confront him about his sin. Rather than repenting he put the prophet in prison and "inflicted cruelties upon some of the pople at the same time". He was struck with a foot disease and yet still "did not seek the LORD."

King Jehoshaphat was also a king committed to the Lord. He "did what was right in the eyes of the Lord." He saw some amazing things happen during his reign because of his trust in the one true God. He sought the Lord's face when two great armies, the Moabites and Ammonites, sought to destroy Judah. He uttered one of my favorite prayers, "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you" (II Chron 20:12). What was the Lord's response? "Do not be afraid...for the battle is not yours but God's...You will not need to fight in this battle" (20:15-17). And just as he promised, "the Lord set an ambush" against their enemies! Without them ever lifting a finger, "there were dead bodies lying on the ground; none had escaped". Quite an ambush! But even Jehoshaphat had his flaws. For, during his reign, for all the good things he did, "The high places, were not taken away". He had allowed idol worship to continue, despite the prohibition against that in the law.

Same story with Joash. He also "did what was right in the eyes of the LORD" but only during "all the days of Jehoiada the priest." After his mentor and friend died, he listened to unwise counsel and ended up allowing idol worship and then killed Zechariah, Jehoiada's son, for speaking the truth to him!

There's Amaziah who "did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, yet not with a whole heart"; Uzziah who began well, but was still "unfaithful to the LORD his God" by the end; Hezekiah who wonderfully turned Judah back to seeking the LORD, restored the temple, and celebrated the Passover for the first time in a long time and yet still had traces of pride that surfaced near the end of his reign.

Then finally, as far as righteous kings go, there was Josiah. He majorly reformed Judah, sought to live according to the Word of God, celebrated the Passover meticulously and yet still came up short. He died in a battle that he never should have been involved in, but he didn't listen to the word of the Lord.

These were the righteous kings and yet they all came up so far short. I was always hoping to get to the end of one of the stories without their being a "but..." about his faithfulness to the Lord. But it never came (at least among those described in detail). And I think part of the point of spending such a large portion of Scripture to describe kings that never completely measured up is to provide a backdrop for the King of kings, Jesus Christ who DID completely measure up. We never get let down by one of his failures like every other king. An all too common theme among the kings was that often their major flaws were exposed near the end of their lives. This King's obedience shined most brightly at the end of his life as he suffered and died, in obedience, for his enemies. His obedience unto death covers all of those sins and failures of OURS that we see every day if we have taken refuge in him (which will be evidenced by our obedience to his commands. Not perfect obedience, but the direction of our life is towards honoring and obeying him).

All of that to say, yes, there are good things we can glean from the righteous kings of Judah and Israel. But let their failures remind us to gaze more at our truly Perfect King Jesus and to submit ourselves under him.

I have grown to really appreciate this song. My favorite line right now: "Words of pow'r that can never fail - Let their truth prevail over unbelief."

Speak, O Lord, as we come to You
To receive the food of Your Holy Word.
Take Your truth, plant it deep in us;
Shape and fashion us in Your likeness,
That the light of Christ might be seen today
In our acts of love and our deeds of faith.
Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us
All Your purposes for Your glory.

Teach us, Lord, full obedience,
Holy reverence, true humility;
Test our thoughts and our attitudes
In the radiance of Your purity.
Cause our faith to rise; cause our eyes to see
Your majestic love and authority.
Words of pow'r that can never fail—
Let their truth prevail over unbelief.

Speak, O Lord, and renew our minds;
Help us grasp the heights of Your plans for us—
Truths unchanged from the dawn of time
That will echo down through eternity.
And by grace we'll stand on Your promises,
And by faith we'll walk as You walk with us.
Speak, O Lord, till Your church is built
And the earth is filled with Your glory.

AMOS

"God is not impressed with your Christianity" is how one of my pastors, Jon Anderson, sums up the book of Amos. I listened to an old sermon he preached on the book and providentially, that's where I ended up in my recent endeavor to read through the Old Testament in a more historically chronological fashion (thanks to the help of a Bible reading plan I came across). So, this will be a mixture of thoughts, most of which I got from Jon.

Amos begins the book pronouncing judgment on 7 of Israel and Judah's neighboring enemies. You can just hear the claps of applause coming from the Jewish listeners as they anticipate this destruction of their hated enemies. And then...Amos' approval rating takes a big dip. Amos, speaking for the Lord, did not stop with prophecies of destruction on their enemies. He continued on to condemn Judah and Israel themselves - and Israel at great length.

Why would God bring destruction on Israel, his chosen people? Was it because they weren't sacrificing and tithing like good Jews should do? No. "'Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifice every morning, your tithes every three days; offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!' declares the Lord God" (4:4-5). No, the external actions were not the problem, per se. The problem was that although they did all these religious things - in our day and age, things like going to church, praying, giving, helping at VBS, faithfully reading your Bible every day - their hearts were far from God. How do we know that? They "oppress the poor" and "crush the needy" (4:1). They "trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted" (2:7). "'They do not know how to do right,' declares the LORD" (3:10). It's like Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." And they weren't keeping them. They were willing to do some external deeds of righteousness in order to salve their guilty conscience, but when it came to actually changing their lifestyle for the sake of obedience to the Lord? Forget about it. Their religion was just a venire to cover their wicked hearts.

It's not that God didn't try to warn them before this. In 4:6-11, the Lord tells all the things he did in order to get their attention and draw them back to himself; things like withholding rain, sending famine, striking them with blight and mildew, sending locusts to devour their produce. Yet, "'you did not return to me,' declares the LORD". He warned and they ignored, "'Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!'" How do we interpret our hardships? Do we turn to God in them? God designs them to warn and woo us to himself (Luke 13:1-5; II Corinthians 1:9).

Chapter 5 ends with sobering words. Words that we should take to heart: "I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" (5:21-24).

God is not impressed with our Christianity. He knows if our religious actions are just meant to gain the approval of man, or to salve our consciences, or to earn favor with him - or are an overflow of love to him. He is only impressed with Christ and we must be found in him. Our actions will prove over time whether our obedience is prompted by love for the Savior and a desire to please the one who died for us, or if they are prompted by self-seeking interests. It's not that our actions could ever merit salvation. They are just evidence of whether we are truly saved or not.

Happy Birthday, Beth!

I love you and am thankful that God gave me a gift 3 years, 3 months and 6 days before I was even born!

C.S. Lewis

I found this blog entry on C.S. Lewis to be very interesting and encouraging. We are never too old to experience God's grace in a deeper, fresher way.

Found these words to be convicting this morning. Incredible that God doesn't just consume all of us in his wrath for treating him just like this day after day. Only because of the death of his Son that he doesn't!

They remembered that God was their rock,
the Most High God their redeemer.
But they flattered him with their mouths;
they lied to him with their tongues.
Their heart was not steadfast toward him;
they were not faithful to his covenant.
Yet he, being compassionate,
atoned for their iniquity
and did not destroy them;
he restrained his anger often
and did not stir up all his wrath.
He remembered that they were but flesh,
a wind that passes and comes not again.
How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
and grieved him in the desert!
They tested God again and again
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
(Psalm 78:35-41 ESV)

Repentance

I'm not repenting over not blogging in a long time, but I thought this would be a good one to restart with. This is from Kevin DeYoung's blog. You can read the whole thing here.

"Once we hate sin we are more inclined to run away from it. Grief, you notice, is not the same as repentance. Most people think grief equals repentance. They feel really bad about something, therefore they are repentant. But notice in verse 9 (II Cor 7) that godly grief leads to repentance.

There is an eternal difference between regret and repentance. Regret feels bad about past sins. Repentance turns away from past sins. Most of us are content with regret. We just want to feel bad for awhile, have a good cry, enjoy the cathartic experience, bewail our sin and how selfish/stupid/sorry we are. But we don’t really want to change. We don’t really want to live different than we have been.

Godly grief produces true repentance, which leads to salvation (v. 10). Instead of obsessing over regrets and feeling bad due to the opinions of others, godly grief mourns for sin, turns from sin, and finds forgiveness for sin in Christ.

Here’s one way to distinguish between worldly grief and godly grief: one mobilizes you into action and the other immobilizes you. Godly grief is a fruitful and effective emotion. We are not meant to wallow in this grief. It is supposed to spur us to action, to change, to make right our wrongs, to be zealous for good works, to run from sin and start walking in the opposite direction.

But worldly grief makes you idle and stagnant. You don’t change. You don’t grow. You don’t fight against the deeds of the flesh. Instead you ruminate on your mistakes and obsess about what people’s opinions and ponder what might have been. If you feel sorry for your sin you will be moved to action not to wallow in it week after week, year after year. Do you want to feel bad or do you want to change?

Some of us, truth be told, would rather feel bad. It’s easier than being changed."

I've Found a Friend

I’ve found a Friend; O such a Friend! He loved me ere I knew Him;
He drew me with the cords of love, And thus He bound me to Him;
And round my heart still closely twine Those ties which nought can sever,
For I am His, and He is mine, Forever and forever.

I’ve found a Friend: O such a Friend! He bled, He died to save me;
And not alone the gift of life, But His own self He gave me.
Nought that I have mine own I call, I hold it for the Giver;
My heart, my strength, my life, my all, Are His, and His forever.

I’ve found a Friend; O such a Friend! All power to Him is given
To guard me on my onward course, And bring me safe to heaven.
The eternal glories gleam afar To nerve my faint endeavour;
So now to watch, to work, to war, And then to rest forever

I’ve found a Friend; O such a Friend, So kind, and true, and tender!
So wise a Counselor, and Guide, So mighty a Defender!
From Him who loves me now so well What power my soul shall sever?
Shall life or death, shall earth or hell? No! I am His forever.

James G. Small, 1863

Free Songs

I've been a fan of this album for a while now. If you don't already have it, I strongly recommend the short process of downloading them for free. You've got a week! To download, click here.

Happy Birthday Ruth

Some old photos to celebrate your birthday :-)

I See the Crowd in Pilate's Hall

I see the crowd in Pilate's hall,
Their furious cries I hear;
Their shouts of "Crucify!" appall,
Their curses fill mine ear.
And of that shouting multitude
I feel that I am one,
And in that din of voices rude
I recognize my own.

I see the scourgers rend the flesh
Of God's beloved Son;
And as they smite I feel afresh
That I of them am one.
Around the Cross the throng I see
That mock the Sufferer's groan,
Yet still my voice it seems to be,
As if I mocked alone.

'Twas I that shed that sacred Blood,
I nailed him to the Tree,
I crucified the Christ of God,
I joined the mockery.
Yet not the less that Blood avails
To cleanse me from sin,
And not the less that Cross prevails
To give me peace within.

Horatius Bonar, 1856

Peace

I've been learning a lot about having a Biblically informed conscience. This is kind of a summary of what I've learned about it from my friend Matt:

Peace is only a good thing when it is Biblically informed peace. Our conscience can be at peace when it shouldn't be, or conversely, it can not be at peace when it should be. The key is that our minds must be informed by what the truth is in order for our conscience to give a correct reading. Or as Romans 12:2 says, we must be transformed by the renewing of our minds. It all goes back to the Word and basing our lives on it.

The Bible must be our one source of ultimate truth. Knowing the truth is what sets us free!

For the Sake of His Name

We are reading this book in my Theology of Missions class and I have found it to be riveting. In between studying for Hebrew, which I am not exactly enjoying at the moment, I rewarded myself with time slots to read it this morning. The thing is, I don't even totally agree with all that he is writing about the philosophy of missions (although part of the reason for that is that I just need to process what he's saying more), but I love his God-centeredness and his exposition of the great commission in Matthew 28 and what that means for missions. I love how he shows that man-centered philosophies of missions may produce big numbers, but they may in fact be big numbers of false converts if they aren't given the God-centered gospel. Or even if they are true converts, they may be left ankle deep in their theology the rest of their lives because they aren't ever taught all that Jesus commanded, which is the command of the great commission. Getting people converted is only the first step towards fulfilling the goal of discipleship.

Silliness

I imagine the angels must be in wonder at how often we as redeemed children of God, bought with the blood of Jesus Christ wallow in self-pity and disappointment when things we THOUGHT would be good for us don't turn out like we hoped. God KNOWS it would be bad for us and so he doesn't let us have it and yet we get so disappointed. I know that he is gentle with us in our childishness and isn't a frustrated Father, but it is still ponderous why we behave the way we do with the promises we have...that are all true for us in Christ Jesus.

Something More Sure

"For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,' we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation." II Peter 1:16-20

In Sunday School we discussed this passage a little and I found it to be very encouraging. In it Peter tells about when he and James and John went up with Jesus on a mountain and they saw Jesus in his glory and heard his Father lovingly affirm him. As fantastic as that was, Peter didn't trust in his experiences as a foundation for his faith. He says, "And we have something more sure, the prophetic word" which in verse 20 he calls "Scripture". He found Scripture, God's written word, to be more sure than an experience he had. What tremendous encouragement for us today, that we don't have to rely on our experiences or feelings as the bedrock of our faith. Are they good? Sure, definitely. But when you aren't feeling his joy or you aren't feeling his presence, it is a safe feeling to know that even more sure than your feelings and experiences is God's Word. As Peter writes in his first letter, "I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it." (I Peter 5:12b) Stand firm in the grace of God which is found in God's "written" word. It's the only Rock we have to stand on when it feels as if all else is sinking.

Some may say, but that is just what a mere man wrote, so how can you say that it is God's word? Peter himself said he "wrote briefly"! So where to we get away with saying that it is God speaking? II Peter 1:21 says, "For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." There's mystery here for sure. But it's clear that although Peter was cognitive of what he himself was writing, God was carrying him along through the Holy Spirit so that we can trust that it is God's word written through man. That's why it is a sure word.

Where I live

Here is a picture of me and my roommate, Brian, and some of his condo which is where we live now. I'll spare you a picture of my room because it's...well...just filled with boxes basically. Brian is a good roommate, but I rarely see him at home (that's not why he's a good roommate!) because he is generally either at work, school, church or with his fiance. But when we do get a chance to talk at home, it's nice because he is wise and godly.

Familiar Faces

My friends Charlie and Pat from Birmingham came to West Palm Beach a couple of weeks ago - not specifically to visit me, but nonetheless, they took a large chunk out of one of their days of vacation to visit with me and take me out to eat. The other guy in the picture is a new friend of mine, Lee, who Charlie actually got me in contact with when I got here. It was nice to see some familiar faces, that's for sure.

St. Louis

I went to St. Louis with several friends in December for a missions conference called Urbana, that's held every three years. I like this shot of us at the arch. Special thanks to Ping for laying on the ground to take it!

Classes

I've got 4 classes this semester:

Hebrew II - that is why I'm only in 4 and not 5...I'm jumping into this Hebrew II class after taking Hebrew I in Birmingham, which used a different book. It doesn't help that I didn't really apply myself in Hebrew I to begin with, but changing to a different book really screwed things up for me because I had about 150 words to either learn or relearn - in one week. I feel much lighter right now after taking the test to be able to officially enter the class. I know I didn't do great on it, but I'm positive that I at least passed it, which is all I needed. But anyway, now that I'm in the class I've still got a lot of work to get to where I need to be, so I dropped one of my classes so I could concentrate more on Hebrew.

Theology of Outreach - basically a missions class. We've already covered the biblical foundations in missions, and we will cover an array of other topics. Just to name a few: the sovereignty of God in missions, the destiny of the unevangelized, controversies in missions and church planting. There's lots of reading to do and a big paper to write, but I think it will be my favorite one.

Theology II - we're covering anthropology (study of man), hamartiology (the study of sin) and soteriology (the study of salvation). Again, a lot of reading for this one, but it should still be good.

Pastoral Leadership I - this class is by far the easiest and most laid back. It's just a one hour class and only requires one book to be read. It's taught by the pastor of the church I attend (and where our classes are held). He has a lot of good things to share so I'm excited about this one too.

John Calvin

I just began reading a book on John Calvin. It was one of the plethora of books written on Calvin during 2009, which marked his 500th birthday. This particular one was written by 20 different men, each covering a different topic. I wanted to share some of the quotes I found challenging in the foreword by Iain Murray.

Quoting Calvin, he says "true piety" is "a pure and true zeal which loves God altogether as Father, and reveres him truly as Lord, embraces his justice and dreads to offend him more than to die."

Again quoting Calvin, "We unjustly defraud God of his right, unless each of us lives and dies dependent on his sovereign pleasure."

"For Calvin, to accept compromise when Scripture has spoken is to affront the divine majesty of the Author."

Calvin: "When any person has fixed his eyes on God, his heart will be invincible, and utterly incapable of being moved."

"Our trifling concerns and our worldliness result from the poverty of our knowledge of God."

"Truth is only rightly believed to the extent that it is embodied in life."

Should be a both challenging and inspiring book if the rest of it is anything like the foreword! Let us "press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of [us]." I have so far to go, but the only reason I can take hope and continue to fight against sin and for holiness is because Jesus has first taken hold of me. It's not a fighting to be accepted, it's a fighting because I am accepted.

Be Still, My Soul

There are some hymns better than this, but not many:

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change, He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,
And all is darkened in the vale of tears,
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay
From His own fullness all He takes away.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord.
When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past
All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last.

Be still, my soul: begin the song of praise
On earth, believing, to Thy Lord on high;
Acknowledge Him in all thy words and ways,
So shall He view thee with a well pleased eye.
Be still, my soul: the Sun of life divine
Through passing clouds shall but more brightly shine.