Showing posts with label Christ-following. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christ-following. Show all posts
12.11.2009
5.29.2009
5.06.2009
Home Is Where The Heart Is (Revealed)
The devil comes dressed as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11.14), but don’t go on the date ‘til you’ve considered his resume. We all know a little of what it means to gloss up - to look our best our for certain situations. For many settings this is completely appropriate. You don’t dress the same for a banquet as you do for movie night at home. Obviously.
But our dress gets dangerous when it’s hiding something.
Integrity is a theme of biblical proportions. One definition of integrity is “being whole and undivided.” Integrity isn’t measured by your best moments. It’s measured by all your moments. This means that the ultimate issue is the state of your heart.
Even the prophet Samuel had to be reminded of the importance of the inner heart rather than outer appearance. When searching for the next king Samuel was greatly impressed by appearances of height and strength. God set things straight by declaring, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (1 Sam 16.7)
The heart is where the Lord is looking, and that’s where we ought to be focusing our attention as well. Jesus continually dropped this reality on the church-folk of His day. When they were uptight about His hygene before lunch, and He went after their hearts. He insisted, “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. (Matthew 15.18-19)”
Later it will come to cursing. That’s what Jesus inevitably gives to the fakes. He proclaims,
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23.25-28)
This hurts. On the outside, things can look clean and white, meticulously cared for. We’re trying so hard to make sure everyone knows we’ve been churchy. But inside? A tomb of filth.
So who are you, really? How’s your heart? Only the Lord knows that perfectly. But there is a sign, a map, a hint, a clue. We find it in 1 Timothy, where Paul is giving Timothy the knowledge he needs to make sure he’s getting leaders of true heart. He writes,
2 Therefore an overseer must be… above reproach, the husband of one wife… 4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?
Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. 13 For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 3.1-13)
Where does one look to check for integrity? One key place to look is at home. You are who you truly are at home. The health of your heart is revealed in your closest relationships. It’s the season for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day…so how’s your heart at home?
If there were a situation where your husband, your wife, your son, your daughter, your closest friend, could and would speak honestly, what might that testimony reveal about your heart? Would there be found, not perfect of course, but genuine integrity? Or does your churchy best hide a tomb?
The Lord is looking at your heart. Jesus said this of His coming:
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3.19-21)
A lack of integrity, a churched-up gloss betrayed by hell at home, reveals a resistance to the light. We’ve got those deeds lurking at home – explosions of rage, passive rejection, poisonous words, horrid habits – and, we think, “we must not have those exposed!” So we will not come to the light we so desperately need.
O my friends, this heart probing is painful, but it is about love. Our Lord graciously invites us to the light we so desperately need.
If this is speaking to you personally, Jesus invites you to come to the light. Come to Him. He exclaims, “I am the light of the world!” (John 14.12) He is eager to free us from our fake! And make us free indeed (John 14.36).
How does one go about this? I’ve three ideas:
1) Go to Jesus. Honestly confess in detail. Honestly repent in detail. And put all your hope on the Gospel. He has died as your substitute, for your cleansing, and to enable your transformation. Be forgiven, loved, and changed!
2) Go to those you’ve sinned against. Honestly confess in detail. Honestly repent in detail. Be reconciled!
3) Be accountable. We need one another. There are no Christians who are both maverick and thriving. Find one trustworthy, and honestly share your struggles, inviting confrontation and encouragement in the Gospel.
It’s hard, no doubt. But it’s time for some spring cleaning. There corpses in the corners of hearts. Let’s go to Jesus, the One who is looking at our hearts, and have Him turn on the light, that our hearts might beat of Him at home.
4.07.2009
Offending My Offense
Abraham has a magnificent point.
When my feelings are hurt, I expect an apology. Instead, I should probably offer one.Unless my feelings define what's right, I'm as likely to be in the wrong by being offended as I am by offending.
3.18.2009
Self Control
Have you seen any of those “easy button” commercials from Staples? Various characters find all sorts of frustrating experiences wonderfully and immediately remedied with a simple push of the easy button. ‘That was easy!” goes the quip.
Ever wish for an easy button? I do. All the dishes washed. Push. “That was easy.” All the projects finished. Push. “That was easy.” And seriously, what about those horrible habits that plague us? What a relief it would be to just push and exclaim, “That was easy!”
Wouldn’t you be nearly ready to give your right arm for a relationship easy button? For a sin easy button? Push…and arguments are resolved, peace is restored, the right is practiced, the wrong denied.
As Christians, many of us long for the day when our minds, hearts, lives, and relationships are more fully brought into that beautiful conformity to the gospel of Jesus. We want to be mature! We know enough to have tasted the goodness of the truth: Bible reading and prayer really do give life! Humility, repentance, and forgiveness really can bring peace in relationships! The gospel really can change the way we see ourselves and others! God’s ways really are wonderful! But O how soon we can slide back down the mud of old patterns and habits. “Argh!” we groan, “Where’s the easy button?!”
Well, let’s get real. Ninety-nine percent of the time, there is no easy button. Things simply don’t change by the wishing. The bones of our thought life and desires are not brought back into joint with the push of a button.
In fact, it would do us good to officially abandon the wait for the easy button. It’s time to admit it: our problems will not disappear by avoiding them. But no easy button does not mean “no hope”. In fact, our problems do not come from the lack of an easy button, as those don’t even exist. Rather, there is something essential lacking in a least parts of each of our lives. And that something can often achieve the desired results of the fabled easy button. And though the results are perhaps slower than desired, the results are real.
What is this missing ingredient in the recipe of our lives? The ingredient is self-control. Think about it – most of us have a decent idea as to what we ought to be doing, right? Though our knowledge could always increase, we have a clue as to what is good. So what is the issue? At least part of our problem stems from the fact that we simply cannot seem to control ourselves. We know a bit of what’s good. We have an idea as to what’s bad. And yet we can’t seem to practice the good and abandon the bad. The dieter knows that more exercise and less calories will mean a loss in weight. The lover knows that more encouragement and less verbal attack will help. The debtor knows that living within the means and cutting the credit cards will get them on track. The believer knows that more communion with God and less TV will grow the soul. The dater knows the boyfriend could care less about Jesus and is bad for her. And yet…we continually abandon wisdom and engage foolishness. What kind of insane suicide is this!
We are in desperate need of self-control. There’s four things we need to ask in its pursuit:
1. What is self-control?
Self-control is the ability to do what is right even when our circumstances and feelings would incline us towards doing what is wrong.
2. Why is self-control important?
Perhaps Proverbs 25.28 says it best: A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.
Picture an ancient city, torn and ransacked by it’s enemies, empty and destroyed, and you get the idea of a life without self-control. Self-control is important because, wherever you abandon it, disaster is immanent. Perhaps this is why, in Titus 2, though old and young, male and female are addressed according to their roles and places in life, the one common denominator for their behavior is the exhortation to be “self-controlled.”
3. Where can I find self-control?
This is a hard answer and deserves more time. For now there’s two important truths to guide us.
1) You can’t have self-control until you give up the controlling of yourself.
The Christian’s goal is to do everything for the glory of God (1 Cor. 10.31). Our problem is that, so often, it seems hard and we don’t feel like it. The goal of self-control is to overcome those tendencies and glorify God with everything, all the time, even when it seems difficult. At the core, that means self-control grows out of giving up control. The control now belongs to Jesus. This means confessing that you no longer live for yourself, your agenda, your glory. It means you are giving your life to Jesus, surrendering to Him, trusting Him for your salvation, and now living your life under His reign and rule. Self-control comes from giving up control. Have you given up the rule of your life to Him?
2) Self-control is given by the Holy Spirit.
When you trust in Christ, you are given the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8.1-11; Galatians 3.1). There are many very glorious things about that. One of them is this: "…for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control." (1 Timothy 2.7) …the fruit of the Spirit is…self-control (Galatians 5.16-23)
Take hope! If you trust in Christ, you have the Spirit! If you have the Spirit, He gives self-control! Ask for it, seek it, study, practice it, and claim it, for it is yours in Jesus by His Spirit.
4. How can I grow in self-control?
I have four ideas:
1) Seek to learn and love what is good.
We need to have our minds and affections conformed to God’s wisdom – that which He says is good. A greater understanding of and lover for what is good will help us to do it. Filling ourselves with the truth of Scripture is the way there. This gives us a view as to where we ought to be heading.
2) Examine your life accordingly.
Look at the details of your life and ask yourself (and ask the Lord to show you) where your habits, thoughts, words, and time are out of control. Make a list of the issues. Then…
3) Make a plan.
Decide what it would mean for that part of your life to be “under control”. Apply #1 and make a plan that will help you on your way to greater self-control.
4) Get help.
There’s nothing like a good, godly friend to help with the process of gaining self-control. Many times friends have skills and ideas that we don’t and can bring valuable construction and encouragement to the effort.
But most importantly, seek help from the Lord. He promises to give it. It takes self-control to grow in self-control. Rely on the Spirit. He’s there for you and eager to enable you.
So there’s no easy button. But daily doses of self-control in the wisdom of the Word and the power of the Spirit result in a life of real beauty. Let’s seek self-control together. We may never say, “That was easy” but we will certainly proclaim, “That was worth it!”
2.27.2009
My Bible Reading Plan Complete With Bookmarks
I needed more structure in my devos. Print these out and join me!
1.24.2009
The Problem of Perspective
Holy Experience is my wife's new favorite blog.
A favorite post of mine is Perspective.
Three quotes:
Be careful how you interpret the world:
It is like that.
~Erich Heller
It isn't that they can't see the solution.
It is that they can't see the problem.
~G.K. Chesterton
She (Ann Voskamp) summarizes:
Lord, when my world snarls, remind me of the problem: my perspective.
Today, please, could you help me find the You-Beauty in the ugliness?
Worth a visit.
1.09.2009
The Obstacles Aren't In the Way of Your Life; They Are Your Life
Alfred Souza
For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time to still be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.
HT: Buzzard
12.11.2008
Darn It, He's Right
Scottish preacher Alexander Maclaren:
No unwelcome tasks become any the less unwelcome by putting them off till tomorrow. It is only when they are behind us and done, that we begin to find that there is a sweetness to be tasted afterwards, and that the remembrance of unwelcome duties unhesitatingly done is welcome and pleasant. Accomplished, they are full of blessing, and there is a smile on their faces as they leave us. Undone, they stand threatening and disturbing our tranquility, and hindering our communion with God. If there be lying before you any bit of work from which you shrink, go straight up to it, and do it at once. The only way to get rid of it is to do it.
From C. J. Mahaney, who has much wisdom regarding faithfulness in time management.
12.10.2008
11.29.2008
11.14.2008
Testing Your Faith
From First Importance:
“Missions are the test of our faith that the gospel is true.”
—Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 127
11.13.2008
You Are Responsible For How You Hear
Jonathan Herron had the quote I was looking for:
Many hearers lose much blessing through criticizing too much, and meditating too little; and many more incur great sin by calumniating those who live for the good of others. True pastors have enough of care and travail without being burdened by undeserved and useless fault-finding. We have something better to do than to be for ever answering every malignant or frivolous slander which is set afloat to injure us….there are tender, loving spirits who feel the trial very keenly, and are sadly hindered in brave service by cruel assaults. The rougher and stronger among us laugh at those who ridicule us, but upon others the effect is very sorrowful…
As ministers we are very far from being perfect, but many of us are doing our best, and we are grieved that the minds of our people should be more directed to our personal imperfections than to our divine message….
Filled with the same spirit of contrariety, the men of this world still depreciate the ministers whom God sends them and profess that they would gladly listen if different preachers could be found. Nothing can please them, their cavils are dealt out with heedless universality. Cephas is too blunt, Apollos is too flowery, Paul is too argumentative, Timothy is too young, James is too severe, John is too gentle…
Well then, let each servant of God tell his message in his own way. To his own Master he shall stand or fall…
Judge the preacher if you like, but do remember thatthere is something better to be done than that, namely, to get all the good you can out of him, and pray his Master to put more good into him.
- from Eccentric Preachers by C.H. Spurgeon
The Faith & Education
The point of education, from the DG Blog:
Sermons on the subject:
Last week, John Piper spoke on the biblical foundations for Bethlehem College and Seminary under the title "The Earth Is the Lord's: The Supremacy of Christ in Christian Learning.
The goal:
"We aim to enable and to motivate the student to
- observe his subject matter accurately and thoroughly;
- understand clearly what he has observed;
- evaluate fairly what he has understood by deciding what is true and valuable;
- feel intensely according to the value of what he has evaluated;
- apply wisely and helpfully in life what he understands and feels; and
- express in speech, writing, and deeds what he has seen, understood, felt and applied in such a way that its accuracy, clarity, truth, value, and helpfulness can be known and enjoyed by others.
The Faith & Facebook
Buzzard has thoughts and even homework.
...tomorrow night I'm delivering a message titled, Facebook: Technology and Relationships. This message explores technology's impact on how we do relationships and how followers of Jesus ought to engage technology.
11.11.2008
Feel
Justin says:
I really like this book. It affected me. It convicted me. It helped me. I'm celebrating God's providence, how he led me to peek into the "Christian" isle at Borders and spot Feel. Reading Feel has come with perfect timing. The thesis and thrust of the book hit a sanctification bullseye in me. I've already begun recommending this book to many of my friends.
From the book:
Our emotional response to anything is a collage of our personality, upbringing, self-image, worldview, experiences, and beliefs. What we concentrate on, what we dwell on, what we run over and over again n our heads is what we get emotional about. So we need to stop and think about what we are always telling ourselves. If it does not line up with what is true, we must cancel the download. Then we need to reboot our thought patterns with godly values and beliefs. Only then can our emotions reflect a godly perspective. Whatever podcast you play in your head is what you will eventually believe about God, others, and yourself. It will determine your emotional starting point and the place out of which you will respond. You can spend most of your life at a single spot emotionally because you pitched your tent on one thing that you relive and rehash every day. Sometimes, you have to make yourself pack it up and move on to something new.
10.09.2008
"Make War!"
Tony Reinke quotes John Piper:
I hear so many Christians murmuring about their imperfections and their failures and their addictions and their short-comings. And I see so little war! ‘Murmur, murmur, murmur… Why am I this way?’ MAKE WAR!”
He adds (from Ed Welch):
There is a mean streak to authentic self-control. Self-control is not for the timid. When we want to grow in it, not only do we nurture an exuberance for Jesus Christ, we also demand of ourselves a hatred for sin. The only possible attitude toward out-of-control desire is a declaration of all-out war. There is something about war that sharpens the senses. You hear a twig snap or the rustling of leaves and you are in attack mode. Someone coughs and you are ready to pull the trigger. Even after days of little or no sleep, war keeps us vigilant.
This is a fight, my friends (Col. 3.5):
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you...
9.22.2008
Hopeless - But Not Enough
An important lesson from Bob Kauflin in his book Worship Matters.
Stay with it - we have much to learn from his story (pages 22-25).
I spent most of my early years seeking my own glory. Popularity, music, and academic excellence were my idols of choice...When God saved me at seventeen, my sins were completely forgiven. But I had deep-rooted sin patterns that weren't going to die easily.When we moved to North Carolina to help start a church, my cravings for admiration and control were constantly challenged...No one know it at the time, but God was using these situations and others to expose the long-standing sins of idolatry in my heart. I wanted everyone around me to share my high opinion of myself. My life was one extended attempt to draw attention to my gifts, my abilities, and my efforts. But it wasn't working. I wasn't getting the praise I craved, and that was affecting my soul. I increasingly struggled with feelings of anxiety, fear, and confusion. I felt like my life was about to fall apart.Over the next three months I experienced a variety of symptoms. Hallowness and tightness in my chest. Buzzing in my face. Daily thoughts of death. ITching on my arms. Panic attacks. Sleeplessness. Shortness of breath. I woke up each morning to this thought: Your life is completely hopeless. And things went downhill from there.I confessed [to pastor/friend], "Gary, I don't know what to do. I feel hopeless all the time. Completely hopeless. I expected Gary to say something like, "You'll be okay, Bob. God is faithful. He's working all things for your good." Instead he looked at me with compassion and stated, "I don't think you're hopeless enough..."If you were really hopeless, you'd stop trusting in yourself and what you can do and start trusting in what Jesus accomplished for you at the cross."As I considered Gary's response in the coming weeks, the fog began to lift. I started seeing a reality that dominated my life - the reality of my sinful cravings. My problems - emotional, physical, and otherwise - stemmed from battles within my heart of which I'd been largely unaware. Yes, I wanted God to be exalted through my life, but another agenda was ruling my heart. I wanted people to approve of me, admire me, applaud me.To be honest, I wanted people to adore me. I had an incessant passion to steal God's glory. I was lover of myself rather than a lover of God. And it was killing me.I was striving to gain the approval of those whose approval was of no eternal significance. I'd failed to see that the only approval that matters - God's - is impossible to earn but is offered as a gift through the gospel. And it was the gospel that set me free.Today the gospel - which I so frequently assumed but so often failed to apply - is the center and foundation of my daily life.
9.19.2008
Wisdom For Women
Carolyn Mahaney's book Feminine Appeal is a classic. Here's the her teaching series on Titus 2, links included.
HT: Justin Taylor
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