Immeasurably Better

Jonathan Parnell post:  Luther on God and His Gifts

Martin Luther:

Although it hurts us when he takes his own from us, his good will should be a greater comfort to us than all his gifts, for God is immeasurably better than all his gifts.

Luther: Letters of Spiritual Counsel, trans. and ed., Theodore G. Tappert, 1960, (Vancouver, BC: Regent College Publishing, 2003), 54. 

Not Easy, But Glorious

Excerpt from John Piper:  If a Grain of Wheat Dies, It Bears Much Fruit


[John 12: 12-26]

...

What They Didn’t Expect

But here is a truth that they may not expect. Verse 24:

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

My pathway to glory is through death. Do you want to see that? I will indeed bear much fruit—including Greeks. But I will not and I cannot bear this fruit any way but through dying.
If I leave the road I'm on now, and try to be seen by people who want a glimpse of a king, I will remain alone like a seed in a bag not in the ground. And you will not be saved. Not the Jews or the Greeks.

But if I go and die on my way to glory, then I will bear much fruit—you will be saved and the Greeks will be saved, and all who believe in me will be saved. Do they want to see me? This is what I want them to see. See me dying. See me bearing fruit.

Jesus’ Design for Our Imitation

That is the truth about Jesus that he reveals to the Greeks—and to us. But now it also becomes a truth about them—and about us. He says in verses 25 and 26: my dying for your salvation is also my design for your imitation.

If you want to see me, be prepared to become like me. Prepare to follow me on the road I am going.
So he says, verse John 12:25,

He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves me, let him follow me [Where? To Gethsemane and to Calvary and to the grave]; and where I am, there shall my servant also be [in the presence of my Father in glory]; if anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

So Jesus begins with truth about himself—the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified, and this will happen by the grain of wheat falling into the ground and dying. Then he makes the truth about himself a truth about us. Will we hate our lives in this world? Will we follow him on the path to Calvary? Will we serve the Son in this way? Will we let the truth about the Son of Man become truth about us? Will we identify with the one we are so eager to see?

The Hard and Glorious Call

So we see Jesus the same way the Greeks did—by his word and his action. He says, I am going to glory. I am going to bear much fruit. And the way I am going is by hating my life in this world, by suffering and dying for you.

And then he says, Follow me. Die with me. Hate your life in this world with me. Serve me.

Two things become unmistakably clear. One is that this is hard. And the other is that this is glorious. And I wonder if this is why God put this text in my mind for the South launch five years ago, and arranged for it to be on the schedule today one week before the effort to raise a million dollars for the South Campus. Of course it has a hundred applications to our lives—and the one you may feel right now is painfully personal. But God is always doing more than one thing.

So, as a church stretching to bless the South site, and as individual Christians with many hard things in front of you, let’s not miss either of these—the hard and the glorious. If we only see the hard part, we will miss the power and the freedom. If we only see the glorious part, we will minimize the sacrifice.

So let me show you four hard things and four glorious things that Jesus says.

Four Hard Things

1. Verse 24: the grain of wheat must die. "Unless the grain of wheat fall into the ground and die . . . " This is hard.
2. Verse 25: Jesus calls us to hate our lives in this world. "He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world . . . " This is hard.
3. Verse 26a: Jesus calls us to follow him—on his Calvary road, leading to death. "If anyone serves me let him follow me . . . " This is hard.
4. Finally, verse 26b: he calls us to serve him. “If anyone serves me.” To take the role of a waiter at his table to do his bidding, no matter what the demand or how lowly the status.  This is hard.

That’s what it means to be a Christian, a disciple of Jesus. Jesus knew it would be hard. That's why he said in Matthew 7:14, "The gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few." It’s hard to die. It’s hard to hate your life in this world. It’s hard to follow Jesus on the road that leads to the cross. It’s hard to take the role of a servant in a world of power.


But it is also glorious. So don’t miss this. If you are at the South site and you feel that five years is a long time to wait . . . and if you feel that a million dollars next week is not easy to imagine, remember this: the glory Jesus’ promises compensates for the hardness of it all. In fact, the glory turns the hardness into the most significant life imaginable.

Four Glorious Things

1. Verse 24: Yes the seed must die, but "if it dies it bears much fruit." The death is not in vain. It is significant. It bears fruit.
2. Verse 25: Yes, if we love our life, we will lose it; and yes, we must hate our life in this world. But why? What will be the outcome? That we may keep it to eternal life. "He who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal." What we lay down for Christ he will put in our hands again with glory. You cannot out-sacrifice his resurrection generosity.
3. Verse 26a: Yes, we must follow him to Calvary. But with what outcome? "And where I am, there shall my servant be." Jesus used those very words one other time (John 14:3), and he meant heaven: "I go to prepare a place for you that where I am there you may be also." If we follow him to Calvary, we will be with him in glory.
4. Verse 26b: Yes, we must become his servants. But what does the Father do to his servants? "If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him."

Don’t Miss This

So don't miss the glory and the overflowing joy in this hard life of being a Christian.

• We die;
• we hate our lives in this world;
• we follow Jesus on the Calvary road;
• we become servants.

And when we do, what we find is that

• We bear much fruit;
• we keep our lives for eternal life;
• we join Jesus where he is in glory;
• the Father honors us.

Not Easy, But Glorious

That’s the way I want to live the few remaining years I have left in this world. And that’s the way I want to spend eternity. Jesus shows us who he is, and what he is going to do, and what it will mean. And he invites us to join him. My dying for your salvation is my design for your imitation. I pay the price for the one (John 10:16). I give the strength for the other (John 15:5)

It won’t be easy, but it will be significant. It will be eternal. That’s true for your life. And that’s true for Treasuring Christ Together. Multiplying campuses, planting churches, caring about the poorest of the poor won’t be easy. But it will be glorious.

Trials End .. Blessings Last

Steven Furtick post:  2 Lies the Devil Loves to Tell God’s Children

The devil is a liar. That’s all he is, and he’s good at what he does.

He’ll tell you whatever he needs to tell you in order to trip you up, or keep you down.

And he’ll change up the delivery of his message depending on what you’re going through.
So when you’re suffering a trial, the devil will whisper a message of hopelessness to you.
He’ll say something like:
This will never end.

On the other hand, when you’re in a season of blessing, the devil will try to shake your confidence by telling you the exact opposite:
This will never last.

But trials do end. Joy comes in the morning. There is a mountain of victory on the other side of your valley.

And blessings do last. Even though seasons change, God’s favor is forever. He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.

Don’t let the devil twist the truth.
Catch him in his lies, and stand on what God says.

No More Sighing

Excerpt from What's Best Next post:  Cuts from the Book, 1: Sorrow _And Sighing_ Will Flee Away

...


In fact, there is a remarkable statement in Isaiah 35:10:

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Here’s what’s remarkable. The redemption of creation will be so comprehensive that not only sorrow will be gone, but so will sighing.

Sorrow here refers, obviously, to the big things: sadness and grief which we feel over great losses, especially the loss of a loved one.

Sighing, on the other hand, refers to small frustrations. When you walk down the hall to get another bar of soap from the closet, for example, and the handle on the closet door breaks as you open it. That’s a small frustration which has just created more work for you. When these sorts of small things happen, we often sigh. It’s not sorrowful and is incomparable to the major suffering going on in the world. But it is frustrating and is one more illustration of the fact that we are living in a comprehensively fallen world. And, when enough of these things add up, it’s demoralizing.

Isaiah is saying: there won’t even be the slightest hint of sighing in the new heavens and new earth. Everything will be so completely perfect that not only will sorrow be banished, but even the slightest degree of sighing as well. Everything will always go just as it should.

The One Who Is Peace

Christine Wyrtzen post:  PEACE! A CHOICE TO BELIEVE THE CHRIST-CHILD

The steadfast of mind Thou wilt keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in Thee.  Isaiah 26:3

        I realize today how many times I've had things backwards.  When my mind was in turmoil, I prayed for peace.  When I was plagued with distrust, I prayed for peace.  When I felt God was unfair, I prayed for peace.  I didn't get the results I wanted and now I know why.

        Jesus is my peace. Peace lay in a manger. So, in preparation for Christmas, I've been studying the subject of peace and under what conditions God promises it.  This verse from Isaiah seems to sum it up best.  Those who are steadfast in their mind, who choose to trust Jesus, will be kept in perfect peace.  If I do not have peace, it is because my mind has taken a detour to a place of dis-trust.  I have allowed my interpretation of circumstances to rule my mind, and subsequently, rule my emotions.  My beliefs are the problem, not God's inability to bring peace.

        Jesus grew to say many things. He was the WORD who had always spoken clearly. My choice to dis-believe Him is what erodes my peaceful state.  I must be intentionally steadfast to trust Him implicitly, despite the mounting evidence against Him and despite a heart that often tells me that it's suicide to trust.  He is God and He is always good, always faithful, always loving, always dependable.  Upon those truths my life rests.  Period.

        On a more practical note, how can I practice being steadfast so that I might have peace - now?  Here's a personal example.

        I once prayed for over ten years for God's intervention in a certain area of my life.  For a decade, I saw no evidence of His provision.  I often despaired.  But eventually, I decided to be steadfast and declare the following:  "You, Lord, answer prayer.  Just because I can't see Your provision doesn't mean You're not active in providing it.  I trust You."  Upon such a declaration of absolute trust, peace followed. So did God's deliverance.

        In my early walk with Christ, I prayed for peace as though it were all up to God.  I took no personal responsibility for it on my end.  I let my mind wander where it wanted and my thoughts were often a cesspool of doubts and confusion.  Gaining peace of mind is always a two way street.  If I do my part, God's promise of peace will engage.  If I really worship the One in the cradle, the One who is 'peace', then I prove it when I live by every word that comes out of His mouth.

I've learned my lesson.  I won't pray for peace until I choose to harness my thoughts and trust you no matter what. Amen

 

No Other Way

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer about Our Main Address: Being Found in Christ

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 Philippians 3:8-9

Dear Lord Jesus, I used to wonder where I might be and what I might be doing the very moment you return to finish making all things new. Would you find me doing something mindlessly inane or eternally noble? Would I be on a mission trip or a fishing trip? Would I be arguing with a friend or caring for the poor? Because of bad, gospel-less theology, I was uneasy about your return and dreaded the notion of you showing up and saying something like, “Gotcha! What are you doing wasting your time watching TV when you could’ve been doing so much more for me?”

How arrogant of me… how self-centered and self-serving. The gospel never has been about my empty doings, but your perfect doing. Even if you should come back while I was risking my life for the kingdom in another culture; even if you were to find me being burned alive as a martyr; even if you were to “catch me” watching the Food Channel or UNC basketball, or surfing the web or the waves in Hawaii, or arguing with my spouse or complaining about traffic… the only address that really matters—the only place I care about being found when you return is to be found in you—not having a righteousness of my own, but the righteousness that only comes through faith in you.

Jesus, I haven’t suffered the loss of all things for you, and its only because of the riches of the gospel that other things seem more and more like fools gold to me. But I can say that knowing you, and being known by you, is my greatest treasure… for I have no righteousness of my own, none. The only reason I no longer fear your return, or death, or today… is because my permanent address is, in Christ. That’s my winter and my summer address… my 24/7/365 address. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Lord Jesus, as the gospel goes deeper and deeper into my heart, enable me to know you better than I ever have. Free me to suffer with you, humbly and willingly, wherever you place me in your kingdom and take me in your story. Grant me all the resurrection power I need to love to your glory, in easy and difficult circumstances. Make me more and more like yourself—in my living and in my dying.

The only way I will attain to the resurrection from the dead is because you were raised from the dead for me. Dressed in your righteousness alone, I will be faultless as I stand before your throne. There’s no other way, none. So very Amen I pray, with awestruck wonder, in your exalted name.

Acquired Judgment - Actual Experience

Ray Ortlund post:  The amazing difference

“Dear Sir,

To be enabled to form a clear, consistent and comprehensive judgment of the truths revealed in the Scripture is a great privilege.  But they who possess it are exposed to the temptation to think too highly of themselves and too meanly of others, especially of those who not only refuse to adopt their sentiments but venture to oppose them.  We see few controversial writings, however excellent in other respects, but are tinctured with this spirit of self-superiority. . . . I know nothing as a means more likely to correct this evil than a serious consideration of the amazing difference between our acquired judgment and our actual experience, or in other words how little influence our knowledge and judgment have upon our own conduct. . . . If we estimate our knowledge by its effects and value it no farther than it is experiential and operative (which is the proper standard for testing it), we shall find it so faint and feeble as hardly to deserve the name.”

John Newton, Works (Edinburgh, 1988), I:245-246.  Style updated, italics added.

Loving Theology

Kevin DeYoung post:  Why We Must Be Unapologetically Theological

If I’m not mistaken, our church has a reputation for being quite theological.  I know this is why many people have come to our church.  And I imagine it’s why some people have left, or never checked us out in the first place.  But no church should apologize for talking about and loving theology. 

Now–and this is an important caveat–if we are arrogant with our theology, or if our doctrinal passion is just about intellectual gamesmanship, or we are all out of proportioned in our affections for less important doctrines, then may the Lord rebuke us. We should not be surprised theology gets a bad name in such circumstances.

But when it comes to thinking on, rejoicing in, and building a church upon sound biblical truth, we should all long for a richly theological church.

I could cite many reasons for preaching theologically and many reasons for wanting to pastor a congregation that loves theology. Let me mention six:

1. God has revealed himself to us in his word and given us his Spirit that we might understand the truth.  Obviously, you don’t need to master every theme in Scripture in order to be a Christian.  God is gracious to save lots of us with lots of gaps in our understanding.  But if we have a Bible, not to mention an embarrassment of riches when it comes to resources in English, why wouldn’t we want to understand as much of God’s self-revelation as possible?  Theology is getting more of God. Don’t you want your church to know God better?

2. The New Testament places a high value on discerning truth from error.  There is a deposit of truth that must be guarded.  False teaching must be placed out of bounds.  Good teaching must be promoted and defended.  This is not the concern of some soulless Ph.D. candidate wasting away in front of microfiche. This is the passion of the Apostles and the Lord Jesus himself who commended the church at Ephesus for being intolerant of false teachers and hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans.

3. The ethical commands of the New Testament are predicated on theological propositions.  So many of Paul’s letters have a twofold structure.  The beginning chapters lay out doctrine and the latter chapters exhort us to obedience.  Doctrine and life are always connected in the Bible.  It’s in view of God’s mercies, in view of all the massive theological realities of Romans 1-11, that we are called to lay down our lives as living sacrifices in Romans 12. Know doctrine, know life. No doctrine, no life.

4. Theological categories enable us to more fully and more deeply rejoice in God’s glory.  Simple truths are wonderful.  It is good for us to sing simple songs like “God is good. All the time!”  If you sing that in sincere faith, the Lord is very pleased.  But he is also pleased when we can sing and pray about how exactly he has been good to us in the plan of salvation and in the scope of salvation history. He is pleased when we can glory in the completed work of Christ, and rest in his all-encompassing providence, and marvel at his infinity and aseity, when we can delight in his holiness and mediate on his three-ness and one-ness and stand in awe at his omniscience and omnipotence.  These theological categories are not meant to give us bigger heads, but bigger hearts that worship deeper and higher because of what we’ve seen in God.

5. Theology helps us more fully and more deeply rejoice in the blessings that are ours in Christ.  Again, it is a sweet thing to know that Jesus saves you from your sins.  There’s no better news than that in the whole world.  But how much fuller and deeper will your delight be when you understand that salvation means election to the praise of God’s grace, expiation to cover your sins, propitiation to turn away divine wrath, redemption to purchase you for God, justification before the judgment seat of God, adoption into God’s family, on-going sanctification by the Spirit, and promised glorification at the end of the age? If God has given us so many varied and multi-layered blessings in Christ, wouldn’t it help you and honor him to understand what they are?

6. Even (or is it especially?) non-Christians need good theology. They may not thrill to hear a dry lecture on the ordo salutis. But who wants dry lectures on anything? If you can talk winsomely, passionately, and simply about the blessings of effectual calling, regeneration, and adoption, and how all these blessings are found in Christ, and how the Christian life is nothing more or less than being who we are in Christ, and how this means God really does want us to be true to ourselves, but ourselves as we were born again not as we were born in sin–if you give non-Christians all of this, and give it to them plainly, you’ll be giving them a whole lot of theology. And, if the Spirit of God is at work, they just might come back looking for more.

There is no reason for any church to be anything other than robustly theological. Churches will still come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. But “atheological,” or worse yet “anti-theological,” should not be one of them.

Organic Churches

Ed Stetzer post:  Monday Is for Missiology: Why Organic Churches Will Continue to Make Sense, Particularly in Multihousing Settings 

We recently hosted another meeting of the Church Planting Leadership Fellowship here in Nashville.

One of the speakers for the event was Neil Cole. I've written about Neil on the blog in the past as well as in the book 11 Innovations in the Local Church (with Elmer Towns and Warren Bird).

Neil's strategy for church planting is one that runs countercultural to the typical American model-- large start, rented facilities, band, etc. Instead of duplicating Sunday morning worship experiences, Neil advocates the creation of simple, organic house churches that can multiply rapidly. His focus is not on the weekly worship experience as much as it is on daily disciple development.

For Neil, that simplicity boils down to having the right DNA in a "church":

D--Divine Truth
N--Nurturing Relationships
A--Apostolic Mission

This method of church multiplication and church planting has been very successful overseas, but it not as well known (or impactful, I think) here.  I think one of the more likely places that organic churches might take root is in the urban centers of the U.S.

So, I thought it interesting to find former megachurch pastor Francis Chan now engaged in planting such churches.

Many of you know of Francis through his books Crazy Love, Forgotten God, and Erasing Hell or through his BASIC DVD series.

He served as pastor of Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, Calif., until just last year. After taking some time off in 2010 and 2011, Francis has landed in San Francisco and is working to start a church planting movement in the inner city through organic communities.

Chan may use different terminology than Neil Cole, but the premise is the same - to bring life-change through small, organic communities that live out the gospel daily with a focus on discipleship rather than large worship gatherings.

You might find interesting a panel I moderated with Chan, Cole, and Dave Gibbons that touches on these issues:

In his book Organic Churches, Cole writes:

Instead of bringing people to church so that we can bring them to Christ, let's bring Christ to people where they live. We may find that a new church will grow out of such an enterprise, a church that is more centered in the life and the workplace, where the gospel is supposed to make a difference...What would it be like if churches emerged organically, like small spiritual families born out of the soil of lostness, because the seed of God's kingdom was planted there? These churches could reproduce just as all living and organic things do...We must take Christ into people's lives, and it must be in the context of relationships.

Relationships matter to God. They matter to people as well. And in a multihousing context where relationships can be easily formed and quickly grown, organic churches sown with gospel seeds and watered through gospel-centered discipleship can produce gospel fruit even in the hardened soil of urban population centers.

Take and Seal It

Oh to grace how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above

Come Thou Fount 

Parousia

Jonathan Parnell post:  Free Advent Devotional Guide

Today marks the fourth Sunday before Christmas, signaling the beginning of the Advent season.

"Advent" is from the Latin word for "coming" — translated from the Greek word parousia. It's a stretch of four weeks where we reenact and remember how the Old Testament saints longed for Messiah to come.

On this side of the nativity and the cross, knowing about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, Advent shows us that we're still waiting. The redemption that Jesus accomplished for us is not yet consummated (Romans 8:19–25). Noel Piper writes,

So here we stand in the middle. Advent is the season of looking back, thinking how it must have been, waiting for the promised salvation of God, not knowing what to expect. And at the same time, Advent is a season of looking ahead, preparing ourselves to meet Jesus at his Second Coming. (Treasuring God in Our Traditions, 77).

Get This Free Download

One free resource to recommend is the new Advent Guide (PDF) from the Village Church, Texas.

This is an excellent guide made up of two sections each week: one for personal reflection and one for family devotionals. It includes three appendices with helpful practicals and is put together in a nice design. Check out the contents:

Week 1: Promises and Patience
Theme: Our God makes and keeps promises, and his people are called to wait with patient longing.

Week 2: Awaiting and Advent
Theme: God made a particular promise of a Messiah, and Israel longed for his coming.

Week 3: Incarnation and Implications
Theme: God fulfilled the promise of a Messiah in the first advent of Jesus Christ.

Week 4: Resurrection and Return
Theme: After dying to redeem his people from slavery, Christ rose from the dead and promised to come again to redeem us fully.

Week 5: Watching and Waiting
Theme: As we await the second advent of Christ, we are called to a life of prayerful and prepared patience.

Appendices
A: Passages for Contemplating and Considering Christ
B: Recommended Resources for the Season
C: Recommended Activities for Family Devotion

You can also get the free online book (PDF) of Treasuring God in Our Traditions.

 

Who You Are Becoming

Mark Batterson post:  You Already Know The Will of God

I love Thessalonians 5:16-18.  Some of the shortest verses in the Bible, but they pack a punch: “Rejoice always. Pray continually.  Give thanks in all circumstances.”

We get so bent out of shape trying to figure out the will of God because we think the will of God is circumstantial.  It’s primarily attitudinal.  It’s not about your circumstances. It’s about how you handle those circumstances. It’s not about changing your circumstances. It’s about changing you!  God is less concerned about what you do and where you go.  He’s more concerned about who you’re becoming.

You already know the will of God: rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances. If you are doing those things you are doing the will of God.

Free Our Hearts

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for “Cyber Monday”

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints—and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. 2 Cor. 8:1-5

Heavenly Father, it’s “Cyber Monday”—like Black Friday, a day for discovering deals on a lot of things we didn’t realize we needed. All the more reason to begin this day meditating on this story of radical grace and selfless generosity. Fill our hearts this Advent season with the joy of sharing and giving, even as you rescue us from the spirit of acquiring and hoarding. Free our hearts, free my heart, from the seductions of this one day.

Father, this one portion of Scripture, alone, underscores why we can never emphasize your grace too much. What an amazing story—the severely afflicted and extremely poor Christians of Macedonia became a model of radical generosity to the much wealthier believers in Corinth. Multiplied grace, not fear and guilt was their motivation, for the law cannot produce this kind of people—not even grace plus law, but only grace upon grace. O, the sheer convicting beauty of cheerful giving… (2 Cor. 9:7).

For the glory of Jesus and the advancing of your kingdom, we ask you to give us the same grace you gave the churches of Macedonia. The needs all around us are exponential, but your resources are endless. Indeed, help us to excel in the grace of giving during this Advent season. For you are “able to make all grace abound to [us], so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, [we] can abound in every good work” (2 Cor. 9:8). Enrich us in every way that we might be generous in every way (2 Cor. 9:11)—with our time, talents, and treasures, and with great forbearance and extravagant forgiveness.

Lord Jesus, you are the ultimate cheerful giver. That’s what Advent’s all about; that’s what the gospel is all about. Though you were rich, you gladly became poor for us, that by your poverty we might become joyfully rich through you (2 Cor. 8:9). Make your gladness ours. Make your generosity ours.
Like the Macedonians, we give ourselves to you in this matter, even as you have given yourself on our behalf on the cross. What a privilege it is to live in your story, to your glory, with your joy! So very Amen we pray, in your great and gracious name.

A False Promise

Tullian Tchividjian post:  The Root Of All Sin

Temptation is a false promise–a promise that doesn’t deliver. When we give into temptation, we are believing a lie. In the moment that we’re being tempted to do something, say something, or believe something, there is a deeper temptation happening under the surface. This may come as a surprise to you, but temptation has more to do with belief than it does behavior. Every temptation to sin (going all the way back to the Garden of Eden) is, at it’s root, a temptation to disbelieve the gospel.

When we are being tempted, we are being enticed to purchase something we think we need in order to escape the judgement of emptiness. On the surface, the bait might be lust, anger, greed, self-pity, defensiveness, entitlement, revenge, having to win, and so on. But the only reason we take the bait is because we think it will satisfy our deeper hunger for meaning, freedom, validation, respect, empowerment, affection, a sense of identity, worth, and so on.

So, here’s the connection between sinning (the fruit of the problem) and unbelief (the root of the problem): our failure to lay aside the sin that so easily entangles is the direct result of our refusal to believe in the rich provisional resources that are already ours in Christ–we’re not believing that, by virtue of our Spirit-wrought union with Christ, everything we need and long for, we already possess. John Calvin rightly said that, “Christians are in perpetual conflict with their own unbelief.”

This is why when Jesus was asked in John 6:28, “What must we do to be doing the works of God?” he answered, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him who he sent.” Jesus was making the indisputable point that unbelief is the force that gives birth to all of our bad behavior and every moral failure. It is the root. While the disciples located godliness in something they must do, Jesus pointed them back to himself–the One who came to do for them what they could never do for themselves. “Believe in me.”

In the preface to Martin Luther’s commentary on Romans, he writes:

…only unbelief is called sin by Christ, as he says in John 16, “The Spirit will punish the world because of sin, because it does not believe in me.” Furthermore, before good or bad works happen–which are the good or bad fruits of the heart–there has to be present in the heart either faith or unbelief–the root, sap and chief power of all sin. That is why, in the Scriptures, unbelief is called the head of the serpent which the offspring of the woman (that is, Christ) must crush, as was promised to Adam in Genesis 3.

Believing that “it is finished”, that everything we need in Christ is already ours and therefore we need nothing more, is the hardest thing (so much harder than modifying our behavior) because we are all seasoned “do-it-yourselfers.” Self-salvation engineers (that’s all of us) find it much easier to make a moral “to-do” and “not-to-do” list and try to live by it, then they do trusting, believing, and resting wholly in the work and provision of Another.  “To be convinced in our hearts”, said Luther, “that we have forgiveness of sins and peace with God by grace alone is the hardest thing” because “the sin underneath all sins is the lie that we cannot trust the love and grace of Jesus and that we must take matters into our own hands.”

Failing to believe the gospel leads to slavery because now finding peace, joy, meaning, and satisfaction is up to me. I’m on my own. This is why we give into temptation–we’re desperately looking under every rock and behind every tree searching for something to make ourselves happy, something to save us, something to set us free.

The gospel declares that I don’t need to save myself, defend myself, legitimize myself, justify myself, free myself, or in any other way, ensure that the ultimate verdict on my life is pass and not fail. The gospel frees me from the obsessive pressure to avoid the judgement of joylessness, the enslaving demand to find happiness. Walker Percy has described humanity as waiting for news. Christianity announces that the news has come: I’m not on my own. It’s not on me. We all know that “further, better, and more aggressive living” on our part isn’t producing life for us, and so the gospel comes as good news to those who have crashed and burned. What I need and long for most has come from outside of me–from “above the sun”–in the person of Jesus.

Real freedom in “the hour of temptation” happens only when the resources of the gospel smash any sense of need to secure for myself anything beyond what Christ has already secured for me.

Like the father of the boy with the unclean spirit in Mark 9, let us cry out daily, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

We Know His Strategies

Ray Ortlund post:  The devil's playbook

We are not ignorant of his designs.  2 Corinthians 2:11

The Bible reveals to us the devil’s playbook.  How does he aim to defeat us?  To begin with, in these four ways:

One, a judgmental attitude.  In this passage in 2 Corinthians, the devil designs to make a church into a harsh environment, where people are “overwhelmed by excessive sorrow” (verse 7).  Such a church stops feeling like Jesus.  It starts feeling like a scene out of Kafka.  How to defeat this satanic design?  Repent of self-righteous judgments, and eagerly communicate Jesus’ forgiveness, inclusion, honor.

Two, normal human instincts.  In Matthew 16:21-23, Jesus rebukes Peter, through whom Satan is speaking.  How did Peter open up to, of all things, satanic influence?  Not by consciously opening up to satanic influence.  All he did was think in normal human ways (“setting your mind on the things of man”).  All he did was set his heart on survival, making the way of the cross unthinkable.  Another of the devil’s designs.  How to defeat him?  Die to selfish survival.

Three, a spirit of accusation.  In Revelation 12:10 the devil is exposed as “the accuser.”  Another of his designs is to pierce our hearts with accusing thoughts about our sins – or even sins we haven’t necessarily committed, but we fear we have, or others say we have.  He spreads a mist of vague anxiety within ourselves and dark suspicion of others.  How to defeat this defeat?  Run to the cross for all our sins, and refuse to counter-accuse against our accusers.  A calm explanation might help at the interpersonal level.  But if the negative emotions are really intense, the only thing to do is not make the feeding-frenzy worse.  Wait on God to vindicate you.

Four, lying in order to win.  In John 8:44 Jesus calls Satan “the father of lies.”  It is his nature to lie, to deceive, to distort and twist and confuse.  He spreads his trademark behavior to others, especially in scenes of ungodly conflict.  He uses half-truths, self-serving accounts, spin.  How to defeat him?  Admit the plain truth, all of it, however embarrassing it might be.  We won’t die.  We will find it to be freeing.  Our safety and joy are always found in honesty before God and one another.

We have an enemy, and we know his strategies.  As C. S. Lewis taught us in The Screwtape Letters, we should neither ignore him nor obsess about him.  But fixing our eyes on Jesus, we can crush Satan under our feet (Romans 16:20) by humbly staying in, or humbly returning to, the ways of the gospel.

Seekings

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer about Two Very Different Fridays

So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matt. 6:31-33

Lord Jesus, there’s more traffic than usual on the roads early this morning, but not as much as last year. Though it’s just a little after 4:00 am, Black Friday got a jump start this year with doors opening at midnight. People have already been pushing against doors, running up aisles, and grabbing for items for many hours now.

Jesus, I’m not sitting here in condescending judgment of anyone, for there’s no one, by nature, more greedy or grabby than me. I am just as inclined to “run after these things” as anyone else. I thank you that I get to live in a time and place of abundance. I praise you I’ve never had to be concerned about what I’ll eat, drink, or wear. And I’m grateful that many people will enjoy fine savings and get real bargains today.

But all the hubbub of Black Friday, simply makes me more grateful for another Friday—for Good Friday and what you accomplished that day for us on the cross.

At your expense, the riches of grace are freely lavished on ill-deserving people, like me. It’s only because of you, Jesus, that I know God as Abba, Father—who knows my every need; who answers before I ask; who gives me all things richly to enjoy; who satisfies my hunger and slakes my thirst, with the manna of the gospel and the living water of the Spirit; who has clothed my shameful nakedness with your perfect righteousness.

Anybody that knows you is wealthy beyond all imagination, measure and accounting. We praise you. We adore you. We worship you with humble and grateful hearts.

Two days after this Black Friday we will celebrate the first Sunday in Advent. As we reflect upon the promises of your coming and the wonder of your birth, teach us anew what it means to seek your kingdom first, above anything and everything else. What new chapters of your story of redemption and restoration would you write through us?

Even as your righteous has come to us by faith, how might it come through us to the broken places in our communities? Rather than spending more money on ourselves, how would you have us invest our time, talent, and treasure in serving others? We praise you for your transforming kingdom and we long for its consummate fullness. So very Amen we pray, with grateful hearts and great anticipation.

Being Happy in Marriage

Miscellanies post:  The Happy Marriage

Timothy Keller wrote the following in his new book, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God (Dutton, 2011), pages 132–133:

A parishioner heard me preach on Ephesians 5, where Paul says that the purpose of marriage is to “sanctify” us. She said, “I thought the whole point of marriage was to be happy! You make it sound like a lot of work.” She was right—marriage is a lot of work—but she was wrong to pit that against happiness, and here is why. Paul is saying that one of the main purposes of marriage is to make us “holy . . . without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish” (verses 26–27). What does that mean? It means to have Jesus’s character reproduced in us, outlined as the “fruit of the Spirit”—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithful integrity, gentle humility, and self-control—in Galatians 5:22–25.

When Jesus’s love, wisdom, and greatness are formed in us, each with our own unique gifts and callings, we become our “true selves,” the persons we were created to be. Every page in the Bible cries that the journey to this horizon cannot be accomplished alone. We must face it and share it with brothers and sisters, friends of our heart. And the very best human friendship possible for that adventure is with the lover-friend who is your spouse.
Is all this a lot of work?

Indeed it is—but it is the work we were built to do. Does this mean “marriage is not about being happy; it’s about being holy”? Yes and no. As we have seen, that is too stark a contrast. If you understand what holiness is, you come to see that real happiness is on the far side of holiness, not on the near side. Holiness gives us new desires and brings old desires into line with one another.

So if we want to be happy in marriage, we will accept that marriage is designed to make us holy.

Judgment Kills

Tullian Tchividjian post:  The Verdict Is In

As you all know too painfully well, relationships flounder in an environment of judging. Both the Bible and our experience teach us that where judgment reigns relationships are ruined.

At some level, every relationship is assaulted by an aroma of judgment–this sense that we will never measure up to the expectations and demands of another. Critical environments are contexts which (while never explicitly stated) shout: “my approval of you, love for you, and joy in you depends on your ability to measure up to my standards, to become what I need you to become in order for me to be happy.” It’s a context in which achievement precedes acceptance. We’ve all felt this. We’ve felt it at school, in churches, in the workplace, with our friends, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, and most painfully, at home with our spouses, our children, our siblings, and our parents. This is why any relationship where criticism is constant, where you always feel like you’re being evaluated and falling short, is an unhappy relationship.

In his book Who Will Deliver Us? Paul Zahl writes:

I wonder if any of us are strong enough to withstand the perceived judgments upon our lives, which touch the fears within. Have you ever tried to win the favor of a person who actively dislikes you? To get him to like you, you may have changed your style of dress. You may have altered your schedule. You may have stopped something you’ve been doing or started something new. You may have carried out their wishes to the last detail. You may tried once, then again, then a thousand times. But you have not won from this person the affirmation you so deeply desire. Judgment steamrolls over most of us.

Can you relate to that? I can.

The deepest fear we have, “the fear beneath all fears”, is the fear of not measuring up, the fear of judgment. It’s this fear that creates the stress and depression of everyday life. And it comes from the fact that down deep we all know we don’t measure up and are therefore deserving of judgment. We’re aware that we fail, that our best is never good enough, that “we’ve been weighed in the balances and been found wanting.”

The judgment of others is a surface echo of a judgment that goes deeper. So if we’re living in an environment or we are in a relationship that feeds this fear of judgment with constant judging, we deflate and detach because it becomes discouragingly exhausting trying to satisfy the demands and appease the judgment of the other. We become depleted of the hope that we can ever attain the affirmation that seems so necessary for us to live and breathe and so the relationship flounders.
The fact is, that relational demand always creates relational detachment. Control produces relational chaos, criticism produces relational commotion.

Most preachers and parents, spouses and siblings, fall prey to the false idea that real change happens when we lay down the law, exercise control, demand good performance, and offer constant constructive criticism. When we do this, we are failing to acknowledge the obvious: “Judgment kills. Only grace makes alive.” We wonder why our spouse, or our children, or our friends, or our colleagues, or our congregants become relationally and emotionally detached from us. It’s because we are feeding their deep fear of judgment by playing the judge, by being the voice of law.

When we feel this weight of judgment against us, we all tend to slip into the slavery of self-salvation: trying to appease the judge (friends, parents, spouse, ourselves) with hard work, good behavior, getting better, achievement, losing weight, and so on. We conclude, “If I can just stay out of trouble and get good grades, maybe my mom and dad will finally approve of me; If I can overcome this addiction, then I’ll be able to accept myself; If I can get thin, maybe my husband will finally think I’m beautiful and pay attention to me; If I can help out more with the kids, maybe my wife won’t criticize me as much; If I can make a name for myself and be successful, maybe I’ll get the respect I long for.” But, as is always the case, self-salvation projects experientially eclipse the only salvation project that can set us free from this oppression. “If we were confident of ultimate acquittal”, says Zahl, “judgment from others would not possess the sting it does.”

The Gospel announces that Jesus came to acquit the guilty. He came to judge and be judged in our place. Christ came to satisfy the deep judgment against us once and for all so that we could be free from the judgement of God, others, and ourselves. He came to give rest to our efforts at trying to deal with judgment on our own. Colossians 2:13-14 announces, “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

The Gospel declares that our guilt has been atoned for, the law has been fulfilled. So we don’t need to live under the burden of trying to appease the judgment we feel. In Christ the ultimate demand has been met, the deepest judgment has been satisfied. The atonement of Christ frees us from the fear of judgment.

This story told by my friend and former professor, Steve Brown, illustrates well the radical discrepancy between the ways in which we hold other people hostage in their sin and the unconditional forgiveness that God offers to us in Christ.

Do you remember the story about the little boy who killed his grandmother’s pet duck? He accidentally hit the duck with a rock from his slingshot. The boy didn’t think anybody saw the foul deed, so he buried the duck in the backyard and didn’t tell a soul.

Later, the boy found out that his sister had seen it all. Not only that, she now had the leverage of his secret and used it. Whenever it was the sister’s turn to wash the dishes, take out the garbage or wash the car, she would whisper in his ear, “Remember the duck.” And then the little boy would do what his sister should have done.

There is always a limit to that sort of thing. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore-he’d had it! The boy went to his grandmother and, with great fear, confessed what he had done. To his surprise, she hugged him and thanked him. She said, “I was standing at the kitchen sink and saw the whole thing. I forgave you then. I was just wondering when you were going to get tired of your sister’s blackmail and come to me.”

Jesus took on himself all the judgment we deserve from God so that we could be free from the paralyzing sting of judgment we draw from others.

Joy Anticipated

Nancy Guthrie post:  Joy to This Cursed World

"Happy Thanksgiving!"
"Merry Christmas!"
"Happy New Year!"

As the end of the year approaches, everywhere we turn someone is telling us we should be happy. But for families who've lost someone they love, the holidays can seem more like something to survive than to enjoy. The traditions and events that can add so much joy and meaning to the season are punctuated with painful, repeated reminders of loss. Many grieving people wish they could find a quiet place to hide until January 2.

So is there any joy to be found in the midst of the holidays when you are grieving the loss of someone you love?

Still Infested

When you're grieving, the songs you have sung in church your whole life suddenly sound different. Phrases that easily rolled off your tongue, that you barely thought about before, now bring tears. This one was significant for me after my daughter died:

O that with yonder sacred throng, we at his feet may fall,

We'll join the everlasting song, and crown him Lord of all.

Never before had I pictured faces of people gathered around the throne of God when I sang this, but now I could saw a face I recognized in that "yonder sacred throng."

Other songs presented me with truth that challenged my doubts about God's goodness:

Praise to the Lord, who o'er all things so wondrously reigneth,

Shelters thee under his wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!

Hast thou not seen how thy desires all have been

Granted in what he ordaineth?

In those days of grief, I could not help but want to argue with these words even as they instructed me.

When Christmas rolled around, there again I heard all-too-familiar lyrics with new ears---especially these:

No more let sin and sorrow grow, nor thorns infest the ground.

He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.

As I worked through the question of why my daughter was born with a fatal genetic disorder, it became clear that the effects of sin have infiltrated every part of creation, including our genetic code.

I had developed a deepening sorrow over the pain caused by the effects of sin in this broken world. And when I sang these words, I struggled a bit with them because I knew that thorns still infest the ground.

Far as the Curse Is Found?

Like many others, I have sung "Joy to the World" my whole life. Perhaps because I did not think through the lyrics deeply, I assumed that this was a song about the first coming of Christ as a baby, since we often sing it at Christmas. But how can that be, since this song celebrates the eradication of the curse, which is still a part of our present reality?

The song we sing as "Joy to the World" is Isaac Watts's rendering of Psalm 98, which is about the coming of the Lord. What becomes clear, in light of what we know about the first coming of Christ as a suffering servant, is that Psalm 98 is more about his second coming as triumphant king. When Jesus came the first time, earth did not receive her king but instead hung him on a cross. Even after his death and resurrection, sin and sorrow still grow, and the thorny effects of the curse remain. The nations do not yet prove the glories of his righteousness.

But when Christ comes again, all will be different. Every knee will bow this time. It won't be just be humanity celebrating his coming; the earth itself will rejoice. The curse will finally be gone for good so that all of creation will be set free from decay to worship Christ. People from every tribe and nation will gladly crown him as king. This is why there is so much joy in "Joy to the World." It anticipates joy when Christ comes the second time---when the kingdom he established at his first coming will be consummated as the reality we will live in forever.

So it is possible to have a happy Thanksgiving, a merry Christmas, and a happy New Year---even when that joy is mixed with sorrow. Hope and joy at Christmas come from knowing that Christ's life that began in a cradle ended on a cross. His death-conquering death was followed by resurrection, the first-fruits of all who will one day rise from their graves. Because of his death and resurrection, we can be sure that the day will come when we sing together like never before, "Joy to the world, the Lord is come! He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found!" On that day, we will look each other in the eye and say, "This was worth waiting for! The curse is gone for good! Our hearts, minds, and bodies are no longer broken but healed and whole! We put our hope in Christ, and he has proved worthy of our trust!"

Gratitude Honors Him

David Mathis post: 

Thanksgiving: Echoing the Grace of God

Giving thanks is no small thing for the Christian.

But far too many of us have the wrong impression. Deep down we may see the summons to thanksgiving as pretty peripheral. Giving thanks — whoop dee doo — What really excites me is fill-in-the-blank.

It is tragic when gratitude seems obscure to the very people who have the most to be thankful for. To sinners forever saved by grace, thanksgiving should be significant. Even central. Healthy Christians are thankful Christians.

Central to Honoring God

In fact, Romans 1:21 shows us that thanksgiving is what we were created for, and it is “at the heart of what it means to be a Christian,” says Tremper Longman.

Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:21)

There it is. Side by side with honoring God is giving him thanks. Don’t underestimate the centrality of thanksgiving. Gratitude is essential in doing whatever we do to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31), and thanklessness is deeply intertwined with what it means to “fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). This no small thing.

So Longman gives us this jarring angle: “The real difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is that the former gives thanks to God” (How to Read the Psalms, 144).

In A Praying Life, Paul Miller adds some similar reflections about the centrality of thanksgiving for the Christian. While it was thanklessness that was “the first sin to emerge from our ancient rebellion against God’ (Romans 1:21), in our ongoing redemption, it is thanksgiving that “replaces a bitter spirit with a generous one” (89–90). (For a strong couple pages on “Cultivating a Thankful Spirit,” see Miller’s Praying Life, 89-91.)

Thanksgiving is important—essential—because the Christian life, from the beginning to end, is a life of extraordinary grace.

Created to Echo Grace

Thanksgiving “exults in grace,” writes John Piper. Gratitude was “created by God to echo grace.” We were created by God to echo his grace, and we’ve been redeemed by Jesus to echo his astounding grace all the more. Piper continues,

I exalt gratitude as a central biblical response of the heart to the grace of God. The Bible commands gratitude to God as one of our highest duties. “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name” (Psalm 100:4). God says that gratitude honors him: “He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me” (Psalm 50:23). (Future Grace, 32)

There it is again. Note the close connection between thanksgiving and the massive biblical reality of honoring and glorifying God. Thanksgiving is big time.

Echoing Grace Without Nullifying It

But a danger lurks. The Bible doesn’t have much, if anything, to say about obeying out of gratitude. Giving thanks to God for what he has given to us is precious and essential—and so is trusting him for his ongoing provision in the future. Thanksgiving is beautiful, but it can go bad on us, if we try to give it Faith’s job.

There is an impulse in the fallen human—all our hearts—to forget that gratitude is a spontaneous response of joy to receiving something . . . . When we forget this, what happens is that gratitude starts to be misused and distorted as an impulse to pay for the very thing that came to us “gratis” [free]. This terrible moment is the birthplace of the “debtor’s ethic.”

The debtor’s ethic says, “Because you have done something good for me, I feel indebted to do something good for you.” This impulse is not what gratitude was designed to produce. God meant gratitude to be a spontaneous expression of pleasure in the gift and the good will of another. He did not mean it to be an impulse to return favors. If gratitude is twisted into a sense of debt, it gives birth to the debtor’s ethic—and the effect is to nullify grace. (32)

Thanks for the Past, Trust for the Future

Thanksgiving must learn to delegate, and not attempt to do all the work itself. Thanksgiving has an indispensible ally named Faith, and they need to stay in good communication.

Gratitude exults in the past benefits of God and says to faith, “Embrace more of these benefits for the future, so that my happy work of looking back on God’s deliverance may continue.” (38)

And Faith is eager to respond, “Thank you, Thanksgiving, for sending me your impulses of delight in what God has done. I’ll happily transpose those into faith and keep on trusting him. I’ll keep believing in Jesus for more grace.”

More Grace to Come

May God be pleased to fill us to overflowing with thanksgiving for his amazing graces—the greatest of which is the gift of himself in the person of his Son. And may thanksgiving give rise to great hope that the God who has so richly provided for us to date, will most certainly give us everything we need for our everlasting good—and increase for all eternity in showing us “the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7).

The grace we’ve seen so far is only a taste of the grace that is to come. Have your thanksgiving ready. There will be much more echoing to enjoy.