Truth: The means of sanctification

What is the primary mission of the devil? To deceive. From the very beginning he came and told a lie to Eve, which Adam bought into. From the very beginning he came and told a lie to Eve, which Adam bought.That if they ate, they would be like God.

Rev. 20:3 says this speaking of the devil, "and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer"

John 8:44 says “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies."

Thus the devil is a deceiver who has no truth in him, and seeks to keep us away from the truth. So what is it that sanctifies us?

John 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

God’s truth is what will set us free from lies and false realities that will hurt us. What really transforms our life is the truth. Romans 12 also says be transformed by the renewing of your minds. We are to replace the lies of the world and Satan that are in our heart, with the truth of God.

Prov. 4:23 says "Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life."

The heart basically directs us, but we can direct the heart. We are told to watch over our hearts. We are to hide the word of God deep within our heart.

Sanctification is thus fundamentally replacing the lies in our hearts with truth. A lie is unreal. For example, if we believe the lie that we can run through doors, then if we live according to such a lie, what would we do? We'd hurt ourselves by running into the door.

Truth however is ultimate reality. Those living in sin are those living according to a lie, against reality. If we know how to replace the lies in a person's heart, with truth, we have the key to sanctification.

What lies are in your heart? Beneath every struggle is a lie. Root out the lie, and believe deeply the truth. In no way at all is this easy, but we all have to go begin this process. Thus work the truth of God from your head to your heart.

Just a reminder...

I found myself particularly convicted when reading through John 15:5 today. Popular verse that we're probably familiar with, yet it was as if it was "new" when I read it today.

John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.


God has been showing me more and more how futile it is to try to bear fruit and grow on my own. I want to bear fruit so much....yet I can do nothing. Absolutely nothing. Nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing......


Do you understand your responsibility to remain in the vine? Are you continuously dependent upon it? Thus allowing it to bring life into you? A life that is pulsating with the power of Christ will be changed not only externally, but internally. Don't try to bear fruit by sheer will power, remain in him, connected to Jesus through faith.

There's a lie within my heart that believes deep down that I can do it on my own. God's truth has been slowly rooting out that lie. Replace this lie with truth, and believe the truth more and more. This lie continues to burden me, and i'm pretty tired of it.

Our part in sanctification

I'm reading through John Stott's Baptism and Fullness. I wanted to share some of his insights from his chapter on the fruit of the spirit.

"If I were a farmer wanting to harvest a crop of oats, I would have to sow oats. It would be ludicrous to sow barley or wheat instead. The same principle applies to human behavior. If the Holy Spirit is to produce good fruit in our lives, then we have to sow good seed.

The old proverb puts it well:

Sow a thought, and you reap an act;
Sow an act and you reap a habit;
Sow a habit and you reap a character;
Sow a character and you reap a destiny.

We cannot alter this. As Paul puts it, "God is not mocked." Yet, some Christians are surprised that they are not reaping the fruit of the spirit when they spend a great deal of their time sowing to their flesh. Do they suppose they can cheat or fool God, and bend his laws to their conscience?

The "sowing" the apostle Paul appears to be referring to is the whole pattern of our thoughts and habits, our lifestyle, life direction and life discipline. It includes the company we keep, the friendships we cultivate, the literature we read, the films we watch....everything that engrosses our interests, absorbs our energy, and dominates our mind.

For by these things we are sowing, sowing, sowing, all the time, and according to what and where we sow, thus shall we reap."


Oh how true this is! How much I pray for growth, yet mock God by rebelling against his system of growth. I find myself so impatient to grow, yet subconsciously unwilling or too lazy to do anything about it. I need to discipline myself to ensure that the conditions for growth by the holy spirit are right.

Thus, my function in sanctification is to eat, to exercise, and to breath spiritual things. While remembering that the energy and will to do it, the air I breath, the food I eat, are given to me by total grace. Sadly I often fail to appropriate these gifts and yet am unsatisfied by my growth. Who am I to try to bend God's ways to mine.

A personal conviction

Resolved: No matter what the setting, the age group, the number of people, to give my best (even if my best is terrible) and only my best any time I preach.

A New Heart

I wanted to share with you a former frustration that I continually had when reading the bible. This frustration always took place while reading the Sermon on the Mount. For one of the basic messages of the Sermon on the Mount is the need for a righteous heart, for what matters is not simply what is going on the outside, but what is going on internally. What needs to be changed is not just our actions, but more importantly our heart.

This was a message I felt like it was impossible to meet. How can I change my heart? I can change my external actions, but can my heart really be changed? My mentality was that of Jeremiah 17:9 that says “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” For how can the Sermon on the mount tell me to be pure of heart in chapter 5, when Jeremiah 17:9 says the heart is sick beyond measure. I didn’t know how to reconcile this, so when I read the Sermon on the Mount, I subconsciously skimmed over half of it, because much of it seemed impossible for me to do.

But I believe now there was a huge gap in my understanding of the heart. While reading Jeremiah 17:9 I failed to understand that that wasn’t the end of the story.

One of the greatest prophecies concerning our salvation is given in Ezekiel 36:26
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you: I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

And while the heart of a new person still carries remnants of the old heart, Jeremiah’s picture of the heart in ch.17 is no longer the dominant picture of the new heart of the believer. There is the residue of that old sick heart that remains on the surface of our being, but in our core we are now bent towards righteousness.

Romans 6:17 says this “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed.

For now, thanks to God who has given us a new heart, we can now be obedient even in our heart.

I believe most Christians are like me and don’t realize what happened to them when they became a Christian. For if we believe that at our core, in our hearts we are sinners and sick beyond help, it is natural that we will sin. However If you believe you are a new person, that you have a new heart, which is the center of our being and you have at the core of your being new characteristics… I believe this individual will live a more righteous life. For the foundation of righteous living depends strongly upon who we believe we are, in this case in Christ Jesus.

One individual who believes that at their core they are a sinner and are sick, will read the Sermon on the Mount thinking it is beyond them. The other, the one who knows who they are in Christ, one with a new heart and spirit, will no longer need to skip any of it. For they know that “it is not I, but Christ who lives in me”. One lives by their own works and own power, the other lives by faith in the Word of God believing that the Holy Spirit is within, and that he is powerful.

Speaking to a deaf man?

I was in chapel today where we had Mark Dever speak. He briefly brought up this passage, and though he moved on, I settled on it for awhile. He brought up the simple fact (without getting into too many of the details) that Jesus by his word healed a deaf man. How ironic and profound.

Mark 7:32 And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.
Mark 7:33 And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue.
Mark 7:34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”
Mark 7:35 And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

What is the church built on today? Is it the Word of God which can make the blind see, the deaf hear? Is it built upon the Word of God that can breath life into man and through whom God created the world? The Word of God that became incarnate? The Word of God, without which there would be no understanding of the cross?

So Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Rom 10:17

It reminds me of Peter's words, truth that was revealed to him, in John chapter 5:68.

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

No wonder Paul never told Timothy to create more church programs, build churches etc. First and foremost, "Preach the Word!" (2 Tim 4:1)

Find a discipler!

Sorry It's been awhile....i'll get back on it, or i'll try!


To steal a quote from Bernard of Clairvaux (1153),

"He who makes himself his own teacher becomes the pupil of a fool."


How true that is! Sadly, Discipleship is not emphasized often in the church today. If you've been lazy about finding spiritual mentors in your life, I simply want to tell you to get out there and find one. Find someone that is living a vital Christian life and be impacted by them! Pull them aside! Stop trying to do it yourself, you're probably pretty blind.

And if you do have great spiritual mentors in your life, thank them...... For without them, you'd probably walk into a pit. (Matthew 15:14).

Seriously...we can't do it on our own. Plus I love a bit of gentle rebuke =P

The Humiliation

I was struck by the following quote regarding Christ's humiliation.

"What Jesus gave up in coming to earth was immense. From a position of "equality with God," which entailed the immediate presence of the Father and the Holy Spirit as well as the continuous praise of the angels, he came to earth, where he had none of these. The magnitude of what he gave up is beyond our power even to imagine, for we have never seen what heaven is like. When we arrive there, we will probably be overwhelmed by the splendor of what he left. He who became a pauper was the highest prince.

Even if Christ had come to the highest splendor that earth could afford, the descent would still have been immense. The greatest of riches, the highest of honors in any court, would be nothing compared to the conditions he left. But it was not to the highest of huamn circumstances that he came. Rather he took the form of a servant, a slave...." (Ericksons theology, 788)

Think about it. What must heaven be like? How much Christ gave up in the humiliation. Bring on heaven.

Tunnel Vision

Observe with me the following conversation.

Manny: The church is biblically illiterate! Drop everything, we need to teach the church to interpret Scripture!

Moe: Well sure, but we live in an anti-intellectualism culture struggling with doubt, what we really need is philosophy and apologetics!

Jack: You’re missing it, believers are spiritually dry! They long for the rivers of living water! We need true sanctification and spiritual formation!

Get the picture? Everyone seems to think they have it down. They dogmatically believe they know exactly what the church needs. Yet, the church needs all these things.

I find that in my past experiences, I often get into a "tunnel vision" mentality, where I think I know the one and exact thing that is needed for the body. It really is pride, thinking that I've got it down and I am all discerning. Luckily I often don't get my way, for God has different plans. Especially at such a young and inexperienced age, I cringe at times thinking upon the past, where I had a "my way or the highway mentality." I may be right at times, but I still need to have the humility and wisdom to realize that my perspective isn't all encompassing.

I'm probably the Manny of the above conversation, dogmatic to what I believe, while completely ignoring the Jack's, Moe's, Meg's, Monica's etc of the church who also bring a great perspective. I remember before I was on pastoral staff I would be so critical of the staff, wondering why won't they setup that which our church so "obviously" needs. Man how thats changed. What the heck do I know, I sit in most pastoral meetings silent, because most of the time, we're dealing with stuff beyond my ability. I'm almost afraid to ask it, but I do pray that God would teach me humility.

I'm a seminarian!

I recently started going full time at Talbot seminary. I finally feel like i'm a seminarian. I absolutely love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. However, for the one who loves seminary, I am in the midsts of what some may call a great temptation. One can easily be tempted to find one's identity in the things they are discovering. I am a seminarian. Therefore, as a seminarian that loves what he is doing, I strive for nothing less then excellence. I strive to be an excellent NT scholar. I will accept nothing less than being a capable preacher. For these things I strive for are not bad things. But the temptation is to find one's identity or center in them. My unconscious prayer is that "God I don't want to be a nobody. I want to be a Luther, or a Calvin.

We recently discussed Philippians 3 in class, and I felt thoroughly rebuked as I meditated upon it. In Philippians 3, the Apostle Paul reflects upon his pre-conversion days where he had in the Jewish eyes the perfect resume.

Phil 3:5-6 says
...circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless

Paul goes on to describe how he now views his past sense of self-concept and his accomplishments.

Phil 3:7-9 says...

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 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

Paul here informs us that he considers all things from his former manner of life to be rubbish, not necessarily in themselves, but in comparison with finding his true identity "in Christ." Consequently, whatever field I find myself excelling in, whether for me it is biblical studies, preaching, or for you it is art, mathematics, biology, these things are not bad in themselves. But our accomplishments and competency in such things is rubbish compared with having Christ as the core object of our self identity. For I am a seminarian, but that truly is rubbish compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ.

It is my desire, that as I strive for excellence as a seminary student, that I will continually remind myself of this truth. May I always refocus upon ultimate ends, not satisfying myself with mere earthly pursuits.

emotions= wimp?

Looking back at college I realize that a lot of the people or guys around me were very emotionally unstable. Too be honest I didn't know how to deal with it. Though this is not unrelated to spiritual health, the emotional health of believers today is I think often neglected. Especially in my Christian circle, to be a guy and be emotional at the same time is often frowned upon. The implications of which can be quite damaging in the long run.

Yet I think about Jesus and I wonder, are we to imitate him in his emotional life? Surely he displayed the full spectrum of emotions? Was that just his personality? Should we not be more like him? Is it therefore wrong to be emotionless? I honestly don't know. I dont consider myself to be an especially emotional person, in fact at times I probably have a bias against emotions and feelings, but considering the life of Jesus I wonder if I should "feel" more.

I believe that there is truth to the idea that Christians today are good at engaging the mind and at best the surface of the heart, but theres something below that that probably never gets touched. We simply don't know how.

Book I'd like to highly recommend. "The Emotionally Healthy Church" By Peter Scazzero.

Preaching is easy..NOT!

Preaching is freaking tough. Big lesson i've learned the past few weeks. I had the privilege of speaking for the catapult youth retreat this past weekend. I've been preparing for it for awhile. I knew preaching was hard, but man this was difficult. One things for sure, I will surely be less critical of other preachers from now on. Seriously, I doubt I could do any better...

Some things I learned I wanna keep in mind about preaching...all learned from doing one retreat.

1. I need time to immerse myself in the text....because of my lack of experience in life I need more time than others to really let a scripture text not just be knowledge, but be wisdom, letting it become a part of my life. I need preferably a few months.

2. Topical messages are easy...doing an expository message is crazy hard, you really need to submit to God and not try to be spectacular...

3. Don't try to be like my favorite preachers, but be me.

4. Pray....my first message I preached felt so powerless...I felt the spirit working in me a lot more through my second message, so pray. pray. pray.

5. It's hard knowing that a lot of the fruit of my messages i may never see. But I trust that God will work when his word is preached.

6. I need to be better at handling criticism.

7. Don't preach what I want to preach, but preach the Word. Sometimes its easy to go onto a tangent and preach something related, but not in the text, just it's something I wanna say. It may be a good concept, but may not be in the text or passage.

8. Approval of man is definitely a huge struggle in preaching. I couldn't help but wonder what others thought about me. That surely weakens preaching.

9. Always always always should I feel inadequate and have a healthy fear.

10. I'm so young..in every way.

Okay, this post is mainly for me. But I believe everyone could use a little more humility when listening to other preachers.

Grudem's systematic theology

For those of you who prefer listening as to reading I've been listening to Wayne Grudem teach his Systematic theology. I found a website from scottsdale bible church that has his lectures. I find it more interesting listening to him go over different positions rather than reading. (especially on the more controversial topis) Enjoy!

http://www.christianessentialssbc.com/messages/

One demon to another

The following are excerpts form the Screwtape Letters. The devil has many minions or "tempters" and here we see one senior "tempter" writing to a junior "tempter" as to how deceive a follower of God.

"Men are not angered by mere misfortune but by misfortune conceived as injury. And the sense of injury depends on the feeling that a legitimate claim has been denied. The more claims on life, therefore that your patient can be induced to make, the more often he will feel injured and as a result, ill-tempered.

Now you will have noticed that nothing throws him (the human) into a passion so easily as to find a tract of time which he reckoned on having at his own disposal unexpectedly taken from him. It is the unexpected visitor (when he looked forward to a quiet evening) or the friends talkative wife that throw him out of gear... They anger him because he regards his time as his own and feels that it is being stolen. You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption 'My time is my own'. Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of twenty-four hours.

The sense of ownership in general is always to be encouraged. The humans are always putting up claims to ownership which sound equally funny in Heaven and in Hell and we must keep them doing so. "

The devil is quite brilliant in his ways.

What do you think about?

When You're free, what do you think about?

Psalm 69:9 speaks of "...zeal for your house has consumed me." I think about this and such an attitude should be honorable no?

This past year I find myself consumed with spiritual thoughts. I'm constantly thinking. I spend nights laying awake in my bed asking questions like "How can I teach this better?" or "How can I better help my church?, or perhaps "How can I set up this Bible study in a good way?" Not bad things to think about right? I'm constantly thinking of how I can be a good preacher, or teacher, or an overall better Christian. I feel consumed by such thoughts.

Yet, one thing I find myself not thinking about nearly as much as I use to is this....God. I find myself consumed with spiritual things but often God is not in the equation. Even when I read scripture now, I think to myself "How would I preach this?" Or "How can I apply this to those around me?" Things are much more scholarly now.

Sometimes I think I just love Christianity. That doesn't mean I love the God of Christianity. I love spiritual things, but they are often not a lens to see the God behind it. I become so narrow focused, that I fail to see the big picture. I think of the kingdom, but I fail to think of the king. I fail to grow in my love for him or even know him.

I realized that I use to think more about God a whole lot more than I do now. Things were simpler then. I use to look at the sky and the different colors and I use to praise God and ask "what must God be like to create such things" I feel somewhat deceived. Maybe I am. Surely the devil would not want me to have realized this.

In the end, I simply want to think upon God more.

A sure word, but not the last word

C.S Lewis states "God cares nothing about temples built, but temples building." What does he mean by this? Any understanding of God must be a dynamic growing experience. Anyone that parks in the place thinking they are in a permanent understanding of truth, failing to understand the complexities of reality, surely brings peril to their soul. We don't have a last word about anything. However, this doesn't mean we can't have a sure word.

1 Cor 2:16 talks of the mind of Christ. What does this mean? Does this imply that we have omniscience? More likely I think it is a gift or resource that we are to exhaust and plumb as much as possible. Truth can always be plumbed or applied more deeply.

I heard a story of Charles Feinberg, one of the former leaders of Talbot. One day he was seen walking to class, it looked as if he was on air. When asked why he was in such a good mood, he states "I just finished reading the Bible for the 200th time..." This doesn't include reading it in greek, hebrew, etc. When asked "Are you still getting anything out of it?" He slowly looks up and states.."Every...single...page.."! Surely such stories should keep us from stating "we've got it all figured out." There are absolutes, but we don't know any truth absolutely.


"The temple of my soul is way too small, Lord would you enlarge it so that you may enter in"

Hound of Heaven

Excerpts from the Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson. The Hound representing God is chasing Thompson who is running away, not realizing the desire he is seeking is what he is running away from. He tethers his life to thing after thing til finally he is wasted and face down, which is when the hound finally catches up with him. Anything that keeps you from God, is betraying you.

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him down the arches of the years;
I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the midst of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown titanic glooms of chasmed fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase
And unpreturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat—and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet—
“All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.”
….
“Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me.”
….
“Lo naught contents thee, who content’st not Me.”
….

Now of that long pursuit
Comes on at hand the bruit;
That Voice is round me like a bursting sea:
“And is thy earth so marred,
Shattered in shard on shard?
Lo, all things fly thee, for thou flyest Me!
Strange, piteous, futile thing,
Wherefore should any set thee love apart?
Seeing none but I makes much of naught” (He said),
“And human love needs human meriting:
How hast thou merited—
Of all man’s clotted clay the dingiest clot?
Alack, thou knowest not
How little worthy of love thou art!
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee
Save Me, save only Me?
All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might’st seek it in My arms.
All which thy child’s mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home;
Rise clasp my hand, and come!”

Halts by me that footfall:
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
“Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He, Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.”

--Francis Thompson, “The Hound of Heaven”

Hamlet Meets Shakespeare

C.S Lewis, before he came to believe in Christianity, believed that the notion that man could know God personally was as ridiculous as Hamlet knowing William Shakespeare. Eventually after a long and thoughtful process, Lewis reluctantly came to believe that Christianity was true where he then converted.

He later realized that the metaphor he had used before was actually a good one. For Hamlet could never break himself out of the play, but Shakespeare, the author, could write himself into the story...........

Now imagine if you were Hamlet, and you were running through some green vineyards where you suddenly met some short, long stocking, pointy bearded fellow. He proclaims to you that he is Shakespeare, your creator and author who has written himself into the story. What would you think about this fellow? Surely one would think him to be crazy....

Think about it.....

Love Personified

Sorry I know it's been awhile since I blogged, but i've been doing a lot of personal reading lately so i'll get back on it. Following is a poem I read by George Herbert. Love personified in Christ, beckons the one overcome by guilt etc. How beautiful it is to see Love incline himself towards the one who draws back. So Good.

Love
By George Herbert


Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack'd anything.

"A guest," I answer'd, "worthy to be here";
Love said, "You shall be he."
"I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee."
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
"Who made the eyes but I?"

"Truth, Lord, but I have marr'd them; let my shame
Go where it doth deserve."
"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?"
"My dear, then I will serve."
"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."
So I did sit and eat.

A brief testimony

I got baptized last week. I shared a brief testimony. Here it is.

Hi my name is Patrick. From early childhood, to highschool God has been asking me a single question. He has been asking me, “Patrick, Am I enough? Am I enough for you? Or do you need something besides me?” Of course, my answer was an emphatic “No God you are not enough. God you are not what I need. What I need are relationships, friendships, approval, personal achievement, recognition. That is what I need. That is what I put my hope, security, and trust in. But you see, my whole life I held on to these things, squeezing them as hard as possible, so hard in fact that in the end they each ended up slipping through my finger.

Finally in 8th grade I went to church. I was forced to go but I eventually enjoyed it. Why not? We played basketball and their were a lot of girls. But the first thing I realized in the years to come, was that I’m dirty. I have sinned. I was standing before the great judge, guilty as charged. However, God the judge was offering me freedom at absolutely no cost. But it was at this point that I made a fundamental but perhaps natural error. I could not believe that the great and holy judge was saying to me, “you’re free to go Patrick.” I could not comprehend that he would let me go, without condemnation, judgment, or punishment. It went against every inclination of my soul to accept such grace without payment on my part. So I ran away from the judge, promising to come back later when I could pay back what I owed, in which I would then accept a sentence of innocence, for by doing so, I can say I earned it.

So I left, and did all I could to live a moral and righteous life. For if I could only live a good enough life, then I could truly have earned the approval and acceptance of God. I tried my best to be perfect, without sin. Of course, that left me worse then before. I now struggled more then ever with pride, self-righteousness, arrogance, and hypocrisy. I was a pharisee. For now, instead of admitting my sin, I hid it with my self-righteous hypocrisy. I was lost in my goodness.

I finally began to look in the bible, for that’s what good people do right? Through his Word, specifically the sermon on the mount, God revealed something to me. I was still a sinner. I still fell short in every possible way. In my attempt to find my identity and salvation in my own personal morality, I had rebelled and made an idol of my own goodness. Not only that, I wasn’t that moral anyways! I struggled with sin and because I thought myself above sin, that led to self-deprecation. Beating myself up constantly. I punished myself. I ended up hating the person I had become.
Finally, I got down on my knees, came back before God the great judge, and realized, I have nothing to give. I proclaimed, “God you are enough.” “you are enough..” I’m done relying on myself or this world. I trust and believe in your gospel to save me. It was at that moment that God became not a judge to me. In the name of Jesus Christ, I could now call out to God and call him Father.

Top 5 Books!

This is from R.Kent Hughes book Disciplines of a Godly man. He took a survey of Christian leaders and their favorite books to read. I thought it was valuable. I only put some of the authors. Read Away!

1. What are the five books, secular or sacred which have influenced you most?

Bryan Chapell- C.S Lewis Mere Christianity, Calvin's Institutes, John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress

Howard Hendricks- Mere Christianity, Adler Mortimer's How to read a book, Calvin's Institutes, A.W Tozer's Pursuit of God, Lewis Sperry Chafer's He that is Spiritual

J.I Packer- Calvin's Institutes, Paul Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, John Owen Works

Chuck Swindoll- Pilgrim's Progress, Tozer's The Pursuit of God, J.I Packer Knowing God, Elisabeth Elliot's Through the Gates of Splendor, J.Oswald Sanders Spiritual Leadership, Charles H Spurgeon Lectures to my Students

R.C Sproul- Jonathan Edwards Freedom of the Will, M.Luther's Bondage of the Will, Institutes

Elisabeth Elliot- Romano Guardini's The Lord, George Macdonald Salted with Fire, Amy Carmichael Toward Jerusalem, Janet Erskine Stuart Life and Letters

Top Books Mentioned- Mere Christianity, Calvin's Institutes, Tozer's Pursuit of God

One way to kill passion

Without Discipline, passion will die. Laziness and Godliness don't go together. It's as simple as that. There are things I need to cut out of my life. Things i'm going to try and put on. I'm tired of having my passion killed.

How about yourself?

What happens when you ignore genres???

Lets take well known example.
Proverbs 22:6....Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

This proverb, is a wise saying and is not to be equated with a promise. If wise parents raised up their children in the way that they should go (probably the Mosaic covenant), the vast majority of the time these children would continue in that way throughout their lives. This was not an ironclad 100 percent promise, but what wise parents do with their children.

Godly men and women have placed their hope in this passage, thinking it to be a promise to be claimed. One husband and wife hold onto this "promise" for 30 years, claiming it hundreds of times when they faithfully pray for a spiritually wandering adult son. Finally, they see this "promise" not coming to fruition.....how detrimental that can be. Decades of false hope from which people could be saved simply with better attention to the genre of Proverbs. Multiply this misunderstanding by dozens of verses interpreted contrary to their genres, and we can only imagine the unneeded confusion and heartache. The stakes are far too high to ignore the Bible's genres. (Russell, playing with fire, 158-159)

Don't be lazy. Learn to read the Word. How reverently do we come before scripture?

Think about it.

Tigers Slay Indians!!!

"Tigers Slay Indians"? What does that mean? Well, it depends on the genre in which it is communicated. Let me explain.

If you saw "Tigers slay Indians" on CNN.com, you might assume that there was some tigers that killed some Indians, perhaps in the jungle somewhere. However, if you saw the same title on any sports website like espn.com, you'll automatically know that it's probably referring to some type of sport, for instance baseball, in which one team, the Tigers, defeated another team the Indians.
The meaning is genre specific. Though we think we know the meaning of the individual words, we really dont know what they mean until we know the genre or specific context in which it was communicated.

Sadly, most Christians today are more skilled reading the newspaper than they are their bible. We pick up the newspaper, and we know exactly how to read each section within it. Comedy, business, periodicals, obituaries, etc. Each section we read it differently, expecting different things. It would be foolish of me to read the comedy section in the same way I read the obituaries. Or if I read the advertisements section, thinking it all to be promises.

Genres are like shopping bags. If I was carrying a GAP bag in my hand, you would expect certain things to be in it...Perhaps overpriced clothes, jeans, etc. But if I was carrying a CHILI's bag, you would expect some good food to be inside. The bag gives you appropriate expectations, as well as applications. You would say "hmmm let me smell..." for the chili's bag, but that wouldn't be appropriate for my GAP bag.

Yet, when we read the Bible, we ignore the individual genres. Books like Proverbs, we read it in the exact same way as we would Paul's epistles. Yet, as i'll get into later, this is dangerous...How silly it would be to get into Proverbs asking "What has God promised me..."God has communicated in unique and different ways, we need to learn them.

All this to say...we need to study God's word in a more disciplined manner. We need to handle it accurately, with fear and trembling. Learn how to study and read your bible in a smart manner. I'll get into it more, but I believe it is of the utmost importance. The Church must step up and teach its members how to read the book we claim to hold on high.

Think about it. (Props to Walt Russell for helping me see this)

In Christ

Click the picture =P

¹Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. ²I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. ³You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? 1 Cor 3:1-3

But..

¹³For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live Rom 8:13

Sin no longer has mastery over us. Do you believe it? Then put to death your flesh, and live and walk by the spirit.

Work it out

Whats your role on the team? pt.4

Lately, i've been figuring out more what i'm good at as I think more about my spiritual gifts.

But a side effect of that is that I now realize what i seriously suck at. Honestly, i hate it. I come from a background where i've had to do everything. And usually everything goes well, or atleast decent. But lately, I realize, i seriously am horrible at those things im not gifted in! It's been extremely humbling, God has shown me my complete inadequacy. I know its good for me, but I hate the feeling of being humbled.

I realizeI wanted to be the point guard, shooting guard, forward, and center (Forgive me for using a sports analogy). I realize I can only be one. And there are those around me that are soooo gifted it makes me envious at times. My self-centeredness makes me think of my role, but I forgot that there are others on the team! In a sense, I was being hypocritical. I wanted to find my role on the team, but I hated finding out what my role on the team is not.

So perhaps an important step in realizing your spiritual gifts is to realize your not gifted in everything, and that you are in desperate need of the body of Christ to fill in.

Think about it

Whats your role on the team? pt.3

Perspectives...
A. How different gifts respond to a situation (I stole this from Prof. Mick Boersma, I thought it definitely showed me atleast what my gifts definitely are not =P)

Situation: A person is hospitalized and is visited by another believer. Depending on the giftedness of that visitor, the following might be their response to the patient:

Server- "Don't worry, everything at home is being taken care of' After which a practical gift is shared (new magazine... etc)
Exhorter- " How can we use what you are learning here to help others"
Teacher- "I did some research on your illness and..."
Giver- "How are we going to pay your bills? Can I help?"
Merciful- "How do you feel? Are you going to be alright?"
Administrator- "I've assigned your job to two others. Work is getting done."

B. What motivates people with different gifts....

Situation: At the dinner table, Susie spills her dessert. The motivational factors unique to each gift come out in how others respond.

Server- "Oh let me help you clean it up." (Motivation is to fulfill a need)
Exhorter- "Next time, lets serve the dessert with the meal.' (Motivation is to utilize for the future)
Teacher- "The reason that fell was because the dish was set too near..." (Motivation is to discover why it happened)
Giver- "I'll be happy to buy you a new dessert" (Motivation is to give to tangible need)
Merciful- "Don't feel bad, it could happen to anyone." (Motivation is to relieve embarassment)
Administrator- "Jim, would you get the mop? Sue, please help pick it up and Mary help me fix another dessert" (Motivation is to achieve the immediate goal of the group.)

Obviously this doesnt represent all the gifts nor is concrete. But I found it interesting =P

Think about how you think.

Whats your role on the team? pt.2

Just to continue off of what I started in my last blog...I took the general gist of this from my professor boersma.

Discovering your gift...

- Be informed- Every believer is given a spiritual gift, according to Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4. Look it up.

- Be willing- For example, someone may have the gift of teaching. But they are simply not willing to do the hard work necessary to cultivate and discover it. Whatever it is, be willing and open.

- Be active- Hopefully your at a place where their are opportunities around you that will allow you to see and try out different areas. "Give it a go" and see what happens, even if it doesn't seem to fit your perfect mold.

Here's a spiritual Gift test. Take it with a grain of salt. It may help point you in the right direction. And i find them fun. Just copy and paste the link into your web addy and press enter =P
file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Patrick/Desktop/Spiritual%20Gifts%20Test.doc
Heres the Score sheet for the test. If you take it, let me know what you get =P
file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Patrick/Desktop/SG%20Score%20Sheet.doc

Some other assessment sites with free gift inventories. Churchgrowth.org

Whats your role on the team?

I wonder how many of us know our place on the team. As in, how many of us know our specific role in the church? How often do we think about our spiritual gifts? What God has given us so that we can contribute and uplift the body. Most Christians don't think of this I believe. Yet how sad it would be to not use what God has given us. I consider that bad stewardship of the resources we have.
Too steal an example I heard.... If your a pitcher, you want to practice pitching. Thats what your good at. You don't want to waste time practicing your batting. In the same way, once we figure out what our gifts our, we want to develop and grow in them.
Just some ways to figure it out....

1. Of course, if you don't know what your gift is, one way to find out is to give anything a try. You never know. Try being an usher, trying welcoming, try setting up chairs, whatever opportunities are available, give it a try! You never know what you may be gifted in.

2. In one sense, we should all be "ordaining" eachother. As in helping eachother figure out where we fit in. One good indicator of your gifts may be what those closest to you have to say. They know you best, and they probably have a good idea of what your gift is. Ask them! This is one of the jobs of church leaders in particular, to guide and help equip each member for their specific role.
- By the way, if you think your good at something, you need others to confirm it. For example, if you think you have the gift of teaching etc, yet nobody has the gift of listening to you, you're probably wrong. =P

3. What do you like to do? Chances are your gift wont be something you cringe at. Wheres your heart at? Where do you feel like your role is? Just think about it more ok?

Find your place on the team. Dont waste what you've been given.

Need a reminder?

Can I encourage you to do something? Memorize one of the following. Start your day off with it. Don't just say it, meditate on it.

Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him. Romans 4:7-8

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a true. Galatians 3:13

We all like sheep have gone astray, each has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6

As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:12

I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Isaiah 43:25

He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot, You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:19

Think about it.

For You Listeners

I just wanted to share a resource i've been using a lot more lately and that is listening to the Bible. I usually don't but i've found it really valuable in getting the big picture of a text, not getting bogged down by the details.
Especially for narratives like Genesis and Exodus, it has been especially valuable. I feel like i'm in the Bible world when I listen. That is after all how Scripture was originally spread during antiquity, through oral tradition.
Just a quick resource for those who intake well by hearing instead of reading.

http://www.esvstudybible.org/search

Just click any book or chapter, and theres an option on the top to listen to the text. Enjoy!

Old Testament struggles..

For those of us that struggle reading the OT and finding appropriate applications from it, I just wanted to share some thoughts and some of my reading. Reading the OT is definitely tough, and we probably treat it as "less inspired" at times in our attitude and approach than that of the NT, but if your like me, one may need to first start with an attitude adjustment. (The following is from my OT Survey book by Walton and Hill.)
As God's self-revelation, the objective of the Old Testament is that the reader comes to know God better. In addition, knowing God is also accomplished by experiencing his attributes. The Old testament should then be viewed as a presentation of God's attributes in action. What does this teach us about God?
Then, what must be achieved is that his attributes become the framework of our worldview. By this we mean that our perspectives on ourselves, our society, our world, our history, conduct, decisions, everything...should be knit together by an informed and integrated view of God.

This is obviously brief, but I just want to encourage you to keep trying, keep struggling with it. But learn to study it well, study it smart. Look up resources to help you understand the OT and the Bible. There out there! Don't try to do it by yourself, use the community around you and in the world. To end with a verse, Romans 15:4, Paul speaking of the OT...

- For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Think about it

* Just some resources you can read to help you understand and learn how to read the bible.
- Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for all its worth
- Walt Russell, Playing with Fire

Infallible interpretation?

I'd like to share an observation about the last part of 1 Cor 13:12... where Paul states, "..Now I know in part."

The inspired Apostle himself said "Now I know in part." The Apostle who had been caught up in the third heaven and had heard words not lawful to be uttered, owns up to his own knowledge in the present state to be imperfect. What instruction to those of us who entertain such high views of ourselves, thinking we have achieved theological infallibility.

This puts us all in a place of humility before God. We Must search the scriptures, we must study God's word. But because we are still in this age, when we have done our best, we are compelled to say, "Lord I have searched Thy Word, but I know only in part, i do not perfectly understand."

To quote theologian George Ladd "It will indeed be a wonderful day when all of God's people can agree in their understanding of God and of God's truth, yet that day lies in the future, it is not yet here. Many problems arise because God's people do not recognize the teaching of Scripture about the incompleteness of Christian knowledge...The scripture is clear that our knowledge is partial."

Should not therefore, our imperfect knowledge lead us to excercising the gift of love seen in 1 Cor 13? To fill in the gaps of our ignorance?

I am not undercutting the importance of theological purity. What I am saying is that this lays a demand upon us, as believers, to hold the Word of God both in humility and in charity, especially in those areas where our imperfect knowledge leads to differing interpretations of the Word of God.

Allegiance to the Bible would hopefully take us all to the place of John Calvin, who revised his own summary of doctrine several times, without to my knowledge every claiming infallibility for it.

Think about it.

Beginning of the real story..

The ending line of C.S Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia...

"...But the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: Now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever, in which every chapter is better than the one before. "

What a beautiful picture. Think on that.

In the Name of Jesus

In the Name of Jesus is a book by Henri Nouwen, one of my all time favorites. The following are temptations that he mentions leaders especially will go through....

The temptation to be Spectacular!!!!

THe temptation to be relevant!!!!

THe Temptation to be powerful!!!

I've been feeling these more lately. Especially as I become an intern at church, I've been sensing these more. Who doesn't want to be amazing? The type of amazing where I would get glory. How pathetic. I want to be spectacular, I want to be amazing, i want to be powerful. Am i so insecure? Is God's love nothing but an abstract concept? What disordered priorities i have. Who am i living for?

In the name of Jesus? Probably not. Thank God for grace.

Work it out

Our Lofty Calling

I took this from professor walt russell. I thought it was quite the amazing. =P
Listen to Paul's description of our calling in Ephesians 1-3: Obviously you won't read all of it, but perhaps skim through to see if anything sticks out.

WE Are....
- Chosen before the foundation of the world (1:4)
- made holy and blameless before God (1:4)
- Predestined to adoption as sons of GOd (1:5)
- Redeemed through Christ's blood (1:7)
- Forgiven of our trespasses (1:7)
- Made knowledgeable of the mystery of God's will (1:9)
- Given an inheritance (1:11)
- Sealed in Christ with the Holy Spirit (1:13)
- Given the Holy Spirit as a pledge of our inheritance (1:14)
- Given riches of glory as an inheritance (1:18)
- Possessing surpassing greatness in His power towards us (1:19)
- Put under the headship of the all powerful Christ in the church (1:20-23)
- Made recipients of God's rich mercy and Great love (2:4)
- Made alive from our deadness in sin (2:5)
- Enlivened, raised up, and seated with Christ in the heavenly places (2:5-6)
- Made future trophies of His rich grace (2:7)
- Saved by grace through faith not works (2:8-9)
- Made God's workmanship, created for good works (2:10)
- Brought near to God by the blood of Christ (2:13)
- Freed from the dividing wall that separated us from God and his people (2:14)
- Freed from teh enmity of the Law abolished in Christ's death (2:15)
- Reconciled with believing Jews and Gentiles into a new body (2:16)
- Given access to God in the Holy Spirit (2:18)
- Made a fellow citizen and household member of God's family (2:19)
- Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets (2:20)
- Being fitted and growing into a holy temple in the Lord (2:21)
- Being built into a dwelling of God in the Spirit (2:22)
- Made fellow heirs and fellow body members with the saints (3:6)
- Made fellow partakers of the promise in Christ (3:6)
- Made proclaimers of the manifold wisdom of God to angelic beings (3:10)
- Given boldness and confident access to God through faith in Christ (3:12)
- Given access to the Holy Spirit's power in our inner man (3:16)
- Given the capacity for our hearts to be Christ's dwelling place (3:17)
- Given the potential to comprehend Christ's unlimited love for us (3:18-19)
- Given the potential to be filled up to the fullness of God (3:20)
- Made partakers of his exceedingly abundant powers (3:21)

Whew! We are quite a blessed people wouldn't you say? Ephesians 1-3 talks of our identity and who we are. Then in Eph 4-6 Paul talks of the life that should flow out of that identity. Identity in Christ, then how to live.... Work out your identity! Think upon it. Then move your life in line with that identity.