Make Sin Visible

I do a lot of reading to prepare for my Sunday School class with my primary sources, outside of simply reading the passage over and making sense of it myself, are the notes in my Study Bible, my Bible College notes on Galatians, Precept-Austin and the commentaries it leads me to on Galatians, and John Piper's sermons on Galatians.

This conclusion to a Piper sermon really struck me this afternoon. After explaining one primary purpose of the law throughout the Bible was to expose sin and make it visible he says:

Finally, if God thought it wise and helpful not to let the sediment of pride and rebellion and distrust lie quietly at the bottom of the human heart, but instead, stirred it up and made it visible by demanding the obedience which comes from faith, then that's what my preaching should aim to do. More than ever I see the need for pastors to preach and Sunday School teachers to teach and members to admonish each other in such a way that the sediment of sin in the lives of so-called "carnal Christians" be stirred up and come to a crisis. Could it be that one of the reasons we see raindrops of blessing at Bethlehem instead of showers is that week after week several dozen people sit in these services with a layer of sinful muck at the bottom of their lives with no intention of doing anything about it? If so, let's pray that God use the Word to stir it up, so it can be seen for what it is, so there can be repentance and forgiveness and cleansing and renewal.

Make This a Day of Turning

This is simply copied and pasted from the Desiring God Blog but I thought I'd put it here too since prayer is certainly on my mind all the time....

Here’s the challenge John Piper issues as he closes his chapter on prayer (chapter 6) in Desiring God:

[O]ne of the main reasons so many of God’s children don’t have a significant life of prayer is not so much that we don’t want to, but that we don’t plan to. If you want to take a four-week vacation, you don’t just get up one summer morning and say, “Hey, let’s go today!” You won’t have anything ready. You won’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned.

But that is how many of us treat prayer. We get up day after day and realize that significant times of prayer should be a part of our life, but nothing’s ever ready. We don’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned. No time. No place. No procedure. And we all know that the opposite of planning is not a wonderful flow of deep, spontaneous experiences in prayer. The opposite of planning is the rut. If you don’t plan a vacation, you will probably stay home and watch TV. The natural, unplanned flow of spiritual life sinks to the lowest ebb of vitality. There is a race to be run and a fight to be fought. If you want renewal in your life of prayer, you must plan to see it.

Therefore, my simple exhortation is this: Let us take time this very day to rethink our priorities and how prayer fits in. Make some new resolve. Try some new venture with God. Set a time. Set a place. Choose a portion of Scripture to guide you. Don’t be tyrannized by the press of busy days. We all need midcourse corrections. Make this a day of turning to prayer—for the glory of God and for the fullness of your joy. (Desiring God, 2003 edition, pages 182–183)

Fear of Being An Outsider

One of the main motivations behind the drive for success is the hope of entering the "Inner Ring." C.S. Lewis wrote insightfully about this subject in one of his most famous essays.

"I don't believe the economic motive and the erotic motive account for everything that goes on in the world. It's a lust...a longing to be inside, [which] takes many forms.... You want...the delicious knowledge that just we four or five - we are the people who (really) know.... As long as you are governed by that desire you will never be satisfied. Until you conquer the fear of being an outsider, an outsider you will remain...."


(From Counterfeit Gods by Timothy Keller)

Blind to Slavery

13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” 14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. 15 And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. – Luke 16:13-15

I’m reading a great book by Timothy Keller right now called Counterfeit Gods (The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power and The Only Hope That Matters) and I read a part the other night where he talks about serving money is actually being a slave to money.

He goes on to say:

Nowhere is this slavery more evident than in the blindness of greedy people to their own materialism. Notice that in Luke 12 Jesus says, “What out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.” That’s a remarkable statement. Think of another traditional sin that the Bible warns against – adultery. Jesus doesn’t say, “Be careful you aren’t committing adultery!” He doesn’t have to. When you are in bed with someone else’s spouse – you know it. Halfway through you don’t say, “Oh, wait a minute! I think this is adultery!” You know it is. Yet, even though it is clear that the world is filled with greed and materialism, almost no one thinks it is true of them. They are in denial.

A Rose by Any Other Name

Envision for a moment that you are not reading my words but listening to me speak in an auditorium. Suddenly I pull from beneath the podium a rose of incomparable beauty. I hold it high for all to see. One can hear gasps of amazement coming from the audience.

This is a rose of almost indescribable brilliance. Its colour is bright and radiant and almost blinding. No less impressive is its fragrance. The aroma fills the auditorium (I know it’s only one rose, but it’s only an illustration!). My desire is that you experience this rose up close and personal, so I invite you to the platform to take a closer look, a closer smell.

To display it for all to see and smell, I glue the rose to the platform on which I’m standing. Perhaps a little duct tape is also employed to secure it firmly to the floor. Then, one by one, each of you passes by. Some will only look stunned by the radiant colour of this unusual flower. Others bend over and experience its enchanting aroma. A few even dare to touch it and speak of its soft and pliable petals.

I then announce that the rose will remain where it is overnight and that all may return tomorrow to experience its beauty yet again. The next day all return and once more make their way to the front of the auditorium. But something is different. The colour isn’t quite what it was the day before. The rose has slightly wilted and leans to one side. I then announce that the rose will be available yet again tomorrow and encourage all to return.

By the third day, something horrible has happened. The formerly brilliant colour has turned a dull and dreary brown. The formerly soft petals have become brittle and fall to the floor when touched. The smell has turned putrid, far from its former fragrance. It doesn’t take much to account for the changes. The rose was glued to a lifeless wooden platform. Without the nutrients derived from good soil, apart from the light of the sun, absent from the water and care of a meticulous gardener, the rose is doomed to wither and fade.

Hear me well. Just as certain as that rose will turn brown and brittle and lose its allure, so too will our souls if they are not deeply and securely rooted in the soil of Holy Scripture. We may flourish for a season, perhaps even impress people with the colour of our spirituality and the fragrance of our good deeds and the tenderness of our love for others. But in the absence of a continual supply of truth and knowledge and devotion to cultivating a mind aflame with the revelation of who God is in Christ, we will become like a wilted rose.

Affections such as joy and love and hope and peace are essential to true Christian living, the sort of living that honours and glorifies and exalts Jesus. But they cannot long survive if severed from the rich soil of truth and doctrine and ever-expanding understanding in the mind of the splendour and majesty of God.

- From Convergence by Sam Storms, page 234-235

Great Paragraph

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

From Cornelius Plantinga from Tullian Tchividjian from The Gospel Coalition

Sixpence None The Richer

Today I learned where the band Sixpence None The Richer got their name!

“Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God. If you devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to His service you could not give Him anything that was not in a sense His own already. So that when we talk of a man doing anything for God or giving anything to God, I will tell you what it is really like. It is like a small child going to its father and saying, ‘Daddy, give me sixpence to buy you a birthday present.’ Of course, the father does, and he is pleased with the child’s present. It is all very nice and proper, but only an idiot would think that the father is sixpence to the good on the transaction” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)

Napoleon Quote

I love when I get to hear and think about the difference Jesus has made on history - on things like the value of children, the value or human life and equality, economics, science, education, work, charity etc, etc.

I heard part of this quote in the Driscoll lesson on this topic of the difference Jesus has made in history:

"I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires, and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and whatever other religions the distance of infinity...

"I will tell you. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I myself have founded great empires; but upon what did these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions will die for Him. . . . I think I understand something of human nature; and I tell you, all these were men, and I am a man; none else is like Him: Jesus Christ was more than a man. . . . I have inspired multitudes with such an enthusiastic devotion that they would have died for me . . . but to do this it was necessary that I should be visibly present with the electric influence of my looks, my words, of my voice. When I saw men and spoke to them, I lightened up the flame of self-devotion in their hearts. . . . Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man toward the unseen, that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time and space. Across a chasm of eighteen hundred years, Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others difficult to satisfy; He asks for that which a philosopher may often seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the human heart; He will have it entirely to Himself. He demands it unconditionally; and forthwith His demand is granted. Wonderful! In defiance of time and space, the soul of man, with all its powers and faculties, becomes an annexation to the empire of Christ. All who sincerely believe in Him, experience that remarkable, supernatural love toward Him. This phenomenon is unaccountable; it is altogether beyond the scope of man's creative powers. Time, the great destroyer, is powerless to extinguish this sacred flame; time can neither exhaust its strength nor put a limit to its range. This is it, which strikes me most; I have often thought of it. This it is which proves to me quite convincingly the Divinity of Jesus Christ."


- Napoleon Bonaparte

Why Is Relevance?

I read this in Finally Alive on the weekend,

What Is Relevance?

As a preacher, I think a lot about relevance. Why should anyone
listen to what I have to say? Why should anybody care? Relevance
is an ambiguous word. It might mean that a sermon is relevant if it
feels to the listeners that it will make a significant difference in their
lives. Or it might mean that a sermon is relevant if it will make a
significant difference in their lives whether they feel it or not.

That second kind of relevance is what guides my sermons and
my writing. In other words, I want to say things that are really
significant for your life whether you know they are or not. My
way of doing that is to stay as close as I can to what God says
is important in his word, not what we think is important apart
from God’s word.

Make Love, Make War (Brian Doerksen)

"When we worship, we do what Satan abandoned long ago - and the Enemy does everything he can to stop us from worshipping, because when we worship, he remembers. He spends more than a little energy convincing us that there really is no war going on, and that the sum total of our life's calling is to be nice."

- Worship Leader / Songwriter Brian Doerksen from his new book, Make Love, Make War.

C.S. Lewis and Pride

I read this on the Desiring God Blog:

As a new Christian in 1930, C. S. Lewis was learning terrible things about his heart—the unfathomable layers of pride. It is astonishing how similar his description of his own heart was to the description Jonathan Edwards gave of our inscrutable strata of self-admiration.

Here is Lewis writing to his friend Arthur, amazingly within a year after his conversion:

During my afternoon “meditations,”—which I at least attempt quite regularly now—I have found out ludicrous and terrible things about my own character. Sitting by, watching the rising thoughts to break their necks as they pop up, one learns to know the sort of thoughts that do come.

And, will you believe it, one out of every three is the thought of self-admiration: when everything else fails, having had its neck broken, up comes the thought “what an admirable fellow I am to have broken their necks!” I catch myself posturing before the mirror, so to speak, all day long. I pretend I am carefully thinking out what to say to the next pupil (for his good, of course) and then suddenly realize I am really thinking how frightfully clever I'm going to be and how he will admire me...

And then when you force yourself to stop it, you admire yourself for doing that. It is like fighting the hydra... There seems to be no end to it. Depth under depths of self-love and self-admiration. (quoted in The Narnian by Alan Jacobs, 133)

Not-Small Tactical Error

Then I make a not-small tactical error by asking Colson where he goes to church.

"I've always resented the phrase, 'Where do you go to church?' I don't go to a church; I'm a member of a church. You don't ask where somebody 'goes' to a country club. I'm not talking about where you're going, I'm talking about where you plant your flag and say, 'The is where I'm a Christian.'"

- from Why We Love The Church, page 146

Love Constraining to Obedience

This is a great hymn from William Cowper that Timothy Keller mentioned in one of his messages. I wish I could learn it on guitar but so far can't quite get it.

Chorus:
To see the Law by Christ fulfilled,
To hear His pardoning voice,
Changes a slave into a child
And duty into choice.

1. No strength of nature can suffice
To serve the Lord aright
And what she has, she misapplies,
For want of clearer light.

2. How long beneath the Law I lay
In bondage and distress
I toiled the precept to obey,
But toiled without success.

3. Then to abstain from outward sin
Was more than I could do
Now if I feel its power within
I feel I hate it too.

4. Then all my servile works were done,
A righteousness to raise
Now, freely chosen in the Son,
I freely choose His ways.

Different Standards

"How different our standard is from Christ's. We ask how much a man gives. Christ asks how much he keeps." - Andrew Murray

Spurgeon Quote

The apostle says to Timothy and so he says to every preacher, "Give thyself unto reading." The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains, proves that he has no brains of his own.

- Spurgeon (from a sermon on 2 Timothy 4:13)

ht JT

Luther

“Necessary is it to preach the Gospel, and necessary is it that we beat it into their heads continually.” - Martin Luther

Conversation between Men

It is very difficult for men to have very deep relationships with other men. There are several reasons.... Number 1, the monumental issue of pride that is honed into men from the day they are born. Like, have you ever listened to dudes talk? “What did you do last weekend, Bill?” “Went duck hunting. Got a couple. What did you do?” “I killed a pterodactyl. Yeah, man. I mean, he just flew and my gun jammed. So I jumped up and grabbed him and bit a hole in his throat, choked the life out of him and mounted him on my wall. But hey man, ducks are cool. I mean, I used to hunt ducks when I was 7, but that's great for you, man. Did you take your boy with you or something?” I mean, this is it, this is the trump game. It's like every conversation involving a group of males is like a game of spades, where everybody just has the ace of spades. “I spade that...I spade that...well, I spade that...” and around the circle it goes.

- From a Matt Chandler Sermon Averil and I listened to on the way back from Toronto on Monday.

Don't Go To Church

Like most people, I forget most of what I hear in a sermon. But if the little bit that I remember is powerful then it's worth listening to an hour long sermon to hear it. Something that Matt Chandler said that I think will stick with me the rest of my life is this:

"The Bible says very little about going to church, but the Bible says a lot about belonging to a church."

There it is. One little sentence. But so powerful. Don't go to church people - belong to a church!


John Piper says of sentences:

What I have learned from about twenty-years of serious reading is this. It is sentences that change my life, not books. What changes my life is some new glimpse of truth, some powerful challenge, some resolution to a long-standing dilemma, and these usually come concentrated in a sentence or two. I do not remember 99% of what I read, but if the 1% of each book or article I do remember is a life-changing insight, then I don't begrudge the 99%. And that life-changing insight usually comes in a moment, a moment whose value is all out of proportion to its little size. That's why I call it an "immeasurable moment."

Instructions in Singing

John Wesley wrote the following interesting "Instructions in Singing"...

1. SING ALL - See that you join with the congregation as frequently as you can. Let not a slight degree of weakness or weariness hinder you. If it is a cross to you, take it up, and you will find a blessing.

2. SING LUSTILY AND WITH A GOOD COURAGE - Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being, heard, than when you sung the songs of Satan.

3. SING MODESTLY - Do not bawl, so as to be heard above, or distinct from, the rest of the congregation, that you may not destroy the harmony; but strive to unite your voices together, so as to make one clear melodious sound.

4. SING IN TIME - Whatever time is sung, be sure to keep with it. Do not run before, nor stay behind it; but attend closely to the leading voices, and move therewith as exactly as you can. And take care you sing not too slow. This drawling way naturally steals on all who are lazy; and it is high time to drive it out from among us, and sing all our tunes just as quick as we did at first.

5. ABOVE ALL, SING SPIRITUALLY - Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing Him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to this, attend strictly to the sense of what you sing; and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve of here, and reward when he cometh in the clouds of heaven.

Make People Shun You

"If you want to know how to make people shun you, laugh at you behind your back, and even despise you, here is the recipe: Never listen to anyone for long. Talk incessently about yourself. If you have an idea while the other person is talking don't wait for him or her to finish: burst right in and interrupt in the middle of a sentence." - Dale Carnegie