"Nor does the being hungry prove that we have bread."

 “It is not enough to want to get rid of one’s sins,” he said. “We also need to believe in the One who saves us from our sins. Not only do we need to recognize that we are sinners; we need to believe in a Savior who takes away sin. Matthew Arnold once wrote, ‘Nor does the being hungry prove that we have bread.’ Because we know we are sinners, it does not follow that we are saved.” 

 ~C.S. Lewis, Final Interview

Until that Final Day -- Keith Green

My flesh is tired of seeking God

But on my knees I'll stay

I want to be a pleasing child

Until that final day

My mind is full of many thoughts

That clutter and confuse

But standing firm, I will prevail

In faith that I'll be used

Amen, I'm asking once again

Won't You help me my friend

Lord Jesus

Holy Lord Spirit, set us free

From chains we cannot see

Come release us

I wrestle not with flesh and blood

My fight is with the one

Who lost the keys of hell and death

To God's most precious son

One sleepless night of anguished prayer

I triumphed over sin

One battle in the holy war

God's promised me to win

Amen, I'm asking once again

Won't You help me my friend

Lord Jesus

Holy Lord Spirit, set us free

From chains we cannot see

Come release us

My flesh is tired of seeking God

But on my knees I'll stay

I want to be a pleasing child

Until that final day

KEITH GREEN - UNTIL THAT FINAL DAY LYRICS 

Trusting AND Trying

"[W]hen it comes to growth in godliness, trusting does not put an end to trying" (91). The Hole in Our Holiness ~ Kevin deYoung

"Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness."

(Psalm 37:3 ESV)

There is no resting on your laurels in the kingdom of God. There is no time behind the lines, no leave from the war--we're always in the trenches.

The Christian life is more of a Sisyphean endeavour--when we think we are getting somewhere, we are closer to falling than we would like to admit. That boulder of pride (or false humility) or anger (or repressed rage) or fear (or false confidence). . . the moment we think we have it conquered is the moment it slides back down the hill.


"So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand."

(Romans 7:21 ESV) 

Thank God for His grace. We don't have to do it ourselves.

However, we are still supposed to keep trying. We are to trust that our efforts to grow in godliness are of benefit and blessed by the Holy Spirit. 

"Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."

(1 Corinthians 15:58 ESV)

It is how we confirm our calling and election (2 Peter 1: 9). And because we are not saved by our works, we don't have to fear our failure.

[31] What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? [32] He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? [33] Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. [34] Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. [35] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? [36] As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”[37] No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

(Romans 8:31-37 ESV)

[3] His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, [4] by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. [5] For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, [6] and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, [7] and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. [8] For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. [9] For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. [10] Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. [11] For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

(2 Peter 1:3-11 ESV)

Gleanings--War of Words: Getting to the Heart for God's Sake--excerpt

"War of Words: Getting to the Heart for God's Sake" ~ Paul Tripp

Absolutely a must-read!!  It is an excerpt from The Power of Words and the Wonder of God edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor.

 

So convicted by so much of this. 

". . . that I may clasp your hand with all my heart. . ."

"'Lord hear my prayer’ (Ps. 60:2) that my soul may not collapse (Ps. 83:3) under your discipline (Ps. 54:2), and may not suffer exhaustion in confessing to you your mercies, by which you have delivered me from all my evil ways. Enable me to love you with all my strength that I may clasp your hand with all my heart. ‘Deliver me from all temptation to the end’ (Ps. 17:30). You Lord are ‘my king and my God’ (Ps. 5:3 ; 43:5)."

St. Augustine, Confessions, Book 1  (I. 24.17)

A heart clasp. . . what a lovely image.

Predictable / Unpredictable God

I was reading a sermon yesterday afternoon and in the introduction was this passage:

"When we feel that we have some great need, we mould God to the shape of that need and then expect that God is going to meet that particular need, and sometimes in your experience and mine, He doesn’t because we’ve simply invented our own Jesus. It isn’t what His strategy and purpose is … to meet that particular need in our lives maybe. And so we’re told in John Chapter 1, verse 11, that when Jesus was born, “He came unto His own, but His own did not receive Him.” And the reason they did not receive Him was because He did not meet their predetermined expectancy of what the Messiah would be like. He wasn’t born in a palace of royal parents and going to become a military leader. And they rejected the true Messiah because He did not conform to their own expectancy."

Charles Price- MARY: FROM FEAR TO FAITH TO FULFILLMENT 

It was so good to be reminded of this: Don't make an idol of your expectations and substitute them for Christ.  When we invent our own Jesus, he cannot save us. Don't limit Him to your own "predetermined expectancy" or you will end up rejecting the true Messiah. 

The glory of Christ is in how completely radical He is. He works outside of the "rules" of how we think life is supposed to go. He never works in our lives the way we think He will.  With Christ you must always expect the unexpected. We cannot predict Him. 

I heard another sermon by Charles Price in which he talked about this very thing. Entitled “Following God's Direction”, Price showed how Christ's miracles are not predictable—He works differently every time, and in His miracles, He used many different means to heal those who came to Him: He spoke, touched, even spit. He did not work in predictable ways or have a set formula that He used, but each time someone came to Him in faith, their faith was rewarded.

Price shows that this unpredictable way that God has of working with His people is also demonstrated in the story of Moses and the Rock at Meribah.

The first time (Exodus 17: 6), Moses was told to strike the rock.

5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 

The second time (Numbers 20: 8) he was told to speak to the rock.

and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 8 “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” 9 And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he commanded him.

Moses decided that he knew how this was supposed to work.

10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” 11 And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. “

It worked—but that was not how God had wanted him to give water to His people.

And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” (Number 20:12)

Moses didn't believe-- He did not have faith in God's power to do what He said He would.

In 1 Cor 10: 4, Paul tells us that “the Rock was Christ.” This Rock is our fount of Living Water.

The lesson Price says is that we must not come to Christ the same way each time—we cannot just come to the crucified Christ, but must come to the risen Christ. We must come not just to a slain Sacrifice but to a victorious Saviour. Christ died once for all. By striking the Rock the second time, Moses implied that this one Sacrifice was not enough. To get the Living Water of salvation from this Rock of Christ, we must follow God's directions.

Lately God has been teaching me to trust in His immutability. God is ever the same (Ps. 102: 27); this is part of what makes Him God. (See A.W. Tozer's excellent book The Knowledge of the Holy  for more on this.)

He demands that we trust in HIS unchanging nature by following His leading each time—we cannot just “do what worked” the last time—cannot stay with the traditions, and be hide-bound and static.

This was the sin of the Pharisees: blind faith in “tradition.” They thought they could just do what they had always done. They thought they could predict what the Messiah would be like, how He would come, etc. But they were dead wrong.

He is our LIVING God. He is Unchanging, yet dynamic and unpredictable. He demands our trust in Him through every situation. There is no formula for Christian living. No “do this if this happens”, “do that if that happens”, etc. 

God guides us and teaches us in ways we do not expect. (Isa 30: 21)

Living in obedience is a matter of trust. Trusting God that even when obeying Him is difficult or painful, He knows what is right. If we do what is right in our own eyes, we will always fall.

God wants people who will do what is right in His eyes (Exodus 15: 26; 1 Kings 11:38; 1 Kings 14: 8; 1 Kings 15: 5). All the good kings of Israel are said to have done “what was right in the eyes of the Lord.”

We are to look to Him.

Like Peter walking on the sea—once we take our eyes off of Christ, we will sink. Peter “forgot” that Christ was the Son of God and ruled the wind and the waves, reverting back to believing the “rules” of nature—you can't walk on water, it is not possible— and he began to sink.

He is always predictable in His character, but He is unpredictable in how He deals with us. We can't anticipate what He will do with us. Like C.S. Lewis wrote of Aslan—He is not a tame lion. He will do whatever is necessary to bring us to Himself.

AS we are all individuals so He treats us individually. However, He demands the same thing of all of us—obedience and love. He demands our worship—not because He needs it, but because of Who He is.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrew 12:1-2

Leave Me Tomorrow

Dost Thou Not Care?

I love and love not: Lord, it breaks my heart

  To love and not to love.

Thou veiled within Thy glory, gone apart

  Into Thy shrine, which is above,

Dost Thou not love me, Lord, or care

  For this mine ill? —

I love thee here or there,

  I will accept thy broken heart, lie still.

Lord, it was well with me in time gone by

  That cometh not again,

When I was fresh and cheerful, who but I?

  I fresh, I cheerful: worn with pain

Now, out of sight and out of heart;

  O Lord, how long? —

I watch thee as thou art,

  I will accept thy fainting heart, be strong.

‘Lie still,’ ‘be strong,’ today; but, Lord, tomorrow,

  What of tomorrow, Lord?

Shall there be rest from toil, be truce from sorrow,

  Be living green upon the sward

Now but a barren grave to me,

  Be joy for sorrow? —

Did I not die for thee?

  Did I not live for thee? Leave Me tomorrow. 

~Christina Rossetti

Gleanings: The Pursuit of Christ

"[Union with Christ] reminds us that the pursuit of holiness is also the pursuit of Christ. We aren't interesting in being virtuous just to be good people. Our first love is Jesus. Holiness is not ultimately about living up to a moral standard. It's about living in Christ and living out of our real, vital union with him" (98). [my emphasis]

Kevin deYoung, The Hole in our Holiness 

Gleanings: Grumbling. . .

For You It's Sin, For Me It's Service

"I’m not a grumbler, a complainer, and it’s a good thing, too, because complaining is one of those sins that I find especially offensive. Jerry Bridges counts it as one of Evangelicalism’s “respectable sin,” one that falls under our collective radar. He is probably right. But I’m onto it. I can spot it blindfolded at a hundred yards."

Tim Challies hits this one rather slyly on the head. . . Read the rest at challies.com: For You It's Sin, For Me It's Service

Gleanings: 5 Important Character Qualities for Singles

Convicting and helpful words from Did I Kiss Marriage Goodbye? Trusting God with a Hope Deferred  by Carolyn McCulley.

     "As I've pondered the common temptations of singleness, I've noticed five character qualities that help exhibit a more noble character in this season:

• Trust in God when your hopes are deferred 

•  Contentment while you're waiting 

•  Faithfulness to sow to the future even when you're in tears 

•  Graciousness when others receive what you would like 

•  Humility to pray to be  a blessing, rather than to receive a blessing 

     This isn't an exhaustive list, of course, but I think as we explore each quality, we will find in our singleness some practical ways to honor God before the watching world" (53).

 

 

 

Gleanings: Positional Holiness and Process Holiness

"In Christ every believer has a once-for-all positional holiness, and from this new identity every Christian is commanded to grow in the ongoing-for-your-whole-life process of holiness (Phil. 2:12-13)."
~Kevin deYoung, The Hole in Our Holiness

Gleanings: The Holiness Gap

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mind-the-gap.jpg

There is a gap between our love from the gospel and our love from godliness. This must change. It's not pietism, legalism, or fundamentalism to take holiness seriously. It's the way of all those who have been called to a holy calling by a holy God.

Kevin deYoung, The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap 

between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness 

The Choice to Fear or. . .

Unless I have had sometime to think about it and get used to the idea, I don't like change. I've been like this since day one apparently, since my poor mother tells me that when I was about four or five, if she didn't lay out all the possible variables in our itinerary for a day of shopping in advance, I would have a meltdown. What do you mean we have to go to The Bay because Sears didn't have the right shoes? You didn't tell me that! But, but, but --aaaah! I just couldn't handle the change.

Not liking change also means I am a worrier. If I don't know how things are going to play out in a future event or activity, I worry. Not in a "oh dear, life as I know it is ending" kind of style, but I anxiously try to anticipate every possible outcome, attempting to prepare myself for any eventuality.

Evidently, it is a deeply embedded part of my character and part of being a strong introvert. However, I think it is also a bad spiritual habit. This was drawn to my attention in a powerful way by the book I have been reading the last couple weeks. The following quote really struck a chord with me:

Not knowing is hard. . . . The fact of the matter is that we find questions of the future hard to deal with because we find it difficult to trust God. The One that we have said we've put our trust in knows everything about the future because he controls every aspect of it. Our fear of the future exposes the struggle we have to trust him and, in trusting him, to rest in his guidance and care, even though we don't really know what is coming next. Awe of God really is the only way to be free of fear of what is coming next. When my trust in God is greater than my fear of the unknown, I will be able to rest, even though I don't have a clue what will greet me around the corner.
. . .
Because we all tend at points to suffer from God amnesia, because we live in a fallen world, and because we do not write our own stories, being ruled by fear is always a clear and present danger. (Paul Tripp, Dangerous Calling 134-5)

I think that a lot of the time we react to things in our lives in our "default" setting, this state of "God amnesia," rather than choosing to trust in God's providence and sovereignty over our lives. It is a choice to trust Him.

Paul Tripp points out a few pages later, that we too often look "horizontally . . . for what can only be found vertically." He says that we are in "a glory war, a battle for what glory will rule [our] hearts and, in so doing, control [our] choices, words, and behaviors" (139-40).

Every time I default to worrying incessantly or choose to bring my fear of not-knowing and change (again and again) to the God who controls every detail of my existence and the existence of the universe, my choice is part of this glory war. It might not be that I recognize that this is a choice. Habits are habits, after all. Unless I choose to change (oh the irony!) my habits, I will be sabotaging my Christian walk with my choice to operate in my default setting.

I have to consciously choose to trust that God has planned what is best for me. I can't run ahead of Him and try to anticipate what He is doing. If I do not live in the physical and spiritual "now" where He has placed me, I am trying to take over His role as Omniscient God.

I am called to be a follower, not a leader; I am Christ's disciple, not His master. He is the Shepherd; I am His sheep. I need to cultivate a habit of trust in God's unfailing love for His people. 

As Moses said the Israelites before they crossed the Jordan, "It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed." (Deuteronomy 31:8 ESV)

Christ said, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”

(John 14:1-4 ESV)

Christ has gone before me and has prepared a place; God will fulfill His purpose for me (Ps 138:8). I do not need to worry about will come. It is all taken care of.

Gleanings: Grace for Monotonous Work

Grace for Monotonous Work Andre Yee

I love creative work, and in my world that translates into strategic planning, designing products, and kickstarting new and exciting initiatives. I find work energizing and intellectually stimulating. 

The monotonous work … not so much. 

Unfortunately for me, not all the work I do daily is creative. In fact most of our work is of the repetitive and monotonous type — interspersed with occasional opportunities for creativity. This is true of much of our work that must get done every day, both in the office and at home.

Read the rest of the article at desiringgod.org: Grace for Monotonous Work Andre Yee

Waiting like Abraham

 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

(Romans 4:20-21 ESV)

Consider what is said of Abraham in Romans 4. He was chosen by God to receive his covenant promises. He was told that his offspring would be like the sand on the seashore. Yet his wife was a very old woman, way, way beyond childbearing age, and he had not yet given birth to the son who would carry on his line. Romans 4 tells us something very significant about Abraham's heart. Think about it: when you and I are called by God to wait for an extended period as Abraham was, often for us our story of waiting is a chronicle of ever-weakening faith. The longer we have time to think about what we are waiting for, the longer we have time to consider how we have no ability to deliver it; and the longer we have to let ourselves wonder why we have been selected to wait, the more our faith weakens. But not so with Abraham. We're told in this passage that during this time of protracted waiting, his faith actually grew stronger, and the passage tells us why. Rather than meditating on the impossibility of his situation, Abraham meditated on the power and the character of the One who had made the promise. The more Abraham let his heart bask in the glory of God, the more convinced he became that he was in good hands. Rather than a cycle of discouragement and hopelessness, Abraham's story was one of encouragement and hope. Why? Because he meditated on the right thing. [italics mine]

Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique 

Challenges of Pastoral Ministry 65-66

"I can't wait" can be a dangerous statement to make too often. Any time we try to anticipate the future, and stop living where we are now, we risk living in discontent. "I can't wait" can too quickly become "I won't wait," and then our rebellious heart is off and away on a power trip that will only end in heartache and disappointment.

We can live in such a way, in such discontent, that it is almost as though we are trying to force God's hand, trying to make Him give us what we are waiting for. We treat that "thing" (marriage, work, children, etc.) as our goal or our reward for good behaviour, and we sulk when we don't get what we want. "I've been waiting forever! Why can't I just have it now?"

We might live in continual anticipation of our fairy tale dreams coming true. We head out to that Bible study or young people's evening "just in case" we might meet "the one," and keep our eyes peeled for him/her, while forgetting the actual purpose of the event.

We might try to find ways to "help" God to fulfill His promises. We force relationships, we take that mediocre job, or we make other choices based on what we want, rather than waiting to see what God will bring us, what He has planned. Abraham made this mistake and experienced the heartache which comes with trying "help" God fulfill His promise: he ended up having to send his first-born son, Ishmael--not the son of promise, but the son of the flesh (Galatians 4:23)--away with Hagar. When we try to "help" God with our "problem," we are not resting in His providence or trusting His sovereignty over our lives. We are basically telling God, "I can do it better," or worse, "You are not enough for me."

Waiting is hard, it's true, but waiting with the wrong attitude is even harder. It means you are not waiting in faith, not waiting with the comfort that hope in God affords. With faith in God's goodness and His unfailing promise, Abraham waited 25 years for Isaac to be born. Despite his slips along the way, Abraham had faith that God would keep His word, and he waited for Him to do so.

We who wait need to reorient our waiting in our hearts--we are not waiting for a job or a spouse or a car or any of the other "things" our heart desires--no, we are waiting for our God and our God is good.

Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

(Isaiah 30:18 ESV) 

I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!

(Psalm 27:13-14 ESV)

[13] For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, [14] saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” [15] And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. [16] For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. [17] So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, [18] so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. [19] We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, [20] where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

(Hebrews 6:13-20 ESV)

Boundary Lines

God will sovereignly direct your steps and put you in the place of service that He wants--however great or small. He'll take care of the opportunities for advancement, and He'll see to it that the things about which we worry so much will turn out well. For now, though, He's more interested in the fact that you faithfully follow Him in the place where he has you. In the future, He'll continue to draw and redraw the boundary lines the way He wants, but He wants you to be faithful in the boundary lines that He has drawn now. We tend to eye up our neighbor's "property"--whether it be tangible possessions or skills, talents, achievements, friends, or looks. The next time you are tempted to eye up your neighbor's property, think of these land surveys. They were "distributed by lot in Shiloh before the Lord at the doorway of the tend of meeting" (Josh. 19:51). Remember that God has drawn your boundary lines. Given your eternal hope--the fact that your hope in Christ transcends this life--you can say that your boundaries are pleasant. [my italics]

Dean R. Ulrich, "Lines in Pleasant Places: Joshua 15-19" 

The Journal of Biblical Counseling 18, no. 3 (spring 2000), 57. 

Be where you are now. Stay in the boundary lines God has set for you. You may be hedged in (Hosea 2:6) or in a broad place (Psalm 18:19), but follow Him.

When God redraws the lines, don't be afraid of the change or to change. Be assured it is something better, even if you cannot see it now.

Psalm 16 

[16:1] Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

[2] I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord;

I have no good apart from you.”

[3] As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,

in whom is all my delight.

[4] The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;

their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out

or take their names on my lips.

[5] The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;

you hold my lot.

[6] The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

[7] I bless the LORD who gives me counsel;

in the night also my heart instructs me.

[8] I have set the LORD always before me;

because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

[9] Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;

my flesh also dwells secure.

[10] For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,

or let your holy one see corruption.

[11] You make known to me the path of life;

in your presence there is fullness of joy;

at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

                                                          (ESV)