Affliction and the Pedagogy of God

Pedagogy is an old word with Greek origins that means ‘teaching’. When we talk about the ‘pedagogy’ of God we’re talking about how God is a teacher to his people. We’re accustomed to thinking about how God teaches as the Spirit opens our minds and hearts in the experience of hearing or reading God’s word. But God also pedagogues us through our afflictions. Whether we learn what God is teaching depends on whether we acknowledge or embrace what some have called ‘the school of affliction’ – seeing God’s merciful and wise hand in the difficulties we face in life. In a post on the Desiring God web site, John Piper recently gave his thoughts on God’s education of his children in the school of affliction.

In this week's Taste & See Article, I pointed out from Psalm 119: 67 and 71 that God sends affliction to help us learn his word.

‘Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word. . . . It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.’

I didn't ask how affliction helps us understand God's word and keep it. There are innumerable answers, as there are innumerable experiences. But here are five:

1. Affliction takes the glibness of life away and makes us more serious so that our mindset is more in tune with the seriousness of God's word.
2. Affliction knocks worldly props from under us and forces us to rely more on God which brings us more in tune with the aim of the word.
3. Affliction makes us search the scriptures with greater desperation for help rather than treating it as marginal to life.
4. Affliction brings us into the fellowship of Christ's sufferings so that we fellowship more closely with him and see the world more readily through his eyes.
5. Affliction mortifies deceitful and distracting fleshly desires, and so brings us into a more spiritual frame which fits God's word more.
   

I pray that we will not begrudge the pedagogy of God.

So, fellow disciple, what are you learning in your afflictions class these days?

From Generation to Generation

This past Sunday Marty Machowski preached a message in our Family Life series entitled “Growing Families Toward the Future. Marty preached from Exodus 10, the plague of locusts. If you’re interested in finding out how this text relates to raising our families, check out his message here.

In his message, Marty appealed that God has called us to affect generations to come by sharing with our children the great story of redemption through Christ. He said,

“When we tell them the story we connect them to a God who saw them before they were ever born. We connect them to a God who wrote the most magnificent story with them in mind. The Story begins way before the first plague. It begins just after the fall when God, looking down through the corridor of history tells Eve, I will raise up one of your children to crush the head of the serpent. And it carries through this Exodus account to the last plague where we see the sacrifice of Christ is foreshadowed in the blood of the lamb on the doorposts. So you see, the story we tell, the story God intended be passed on to the generations is more than locusts, it’s the story of the Gospel.”

He illustrated the power and purpose of God in using older generations to impact future generations through a letter written from his wife Lois’ grandfather to her when she was a teen. Here is the excerpt of the letter Marty read.

Dear Lois,

Peace be unto you.

This is your grandpa, an old man 94 years old. Time to go home, but I have 13 grandchildren and the question comes to me: How many of them will follow in my trail? How many will I meet at the judgment seat where we all will meet some day? To how many will I hear Him say: “Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. My prayer is: Lord please bring all my children and grandchildren with me into glory. I would like to meet them all there.

Today, everyone whom that grandfather had on his heart is serving the Lord.

Every Square Inch is Mine!

In our Sunday message yesterday we discussed how families can grow strong along side the culture. We learned that the enticement of the world is a very real and spiritually dangerous thing. But we live and work and play and relate in a world we can’t leave. How do we bring faith into this daily battle with the world? In the book "Worldliness – Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World", Jeff Purswell gives us a God-glorifying perspective in his chapter, “How to Love the World.” Jeff writes,

“A biblical worldview sees every moment of life lived under the sovereign grace of God and the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Scripture’s story is emphatic: God’s rule extends to all of creation and therefore all of our lives. As Abraham Kuyper famously put it, ‘There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over ALL, does not cry, 'Mine!’



"Therefore every second of life is significant… A biblical worldview gives us new eyes to see all of life: every sphere is charged with potential, every activity providing an opportunity to serve God, and bring glory to God. Because God is sovereign over all things, and Christ is redeeming all things, all things matter to God.”


We can be in the world, but not of it; enjoy its blessings without being trapped by its snares; and engage it with the redemptive hope of the Gospel. We don’t need the world, but the world certainly needs us.

"Worldliness" is an outstanding and very readable book for understanding how to interact with the culture and be faithful to Christ. This month Sovereign Grace Ministries is having a ginormous sale on this book (and other great resources) that will allow you to interact with a strategic resource in very challenging times.

Financial Counsel Worth Taking

Winter for me is a time of financial reckoning. I get the final tally on what we spent on Christmas – which is always more than we planned. In early January I print my final budget report for the year where I learn afresh how my ‘shoulds’ line up with my ‘dids’. And then I set my new budget ‘shoulds’ in place for the coming year. I start pulling my tax stuff together. And I get that year end statement that tells me how my retirement accounts did.

Ouch. The last one hurts this year. If there’s any truth to the fact that misery loves company, then maybe we all are loving that ‘where did it all go’ feeling. Most of the financial advice out there seems to call us to not panic. Prudent investing looks at things in the long term.

Perhaps at this time of new budgets and economic uncertainty it’s helpful to remind ourselves that the long term for Christians goes well beyond this current economic problems. One of my favorite insights from Randy Alcorn is so helpful as I begin to look at my financial picture for the upcoming year.

Let me assume the role of “eternal financial counselor” and offer this advice: choose your investments carefully; compare their rates of interest; consider their ultimate trustworthiness; and especially compare how they will be working for you a few million years from now. (Randy Alcorn from "Money, Possessions and Eternity" p.134)

A Prayer for Our Nation

Yesterday, Doug Hayes, one of our pastors and the Executive Director of Covenant Mercies, took some time in our morning worship to pray for our nation on Sanctity of Life Sunday. It captures with clarity and grace the heart of our church during a time of extraordinary events in our country. The following is the text of Doug’s prayer.

Heavenly Father, as we come to you on this Sunday when we acknowledge, in a special way, the Sanctity of Human Life, we remember that you – the Creator and sustainer of all life – have revealed yourself as a God of grace and a God of justice.

• You are merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love
• But you are also a God who refuses to take a position of neutrality when it comes to matters of justice.
• You have revealed yourself as One who stands with the oppressed and against the oppressor.
• And Lord, we rejoice at the ways in which we’ve seen your justice take hold, to a greater degree, in our society.
• This week – as we honored Martin Luther King on one day and inaugurated our first black President on the next – we were powerfully reminded of how far you have brought us as a society on issues of racial justice.
• When our President was born, not so long ago, a battle was raging in this land to determine whether he should be allowed to sit in a classroom with his white contemporaries.
• Today, he sits behind a desk called Resolute, in the Oval Office.
• Indeed, you have shed your grace upon this nation.
• We pray for President Obama, his administration, and his family. Protect his life. Give him wisdom. Bring him wise counselors, and give him the discernment to sift the wise from the foolish.
• We know that the king’s heart is in the hands of the Lord, and you direct it as a watercourse. Direct our President’s heart toward righteousness, and cause him to lead our nation in that way.
• As we pray for him, and as we thank you for what his presidency represents, our faith is emboldened to pray for justice on behalf of the unborn.
• You have changed the hearts and minds of this nation with regard to racial equity and racial justice.
• We pray today that you would open our eyes, change our hearts, and give us the courage to apply the same to the unborn.
• We must confess to you, Lord, that our laws and our practices in this area are unjust.
• But just as Martin Luther King refused to believe that the bank of justice was bankrupt for America’s citizens of color, we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt for the unborn.
• We refuse to believe this

- not because America is a great nation,
- not because we see morality gaining ground in our culture everyday,
- not because we believe in the inherent goodness of the American people
- not because we believe in our own capacity to come together and effect a historic change.

• We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt for the unborn because you are a God of justice.
• You have revealed yourself as Father to the fatherless and a defender of widows.
• And though this world will always be filled with injustice, you have promised to work righteousness and justice on behalf of all who are oppressed.
• Do this on behalf of the unborn, we pray!
• Even as we pray for justice to prevail, we repent before you for the sin of 50 million abortions.
• These are staggering numbers; 50 million people, created in the image and likeness of God.
• As a nation, we have defied your rule and made an idol of our own self-determination.
• As your people, too often we have remained silent. Too often we’ve looked the other way as if this wasn’t happening all around us.
• Too often when we have spoken, we’ve spoken words of self-righteous indignation rather than words seasoned with your grace.
• Would you teach us to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly as it relates to this issue?
• And Lord, how we thank you that there is forgiveness for the sin of abortion
• We thank you that any in this room who have participated in abortion are forgiven of this sin and bear it no more if they’ve placed their faith in our merciful Savior.
• Thank you that though you are a God of justice, you have poured out justice on your Son so that we can receive mercy.
• You have been merciful to a rebellious and sinful people.
• You have opened our eyes to historic injustices.
• We ask you to open our eyes to the injustices of today, and have mercy on us as a people.

Amen

Standing at a Crossroads

This week as a nation we stand at the crossroads. A new president will be inaugurated. That president, Barak Obama, will bring a democratic administration into power and usher out a Republican administration. But as we all know, there is a far more significant crossroads before us than a change in political parties. President Obama will be a man of color in the White House – representing the will of the people to govern in difficult times. These are truly remarkable times.

Mr. Obama’s path to the White House is a reflection of this crossroads. It is a coincidence of the calendar that he will take office the day after we celebrate Martin Luther King’s Birthday. Dr. King’s work in many ways led to this moment. It is a symbolic choice that the President elect chose to retrace the Illinois to Washington train route taken by Abraham Lincoln when he took office nearly a century and a half ago.

It would be a great gift to this country if Barak Obama could, in the months and years ahead, rise to the stature of these men he is linked with through coincidence and choice. Let’s pray that this is exactly what happens. And may the following reflections on the character of a leader be found in some measure embodied in our new president.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and conveniences, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. (Martin Luther King)

It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong…. Nearly all men can stand adversity. But if you want to test a man's character - give him power. (Abraham Lincoln)

Word Pictures Worth Pondering

I’m working my way through Sinclair Ferguson’s "In Christ Alone" in my devotions and have really been hit by some of the things I’ve read. This past week I read a section on the power of the tongue where he used some very vivid word pictures to describe how our words matter. Here’s what caught my attention,

“Our use of the tongue is a sure evidence of the condition of our heart. It is the hinge on which the doors into our souls swing open in order to reveal our spirits. In effect, as our words leave our mouths they are like so many media people rushing to file their reports on the condition of our souls… The tongue that has tasted the Lord's goodness speaks appropriately as well as sits silently. It praises as well as rebukes, comforts as well as challenges. Such a tongue reveals a heart that is a veritable department store of graces.” (p175, 177)

Let’s consider three word pictures he uses.

Our tongue as the hinge on the doors into our souls.

The purpose of a door is controlled access. It keeps in things that should stay in, and keeps out things that should stay out. I’ve got some closet doors in my basement with loose hinges. They never quite close right, and because they are closet doors, all the junk behind them tends to spill out when I least expect it. How many times have I known I should have shut my mouth, and then said that one more thing…. Hinges are tricky things.


Our tongue as media people filing reports on our souls

It’s crazy being an Eagles fan. One play works and they’re going to the Super bowl. They can’t make a first down on third and one and they’re bums. Regardless of what happens, talk radio is there, filing reports on everything imaginable. What is the story that get’s filed about our soul? It determined by moment to moment success or failure, or does it tell a consistent story?


Our tongue as the display window of our heart

I used to work in the display department of a department store. There was an awful lot going on behind the scenes to create an attractive display window. The purpose of a display window isn’t to sell the clothes in the window. It’s to attract you to consider what’s beyond the window in the store. That’s the way our tongues should work. When we speak people should be attracted to the work of God in our hearts behind the window of our speech.

What word picture would describe your tongue?

Pray in Difficulty

We begin our new near as a church with a focus on prayer. We’re going to be devoting our first community groups of the year to prayer. As Jared shared in his message on Sunday from Acts 4:23-31, ‘prayer is the voice of a church that is desperate for the power and presence of God.’

If we understand prayer rightly, we ARE desperate for prayer. It is the unique relational privilege we have with God our Father, made possible by the mediation of the Savior.

For our blogs this week we’re going to take a break from our regular features and devote the entire week inspiring you to pray based on points from Jared’s message. His first point is that we pray in difficulty. This is true no matter what our circumstances. If we are in a season of trial, we find that difficulty will drive us to cry out to God for mercy and deliverance. If we are in a season of blessing, the difficulty is to neglect prayer in favor of distraction and self-sufficiency. So no matter what, prayer will be accompanied by difficulty. That is where we see it operate.

The following words from John Piper will help you keep your desire to pray lively and your practice of prayer faithful.

“My hope is … not only that you feel encouraged to pray, but mainly that the nature of God as a fountain of free grace will be reaffirmed- that God is the kind of God who delights most deeply not in making demands but in meeting needs. Prayer is his delight because prayer shows the reaches of our poverty and the riches of his grace. Prayer is that wonderful transaction where the wealth of God’s glory is magnified and the wants of our soul are satisfied. Therefore God delights in the prayers of the upright.”

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. (Romans 12:12)

A Big Enough Gospel

When we think of what it means to be a Christian, nothing is more telling about us than how the Gospel shapes our view of life. The Gospel shouldn’t just be central to us, it must be big enough to address any situation we face or need we have. Nineteenth century hymn writer Horatio Bonar describes a very big Gospel for us.

“All that Christ did and suffered, from the manger to the tomb, forms one glorious whole, no part of which shall ever become needless or obsolete; no part of which one can ever leave without forsaking the whole.

I am always at the manger, and yet I know that mere incarnation cannot save; always at Gethsemane, and yet I believe that its agony was not the finished work; always at the cross, with my face toward it, and my eye on the crucified One, and yet I am persuaded that the sacrifice there was completed once for all; always looking into the grave, though I rejoice that it is empty, and that ‘He is not here, but is risen’; always resting (with the angel) on the stone that was rolled away, and handling the grave-clothes, and realizing a risen Christ, nay, an ascended and interceding Lord, yet on no pretext whatever leaving any part of my Lord’s life or death behind me, but unceasingly keeping up my connection with Him, as born, living, dying, buried, and rising again, and drawing out from each part some new blessing every day and hour.” (as quoted by firstimportance.org )

As we head into a new year, let us resolve to live out of a Gospel that is truly big enough for all we will face.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

The other night we were at a Christmas party with friends. Toward the end of the party our hosts gave us each a packet of Christmas hymns, which we proceeded to sing around a piano. What had been a great party became great worship, because the songs we were singing contained the astounding truth of the incarnation of our Savior.

Over the next few days as familiar Christmas carols rattle around in your head, take some time and ponder the deep Gospel thoughts contained in some familiar carols:

Angels From the Realms of Glory
Saints before the altar bending, watching long in hope and fear
Suddenly the Lord, descending, in His temple shall appear
Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn King

Good Christian Men Rejoice
Good Christian men, rejoice with heart and soul and voice;
Now ye need not fear the grave;
Peace! Peace! Jesus Christ was born to save!
Calls you one and calls you all to gain his everlasting hall.
Christ was born to save!
Christ was born to save!

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
O ye, beneath life's crushing load whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way with painful steps and slow;
Look now! for glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing;
O rest beside the weary road and hear the angels sing.

For lo! the days are hastening on, by prophets seen of old,
When with the ever-circling years shall come the time foretold,
When the new heaven and earth shall own the Prince of Peace their King,
And the whole world send back the song which now the angels sing.

O Little Town Of Bethlehem
How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming; but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him, still the dear Christ enters in.

Silent Night
Silent night, Holy night! Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face, with the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus Lord at thy birth; Jesus Lord at thy birth.

The First Noel
Then let us all with one accord; sing praises to our heavenly Lord,
That hath made heaven and earth of naught
And with His blood mankind hath bought.
Noel Noel Noel Noel! Born is the King of Israel!

What Child is This?
Nails, spear, shall pierce Him through, the Cross be borne, for me, for you:
Hail, hail, the Word made flesh, the Babe, the Son of Mary!
This, this is Christ the King; whom shepherds guard and angels sing.
Haste, haste to bring Him laud, the Babe, the Son of Mary.

We Three Kings
Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume breathes a life of gathering gloom.
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying, sealed in the stone cold tomb.
Glorious now behold Him arise, King and God and Sacrifice!
Al-le-lu-ia, al-le-lu-ia, heaven to earth replies.
O star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright.
Westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light.

Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Hail! the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail! the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings, risen with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die;
Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth
Hark! the herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King"

Joy to the World
He rules the world with truth and grace, and gives to nations proof
The glories of His righteousness, and wonders of His love;
And wonders of His love; and wonders, wonders of His love.

What’s Your Bible All About?

What’s the Bible all about? I just finished up a great course in Biblical Theology at Westminster Seminary. For the class I read some outstanding material on the storyline of the Bible. One of the amazing things in studying the Bible not just as a collection of theological truths is that you see the amazing way the writers and collectors of the Scriptures knew they were telling small sections of a great salvation story. And most didn’t even know how the story would end. That’s the point Peter makes in his first letter,

1 Peter 1:10-12 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

In one of my assignments I came across this amazing insight into the story of the Bible from Ed Clowney. I’ve highlighted the last sentence. Stop and take in the head-spinning reason we have the Bible.

“The Bible is not only from God, it is about God. The Bible story is not the history of Israel, nor the biographies of saints whose lives may inspire us. It is God's story, the account of his saving work. God speaks his promises and acts to keep them. The initiative is always his. In the Garden of Eden, after the sin of Adam and Eve, the Lord came seeking them. God promised that the Son of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, even as his heel was struck (Gn 3:15). That promise is the rationale for human history. Had God spoken his word of judgment rather than his promise, human history would have ended at the foot of the tree in the Garden. God's plan to send Christ is the reason we have the Bible; indeed, the reason there is a human race.” (“The Glory of the Coming Lord Discovering Christ in the Old Testament”; Modern Reformation 4:6; November/December 1995, 22-26

God in Skin

As we enter the Christmas season we are once again presented with the opportunity to ponder the amazing reality of the incarnation. We’ll be doing that each Sunday in our series, “Songs of the Savior”.

Louie Giglio has a very interesting perspective on what it meant to be ‘born as man with man to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel’.

God is eager to share his take on you. Here it is.


Mess Up.

Definitely.

Deeply Loved.

Anyway.


Both are true and both things set him in motion shaping history with a story fueled by unstoppable grace. You see God was not shut down by our failure. Nor did the consequences of our rebellion dim his beautiful heart of love. No, we were the ones shut down when sin caused our souls to die. And die we did. It’s bad news, death.


Because dead people can’t see. Can’t breathe. Can’t help themselves. Dead people can’t do anything. That is why they call him Savior. When we were dead and could not touch God, Jesus came down and touched us.


It is the most phenomenal thing that has or will ever happen to you and me. Divinity rushing into humanity. God in skin marching steadily to the beat of his own love. And nothing and no one could alter his course.
- Louie Giglio, “Remembering the Silence”

Originally posted here

Why Thinking About Eternity Makes My Brain Hurt

Bloggers Note: This week the Family Life Blog is looking at our finiteness against the backdrop of God’s Infinity. Let God be Big!

Did you ever tell yourself, ‘I need to think about eternity more’. So you close your eyes and begin to ponder the great timelessness…and then wake up half an hour later having dreamed about eating cheeseburgers? Well, maybe its just me.

In his small classic Redemption, Accomplished and Applied, John Murray offers some reality check on our confidence that we can ponder eternal existence.

“We cannot think in terms of eternity; we have no eternal thought. Only God’s thought possesses that attribute because he alone is eternal. When we try to think of eternity we realize the limits of our understanding and we are reminded that eternity is incomprehensible to us. But we must think of eternity and think of it in such a way that the more we are aware of the limits of our understanding the more enhanced becomes our appreciation of the marvel of God’s eternal purpose and grace.” (Redemption Accomplished and Applied, 92)

Do you see the helpful wisdom he is giving? We can’t think eternal thoughts – our imaginations are bound by the time realities this side of heaven. We can ponder; we can wonder, but we can’t grasp eternity. But rather than discouraging us, these limits should fuel our worship of the One who is Eternal – and the one whose purpose and grace is to one day introduce our puny minds to first hand experience of timeless joy!

Sometimes Wisdom Smacks You in the Face

On these Monday posts I like to try to put things in that are crafted bits of wisdom that require us to mentally chew on them to get the effect. But this one below is simply good truth from an oft told but reliably true story. Get ready for a soul adjustment.

An eminent and well-known English preacher was approached by a congregation member who complained about some aspect of church life. It may have been that he didn't feel welcomed, or that he was finding it hard to make friends and fit in; it could have been that he was finding the service dissatisfying or the preaching too long; it could have been that the music was not to his taste or that his family was not being catered for to his satisfaction. The details of the complaint have been lost in the telling and re-telling of the story.



The preacher listened to the complaint, paused, and then replied with five words that cut straight to the heart of not only the man's problem, but the problem with all grumbling and complaining in church. He simply said, “It's not about you, stupid!” and walked off.


It was a stunningly rude response—the kind that this preacher seemed uniquely capable of getting away with in his very English way. But doesn't it exactly express what is wrong with grumbling and complaining in church?



It really is the height of idiocy to think that church is about me and my needs and my family and my satisfaction. It completely overturns the teaching of the Bible—that church is about God and Christ and loving other people. In fact, if we wanted to summarize Paul's rebuke to the dysfunctional Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 11-14, a pretty reasonable slogan would be “It's not about you, stupid!”.

Guess what? Pastors grumble about church too – and we actually create and oversee the things we complain about! So this is great advice the next time I’m looking at a week full of meetings or an inbox full of emails. Or anytime I’m tempted to complain.

“It’s not about you, stupid!

Full credit for where I found this is in Tony Payne’s blog ‘The Sola Panel”. Here’s his full blog: The five-word antidote to grumbling

See God in Love

Saturday night Rob Flood spoke to the Cross Culture Youth from 1 John 4:7-12. He brought out a very helpful perspective from verse 12: No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

Here’s some of what Rob said,

“When Christ was here, God’s love was manifest through Him. He ascended and sent His Spirit, so now He lives in us. He abides in us. His love can be manifest though us. The love with which Christ loved is available to us now. With God Himself living in us, we are now the vehicles of God’s love to the world. He who lives in us loves through us.

By our loving one another, God is making the invisible God visible. God is love, and He manifests His love in us. The God who lives in us loves through us.

In his systematic theology, Robert Culver underscores this truth:

“Our love for God and other people is both evidence and fruit of God’s indwelling presence in us and is the means God uses to reveal His holiness and love to the world.” Robert Duncan Culver p.103

It’s not that Jesus loves us, so we have to love others. It is that we love others because God is in us…and God is love. God’s heart is to manifest Himself through His love…through us. We become an active player in the process of God being made manifest in the world.

He who lives in us loves through us. If His love is not coming through us, we must visit the first part…is He living in us? It is the very reason John said in verse 7, “whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” If the love of God flows through a man, then God lives in that man. If the love of God flows through a woman, then God lives in that woman. God’s love demands a way and manifests itself through how His people love one another.

So, that difficult person you work with…That family member who constantly rubs you the wrong way…That parent (or that child) that you’re certain won’t ever understand you…That friend who wronged you, and maybe doesn’t even know it…How do you love him? How do you love her?

First of all, understand and take comfort in the fact that you’re not in it alone. God is with you. But He’s not standing on the sideline like a coach hoping the players can pull it off this time. He’s not a cheering Dad in the crowd. He is there with you, empowering you, giving you the love you’ll need to carry out the call He’s placed on your life to love others.”

Why is this possible? Because of verse 10.

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.


You can listen to the entire message here in a few days.

The Gospel…And all its difficulties

In his classic study of 1 Cor. 13, "Charity and Its Fruits", Jonathan Edwards reminds us that to receive the Gospel is to receive all that comes with it, which can include things we’d rather not accept. The Gospel of grace is a full Gospel – it is the greatest message of joy in the universe, but it is also the deepest message of cost in the universe as well.


"He that does not receive the Gospel with all its difficulties does not receive it as it is proposed to him. He that does not receive Christ with his crosses as well as his crown, does not truly receive him at all. It is true that Christ invites us to come to him to find rest, and to buy wine and milk; but then he also invites us to come and take up the cross, and that daily, and that we may follow him; and if we come only to accept the former, we do not in truth accept the offer of the Gospel, for both go together, the rest and the yoke, the cross and the crown; and it will signify nothing, that, in accepting only the one, we accept what God has never offered to us. They that receive only the easy part of Christianity, and not the difficult, at best are but almost Christians; while they that are wholly Christians receive the whole of Christianity, and thus shall be accepted and honoured, and not cast out with shame, at the last day." (259)
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Beyond the Ballot Box

Tomorrow is Election Day – the end of the long campaign trail. One thing is for certain. In about 48 hours or less (barring another chad count) we will know who will lead our country for the next four years. We also know that roughly half the country will be very optimistic about our country’s prospects, while the other half will wonder with varying degrees of anxiety what the future holds.


As we are in this current series, “Shine”, we’re learning about Christians who lived in cultures where the right to vote would have been unthinkable. So as we go to the polls (everybody vote!) let’s keep their reality in mind. Commentator Sam Storms has written a wonderful devotional on Revelation 2 and 3, "To the One Who Conquers". Here’s some great perspective from Dr. Storms for the politics of our day.


“Make no mistake: I’m eternally grateful for the laws that safeguard our rights, and I consistently vote for those candidates who are social, fiscal, and moral conservatives. But have we come so to depend on such political blessings, economic liberties, and the legal protection Christianity enjoys that in their absence we fear the destruction of the church and the silencing of our witness?


The church in Ephesus, as with so many other congregations in the first century, knew nothing of a constitution, a first amendment, or a right to vote. Yet they survived, and thrived, in the midst of what strikes us as unimaginable state-sanctioned idolatry and immortality. Before we panic or lose heart at the state of our state, or the condition of our city, we would do well to remember the promise of Jesus: ‘I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’ (Matt. 16:18).” (p. 27)

Solid Rock and Sinking Sand

In a recent message at Covenant Life Church, Josh Harris shared some very helpful thoughts on how to relate to the current economic situation. The following is an excerpt that was posted on the CLC web site that can serve us all in what are (humanly speaking) uncertain times. One thing I got my attention from Josh’s comments was when he said, “Spend more time meditating on God’s word than watching the Markets”. The indexes are a way to track daily economic activity. They never account for God’s eternal activity. I need to remember that.

Here’s the link to the excerpt – about 4 minutes long, but well worth the viewing.

Renovation or Demolition?

Did you ever have times in your life where you feel God is hammering on you? Yes, we know he he’s at work changing us, and sometimes change can be hard. But there are those times when we wonder whether it’s not change He’s after, but maybe demolition.

This is one of the all time classic C. S. Lewis quotes which can give you vision if you feel you are in the demolition zone of life.

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right, and stopping the leaks in the roof, and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably, and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage; but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 172.



This was posted at firstimportance.com

The Drama of the Psalms

The Psalms are at the heart of the Scriptures, both literally (in terms of their central location among the books of the Bible), and emotionally in their expression of the heart of believers before the Sovereign Lord. When we read Psalms in our devotions we can sometimes miss the emotional and spiritual impact they are meant to have on us. The Psalms were written and collected to be spoken or sung aloud – in the midst of the gathered people of God.



At the recent Worship God 08 Conference, Ryan Ferguson shared a dramatic rendition of Psalm 145 that captivated the ears and hearts of nearly two thousand people. To get a fresh sense of what the Psalms are meant to do, view this recitation included in Bob Kauflin’s Worship God blog. It will stir your heart to worship!