God hears our murmuring and complaining

“When the grumbling humor is on us we complain of anything and everything, as did these Israelites: they complained of God, they complained of Moses; they complained of the manna. They would have been ready to complain of Aaron; but, fortunately for him, he had been dead a month or so, and so they poured the more gall upon Moses. To men in this state nothing is right: nothing can be right, The whole world is turned upside down, and if it was again turned the other way it would be just as wrong—perhaps more wrong than ever.

You smile, I see, at this. Well, you may smile if you like, brethren, but it is a thing to weep over; for I remember a text that says, “The Lord heard their murmuring.” That is the solemn point in the matter. We are pleased that God should hear our prayers; it is that which we long for: but is it not terrible that God should hear our murmuring?”

Charles Spurgeon (HT: Truth Matters)

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Be crushed by God’s love!

Last night as our congregation prayed through the fruit of the Spirit, I referenced this prayer of Paul:

“so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,” (Ephesians 3:17–18, ESV)

Stephen Altrogge wrote: “Paul understood that the love of Christ is so vast, so massive, so heavy, so crushingly glorious, that it could not be comprehended with the natural mind. The love of Christ is so expansive that it cannot be grasped, so glorious that it cannot be comprehended. All the synapses and neural pathways that line our brains are not sufficient to understand how much Christ really loves us. If you try to put the love of Christ in a box of natural knowledge it will blow all the doors out. . . .Today, pray that God would give you the strength to comprehend the incomprehensible love of Christ. As you wash dishes pray for comprehension. As you walk to class pray for knowledge. As you bang out yet another spreadsheet pray that your brain would be detonated by the love of Christ.”

Read his whole article “Pray That You Will Be Crushed By Love” (including a great quote by Spurgeon) here.

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Pop quiz: how would you do?

Phil Johnson writes,

Here’s a set of talking points the Jehovah’s Witnesses hand to their door-to-door teams to instruct them on how to foment doubt about the deity of Christ. Some lazy JW saw an article I wrote on the deity of Christ and as a kind of shorthand reply, he e-mailed me a copy of the handout he was given by his church.^*

I wonder how many evangelicals would be prepared to give an answer.

Take the quiz here!  See how you do.  Need help, ask your pastor to help you find the answers and/or recommend some good resources on witnessing to the Witnesses.

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Joy is on its way

Paul Tautages:

Joy is supernatural. It comes from God. Joy is dispensed from above before it ever becomes a reservoir within. It was “the joy of the Lord,” Ezra assured the disobedient and discouraged people of God, that would be their strength as they re-established the city of God upon the foundations of His Word (Nehemiah 8:10). It was joy in the Lord that sustained the apostle’s beaten soul and maintained his ministry usefulness while imprisoned in Rome (Philippians). It was joy emerging from the words of God that Jesus promised His disciples would “be in you” so that “your joy may be made full” (John 15:11).

Joy is a gift of God. It is our hope when all other hopes have died. It is the vision and energy of the living God after those long, dark nights of the soul. It is the sturdy garment that clothes us after our mourning is turned into dancing and our course sackcloth has been laid aside (Ps 30:11).

Psalm 30 reveals to us an important reality. David’s restoration of joy is the direct result of . . .

Keep reading to find the answer to how you can regain joy when you lose it!  Take heart, God will restore your joy!

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Living in light of your inheritance

1 Peter 1:4 informs us that those who are in Christ have an inheritance which is “imperishable, undefiled, unfading, and kept in heaven for us.”  That is our inheritance is death-proof, sin-proof, time-proof, and theft-proof.”  God is guarding this inheritance and He is not going to lose it.  Our spiritual inheritance in heaven is glorious–not subject to decay, death or dissolution.  It will never be tainted by sin. It will never lose its beauty!  Paul tells us we have already obtained this inheritance and he prays “that the eyes of our heart would be enlightened so that we may know what is hoep to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:11, 18)

So how do we live right now, today,  in light of the glorious inheritance that we have in Christ. Here are three NT exhortations to keep in mind:

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Colossians 3:1–2)

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:15–17)

Let us live in light of our inheritance this day!

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