Six ways to minimize sin

Consider well these words which Timmy Brister shares (attribution is at the end):

“I found these six ways of minimizing sin to be very instructive regarding gospel-centered sanctification/mortification of sin. Take a moment and examine your fight against sin, the ways you are prone to minimize sin, and develop an intentional strategy to renounce them.

Defending

I find it difficult to receive feedback about weaknesses or sin. When confronted, my tendency is to explain things away, talk about my successes, or to justify my decisions. As a result, I rarely have conversations about difficult things in my life.

Pretending

I strive to keep up appearances, maintain a respectable image. My behavior, to some degree, is driven by what I think others think of me. I also do not like to think reflectively about my life. As a result, not very many people know the real me (I may not even know the real me).

Hiding

I tend to conceal as much as I can about my life, especially the “bad stuff”. This is different than pretending in that pretending is about impressing. Hiding is more about shame. I don’t think people will accept the real me.

Blaming

I am quick to blame others for sin or circumstances. I have a difficult time “owning” my contributions to sin or conflict. There is an element of pride that assumes it’s not my fault AND/OR an element of fear of rejection if it is my fault.

Minimizing

I tend to downplay sin or circumstances in my life, as if they are “normal” or “not that bad. As a result, things often don’t get the attention they deserve, and have a way of mounting up to the point of being overwhelming.

Exaggerating

I tend to think (and talk) more highly of myself than I ought to. I make things (good and bad) out to be much bigger than they are (usually to get attention). As a result, things often get more attention than they deserve, and have a way of making me stressed or anxious.

This excerpt is taken from the excellent study called The Gospel-Centered Life. Week one, in which this excerpt is derived, can be downloaded for free.”

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Are your Internet habits making you blind (spiritually)?

Some wise words and helpful questions from Nicole Whitacre

Our online habits can make us spiritually nearsighted. Worse than that, they can make us so nearsighted that we become spiritually blind. That’s what it says in 2 Peter 1:5-9:

“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 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. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.” 

The promise of the Internet is that it will open our eyes to new worlds. It is supposed to make us more connected, more efficient, more knowledgable. And it can! But this verse tells us that the opposite can also happen. There is a very real danger that instead of learning more, we may know less. Instead of loving more we may love less. Instead of remembering more we may remember less.

As we stare at our computer screens, we may be going spiritually blind.

So let’s pull out this Scriptural straight edge and measure: Do my online habits make me more or less effective in my knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ?

Do the articles and websites I read online make me more virtuous?

Does the time I spend on Facebook result in more brotherly affection and love for others? 

Does my activity on Pinterest make me more self-controlled?

Do my tweets help me and others grow in steadfast faith and endurance? 

Do my online habits contribute to a greater knowledge of God’s Word?   

If the answer is “no” to any of these questions, then our Internet use may be making us ineffective or unfruitful in our knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It may be causing us to forget that we were cleansed from our past sins. With every click and view, we may be going blind to the gospel.

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How greatly favored is this man: Psalm 1

Jeremy Walker shares this rendition of Psalm 1. Worth reading slowly!

C.M. (Beatitudo)
Psalm 1
How greatly favoured is the man
Who, by the grace of God,
Walks not in step with sinful men,
Nor treads the sinner’s road.

The seat of mockers holds no joy:
All wickedness is spurned
By them whose love is for the law,
Who righteousness have learned.

God’s precepts are their first delight,
His statutes are their joy,
And constantly his holy Word
Their thoughts and lips employ.

Thus fed by everflowing streams
The blessed ones take root,
And in their season, pruned and fed,
Each brings forth heavenly fruit.

No foul disease is in their leaf,
No famine do they know;
In meditating day and night
God’s saints forever grow.

The wicked cannot claim the same
For when the wind comes up
Like chaff they will be swept away:
They drink a bitter cup.

They cannot stand before the Lord
At judgement’s awful hour;
They will not stand among the saints
Who praise God’s saving power.

In all these things the Lord is just,
His knowledge is complete.
The righteous and the wicked both
Their proper end shall meet.

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The church as God’s magnifying glass

Pastor Chris Brauns on God’s power in the church:

Here is a summer science project.  Do this one at your own risk.

Choose an afternoon when the summer sun is burning down, get a magnifying glass and a pile of some dry combustible material.  Dried leaves will work just fine.  Gun powder will be more exciting.

Put the burning material down on the sidewalk and then use the magnifying glass to focus a beam of sunlight onto the material.  You will be amazed at how quickly smoke begins to curl away.  My boys and I do this and we think it great.  Jamie rolls her eyes.

You know: the magnifying glass does not provide any power of its own.  It serves only to direct the power of the sun.  But, when it does, it brings light to a burning focus and things ignite.

That is what the local church is supposed to do.  By itself, the church, God’s people, do not offer any power.  But, a church is like a magnifying glass that God uses to focus and direct His power.  Paul says in Ephesians 3:10 that God is pleased to make declaration of Himself both to people and the Heavenly realms by means of the church.

Maybe in your life, the presence of Christ does not seem powerful.  You keep waiting for change and power to ignite in your life but it’s just not happening.  If that is the case, then try another experiment this summer.  Look for a church that centers on the Lord Jesus and His Word.  Put yourself right underneath the magnifying glass on a warm Sunday and wait for Spirit and Truth to ignite in your heart.

If you live in the Erie, PA area, join us at GHBC this summer each Sunday at 9:30 AM to learn more about the church and at 10:45 for  a worship service with a focus on God’s glory!

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Infographic: Visualizing the one anothers

This year at our church we have been including one of the “one anothers” that are contained in the NT in our church bulletin each week. It is good to reflect on these commands of Christian fellowship one week at a time.  Challies has just released a new infographic in his visual theology series on this very theme were you can see all the “one anothers” in one place.

Click here, read the instructions and download which one you would like.

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Two meditations on contentment

J. C. Ryle counsels us where the best school of contentment is.

If I would I learn how to be contented and cheerful under all the cares and anxieties of life, what school shall I go to? How shall I attain this state of mind most easily? Shall I look at the sovereignty of God, the wisdom of God, the providence of God, the love of God? It is well to do so; but I have a better argument still. I will look at Calvary and the crucifixion. I feel that He who spared not His only begotten Son but delivered Him up to die for me, will surely with Him give me all things that I really need. He that endured that pain for my soul, will surely not withhold from me anything that is really good. He that has done the greater things for me, will doubtless do the lesser things also. He that gave His own blood to procure me a home, will unquestionably supply me with all that is really profitable for me by the way. Ah, reader, there is no school for learning contentment that can be compared with Calvary and the foot of the cross.

Jeremiah Burroughs in The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment tells us what contentment has to battle against.  In short order contentment is opposed to murmuring, fretting, a tumultuous spirit, an unsettled spirit, distracting, heart-consuming cares, discouragement,  sinful plotting to get relief or help,and desperate risings of the soul against God.  Challies gives the full explanation of each of these  After reading them, I recognize how I often allow some of these enemies of contentment to rob me of the peace of God that passes all understanding.

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