Joy and a great Savior!

Thabiti Anyabwile reminded me of a great quote from John Piper:

“But we are not without a Savior. Jesus Christ has come. And he is a great Savior. Every need we have, he supplies. And his death on the cross is the price that purchases every gift that leads to deep and lasting joy.

Is there wrath and curse hanging over us?

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law be becoming a curse for us–for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” (Gal. 3:13)

Is there condemnation against us in the courtroom of heaven?

Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. (Rom. 8:33-34)

Are there innumerable trespasses mounting up against us?

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. (Eph. 1:7)

Is righteousness required that we cannot produce?

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). By the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. (Rom. 5:19)

Are we cut off from eternal life?

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Are we trapped in the dominion of sin that ruins our lives?

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness (1 Peter 2:24). He died for all, that those live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. (2 Cor. 5:15)

Will all the follies and failures of our past drag us down with irrevocable, destructive consequences?

We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Rom. 8:2

Have we lost all the good things God planned for his children?

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? (Rom. 8:32)

Is there any hope that sinners like us could spend an all-satisfying eternity with God? Can I ever come home to God?

Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. (1 Peter 3:1

Oh, what a great salvation Jesus Christ accomplished when he died and rose again! All that, and more, Christ purchased by his death. Therefore, Christ crucified is the foundation of all honest and everlasting joy. No self-deception is necessary to enjoy it. Indeed all deception must cease in order to enjoy it to the full.”

From John Piper, When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy (Crossway, 2004), pp. 73-73.

Discipling our children

Rick Phillips offers this excellent article on discipling our children.  Here is the summary:

What do I mean by discipling our children?  Ted Tripp put it this way in his excellent book, Shepherding a Child’s Heart: Discipling is “the process of your children embracing the things of God as their own living faith… to see your children develop identities as persons under God” (p. 198).  Discipling arises out of the bonded relationship parents are to have with their children.

So how do parents foster a close relational bond that results in their children following in our ways?  I would offer parents four commitments designed to build a strong discipling relationship with their children.  I base it on four easy-to-remember words: Read - Pray - Work - Play.

Read the whole article here.

More on troubled souls

“Troubled souls cannot be trusted. And circumstances often lie to us. They lie to us, informing us that God isn’t sovereign, God isn’t wise, God isn’t kind, God isn’t active, God isn’t present, God isn’t for us—in fact, he has forgotten us.

We, by the grace of God, must not be governed by our troubled souls. We must not be governed by our faulty interpretation of circumstances. We must hope in God. We must wait on God. We must be certain, as a result of hope, that God is sovereign and he is faithful and he is kind. We must be certain and convinced that he will intervene, that he will fulfill his promise and his purpose for our lives.”

–C. J. Mahaney

Things to be thankful for this week

Just a few things I am thankful for this week

• Seeing a bald eagle out at Presque Isle, a park near us (At the nature center an hour later there was a report of a coyote walking around the park as well–which we did not see)
• All the folks who came out to help so far on the roof replacement project at our church and those who supplied meals for the workers
• For the safety given to those who worked on this project
• God’s patience with me when my heart is cold or indifferent toward him and His steadfast love toward me
• Hearing the glad news of a babies being born to dear Christian couples
• Getting home safely from a short trip even though “the service engine soon” light was flashing the whole way.  (Getting that checked out first thing next week)
• Provision of some homeschooling material for Stefan this school year
• The encouragement from a message by C. J. Mahaney this week
• A FOCUS group which represents people of different backgrounds but who all love and care for each other
• Great weather to get out and bike some.  I have been behind my goal for this year (1000 miles) due to other priorities and lots of rainy weather.  I went over the 800 mile mark this week though.

Saints and troubled souls

Yesterday I finished a sermon by C.J. Mahaney from Psalm 42 on “The Troubled Soul.” What a timely word for any believer who finds himself or herself a bit down or very downcast.  1 Corinthians 10:13 reminds us that “No tempations has seized you but what is common to man.”  There is no new trial or temptation under the sun.  And one of the helpful sections of the message was a reminder that men far greater in spiritual maturity than us struggled with despondency and troubled souls. Here’s what C. J. said,

“Would you be surprised tonight to learn that those we rightly respect and revere in and throughout church history are familiar with this experience?

Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892)

Charles Spurgeon wrote the following:

Why, I tell you, young Christians, that the most experienced believers, the men who have great doctrinal knowledge and much experimental wisdom, the men who have lived very near to God and have had the most rapt and intimate fellowship with their Lord and Savior, are the very men who have their ebbs, and their winters.3

And Spurgeon himself was very familiar with those ebbs and the winter season of the soul. John Piper, in giving a biographical address about Mr. Spurgeon, noted his recurrent battles with depression. John Piper writes,

It is not easy to imagine the omni-competent, eloquent, brilliant, full-of-energy Spurgeon weeping like a baby for no reason that he could think of. In 1858, at age 24 it happened for the first time. He said, “My spirits were sunken so low that I could weep by the hour like a child, and yet I knew not what I wept for.”….

He saw his depression as his “worst feature.” “Despondency,” he said, “is not a virtue; I believe it is a vice. I am heartily ashamed of myself for falling into it, but I am sure there is no remedy for it like a holy faith in God.”4

Spurgeon would once write, “This depression comes over me whenever the Lord is preparing a larger blessing for my ministry.”5 Charles Spurgeon was very familiar with a downcast, troubled soul.

Jonathan Edwards (1703–175

So was Jonathan Edwards. In his biography on Edwards, George Marsden writes, “We know that he [Edwards] also suffered from depressions throughout his life….Even as he kept the disciplines of the faith, he was frequently afflicted by times of spiritual deadness.”6 Jonathan Edwards was frequently afflicted by times of spiritual deadness.

Martin Luther (1483–1546)

And so was Martin Luther. On one particular occasion when he was greatly discouraged—which was not unusual for Luther—he was forcefully reminded of this by his wife, Katharine. Seeing him unresponsive to any word of encouragement, one morning she appeared dressed in black mourning clothes. No word of explanation was forthcoming, and so Luther, who had heard nothing of a bereavement, asked her, “Katharine, why are you dressed in mourning black?”

“Someone has died,” she replied.

“Died?” said Luther. “I have not heard of anyone dying. Whoever can have died?”

“It seems,” his wife replied, “that God must have died.”7

Luther got the point.

These men were familiar with the experience of the psalmist. And if this is your experience at present, or when this is your experience in the future, these stories should give you hope. And most importantly, we should derive hope from the divinely inspired author of this particular psalm. His soul is downcast. He is thirsty for God. He is passionately seeking God. He longs to experience communion with God. And yet his soul is downcast, in turmoil, and troubled because it seems God has forgotten him. He is more aware of God’s absence than he is of God’s presence, and the result is a troubled and downcast soul.”

Atrocities in China

Want to know some of the atrocities that are documented in China currently.   One site is reminding us of a few each day during the Olympics. Here is the first entry and the second one.  Link to it every week day for another example of oppression.  Use it a prayer reminder.

I don’t post this to spoil the excitement and the excellence that the Olympic competition brings but just to remind us of reality among all the “oohs and aahs” that we see as China on the world stage and receiving accolades for its top-notch hosting of the games.

Son of Hamas Leader Embraces Christianity!

Here is an interesting story:  Son of Hamas Leader Turns Back on Islam and Embraces Christianity I have seen it on other reputable sites such as here.

The biggest “difference-maker” in your life

I am listening to C.J. Mahaney’s message from the New Attitude Conference.  He is preaching from Psalm 42 on the troubled soul. In the psalm, the writer, a godly man has a conversation with himself.  Mahaney elaborates on the subject of the most influential voice in your life and mine.

“Author Paul Tripp has devoted much of his life to studying biblical counseling, and has written the finest single volume I have read on the topic of biblical counseling: Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change (P&R, 2002). Paul is a true Puritan, a most effective “physician of the soul.” Recently I came across the following insight in Paul’s writing. Listen carefully as Mr. Tripp describes the most influential voice in your life.

I find myself saying it all the time. When people hear it they laugh, but actually I’m being quite serious when I say it. Here it is. No one is more influential in your life than you are because no one talks to you more than you do. You’re in an unending conversation with yourself. You’re talking to yourself all the time, interpreting, organizing, and analyzing what’s going on inside you and around you.

You may be talking to yourself about why you feel so tired. Or maybe you woke up this morning with a sense of dread and you’re not sure why….Perhaps you’re reliving a conversation that didn’t go too well. Or maybe [you're] preparing yourself for a conversation that may be difficult by conjuring up as many renditions as you can imagine, so you can cover all the contingencies. Maybe your mind has traveled back to your distant past and, for reasons you don’t understand, you’re recalling events from your early childhood….

The point is that you are constantly involved in an internal conversation that greatly influences the things you decide, say, and do….

What do you regularly tell yourself about yourself, God, and your circumstances? Do your words to you encourage faith, hope, and courage? Or do they stimulate doubt, discouragement, and fear? Do you remind yourself that God is near, or do you reason within yourself, given your circumstances, that he must be distant? Do you encourage yourself to run to God even when you don’t understand what he’s doing? Or do you give yourself permission to back away from him when you are confused by the seeming distance between what he’s promised and what you’re experiencing?….When others talk to you, is your internal conversation so loud that it’s hard to concentrate on what they’re saying?

Here’s the question. How wholesome, faith-driven, and Christ-centered is the conversation that you have with you every day?1

No one is more influential in your life than you are, because no one talks to you more than you do. You are in an unending conversation with yourself. This conversation never ceases. It began when you awakened this morning and it will continue until you fall asleep this evening. It is actually taking place within you right now, even as I speak. And this evening we will consider and examine this unending conversation taking place within yourself, and within yourself each and every day.

Even though this conversation is constantly taking place within us, rarely do we examine this conversation or evaluate the content of this conversation. Rarely do we consider the influence of this conversation upon our lives. And most of us don’t consider this unending conversation as significant, or serious, or ultimately influential. But we are mistaken, because this internal conversation has the most influence on your soul each and every day. You are more influenced by this internal conversation than you are by your parents, your pastors, your friends, your teachers, circumstances, and at times even more than God and his Word. Apart from God’s activity in our lives each day, this conversation, and the content of this conversation, is the difference-maker in your soul each and every day. And there is a direct relationship between the content of this unending internal conversation and the state of your soul each and every day.

So examining and evaluating the content of this internal conversation in light of holy Scripture, and informing this conversation with the content of holy Scripture and the gospel, can—and by God’s grace, will—make all the difference in your soul and in your life.”

A prayer for reformation!

Don Carson ends his classic book A Call to Spiritual Reformation with this prayer.  It is a great prayer worthy of meditation and adaptation in our own prayer lives!  OH LORD, REVIVE YOUR CHURCH!

And now, Lord God, I ask your blessing on all who read this book, for without it there will be no real benefit. We may have education, but not compassion; we may have forms of praying, but no fruitful adoration and intercession; we may have oratory, but be lacking in unction; we may thrill your people, but not transform them; we may expand their minds, but display too little wisdom and understanding; we may amuse many, but find few who are solidly regenerated by your blessed Holy Spirit.

So we ask you for your blessing for the power of the Spirit, that we may know you better and grow in our grasp of your incalculable love for us. Bless us, Lord God, not with ease or endless triumph, but with faithfulness. Bless us with the right number of tears, and with minds and hearts that hunger both to know and to do your Word. Bless us with a profound hunger and thirst for righteousness, a zeal for truth, a love of people. Bless us with the perspective that weighs all things from the vantage point of eternity. Bless us with a transparent love of holiness. Grant to us strength in weakness, joy in sorrow, calmness in conflict, patience when opposed or attacked, trustworthiness under temptation, love when we are hated, firmness and farsightedness when the climate prefers faddishness and drift.

We beg of you, holy and merciful God, that we may be used by you to extend your kingdom widely, to bring many to know and love you truly. Grant above all that our lives will increasingly bring glory to your dear Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip us with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Do you want to change?

Do you want to change?  Do you realize how important others are in your growth in holiness? Sometimes we think it is just “me and God” working on this issue of godliness.  Here are three quotes that remind us that change is a community endavor.

“Change is something God intends his people to experience together. It’s a corporate goal. What God does in individuals is part of a larger story of redemption that involves all of God’s people through the ages … we must not take the change process out of the context in which God has placed it. We grow together!”–Timothy Lane, How People Change

We must take time to be with God alone and away from all the distractions of life. But as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book, Life Together once said, “Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. Let him who is not in community beware of being alone.”

“Do you want to change? Do you want to become more like Christ? I think the Scriptures are clear that change is a community project. Why else would God inspire his apostles to list so many “one another” commands? So I end with two simple questions. Do you want to change? If so, how are you pursuing community with other Christians?”–Zach Nielsen