I think it's safe to say that discontent is one of the biggest struggle in the christian life. I have the hardest time with being content, and I write this as someone who is still struggling big time, not as someone whose passed it. Recently my discontent has hit me hard, i've seen anger turn to bitterness and I've seen it negatively affect those around me. What am I doing wrong? What was the "secret" that Paul had learned? How was he content "in plenty AND IN NEED". How are we to "get this secret," in times when we are angry with God and hating where we are at in life (singleness, sucky job, ect.) What God has been reminding be recently is that this secret is not as mystifying as I or Paul makes it out to be.
In my times of anger my mindset is usually I deserve better, at the core of our discontent is the conviction that we are not getting what we deserve. But the gospel answers this by saying "no you're not getting what you deserve and you can thank God for that!". You see this is the "secret" Paul talks about in phillipians, the gospel!! It wasn't searching for some new truth or practice it was the old message the one that is most crucial. When we see that our sins deserve the wrath and damnation of a holy and just God and that same God poured all that on his own beloved son so sinners like you and me could experience grace, adoption, and so many blood-bought gifts, the feelings of discontent start to lose their hold. In Christ we have eveything we need. God has been encouraging and convicting me with this truth and my prayer is that you who are struggling with discontent would stop and behold the cross where we truly see what we deserve and how much we have been given instead. When Paul says I have "learned" the secret to being content, I think this came from constant mediation on the gospel and sitting by the cross.
"I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need." (phlippians 4:12)
"if you don't have what you desire, you have more than what you deserve". Thomas Watson
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Imagery of Calvary
CJ Mahaney once said, "we can never think of that death too much". If you're struggling with condemnation, take time to linger at the cross, it's there that Jesus said it is finished. Those who trust In Christ have a solid hope. "there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus".
The face that Moses begged to see--- was forbidden to see--- was slapped bloody (exodus 33:19-20). The thorns that God had sent to curse the earth's rebellion now twisted around his own brow.
"on your back with you!". One raises a mallet to sink in the spike. But the soldier's heart must continue pumping as he readies the prisoner's wrist. Someone must sustain the soldier's life minute by minute, for no man has this power on his own. Who supplies breath to his lungs? Energy to his cells? Who holds his molecules together? Only by the son do "all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17). The victim wills that the soldier live on--- he grants the warrior's continued existence. The man swings.
As the man swings, the son recalls how he and the father first designed the medical nerve of the human forearm--- the sensations it would be capable of. The design proves flawless--- the nerves perform exquisitely "up you go!". They lift the cross. God is on display in his underwear and can scarcely breath.
But these pains are a mere warm up to his other and growing dread. He begins to feel a foreign sensation. Somewhere during this day an unearthly foul odor begins to waft, not around his nose, but his heart. He FEELS dirty. Human wickedness starts to crawl upon his spotless being--- the living excrement from our souls. The apple of his father's eye turns brown with rot.
His father! He must face his father like this!
From heaven the father now rouses himself like a lion disturbed, shakes his mane, and roars against the shriveling remnant of a man hanging on a cross. Never has the son seen the father look at him so, never felt even the least of his hot breath. But the roar shakes the unseen world and darkens the visible sky. The son does not recognize these eyes.
"Son of man!". Why have you behaved so? You have cheated, lusted, stolen, gossiped--- murdered, envied, hated, lied. You have cursed, robbed, overspent, overeaten--- fornicated, disobeyed, embezzled, and blasphemed. Oh, the duties you have shirked, the children you have abandoned! Who has ever so ignored the poor, so played the coward, so belittled my name? Have you ever held your razor tongue? What a self-righteous, pitiful drunk- you who molest young boys, peddle killer drugs, travel in cliques, and mock your parents. Who gave you the boldness to rig elections, forment revolutions, torture animals, and worship demons? Does the list ever end! Splitting families, raping virgins, acting smugly, playing the pimp--- buying politicians, practicing exhortation, filming pornography, accepting bribes. You have burned down buildings, perfected terrorist tactics, founded false religions, traded in slaves--- relishing each morsel and bragging about it all. I hate, LOATHE these things in you! Disgust for everything about you consumes me! Can you not feel my wrath?"
Of course the son is innocent. He is blamelessness itself. The father knows this. But the divine pair have an agreement, and the unthinkable must now take place. Jesus will be treated as if personally responsible for every sin ever committed.
The father watches as his heart's treasure, the mirror image of himself, sinks drowning into raw, liquid sin. Jehovah's stored rage against humankind from every century explodes in a single direction.
"father! Father! Why have you forsaken me?!"
But heaven stops it's ears. The son stares up at the one who cannot, who will not, reach down or reply.
The trinity had planned it. The son endured it. The spirit enabled him. The father rejected the son whom he loved. Jesus, the God-man from Nazareth, perished. The father accepted his sacrifice for sin and was satisfied. The rescue was accomplished.
(Section from "Boy meets Girl" by Josh Harris)
The face that Moses begged to see--- was forbidden to see--- was slapped bloody (exodus 33:19-20). The thorns that God had sent to curse the earth's rebellion now twisted around his own brow.
"on your back with you!". One raises a mallet to sink in the spike. But the soldier's heart must continue pumping as he readies the prisoner's wrist. Someone must sustain the soldier's life minute by minute, for no man has this power on his own. Who supplies breath to his lungs? Energy to his cells? Who holds his molecules together? Only by the son do "all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17). The victim wills that the soldier live on--- he grants the warrior's continued existence. The man swings.
As the man swings, the son recalls how he and the father first designed the medical nerve of the human forearm--- the sensations it would be capable of. The design proves flawless--- the nerves perform exquisitely "up you go!". They lift the cross. God is on display in his underwear and can scarcely breath.
But these pains are a mere warm up to his other and growing dread. He begins to feel a foreign sensation. Somewhere during this day an unearthly foul odor begins to waft, not around his nose, but his heart. He FEELS dirty. Human wickedness starts to crawl upon his spotless being--- the living excrement from our souls. The apple of his father's eye turns brown with rot.
His father! He must face his father like this!
From heaven the father now rouses himself like a lion disturbed, shakes his mane, and roars against the shriveling remnant of a man hanging on a cross. Never has the son seen the father look at him so, never felt even the least of his hot breath. But the roar shakes the unseen world and darkens the visible sky. The son does not recognize these eyes.
"Son of man!". Why have you behaved so? You have cheated, lusted, stolen, gossiped--- murdered, envied, hated, lied. You have cursed, robbed, overspent, overeaten--- fornicated, disobeyed, embezzled, and blasphemed. Oh, the duties you have shirked, the children you have abandoned! Who has ever so ignored the poor, so played the coward, so belittled my name? Have you ever held your razor tongue? What a self-righteous, pitiful drunk- you who molest young boys, peddle killer drugs, travel in cliques, and mock your parents. Who gave you the boldness to rig elections, forment revolutions, torture animals, and worship demons? Does the list ever end! Splitting families, raping virgins, acting smugly, playing the pimp--- buying politicians, practicing exhortation, filming pornography, accepting bribes. You have burned down buildings, perfected terrorist tactics, founded false religions, traded in slaves--- relishing each morsel and bragging about it all. I hate, LOATHE these things in you! Disgust for everything about you consumes me! Can you not feel my wrath?"
Of course the son is innocent. He is blamelessness itself. The father knows this. But the divine pair have an agreement, and the unthinkable must now take place. Jesus will be treated as if personally responsible for every sin ever committed.
The father watches as his heart's treasure, the mirror image of himself, sinks drowning into raw, liquid sin. Jehovah's stored rage against humankind from every century explodes in a single direction.
"father! Father! Why have you forsaken me?!"
But heaven stops it's ears. The son stares up at the one who cannot, who will not, reach down or reply.
The trinity had planned it. The son endured it. The spirit enabled him. The father rejected the son whom he loved. Jesus, the God-man from Nazareth, perished. The father accepted his sacrifice for sin and was satisfied. The rescue was accomplished.
(Section from "Boy meets Girl" by Josh Harris)
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Do you pray when you read?
Does thinking about God lead you to talking to him? I was extremely convicted today by a quote from John Owen:
When we undertake thoughts and meditations of God, his excellencies, his properties, his glory, his majesty, his love, his goodness, let it be done in a way of speaking unto God, in a deep humiliation...in a way of prayer and praise -- speaking unto God
When I was at the NEXT 2010 conference, the speakers talked about the importance of theology and how right thinking ought to leads to a right response. However, my experience has proved to me how easy it is to leave right thinking as mere thought. Some theological doctrine (e.g., justification, substitutionary atonement, or the resurrection) might catch my attention as a read, but I tend to just leave it in my mind think: I'll be reading a theological book or even reading the bible and it'll just be to gather information. So often, my end is to know things about God, as opposed to knowing him and loving him.
One way I have come to notice that my desire is off target in my reading is my total lack of prayer during my reading or studying. But Psalm 63:5-6 makes it clear that thoughts about God demand a prayerful response, when it says, "My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, WHEN i remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night." So let me ask you: When you read J.I. Packer, or John Owen, or John Stott, or study God's Word, do you pray through what you are reading and thinking? Are you inviting him into your reflections or just musing to yourself? Are you pleading with God to help you understand, asking him to help you savor him and be satisfied in him alone? In short, do you find that you prize your knowledge about God above your relationship with him?
We must remind ourselves that Christ is our treasure, and that his word is designed to draw us into treasuring him. Don't miss the treasure because of your fascination with the treasure chest!
When we undertake thoughts and meditations of God, his excellencies, his properties, his glory, his majesty, his love, his goodness, let it be done in a way of speaking unto God, in a deep humiliation...in a way of prayer and praise -- speaking unto God
When I was at the NEXT 2010 conference, the speakers talked about the importance of theology and how right thinking ought to leads to a right response. However, my experience has proved to me how easy it is to leave right thinking as mere thought. Some theological doctrine (e.g., justification, substitutionary atonement, or the resurrection) might catch my attention as a read, but I tend to just leave it in my mind think: I'll be reading a theological book or even reading the bible and it'll just be to gather information. So often, my end is to know things about God, as opposed to knowing him and loving him.
One way I have come to notice that my desire is off target in my reading is my total lack of prayer during my reading or studying. But Psalm 63:5-6 makes it clear that thoughts about God demand a prayerful response, when it says, "My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, WHEN i remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night." So let me ask you: When you read J.I. Packer, or John Owen, or John Stott, or study God's Word, do you pray through what you are reading and thinking? Are you inviting him into your reflections or just musing to yourself? Are you pleading with God to help you understand, asking him to help you savor him and be satisfied in him alone? In short, do you find that you prize your knowledge about God above your relationship with him?
We must remind ourselves that Christ is our treasure, and that his word is designed to draw us into treasuring him. Don't miss the treasure because of your fascination with the treasure chest!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)