Forgiving from the Heart

... For he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your father is merciful. (Luke 6:35)

Then his master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you? (Matthew 18:32-33)

Awhile back I received a strong rebuke from one of my roommates about my attitude toward another guy. I had been harboring deep bitterness for the pain and grief he had caused me. As a result, I was full of anger and resentment. He had put me through so much that I was unable to forgive him, or so I told myself. In response to my unforgiving attitude my roommate shot this question at me, "Do you have any idea the crap you and I did to Christ?!" It was one of the strongest rebukes I've ever had. And through it, I saw that I had really failed to grasp that the gospel affects how we live with--and show mercy--to one another. We can never stare too often or too long at the mercy of God. It is so easy to forget how much I have been forgiven, nothing anyone has ever done to me can ever match the amount of evil I have done to God in my rebellion. We were once his enemies, waging war against him with our sin but it was his kindness and mercy that paid for our sins and reconciled us to himself. It is vital that we dwell on the riches of his kindness to us. We fail to believe the gospel when we treat another sibling in Christ or an unbelieving neighbor with contempt, scorn, or resentment because we fail to remember the horror we inflicted on the son of God.

Furthermore, our refusal to show forgiveness and mercy demonstrates that we have not truly received the father's forgiveness and mercy. A good friend pointed it out to me, that the king in the Matthew 18 parable was angry with the unmerciful servant not simply because he was cruel (he was) but that the servant never truly received the King's mercy. Showing mercy to others is a fundamental part--an outpour--of our receiving, treasuring, and trusting in the mercy of God the father. So, are you harboring any bitterness in you heart? Has someone just really ticked you off big time? Do you feel that some people aren't worthy of your interest, time, or patience? Then run to the cross! Remember what you have been spared. It is only by dwelling on how patient and merciful God has been to you that you can be merciful to your brother, sister, or neighbor. And trust God to keep His promise to make obedience "healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones" (Proverbs 3:8).

The Truth Behind Complaining

This is an excerpt from Stephen Alltroge's book "The Greener Grass Conspiracy." It was a section that stood out to me (among others) and really convicted me. Do we really take time to think through, what we are ACTUALLY saying when we as christians, complain about our life?

When we complain, we're saying that the blessings of the gospel aren't enough. We're saying that the death of Christ isn't enough. We're saying that eternal fellowship with God, purchased at great cost to God, isn't enough to satisfy our souls. We're saying that forgiveness of sins and peace with God is nice, but not that nice. We're saying that God "[has] not wisdom, or power, or mercy enough," to provide for us. We're saying that God himself, who is the very definition of goodness, isn't good enough. We would like a little something more, if you don't mind. God plus [insert desire of choice] should do the trick. When we complain, we accuse God of being stingy, of not giving us enough. Do you see the utter sinfulness of complaining? It tramples the gospel in the mud and paints God as a cosmic Scrooge. Even though God gave up what was most precious to him to bring us to himself, it's not enough. Even though God proved his generosity with blood, we don't believe him. God has emptied his pockets for us, and yet we complain.1

We desperately need to return, again and again to the gospel. Re-applying it daily. When tempted to complain, it is vital that we remember "the hell we deserve and the heaven we've received."






1 Altrogge, Stephen "The Greener Grass Conspiracy" p. 72, Crossway

Freedom to Love

This is a section from Pastor Tullian Tchvidjian's book Surprised by Grace. If you have not read it, I highly recommend you pick it up. Reading it has helped me see how I need the gospel EVERY day, its not the first step we leave behind once we are saved, but is the medicine we need each and every day. The following section was one of my favorites, Tullian draws it out more, but this section is the crux. It has helped me in seeing how, as a believer, God's love for me should affect how I love and treat others.

In Jesus, we also have all the affection we long for. The gospel rescues us from the fear of not being loved as well as our fear of loving. The gospel tells us that God in Christ loved us a lot -- even while we hated him. Fully realizing this will pave the way for us to love others unconditionally as well. We realize and experience this liberating truth: "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." (1 John 3:16) This kind of lay-down-your-life love is the clearest indicator of a gospel centered life. But laying down your life is impossible. It's too scary -- unless you know you've been eternally loved by Christ. Then your free to give your life to others, because you've received so much yourself.

The Proper Fear of God

When you think of fear of the lord, what comes to your mind? The past couple of days I've noticed an unhealthy fear, one that is antithetical to that desired in scripture. When I start to think about the future and how I really want this to happen or that to work out, I get fearful and think "I shouldn't think about this, God will probably do something with my life that'll wreck me and I'll just be frustrated". I find I've got this view of God that portrays him as the giant anvil that hits the Wiley Coyote. I'm terrified when or how the anvil is gonna hit me. So my feeling is that I've got to bury these thoughts, plans, desires or God is gonna go all Tasmanian devil on me (I apologize for the loony toon references, for some reason I can't get em out of my head).

Do you feel this way? That sinking suspicion that God is gonna do something and its gonna be bad? I've been convicted that this is unbelief in who God says he is and it is not the fear of the lord desired in scripture. Granted, we should be afraid of God but that is not dominant element. We need to remember that as Christians we serve a God who promises to deny us NO GOOD THING. He proved that by giving up his son for us. I'm seeing that legitimate fear of the lord is the fear that sees God in all his holiness and majesty and us in our creatureliness and total sinfulness and then the fact that the very same God, gave his perfect son to suffer his just wrath so that you and me could be reconciled and made children of God. We should not be afraid of God in the sense that we are afraid of what he will do, this is fear couched in unbelief. In fact, we don't need to fear judgment because Christ experienced the full load. Let's remember that we do not come to a cruel divine ogre who crushes us and our desires cause we don't measure up. We come to a heavenly father who delights in his children. And when we feel the painful rod of his discipline, it's only meant to protect us from the deceitfulness of the idols that grab for our attention. If he denies us certain things, it's only because he has something better. Sinclair Ferguson describes legit fear of the Lord as:

"The indefinable mixture of reverence, fear, pleasure, joy and awe which fills our hearts when we realize who God is and what he has done"

If you are a Christian you can come to God with those desires, but please surrender them. I need to, I need to believe he is for me. We should not be afraid because we serve a God who takes pleasure in doing good to his children.

"I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul."(Jeremiah 32:41)

Cultivating proper fear of the Lord involves thinking hard about who he is and what he has done. This same God who spoke creation into being, who wiped out nations, and abhors sin, crushed the apple of his eye, in order to wipe you and me clean and bring us to him to enjoy forever, righteous in Christ. Deep reflection of the cross and it's implications should evoke the fear that glorifies him and fuels our striving for godliness. Today rest in the fact that God is for you, he wants you to enjoy him and trust he has your good at heart.

The Uneasy Doctrine of Hell

This past Sunday my pastor preached a message on Hell. I'll admit I was a little uneasy at first, but the sermon was really challenging and definitely left me affected. In fact, I realized that Hell is a lot more important to daily Christian life than I thought: It shows us our depravity, God's holiness, and the mercy of the cross. As Christians, we have been spared from the stark reality of Hell.


Along with this realization, I also found myself encouraged to be at a church where the bible is the sole authority and have a pastor who is willing to preach hard truth, yet do it in love. The fact is that Hell is a subject that no one really wants to think about--its a problem, as even Christian apologists readily admit, i.e., the "problem of hell." Nevertheless, it is a reality that scripture teaches and one that is vital that we not neglect. In my experience, American churches today tend to two unhealthy extremes when it comes to the doctrine of Hell: (1) one in which churches preach nothing BUT hell and neglect the good news, or (2) those who simply deny it or twist it into something that scripture doesn't teach (i.e.annihilationism). Today people are very flippant about hell, dismissing it as nonsense. I thought of lyrics from a Billy Joel song (and no I don't listen to Billy Joel a lot!).



"[T]hey say there's a heaven for those who will wait

Some say its better but I say it ain't

I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints

the sinners are much more fun"



What my pastor made clear (and more importantly what scripture makes clear) is that hell is definitely not an endless party for sinners but a place of torment from a holy, wrathful, and just God. Many would see this image as barbaric, but it is what scripture teaches and our consciences confirm: Hell is what each and every individual on this planet deserves. God would be 100% just to send me to hell. As my pastor pointed out, "For God to punish sin is completely just, in fact for him to not punish it would make him unjust." When we deny hell or candy coat it into something else we distort the gospel into a different message.


At the same time, the Scriptural position on Hell is stage-setting for God's merciful intervention through Jesus Christ. Jesus came to earth to bear the wrath the we deserve. He endured hell for us. R.C. Sproul comments on the cry of Jesus on the cross: "[H]is cry was the cry of the damned FOR US." If you're not a christian you need to flee to Christ and trust in his atoning death for you. Everyone who calls upon his name, THEY WILL BE SAVED. God's love in preserving us from Hell is just as astonishing as his holiness is in requiring that there be a Hell. And the reality of this love demands a response. Like my pastor suggested, "We need to be asking, 'Why was I spared?'" Christian, have you marveled at this mercy? Before this past Sunday, I certainly hadn't! I need to! I am sure that considering the reality of Hell is linked to growth in compassion and joy. God has been more merciful to us than we can imagine, and we will spend eternity wondering why.





http://www.sgcsc.org/media/audio/e31397ba-c4a2-3034-2dfe-311da14a11bc.mp3

Paul's Big Secret

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

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)