Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Repentance

Nehemiah 1; Ezra 9:4-9

As I read this morning of a people who were repenting in the sight of God it is clear that we, in this time, do not have a clear understanding of the holiness of God. (I include myself among the foremost.) We have no fear of God nor a knowledge that we should fear Him. Even when we are convicted our prayers prove weak and halfhearted, as if to say we are more sorry that we can not get away with with doing what we desire. We have no idea to whom we are praying. If we did we would, with these men, fall on our faces and weep aloud at the evil we practice daily. We have so limited our view of God, that we see Him only as loving and gracious. While He is absolutely those things, His love and grace are cheapened if not seen in light of His holiness and justice. If we choose to never observe the wrath of God how then will we know from what we have been set free. God is not a box of chocolates that we may choose the pieces we like and then discard the rest. In so doing we cheat ourselves out of the joy of seeing His glory. Beware of those who seek to tell you only of God's love and goodness with no mention of His holiness and justice. That is a path to pride as we would seemingly see ourselves worthy of His love and mercy. Romans 1:18-32 gives a description of mankind that is not so flattering. It shows that man is deserving of God's wrath and it is because of this that Romans 5:8 is so sweet. "For while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." God does not love me because I am worthy but because He is glorious. It is to this God, the God of justice wrath and holiness alongside love and grace, that we pray. This alone should cause us to forever have a repentant heart.
DAW

Monday, December 22, 2008

The Joy of Fatherhood

There is nothing that will change your life quite like having a child. I thought I was ready for this until my son was born. Everyone tells you that your life changes and that you have no idea what you will feel for your child and all of it sounded rather cliche to me and then I saw him. I heard that first cry and held his little frame in my arms and the tears flowed. It was true. All that I had heard was true. There were and are no words available in any language that can begin to describe what you feel and the love that you have for that child. I never thought it would dissipate but I had no idea it would become even stronger over the next six months. Yet it has. This morning I went to get my son out of his crib and just as with every morning he looked up at me and had the biggest smile on his face. Yet this time I experienced a truth of God that I have known intellectually for some time but this morning I felt it in my heart. As I looked at my son who was beaming up at me I thought of what it must be like for God when we beam up at Him not because of something He did or something He has, but simply because He is there. Do I truly delight in Him? Do I look into His face each morning and smile as big as I can just because He is there or do I start each day complaining because I have to get up and get to work? It is strange the things you learn from those who yet can speak. This morning God used my six month old son to teach me that a love for God culminates in a desire for Him. Do you smile at God each morning or run your laundry list of wants or worse yet not even acknowledge the fact that He is there to wake you up to Himself?
DAW

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The Hideously, Beautiful Cross of Christ

"But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world." - Galatians 6:14

Let us not boast in our "righteous" accomplishments, but rather in the cross through which we are empowered to obey. Any good or righteous act done by a believer is done through the empowerment of the living Christ. By His death on the cross we have been set free from the curse of the law. What then is the curse of the law? The curse of the law is the condemning power of the law for those outside of Christ. For those that do not know Christ and have not been redeemed from their sin by His death and resurrection, the law stands as their judge to condemn them to eternal life in Hell. "For there is none righteous not even one." There is no one that does good, and no one that seeks God. There is no one who can keep the law in all points not even the most zealous. So what then, are we left on our own to toil on this earth and then die only to have eternal torment as our future with no hope of escape. No! "For while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." We can be free from the curse of the law through Christ's death. How? He led a sinless life, a life that kept all of the law from birth to death. He was indeed sinless. Yet before the earth was formed God chose that He should die a murderous death as sacrifice for sinful people (all people) by pouring out His wrath and judgment of sin on Jesus, that we may experience not condemnation but life. It was and remains His good pleasure to show us mercy by placing His justice on Christ. We are the ones who failed and chose to fail. We are the ones who found satisfaction and pleasure in everything else except that which is supremely valuable, Jesus. He decided to show us mercy not because we are so great but because He is so gracious. Not because we are so lovable but because He is so loving. In light of this we who are believers should boast in nothing except the cross. Because through the cross we have been crucified to the pleasure of this world that would lure us away from our Treasure, Jesus. For those of us who do not believe, what would hinder your heart from experiencing the joy knowing God? Boast not in your "good" deeds but in His goodness.
DAW

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Don't Waste Your Life

These are excerpts from John Piper's book Don't Waste Your Life.

"At these moments, when the trifling fog of life clears and I see what I am really on earth to do, I groan over the petty pursuits that waste so many lives—and so much of mine. Just think of the magnitude of sports—a whole section of the daily newspaper. But there is no section on God. Think of the endless resources for making your home and garden more comfortable and impressive. Think of how many tens of thousands of dollars you can spend to buy more car than you need. Think of the time and energy and conversation that go into entertainment and leisure and what we call “fun stuff.” And add to that now the computer that artificially recreates the very games that are already so distant from reality; it is like a multi-layered dreamworld of insignificance expanding into nothingness." pg 125

"How will it help me show that I do treasure Christ? How will it help me know Christ or display Christ? The Bible says, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). So the question is mainly positive, not negative. How can I portray God as glorious in this action? How can I enjoy making much of him in this behavior?" pg 119

"Oh, how many lives are wasted by people who believe that the Christian life means simply avoiding badness and providing for the family. So there is no adultery, no stealing, no killing, no embezzlement, no fraud—just lots of hard work during the day, and lots of TV and PG-13 videos in the evening (during quality family time), and lots of fun stuff on the weekend—woven around church (mostly). This is life for millions of people. Wasted life. We were created for more, far more." pg 119

"It is one of the defining marks of Our Time that God is now weightless. I do not mean by this that he is ethereal but rather that he has become unimportant. He rests upon the world so inconsequentially as not to be noticeable. He has lost his saliency for human life. Those who assure the pollsters of their belief in God’s existence may nonetheless consider him less interesting than television, his commands less authoritative than their appetites for affluence and influence, his judgment no more awe-inspiring than the evening news, and his truth less compelling than the advertisers’ sweet fog of flattery and lies. That is weightlessness. It is a condition we have assigned him after having nudged him out to the periphery
of our secularized life. . . . Weightlessness tells us nothing about God but everything about ourselves, about our condition, about our psychological disposition to exclude God
from our reality." David Wells pg 121

Ponder these things today and ask yourself if you are wasting your life. Are you using the time God has given you on this earth to make much of Him or make "your" life comfortable?
DAW

Friday, November 14, 2008

True Love

"Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was." John 11:5-6

What an interesting set of verses to explain the love of God. What a warped view of the love of God we have. This is the story of the death of Lazarus and Jesus raising him from the dead. While reading this passage this morning these two verses leaped off the page at me. They seem so paradoxical. Could it be that perhaps this was just a mistake in writing by John? (If you believe that then we must have an entirely different discussion) Absolutely not! We know that every word of Scripture is inspired by God. It is put together exactly as He desires and in this passage He is showing us how His love works. We have become so accustomed to this new definition of love that our culture has thrown on us that we can scarcely see the truth about love. We believe love to be an attempt at making another person happy. That is, we believe that we must say or do whatever we must to make someone feel good about themselves and us, even at the expense of the truth. We have dilemmas over whether to tell someone the truth at the expense of their feelings. Or to put it another way, we wonder whether it is better to tell someone a painful truth or let them continue in ignorant happiness. This is not love. This is not the love of God that is found in Scripture. God never withholds the truth from us or pain from us so that we may feel good. God allows such events in our life that we may see Him and find Him all satisfying. That is the case here with Lazarus. Jesus knew full well that Lazarus would die. He knew that Mary and Martha would grieve tremendously for four days before Jesus arrived. He knew that they believed all to be lost and would even be angry with Him for His delay. Yet "he stayed two days longer in the place where He was. Why? "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." So how is this love made manifest? Mary and Martha are weeping in anguish and Lazarus is dead. How is that loving? How can Jesus possible show His love from this? How could His delay possibly be loving? the answer is found in Jesus' reply to Mary and Martha one verse prior to verse 5. "This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son may be glorified through it." What was Jesus' objective in this situation? It was their overflowing joy in the glory of God not their temporary happiness in seemingly "perfecting" their circumstances. What Mary and Martha wanted most was to be with their brother. The wanted him to have relief from His physical ailments. What God wanted most was to be wanted most. He wanted them to be able to say "though he slay me yet will I trust Him" He wanted them to see Him for who He is and find their ultimate satisfaction in Him. If took the death of Lazarus to do it, then so be it. If it took temporary pain to make eternal joy then so be it. We must not be so short sighted in our suffering but rather understand the truth of God's love. It always leads us to be satisfied in Him ALONE! Though there may be pain, there will be great reward because we will see the glory of the only begotten in whom the fullness of God is pleased to dwell. That my friends is love. God's revelation of Himself at the expense of temporary happiness. May we find Him more satisfying than anything this world offers, for that is what it means to be a believer in Jesus Christ.
DAW

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

More of Jesus

I want more of Jesus. I don't want more of His stuff and His "blessings." I want the person Himself. There is a deep longing in more heart right now for more of Christ. I feel the words of Peter when He said "to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life." John 6:68 There is too much in the world that would draw the evil desires in me and pull my life into destruction. I want Jesus. I need Him yes, and that need could never be put into words, but I want Him as my treasure. I want to see Him in His glory. I want to experience His holiness. I want to know what it is like to be in the presence of God so strongly that you feel as if you will die if you stay any longer.
(Isaiah 6) I want to abide every second in the presence of my dangerous but good King. I need Him yes, but I desire Him also.
DAW

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Who is your teacher?

For those of you who know me and those that don't but read this blog, you have by now come to see that I have been heavily influenced by the teaching of John Piper. God has greatly used Dr. Piper in teaching me His word. I have come to see that thinking is the means to understanding. Simple yes I know but all to often we ( and I mean me) just expect that if we read the Bible, no matter how cursory it may be, that that will be enough to grasp the truths of Scripture. That is not the case. God desires us to think (meditate) on His word day and night. Psalm 1. So there is no doubt that Dr. Piper has been and continues to be very influential in this area.
With that said I feel I must make a point here that I have been convicted of in recent days. I must never set Dr. Piper or anyone else in the seat of ultimate teacher in my life. Let me explain what I mean. There can come a tendency in our lives that we set someone up to be of great influence in our lives and mistakingly make them to be god. Even if they have been used by God to show us more of Himself we, as humans, can make them out to be something they are not. For example, we could perhaps interpret Scripture based on their understanding of the Bible and not God teaching us through the power of the Holy Spirit. You might ask the question, what is so wrong with getting their view on Bible interpretation. Nothing as long as you are not using them to do the work that God desires to do in you. In other words, if you would rather read men's books to grasp an understanding of Scripture than to read the Bible and think about it yourself then you are setting yourself up to be deceived. Men are fallible, all men. No matter how great they may seem to be and no matter what impact they have had on your life they are capable of being wrong. So the best thing to do is ask God to be your ultimate teacher. God wrote the book and if anyone can teach us it would be Him. Seek first God and His word, because it is absolute truth, then go to the secondary sources. We should never put man in the place of primary teacher in our life because they did not write the Scripture, God did. Go to the source. Do not just blindly believe everything that you may hear someone say. Study the Bible. Think (meditate) on the Bible and allow God to teach you first. Then utilize those whom He has also taught to help you when you need it.
It is our responsibility and our pleasure to read the Bible and know the God who redeems us. God wrote His Word not to primarily give us a list of rules to follow but rather to reveal to us who He is. It is only when we see who He is that we will change. When you get a glimpse of the holiness of God for example you will begin to hate sin more and more. A view of the cross in light of God's holiness reveals the severity and gruesomeness of sin. So read the bible and know God. Pray that He would be your primary teacher. Then go to other sources once you have thought it through. God has given us tremendous teachers to assist in pointing us in the right direction but he never means for those teachers to take his place in our lives. Seek Him first through His Word!
DAW

Monday, October 27, 2008

Your focus when standing at the foot of the cross

I began thinking this past week about the cross and its deep meaning in my life, for without it I have no hope either in this life or the next. It hit me however that people have a very different view of the cross based on their thinking. Allow me to explain. There is a way of thinking among Christians today that would look at the cross as a means of finding value in themselves. For example the would say things like this, "This cross reminds us how valuable we are to God. It should cause us to think about how much we are worth if Jesus would go that far to save us." This my friends is a dark and prideful way of viewing the cross of Christ and the pouring out His life on our behalf. The cross should never cause us to feel good about ourselves in the sense of raising our self esteem. If it does then when have failed to see the truth of the gospel and have not been saved. That may seem to be a strong statement but I stand behind it and wish to show from the Bible why I believe it to be true. If we seek to find value in ourselves at the cross we can not find value in Christ. We put our glory above His. In doing so we have missed the most fundamental element of the cross' necessity, namely, sin. It was for sin that Christ died. It was because of our desire to do all we could to defame His glory that He chose to give His life on our behalf. Consider this description of us before Christ redeemed us. "And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them." Romans 1:28-32 Or perhaps this description "If while we were enemies of God..." Romans 5:10 Or perhaps this description in Ephesians 2:1-3 "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." These verses (and many more throughout the Bible) don't give us much cause to raise an alarm of our goodness and inherent value. Which is exactly the point. The point of the cross was not to show us our value but God's. It was to show His beauty and His glory. If we look to the cross and see our value then there may as well be no cross. If we are worthy of such a deed from God then why would we need it to begin with. The beauty of the cross is that it shows us the extreme love of God for those who hated Him and the extreme wrath of God on our sin, and the extreme justice of God to not wink at our sin and wipe it away but to take the punishment for our sin on our behalf while we were still sinning. The cross shows us the severity of our sin. If you look into the bloody and beaten face of Christ and say to Him "thank you for showing me my value" you have missed the glory of the cross. When we see the bloody and beaten face of Christ it should draw us to our knees in repentance and cause us to shudder at the unexplainable glory of the only begotten who gave His life not for the valuable but for the condemned, helpless enemy, me. It was my sin that He chose to give His life for and that shows His glory. Let us fix our eyes on Christ not on ourselves. When we approach the cross may we see God as supremely valuable not ourselves. We put Christ on the cross. His love for His Father stayed Him there. The justice and wrath of God was poured out on Him and now and only now are we called His friends. I urge you to go to the cross to see the glory of God not your glory, for if you seek your own glory you find that you will have all eternity to find out why you were wrong.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Desires and Distractions

A few days ago I wrote in my blog about television and the reasons for which my wife and I decided to do away with it. I stand behind those reasons fully but I desire to go deeper and examine the real reasons the entertainment industry can stifle our relationship with Christ. Let me begin by saying that this is a personal conviction but one that I think is widely shared among us. I am not saying that doing away with television is right for everyone but I am STRONGLY recommending that we each seriously contemplate and evaluate its status in our lives. With that said let us begin.
About a year and a half ago I took a trip to New Orleans for school. I had to go down and take some classes and the best (and cheapest) place to stay was on campus in the dorms. So myself and four other guys got a dorm room to stay in for the week. One night during the week my friends decided to go out and eat and spend some time seeing New Orleans. I elected to stay behind because I was quite fatigued and just wanted to turn in early. As I sat in this dorm room with no telephone or TV I found myself doing what was good and right to do. Reading and spending some much needed time with God. To this point in my life the most I had ever been able to read at one time was about thirty minutes and it was tough going. I had problems concentrating and comprehending what I was reading. I had even been to a doctor to see if there was something that I could take to help me concentrate and focus more. Well you can imagine my surprise when I looked up and saw that two hours had passed and I was not wanting to quit. I began to ask myself what was going on. How was it possible that I was able to sit for that long and read without having the slightest difficulty in comprehension. Then it hit me. There were no distractions. There was nothing there that was tugging at my heart to cause me to follow after it. It was just me and God and the book he had provided to change my life. I would love to say that the reality of that moment hit me so hard that I immediately removed my television from my life. I would love to say that my wife is the one that wanted it and that is why we kept it for another year and a half. Neither are true. The truth is that when I arrived home I still desired to entertain myself with television. I did not at that time see God as more valuable. In fact at that time I had no idea that that was wrong. I felt convicted to remove tv but rationalized and justified my way into keeping it. That was not the end for God in this discussion. In the past year and a half He has being showing me more and more that anything that we desire more than Him is an idol. But truth be told in our mind we say that I don't desire anything over God because I don't want to be and idolator and lets face it, I don't have any statues in my house that I worship. Well for me that was not the case. I did not have any statues but I had plenty of things that caused me to not long after God. So here is a good test for determining what we desire more than God. 1. Do you have a daily time with God? If not then ask yourself why. What is in my life that is more valuable than spending time with the most valuable being that exists? What is keeping me from drinking the living water? What has so temporarily filled me that the perfect God is not appetizing? 2. If I am having a daily time with God or any time with God for that matter, what draws me away from that time with Him? For example, for me it is entertainment. When I am spending time with God I feel a pull to go do other things such as watch a show I have been withing all week to see or play my xbox while my son is asleep. It is as if there were a hook in my heart that I have bitten down on and is now pulling me away. That is nothing short of and idol. There are also those times where I have thought things like this. " I know that right now is a good time to spend with God and I hear Him calling but I am just going to finish this show and then I will do it. At that point, whether you do it or not, your heart has been revealed. You have just seen that that show holds more value in your heart than Christ. These are the convictions of my heart.
The riddance of television is not the only answer however. The heart is quick to find some other dung hill to wallow in. That is exactly what I find myself doing even now. I no longer have television service but I find myself just popping in DVD's to entertain me and bring me pleasure. Is not God more valuable than that? Is my vision of God so minuscule that I can not find Him more desirable than a movie? The answer is yes. My vision of God is that small and that is to my detriment. God has given and sustained His word to reveal to me who He is and yet I find joy in learning of fictional characters for an hour and a half. I would rather get to know someone who does not exist than to know the Christ who made me. My desires are warped. This should not surprise us. The Bible tells us clearly about our desires in James chapter four. "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people.!" Does it strike you as odd that James here calls us adulterous. Often we overlook that verse with this kind of thinking. "I have not committed adultery with anyone." That is a false statement. You may not have been an adulterer in a sexual relationship but we all are guilty of adultery in our relationship with Christ. John Piper said "Whatever lures your affections away from God with deceptive attraction will come back to strip you bare and cut you to pieces. It is a horrifying thing to use your God-given life to commit adultery against the Almighty." So the issue is not simply tv. I wish it were that easy. The issue lies much deeper than that. What do you find yourself enjoying more than you enjoy God? The answer to that question will lead you to the alter of worship to your god. Whatever you desire more than Jesus is indeed your god. We must ask ourself this tough question not just to feel convicted but so that we may repent. Let us see God as more valuable than the dung of this world. Let us fix our eyes on Christ not a screen. May our hearts be filled with joy at the thought of spending three hours with Him more than spending three hours in a movie theater or a football game. Let us be excited and overjoyed at the prospect of speaking with and hearing from the one whose voice created all we see. Let us draw near and know the God that formed us out of dirt and gave us life through Jesus. "Whom have I in Heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth I desire besides you." Psalm 73:25 Pray that I would desire Him more than anything and take pleasure in sitting at His feet and I will pray the same for you.
DAW

Friday, October 10, 2008

The identity of the Antichrist

Recently I have had some people asking me about the identity of the Antichrist. It seems that some believe a certain presidential candidate to be the one. In the next couple of paragraphs I hope to explain what I think the Biblical stance on this issue to be. But first let us make the assumption that the Antichrist is known to us. People tend to view this as very frightful and something we must fight against. I am not sure that is the proper conclusion to draw. I have three reasons why. 1. To assume we know the identity of the Antichrist is to assume more than the Bible tells us. I am certain that if God believed that we needed to know who the Antichrist is he would have put it plainly in Scripture. There is a reason for the confusing nature of Daniel and Revelation. We are not meant to know certain things. 2. If the Antichrist is here then to be blunt, there is nothing we can do to stop his rise to power because it is ordained by God. 3. If the Antichrist is here we should rejoice in knowing that very soon we are going to be with Christ.
However, these things are not of chief importance. The book of revelation is not simply a revelation of end times. It is a revelation of Christ in the end times. It is a display of His power in the worst time in world history. It is a glorious revelation of his absolute sovereignty over the events of men and Satan. Nothing happens without His first giving permission for it to take place or his ordaining it to happen. It shows how futile it is for Satan and all who follow him, to attempt to in any way "overthrow" God. One such way He shows this futility is by speaking a single word at the battle of Armageddon and all those who oppose Christ are destroyed. So my point is this. If we only read books such as Daniel and Revelation in an attempt to discover a secret timeline to the final days of this planet, we are reading them for the wrong reason. Those books are in the Bible for the same reason as any other book. They exist to reveal to us who God is. In light of that I would say that if we are spending more time trying to determine who the Antichrist is than who the real Christ is we may be in real danger of not recognizing either. The Bible was meant to show us God in all His glory and then to instruct us how to live in light of such a revelation. Let us live to that end. That we may know Christ and make Him known. When the earth fades and the enemy is vanquished and we are standing before God what will be important to know? The identity of the Antichrist or the identity of the real Christ?
DAW

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The "necessity" of Television?

In our culture today there is "demand" that people have television. The reasons are many. They vary from things such as "to know what is going on in the world" to " keeping my kids entertained." (which I have a big problem with) Nevertheless in our great society, if you don't have a tv people look at you as though there were a tree growing out of your neck. Well, I suppose I will have to have the funny looks for the rest of my life. There has been talk in my house over the past year that maybe we should do away with our tv since we have a child and there is so much trash that fills the air waves. It is getting progressively worse everyday. The things that are being promoted as entertainment are pushing ideas of sexuality and degradation of Jesus Himself. This weekend God opened my eyes to filth of television. As I sat watching the local football game on Fox they ran an advertisement for upcoming shows that would air that evening after the games. There is an animated show known as "Family guy" and the promo for the show had Jesus walking on water in a fountain and performing f aux miracles in the attempt to be comedic. I find this very disturbing and not at all funny. The miracles that Christ performed were neither funny nor attempt at anything lighthearted. I would dare say the demoniac at Gerasenes would find this vain attempt at humor to be entertaining. Nor do I believe that the woman with the issue of blood would see it as anything but heretical. These are attempts by our society to show us what they believe of the eternal, all-powerful Christ. I shudder to think about how I will answer to God if I continue to allow such vulgarity into my home and my very own mind.
The level of sexuality on tv today has hit an all time high. It is rare when you can watch anything without seeing an advertisement with a half dressed woman in it or a commercial promoting treatment for male anatomy. These commercials are not on late night tv they are on all day on every channel. As I watched Monday night football last night there was an advertisement for a new movie coming out. The commercial itself was beyond belief in what it showed but then the name of the movie absolutely floored me and cause me to turn off my tv. It is called "Zack and Miri make a porno." Are you kidding me with this? Have we lost our minds to let this stuff into our house. How slow am I that I am just now having my directv service cut off? How long will we sit and let this filth into our lives without a second thought to Paul's words in Philippians 2:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."
Just one final note. I have turned off my tv service not in an attempt to boycott the "industry." I know that these things will continue until Christ comes back. I have turned off my tv service because I see the need to focus my mind and the minds of family on the only thing truly admirable that exists, Jesus Christ. The real Christ that is eternal and has made Himself known to us through His Word. I am making a decision for the sake of my family because God has called me to be the leader in my home and to glorify Him in ALL that I do. Watching television distracts us from God and more often than not it degrades our Creator. I have turned off my tv service because I am too afraid of God not to.
DAW

Friday, October 3, 2008

The Whoring Spouse

There is a tendency when we hear or see language like this to turn away and see it as an offense to God. We don't like reading words such as "whore" for obvious reasons. That is not necessarily a bad thing. Our eyes should run from such images and ideas unless they are used of God. There are many times in Scripture where God will use harsh language such as this to reveal to us certain things we often tend to ignore. You may ask "but why does he need to use this kind of language?" God does not use harsh terminology simply for shock value. He is not so limited in his means of communication. I believe that God uses such terminology to reveal to us the seriousness of certain issues. For example in the book of Isaiah God reveals to us that our righteous acts (not our evil acts ) in His eyes are as bloody menstrual cloths. The image is not pleasant, but it reveals to us the depravity of even our "good" deeds apart from the blood of Christ to cover our iniquity. God's word is cutting and sometimes it can be particularly painful. Such is the case in Jeremiah chapter three. God compares the people of Israel to a whoring spouse. "If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me." verse 1 It only continues from there. " You have polluted the land with your vile whoredom." verse 2 "The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: 'Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree and there played the whore.'" God's language here could not be clearer. Israel (and Judah as well) have in God's words "...done all the evil that you could." They have abandoned all that God is for images created by human hands, as they were following after false gods. But wait, that sounds strangely familiar. Romans 1:23 says we have "exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things." We have decided in futile thinking that something we create or see is greater than the creator. We have exchanged the beauty of God for our own "beauty". We have essentially told God that He is no more beautiful than what we see in the mirror everyday and as such we will worship ourselves instead of the God who made us. At least that has been my experience. It has been the unfortunate experience of my life that the majority of what I do, I do for my own benefit without so much as a fleeting thought to the glory of God. Paul says that we are to do all things to glory of God. That is to say that everything that we say and do and think is to show some of God's character. In my situation I have found that it is not God's name I wish to make great but my own. And I do quite well. I become defensive if someone says something in criticism of my character. I am quick to guard the "honor" of my good name. Yet when God's name is defamed I sit idly by in fear that they might know that I know Him. Or worse yet I find that I am the one defaming the precious name of Christ. I myself have traded the glory of God for the image of mortal man, namely, the image I see in my own mirror. I have played the part of the whore and as such I have defamed the glory of God. If this were the end of this post perhaps conviction would only lead to guilt and self condemnation, but God desires another path. He desires to make His name great and does so by loving us and reaching down to cleanse us of our treachery. For in the later part of Jeremiah chapter three, we hear comforting words from God. "Return faithless Israel, declares the LORD. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the LORD. I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the LORD. Return O faithless children, declares the LORD; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family and I will bring you to Zion." God offers us another way via confession and repentance. He offers forgiveness and mercy even to His whoring spouse. Thank you God for your loving kindness to me because you have opened the eyes of this adulterous heart and revealed to me your glory. May I live to that end. Amen.
DAW

Monday, September 29, 2008

Economic Distress

There has been much in the news over the past few weeks concerning the current evaluation of our country's economy. There are differing opinions everywhere you turn but there seems to be a consistent line of thinking that says we are heading for uncertain economic times. This has many people reeling as they are concerned for their way of life. There is one who is not reeling and His name is Jesus. His sovereignty is not shaken. His foundations are not being rocked. The self sufficient one calls us to see Him as sufficient for our needs. "And my God will supply every need of yours according to His glory in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19. We love this promise of God to meet our needs while we seldom look to what extent He meets them. This verse says he meets our needs according to His glory. What does this mean? It means that God meets our needs not just to take care of us but He meets our needs because it glorifies Him. And when God receives glory we receive joy because our highest delight should be in Him. He is supreme to all things especially money. He gives us something of more lasting value, namely Himself. There is nothing more joyful than knowing we enter difficulties often times so that God may tear away our false securities and see him all sufficient.
C.S. Lewis writes in the book The Business of Heaven, a piece entitled The Necessity of Tribulation
"I am progressing along the path of life in my ordinary contentedly fallen and godless condition, absorbed in a merry meeting with my friends for the morrow or a bit of work that tickles my vanity today, a holiday or a new book, when suddenly a stab of abdominal pain that threatens serious disease, or a headline in the newspapers that threatens us all with destruction, sends the whole pack of cards tumbling down. At first I am overwhelmed, and and all my little happinesses look like broken toys. Then slowly and reluctantly, bit by bit, I try to bring myself into the frame of mind that I should be in at all times. I remind myself that these toys were never intended to possess my heart, that my true good is in another world and my only real treasure is in Christ. And perhaps by God's grace, I succeed, and for a day or two become a creature consciously dependent on God and drawing its strength from the right sources. But the moment the threat is withdrawn, my whole nature leaps back to the toys: I am even anxious God forgive me, to banish from my mind the only thing that supported me under the threat because it is now associated with the misery of those few days. Thus the terrible necessity of tribulation is all too clear. God has had me but for forty-eight hours and then only by dint of taking everything else away from me. Let Him but sheathe that sword for a moment and I behave like a puppy when the hated bath is over - I shake myself as dry as I can and race off to reacquire my comfortable dirtiness, if not the nearest manure heap, at least in the nearest flower bed. And that is why tribulations cannot cease until God either sees us remade or sees that our remaking is now hopeless."
Let us therefore pray for tribulation that would strip us of our comforts that we my see Christ as our treasure. If He is supreme to all things, which He is, then there is no one nor anything better for us to be enamored with. "Christ is all and in all" Col. 3:11
DAW

Truth

We are living in a time in which truth to most people is relative. That is, there is no one truth that holds for all people. Many believe that what they think is truth. Many of us had heard that this is common among those who are not believers in Christ but the sad reality is that it is true for many who are believers. We tend to listen to this ideas and opinions of others over and against the absolute truth of the Scripture. That is why I feel that it is so important to pray a prayer like David's in Psalm 25:4-5 before we begin our daily reading of Scripture.
" Make me to know your ways, O LORD;
teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation,
for you I wait all day long."
Here are a few quotes from John Piper on why truth is so important.
"If God exists, then He is the measure of all things, and what He thinks about all things is the measure of what we should think. Not to care about truth is not to care about God."

" Our concern with truth is simply an echo of our concern with God."

"To love God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is to love truth. To pursue them is to pursue truth. Passion for their vindication in the world involves a passion for the truth. There is no separating God and truth , as if one can put relationship against truth. 'God is' precedes 'God is love,' and 'God is' has content and meaning. God is one thing and not another thing. He has character. His nature has contours that define Him. Concern with the true God, who is not created in our own image, is at the bottom of a truth-driven life."

"Indifference to truth is a mark of spiritual death"

2 Thess. 2:12 -They all will be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. "This shows that believing truth involves the affections, since its alternative is 'taking pleasure' in something else. It also shows that truth is moral not just cognitive, since its alternative is wickedness and not just falsehood. "

"Loving truth is a mark of a God-entranced world-view. It is obedience to the first and greatest commandment."

These quotes can be found in the book A Godward Life on pages 106-108
DAW

Monday, September 22, 2008

What distracts us from Christ?

As I read about the Christians of old, (David Brainerd, Johnathan Edwards, Martin Luther, The apostle Paul) I am intrigued by their capacity to be completely consumed with Jesus. Christianity was not a religion to them that could be picked up and put down at a moments notice. Christ was their life. There were consumed by who He is. This to me is very convicting because I have never been one that is constantly thinking about God. In fact I would dare say that there are many today who live with their mind constantly fixed on Christ and the evidence around us is overwhelming. We pick up the banner of Christianity when we want our circumstances to be better or when perhaps we are in the company of certain individuals but never a constant dwelling on the person of Christ. And that is to our shame. We have come to see Christianity as something that we try to accomplish and not as an intimate fellowship with Christ. And therein is our undoing. We seek to use Christ to make things better or perhaps to give us material wealth, or perfect circumstances, be it jobs, health, our families. As John Piper says "God will not be used as currency for the purchase of idols." There is nothing wrong with those things in and of themselves, but there is something devastatingly wrong with desiring those things more than we desire God. God is of supreme value. There is nothing better than Him (and this includes His gifts!) We were made to see Him as supremely valueable and find joy in Him. The good news is that He is infinite and that means that infinite joy can be found in Him. There is nothing that is better than God. We often time trade this joy in God for the things of the world because we think there is greater joy to be had from them than Him. For instance if I have had a long tiring day, I will come home and turn on the TV in an attempt to find some sort of contentment without having to think too much. In all actuality I am seeking distraction from my own mind. Is TV better than Christ. Did TV die in my place that I might find my ultimate joy in God. NEVER! That even sounds foolish to say. But that is how we treat it. It is as if we are telling God, "This television brings greater comfort than you. It is more delightful" Oh how little we know of the God that is. But it is not just television that we use as means of comfort and peace. We use all manner of things, be it money, houses or a life free of suffering of any kind. This is where Satan gets us. The Bible says that Satan has come to "steal, kill and destroy." I am convinced that the way Satan steals is to give. He gives us all these material possessions and comforting circumstances that blind us to the goodness and greatness of God. We never give God a second thought because we have found our comfort in all other things. The problem here is twofold. One, all this world offers is temporal and it will fade almost as quickly as it comes. Second, we blind ourselves to eternal joy found in Christ alone. This world's offers garbage compared to the eternal glories of Christ and yet we are content feasting in the land field of earthly comfort. Christ offers us so much more. He offers us Himself. There is nothing greater than God and He tells us to find our delight in Him.(Psalm 37:4) God is offering us more we ask or imagine. We can never begin to understand all the goodness that is in Him. Therefore God is ultimately gracious to allow suffering in our life because we find joy not in our circumstances or possessions but in Him alone. Let us therefore fix our eyes on Christ not just glance at Him once or twice a week.
DAW

Friday, September 19, 2008

God's Discipline

Hebrews 12:1-13

This particular passage of Scripture has been keen this morning in encouraging me when I find myself in the midst of God's discipline. I often times find myself particularly downtrodden over sin in my life. As well I should be to a certain extent. There needs to be sense that sin is terribly offensive in the midst of God's holiness. Then when God's discipline hits as it should, I grow weary not from the discipline but from the guilt contrived from the discipline. I find it much easier to wallow in guilt than find delight in discipline. This is exactly what the writer of Hebrews is warning against. I believe that this writer knows that when we wallow in guilt we render ourselves ineffective. Our focus in those times is on the wrong object. Any time that we spend more time thinking of ourselves rather than Christ we find ourselves in the wrong boat. Guilt is one weapon used by the enemy to cause us to think more of ourselves than God. The writer of Hebrews here says that those who are disciplined by God should find great delight in it. The discipline itself may not be pleasing but the God's desire behind it is greatly comforting. He tells us that, "God is treating us as sons." What a marvelous thought. We are indeed the children of God. We know from other Scripture passages that God does all the He does for His glory and in so doing bestows a greater love on us than we ever thought possible because we find our highest delight in Jesus. The same is true of discipline. If we find ourselves in the throws of God's discipline we should rejoice first of because we are His children.(v7) Secondly we should rejoice because we know that God is going to use this situation to bring about His glory therefore filling us with ultimate joy. He is indeed giving us Himself. What a marvelous truth. The reason God's disciplines us is for our joy. He knows that whatever we attempted to find pleasure in that was rebelling against His holiness will only leave us empty and longing for more. Therefore, He chastises us in order that we would see the truth the He Himself is our highest delight. There is nothing in the created world that can even compare to the delight found in the person of Christ. (Psalm 73:25) Therefore, we should rejoice in discipline because it is God's way of guiding us to ultimate joy by showing us that nothing can take the place of Jesus in supplying infinite joy.

DAW

God's All Seeing Eye

"Let us frequently remember the shortness and uncertainty of our lives, and how that, after we have taken a few turns more in the world and conversed a little longer amongst men, we must all go down into the dark and silent grave, and carry nothing along with us but anguish and regret for our sinful enjoyments; and then think what must needs seize the guilty soul, to find itself naked and alone before the severe and impartial Judge of the world, to render an exact account, not only of its more important and considerable transactions, but of every word that the tongue hath uttered, and the swiftest and most secret thought that ever passed through the mind."
- Henry Scougal The life of God in the Soul of Man


This is probably one of the more convicting things that I have read lately. It brings to remembrance that we must be on guard at all times putting forth effort from the strength that God supplies (Col 1:29) in order that God be glorified to the utmost by our every thought.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

The Love of God

Are we more fascinated with the love of God or the love of God. That is to say, do we think more about the fact that God loves us or the fact that it is indeed God who loves us. I have a tendency to think more about the fact that God loves me and that leads to asking the question, why does God love me? Once on this track I can come up with all manner of selfish reasons to say that God loves me, all centered around what I have done or who I am. The truth is that God loves me because of who He is not who I am. This is a gloriously freeing truth. Once we understand this we can be free in knowing that no matter what I do or how I change God will continue to love me. (I am not saying here that we can do whatever we desire and God will just wink it away. I am saying that in His love he will discipline us to conform us to His likeness, and that is most loving! Heb. 12:3-11) As one writer put it "God does not love us because we are valuable, but we are valuable because God loves us." If we only look at God's love as a gift we may think we have earned it as a reward. When we see that love is who He is and it stands alongside His holiness we are compelled to see who we really are. His love should never drive us to think more of ourselves but rather more of Him. It is the love of God that should compel us to find out more about Him. It should cause us to ask "Who is this King of Glory?"Psalm 24:8 Once we have embarked upon that journey we will discovery more of His character and find that it is truly in Him that we find lasting and infinite joy. When we value God as supreme we find that joy in anything else is fleeting and fades quickly. Yet God has no end and no limit and when we find our joy in Him (not His gifts) we find that our joy will also have no end. That is why God loves us. He loves us because it shows who He is and knowing who He is brings us joy. God's love brings about our infinite joy in Him. That is most loving! Could there be a greater love than that which seeks to bring about our infinite joy.

DAW

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Future Grace

This is John Piper's explanation of the term "future grace" which is also the title of a book he has written. I put here in my blog because of the incredible truth of living in the grace of God moment by moment is the only way we can continue to exist. Glory be to Christ "for from Him and to Him and through Him are all things."
Dustin

This can be found at http://www.desiringgod.org




What do you mean by "future grace"?

I don't just mean grace that comes to us in the distant future, like at the Second Coming. Clearly that is coming. It is referred to in 1 Peter 1:13, that we are to hope fully in the grace that is coming to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So there is going to be great grace for us at the Judgment Day because we believe in Jesus.

What I have in mind when I say "future grace" is the grace we'll receive at the Second Coming and the grace that is arriving every moment as I move into the future. So, whether I will be able to finish giving this answer is owing to the sustaining grace of God.

A key verse for me in understanding this is 1 Corinthians 15:10, where Paul says,

By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Now if you stop and think about it, that means that minute by minute we're working. But are we working in our own strength? No, he says, "I'm working hard, but it is not I but the grace of God." So when is that grace of God coming? It's coming every moment. It is arriving, as it were, out there in the future.

So as I think about a difficult phone call I have to make in five minutes, or about getting out of bed, or of enduring another day of sickness, or a hard marriage, or another day of a wonderful thing, I shouldn't think that I'm going to be left alone for that. There's going to be a grace sufficient for every good deed, as it says in 2 Corinthians 9:8. God gives us a grace for every good deed.

So future grace is God's power, provision, mercy, and wisdom—everything we need—in order to do what he wants us to do five minutes, five weeks, five months, five years, and five thousand years from now.


© Desiring God

Sunday, September 14, 2008

A Psalm of Refuge

A psalm of refuge

Christ You are my refuge. I find comfort and solace in Your presence. Though I may be exhausted, my spirit is alive with joy at the thought of You. My energy melts away as candle wax, yet your strength sustains me. My heart grows weary in laboring love, yet Your grace fills me. Rest seems to hide from me, yet Your very essence exudes relaxation. Much in me longs for escape but You are my escape. You are for me a strong tower. As the song of a bird is soothing to the ear so are your words to my heart. They give life to the dead places of my soul. They provide strength to my tired and aching muscles. You Oh Christ are my life. In you I long to dwell. Christ you are my refuge.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Do we find joy in the attributes of Christ?

I am amazed at how little time I have given to thinking on the character of God. If Jesus is to be my ultimate joy, (psalm 73:25, Psalm 16:11) then it seems that perhaps I should know that which is to bring me joy. Apart from knowing Him I can have no affection for Him. Henry Scougal writes of this in his book, The Life of God in the Soul of Man.
"Let me further suggest some particular subjects of meditation for producing the several branches of it (the divine life). And first, to inflame our souls with the love of God, let us consider the excellency of His nature, and His loving kindness toward is. It is little we know of the divine perfections; and yet that little may suffice to fill our souls with admiration and love. to captivate our affections, as well as to raise our wonder: for we are not merely creatures of sense, that we should be incapable of any other affection but that which entereth by the eyes."
"Shall we doat over the scattered pieces of a rude and imperfect picture, and never be affected with the original beauty? This were an unaccountable stupidity and blindness. Whatever we find lovely in a friend or in a saint, ought not to engross, but to elevate our affection: we should conclude with ourselves, that if there be so much sweetness in a drop, there must be infinitely more in the fountain; if there be so much splendor in a ray, what must the sun be in its glory!"
What higher task could there be than to dwell on the glory of God and in so doing elevate our joy to heights unknown. What love can this be that by doing all he does for His glory is most loving because it brings about our highest joy.