Sigh
October 31, 2008
I hate pride. I hate how it tears apart our churches, how it ruins friendships, how it brings ministry to a grinding halt, how it rots the soul, how it blinds the spiritual senses, and how it brings the opposition of God. “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). It breaks my heart so much to see someone given over to pride; they don’t even realize it, but the stink is apparent to all those around them. Oh Father, let me never be a propagator of pride, but let me be a beacon of humility. Please.
Risk
October 28, 2008
“Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.”
Greetings from Heaven
October 26, 2008
It sure is breeze up here. This is great, I can’t wait for you to join me.
-David Brainerd
(That was pretty good, Ed. I’ll actually post this. -steve)
Tell me what the text says!
October 23, 2008
How easy, Father, for me to turn to my own experience and thinking for guidance and decision-making. Let me ask what Your Word says and stick simply with it. Some will call me foolish, but my heart longs for faithfulness to Your revealed will.
Treasure
October 21, 2008
It’s so easy for me to forget this. To revisit the Gospel isn’t just to remember that I’m a sinner deserving of eternal punishment and that Jesus died and rose again for the forgiveness of my sins. It’s also to remember that when He saved me, He created a new Steve, one whose appetites and desires have been realigned and recreated in a radically God-centered way.
“I conclude from [Matt 13:44, the parable of the hidden treasure a field] that we must be deeply converted in order to enter the kingdom of heaven and that we are converted when Christ becomes for us a Treasure Chest of holy joy … and becomes in His own fellowship our greatest pleasure” (Desiring God, p70).
“So the faith that pleases God [and saves our souls] is the assurance that when we turn to Him, we will find the all-satisfying Treasure. We will find our heart’s eternal delight … It implies that beneath and behind the act of faith that pleases God, a new taste has been created – a taste for the glory of God and the beauty of Christ. Behold, a joy has been born” (Ibid, p71)!
It is good for my soul to be going through Piper’s magnum opus again.
Trusting our God who rules over nature
October 15, 2008
Okay, it seems I’m a blatant Jerry Bridges fan lately. I say you can’t blame me. This humble servant of the Lord makes heavy theology very accessible with his frank and unostentatious writing style.
I’ve been reading Trusting God by Bridges. While I wouldn’t assign it “must read” status like I would to Desiring God or The Life and Diary of David Brainerd, it’s still very very high on the list. Chapters 1 (Can you trust God?) and 6 (The Power of God over Nature) alone make it worth the read. BUT I’m not even done yet. So I guess we’ll find out exactly just how much I recommend it in a few weeks.
But for now, I have no problem saying: GET IT, read it, enjoy it, and WORSHIP our Immortal Uncreated Sovereign Lord Jesus more deeply and with more trust than ever before. Sweet.
Acceptable/Respectable Sins
October 10, 2008
There are internal, hard-for-others-to-see sins of the heart and mind that can easily consume and rot your soul and need to be extinguished (or in Tim Ma’s words: axed!). Examples are bitterness, jealousy, envy, lust, impatience, and lack of joy. Few people, except for those who know you really well, are able to even perceive these sins in you, and even fewer are able and willing to point them out. And many times (here’s the really piercing part, props to Jerry Bridges and his “respectable sins” concept) Christians have even slipped into a somewhat status-quo type of thinking in regards to these sins, further lowering the likelihood of someone pointing these particular sins out to you. Ouch.
What’s the implication of all this? That means the impetus is on you, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to put garbage like bitterness, jealousy, envy, lust, impatience, lack of joy, etc to death. God is better, and sin in reality has nothing to offer in terms of satisfaction.
Seriously… I have met the enemy, and he is me. Die, flesh, die!
One way to increase your ability to love people
October 7, 2008
Hey Steve,
When nearly all you can think of is the shortcomings of another, you are most likely blinding yourself to their strengths and the evidences of grace in their life. If you’re doing that, you are most likely being proud and need to redirect your attention to what good things God is doing in their life.
Remember this, bro.
-steve
Eastbay Baptist Church produces some good musicians :-)
October 6, 2008
Glorious Sovereignty
October 2, 2008
A followup to the previous post. God has been incredibly gracious these past few days. Anxiety gone, and it was gone before the circumstance changed. The circumstance has changed, and the research project looks like it’ll change to something a little more favorable (I love C/C++, I don’t know VHDL at all. And now the project will hopefully be in C/C++). Now, even if the circumstance remains and they make me code in a language I have to learn, I think God has been gracious to allow my heart to still trust. We shall see as it all unfolds, if that claim holds up (I hope it does!). In these past few days God has used a pretty small trial to really teach me and refine my heart. And the result? Peace, lots of it. God has taught me to trust Him regardless of outcome. I’ve learned that lesson tons of times before, but there’s been a tremendous building of my understanding of this lesson now. Nice.
And I have a new favorite life-changing chapter of a book now. There was Worship in Desiring God, the Pleasure of God in His Son in The Pleasures of God, the Supremacy of God in Missions through Worship/Prayer/Suffering in Let the Nations Be Glad, Hacking Agag to Pieces in Truth Matters, Faith in Future Grace against Lust in Future Grace. Now I’ll add another life-changing chapter I’ll never forget. The Discipline of Adversity in The Discipline of Grace. Solid, solid, solid stuff that’ll last me a lifetime (and much of it beyond!).
I wanna read Trusting God by Bridges now. So I think I will. How nice that Chris has it on his shelf 
