Swimming upstream

In a wartime lifestyle you always ask yourself, How can my life count to advance the cause of Christ? And if it means buying a computer to keep in touch with your missionaries through email, then you’re going to invest several thousand dollars into a computer and software. That’s a wartime lifestyle. But you might not eat out as often, or you might buy a used car so that you can buy that computer. That’s what I mean by wartime lifestyle. The alternative is to just go with the flow. Everybody gets his toys: bigger house and car, more clothing, more fine food, etc., without even thinking about how the war effort is advancing.

Personally, I must battle everyday against drifting. It isn’t about making choices so much. The battle is primarily against becoming comfortable with things that aren’t essential to the war effort. So you have to check yourself. Sit down with your wife and ask, How are we doing with our spending? How are we doing with the use of our discretionary money for leisure?, etc.

I admit that this is difficult. I don’t have any laws to lay down about what specific things you should be doing either once a week or never or whatever. It’s just tough…

- John Piper, “What’s the difference between living for the Kingdom and living for the American dream?”

I think it’s no coincidence I was born into a first-generation Chinese family headed by a father who always said things like “20% coupon, huh? Well, it’s 100% off if you just stay home” and “do we really need to buy that?” A wartime lifestyle is first being frugal, and then taking the savings and directing it towards eternally fruitful things. If your upbringing has preloaded you to be very frugal, you’re halfway there and far ahead of those who first need to learn frugality.  To whom much is given, much is required, Steve. If you were given a head start, that’s not license to slow down, but to run all the harder. Because the name of God and the condition of lost souls matters too greatly to do otherwise. 

Like a Jackhammer to my Heart

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. - Matthew 10:34-39

But an oh-so-necessary jackhammer.

Man, the world is a tough crowd

I’m personally not really a fan of using stilted rhetoric in how I talk and write. I’d rather be as casual and conversational-sounding as possible. I feel like that alienates the least number of people and engages the reading of the most. In short, I prefer to be cool rather than not. BUT Dr Mohler provides a helpful reminder that at the end of the day, truth divides and the world hating me is inevitable. Jesus did promise it (John 15:20). 

No matter how cool you think you are or think that others think you are, the hour is coming when the issue of homosexuality — taken alone — will be the defining issue in coolness. If you accept the full normalization of homosexuality, you will be cool. If you do not, you are profoundly uncool, no matter how much good work you do nor how much love and compassion you seek to express.

- Al Mohler’s Blog, 12/19/08

Don’t do these very often…

A little more self-centered post today.

Interesting. Goes to show the limitations of these things. Took a test just now and I scored exactly in the middle of ENFJ/ESFJ. Went and read the descriptions and I think ENFJ fits a little better. ESFJ is what I often feel pressured to be by various outside influences, while ENFJ is what I feel like I’m more naturally inclined to be. I felt most ESFJish as A-Team Leader, and more ENFJish as an SGL and everywhere else in life.

So ENFJ it is, I suppose. Or both. Or neither. Not that these things mean much anyways, haha. Interesting to ponder though. Far better to ponder Scripture and how I can be conformed to 1Tim 3 + a whole host of other texts.

Unconventional Peace on Earth

Been listening to some good Christmas carols. Seriously, some of these carols have PROFOUND lyrics. Really sweet and honestly mind blowing to contemplate the glory of God and how He became flesh, dwelt among us, and how we’ve seen His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. One particular carol I’ve been enjoying is “Do You Hear What I Hear?,” a carol about peace on earth (was actually written in the context of the Cuban Missile Crisis and was begging for world peace).

Was pondering, though, how it’s sad that “peace on earth” is commonly heard throughout the month of December, when the way in which most people mean it is actually untrue. The angels didn’t just cry out “peace on earth,” but they cried out ”Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased”  (Luk 2:14)! The emphasis is on the glory of God and peace among those with whom he is pleased, which is most likely a small percentage of those who say “peace on earth” during Christmas season.

And in an ultimate sense, peace on earth won’t be true until “He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth” (Psa 110:6) and is revealed “in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2Th 1:8). Reading passages like this drive me to bow in reverence and awe before my God who’ll execute this kind of furious, unimaginable wrath.

But it also sobers me immensely because my parents and some extended family aren’t saved, and they’ll be on the painful end of That Glorious Day. Oh for boldness, conviction, love, and urgency! Oh that God would drive my stubborn, lazy heart to again insist on the Gospel with them this Winter Break, which may be the last long Winter Break I’ll have at home. Lord, cause them to repent and glorify You for Your mercy. Keep me in diligent and fervent prayer for them.

And you, reader, keep me accountable. If you see me after break, ask me how it went.

The Curse and the Cure

Texts
“Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen 3:17-19).

“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Rom 8:19-25).

Application
When work is hard and isn’t getting anywhere despite your diligent efforts, increase your longing for the New Earth and Glory, where work will be productive, where glory will be unfading, and where joy will be complete.

Recovering Biblical Manhood & Womanhood Again

Sorry for yet again riding off an Al Mohler post, but his stuff is really good and very helpful to navigate a fallen culture.

(Independent of my feelings on Barack and his policies) I feel like Michelle Obama’s decision to be a full-time mom instead of a policy-debater/maker (what First Lady usually gets herself into) or a $300k/year hospital administrator (what her career would’ve been) is really, really commendable. 

The whole blog post is really worth reading, but two paragraphs in particular stick out to me:

To use a phrase provided by feminist author Linda Hirshman, Michelle Obama is now accused of “letting down the team” by choosing motherhood over career at this point in her life.  Hirshman famously argues that women who choose motherhood at the expense of career and professional development are robbing themselves and, by extension, all women of status and progress.  Childrearing, Hirshman was bold to write, should be considered as demeaning to any educated adult.

Michelle Obama is, to say the least, well educated.  To many feminists, all the gains for women represented by Michelle Obama’s Princeton and Harvard education are wiped out by her intention to be, in effect, a stay-at-home mom.  In their eyes, she has already let down her team.

I know no conversative evangelical Christian would go as far as to say what feminists like Hirshman would say. BUT the world always subtly creeps into our hearts and subtly poisons our worldviews. I had to ask myself the question: “I know this is what my parents have fed me all my life. Do I subtly believe this… at all? Even ever so slightly? And even worse, do I encourage this in others in any way?” I was convicted reading this and asking myself that question, and maybe you (whether you’re a guy or girl) will be too. So ask yourself. And take corrective action on the heart if you find the answer to be unfavorable.