Marvelous, helpful realizations. And a jarring, helpful quote.

One thing I do during my commute (besides sing ) is ponder the things of the Lord, that He might use that thinking to bring me closer to Him. And many times He’s gracious to coalesce those thoughts into stateable sentences. Here’s two that have been tremendously helpful for my worship and walking with Him in faith.

First: Before you can properly ascribe glory to God, you have to see, savor, and marvel at His glory such that it completely blows your mind.
If you understood that, no need to read the following paragraph. What in the world does all that mean? Recall the difference between God’s intrinsic and ascribed glory. Intrinsic is the glory He’s got that never changes, and that’s what should completely wow us, and that’s what we spend our entire lives acquiring further tastes for. Ascribed glory is praise that Creation brings Him; we ascribe Him glory. Ascribed glory is what most people think of when we say “the chief end of man is the glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” But remember, ascribed glory is rooted in recognition of God’s intrinsic glory.

Second: If Jesus loves you so much to die for you, and He holds the entire universe in His sovereign hands, isn’t it completely natural to trust Him in all your everyday happenings?
I’m going to credit this realization as the fruit of Jerry Bridges’ Trusting God. Go read it. The whole book is an unpacking of three great, foundational, simple truths: God is completely sovereign, completely loving, and completely wise. Therefore trust Him. Solid.

And I close this post with a quote from John Piper’s Brother’s, We Are Not Professionals. Many people I know can benefit from these  implications of justification by faith that Piper unpacks for us. I know I’ve benefited from these implications immeasurably. I commend these to you.

Christ offers you [justification by faith alone] today as a gift. If you see Him as true and precious, if you receive the gift as your greatest treasure in life and trust in it, you will have a peace with God that passes all understanding. You will be a secure person. You will not need the approval of others. You will not need the ego-supports of wealth or power or revenge. You will be free. You will overflow with love. You will lay down your life in the cause of Christ for the joy that is set before you. Look to Christ and trust Him for your righteousness.

Increasing Prayerfulness

Dependence Day (Friday) was really good. So refreshing to pray to God with my bro’s and sis’ in Christ.

Praying with others in Saturday morning discipleship group is so refreshing.

The past few days have led to the crystalization (i.e. intuitively understood, but hard to state truth transitioning into a truth clearly stateable in words) of a very important reality: The most productive time in your day is the time spent praying. Realizing that has been so helpful to increase my prayerfulness.

 

On a personal note: started work this past Monday. Yay. Transitions!

Beware, beware.

Beware of making cultural sensitivity greater than God. Unless you want to strip God of His divine rights to be the captain of the human soul, of course. There are no Invictuses.

ECHO 1/13/08

Wow. Just wow. It’s honestly hard to describe with words how inspiring it is to hear missionaries talk about their ministries, how crazily God is working, and how much they seriously love it. It’s like Let the Nations Be Glad Living Edition. “I never made a sacrifice.”

I was going to send these notes to the people who went to the meeting, but I figure pasting it here into the blog would make it more profitable for whoever wants to read it. Skim it, read it in full, whatever you like. Be blessed by what God’s doing around the world. Better yet, check out an ECHO meeting for yourself!

ECHO Meeting 1-13-08

• Matt & Rachel Floreen will leave in March for Malawi. Right now, raising support across the US.
• Kevin Edwards leaving Friday morning for Manila & Singapore to meet with Ray Choy, Sean Random, and Roger Ng. Pray for all these men, and for Kevin Edwards traveling mercies.
• Todd Dick: Croatia since 1998
  • God has really blessed language acquisition abilities. Has been very fruitful as a result.
  • Kids all go to Croatian public schools. Useful for language acquisition since the kids have no accent
  • Objectives
    • Leadership development: training future pastors in Croatia
      • 4 year Bible school. Men from many countries (Bosnia, Slovenia, Hungary, etc). 14 graduates so far.
      • Expositor’s Conference. 3-4 day conference. Challenge, encourage, equip current preachers. Incite hunger for expository preaching amongst Croatians
    • Church planting
      • Croatia is 98% Roman Catholic
      • There are about 40 Baptist churches in Croatia. The pastors are basically just the 1^st converts in their villages. Very poorly equipped.
      • The situation’s even worse in neighboring countries.
      • Honestly, our goal here is for the next generation. Let the next generation hunger for the Word of God. Realistically, it’ll take an entire generation to undo much of the damage of false teaching.
      • Slovenia has very little evangelical churches. This is a very frontier type of work we’re doing
  • Many believers in Slovenia/Croatia are pretty lonely, since they get forsaken by their Catholic families once they come to Christ. The church is pretty family here.
  • Croatia is a VERY young country. Things are SO VERY ripe. Peoples’ faces absolutely LIGHT UP when the Word of God is unfolded for (sometimes) for the first time!
  • I do weddings and funerals for free. That makes me in pretty high demand. SO MANY opportunities for the Gospel. It’s positively crazy.
  • This has been the greatest, greatest thrill in my entire life. I wouldn’t trade it for ANYTHING else. It’s absolutely mind-blowing. There’s nothing better.
  • Gypsy village ministry
    • Around 100 kids come every week.
    • A lot of time spent talking to parents. A lot of evangelizing going on.
  • God has been VERY gracious. Permanent visa granted by the government. Croatia wants to be in the EU, so there’s not much pressure from the government.
• Lance Roberts: Kromeriz, Czech Republic since 2001
  • 70% atheist, 0.25% evangelical
  • Just like Croatia, it’s a desert land spiritually. Hardly any witness for Christ. 500 years ago was the last time the Word was faithfully preached.
  • There’s one young pastor, who’s one of the only that I know who street EVs.
  • Church planting is so very necessary. Training centers don’t have many students because the churches don’t raise up anybody who cares! The churches are dead.
  • The Czech Republic is very frontier.
    • Our generation isn’t going to see much. It’ll be the next gen. One generation plants the tree, the next enjoys the shade.
    • There are no recommendable churches in Prague! The capital! The land is very dry.
  • There are 3 towns nearby. Our prayer is that men in our church would rise up and plant churches in those towns.
  • Andre is our church’s pastoral intern. I don’t have a seminary. I have one student. It’s pure joy! Pray for this brother.
  • There’s quite a lot of charismatic/liberal opposition from other Christians. We’d like translate the Mac Study Bible, but these present roadblocks.
• Tim Cantrell: Johannesburg, SA
  • We’re not officially enrolled missionaries at GCC. Because we are being supported by the national church. It’s enabled more strategic opps.
  • Some of the spiritual opposition in Africa, go read the article in the London Times: “An Atheist believes that what Africa needs most is Christian missionaries”
    • The crushing passivity of the peoples’ mindset. That’s tremendously oppressing to Africans.
    • Tribal belief suppresses individuality. It feeds into the big-man and gangster politics of big African cities. The inability to oppose a big swaggering leader
    • Removing Christian evangelism will leave Africa to the mercy of the malign fusion of Nike, witch doctor, the mobile phone, the machete, and the machine gun.
  • Grace Church indeed holds to this vision. To bring the transforming message of Jesus Christ to Africa.
  • Christianity is a mile wide and an inch deep in Africa
  • My dad closed shop at his midlife and took his vet skills to Africa. That’s how God captured my heart, through my dad’s ministry
  • There’s a huge need for model churches in SA.
  • We’re part of Honeyridge Baptist Church. We want to be an Antioch for Africa.
  • We’re having the time of our lives.
  • There’s a huge need for model black Bible-preaching churches. Letting the locals minister is very strategic.
  • Resolved Africa 2010! Pray for an intern to come and prepare R:Africa.
  • 1Cor 16:9 – the Lord has opened a door to a great effective ministry. “Suffering and success” often come together.

Preparing for the future

Been reading several books in the past two months which often contain expositions of Scripture, guidelines, principles, and godly advice for things in the future that don’t apply to me yet. Stuff like dating, what to do with your regular income, raising kids, raising teenagers. It’s humbling to realize how much of this doesn’t come naturally, and also how much of this is either clearly implied or explicitly commanded by Scripture. Thanks Piper (Let the Nations be Glad, Desiring God, Future Grace), Alcorn (Purity Principle), and Harris (Sex Is Not the Problem).

A lot of this stuff isn’t new to me. I’ve read some of those books before in the past, some multiple times. What strikes me is that in the past, when it comes to stuff that doesn’t apply to me yet, I’ve often thought to myself “I’ll kinda skim this and store it in the back of my head. I’m sure I’ll be able to call on it when it’s time.” Wrong! Oh how wrong.

Looking back at my life and walk with the Lord thus far, I see now the utter necessity of preparing myself for the future. Guidelines for couples, parents, people with established incomes? Sure, I’m not in those categories right now, but I will be sooner than I think (ever heard your parents say “I swear, just yesterday you were 15 years old?” You’ll be saying the same thing before you know it!). So I’d better digest, prepare, and anticipate it NOW. It might be too late when I really need it if I’m not prepared ahead of time.

But of course. But sometimes it doesn’t dawn on you in the form of writeable words until much later. But then it’s all the clearer once it has. Nice.

Ack!

Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.
- Mrs Wesley to her son John (read in Not Even a Hint by Josh Harris)

That’s one crazy high standard. But if I honestly think about it, wholly Biblical.

3-for-1 deal on 1/1

Three posts for today.

Wow, holding a baby is profound
Spent New Year’s Eve at the Ding home. Really good time fellowshipping with some very encouraging brothers and sisters. GBFSV is a blessed church indeed. But one big highlight of the evening was holding little Bethany, 5 weeks old. It was simple, but it was a profound experience holding such a tiny little infant in my arms (had never done that before). I could quote stuff from Psalm 139. I could go into how children are a gift from the Lord. But  that’s for another post, another time. Quite simply, there’s nothing quite like it. If you haven’t done it before, you should try it. It’s unspeakably precious and heart-warming.

Resolutions
I’m not much of a New Year’s Resolutions kinda guy. No need to be original, no need to create new ones. Instead, it’s better to revisit some oldies but goodies, easily forgotten that need to be refreshed. They’re not even mine; they’re written by someone far more godly, far more eloquent. Here are my favorite JEdwards resolutions:

5. Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.

6. Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.

22. Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.

30. Resolved, to strive to my utmost every week to be brought higher in religion, and to a higher exercise of grace, than I was the week before.

63. On the supposition, that there never was to be but one individual in the world, at any one time, who was properly a complete Christian, in all respects of a right stamp, having Christianity always shining in its true luster, and appearing excellent and lovely, from whatever part and under whatever character viewed: Resolved, to act just as I would do, if I strove with all my might to be that one, who should live in my time. 

Settling the matter Scripturally: discretionary spending and stewardship
This one’s a little heavier (mentally) than the other posts. It’s about wartime living and spending. Was really sitting on my mind during my quiet times today and has been the topic of many conversations in the past month or two. Have been bothered by the responses of many, as I smelled rationalization more than anything else. Not a surprise though, because this intrudes on a very sensitive topic, because I feel like the Grace Community Church pulpit doesn’t do a very good job of addressing this (Yes! You read that right!), and because our culture here in America is one of rampant consumerism.

Before really getting into things, it’s worth mentioning that we want to distinguish between being frugal and viewing all spending through the lens of warfare. The latter certainly includes the former, but the reverse is often very untrue.  To illustrate the difference: viewing all spending through the lens of warfare would mean you’d easily see the necessity of spending millions on an F-22 fighter jet to help win a war, whereas simply being frugal would balk at any kind of spending at all. Another illustration: the RMS Queen Mary was a luxury liner during peacetime, but during WW2 it was retrofitted to have anti-aircraft guns on deck and to fit many times more people in far more spartan conditions. A frugal perspective would’ve simply put the ship away entirely.

The thesis statement of this third post is very simple and straightforward: we need to give far more serious thought to wartime living than we currently do. And let us be done with using phrases like “at the same time,” “but,” and “however in reality” before we even give wartime living serious thought. I submit to you that “practical realities” are not immovable barriers that hinder us from being radical for God, but rather just very steep walls that we can and must climb over if we are to truly enjoy the Prize. The Scriptures first, then experience, remember? Enough waxing, let’s survey the Scriptures. By no means a complete survey, but hopefully it’s thorough enough and accurate.

First, Scriptures that encourage us to enjoy what God’s given to us with thankfulness.
These you should use so that you don’t feel (as) guilty when you use your blow money. Ecc 2:24, Ecc 3:12-13, Ecc 3:22, Ecc 5:18-20, Ecc 8:15, Ecc 9:7, Ecc 11:9; Romans 14; 1Tim 4:4-5. Now, a word of caution concerning all the Ecclesiastes passages: remember that Israel was a come-and-see people. Come and see how much God has blessed a chosen people that didn’t deserve it. Come and worship this God. The language of peacetime is justified in this setting. The church, on the other hand, is a go-and-tell people. Our mission and approach is very different from Israel. The language of warfare is to be far more prevalent amongst God’s spiritual chosen people. THEREFORE we must be very careful with how we apply verses and passages that, in their original context, were written to Israel and not us. Put it more bluntly (and perhaps a little too broadly), we need to give the NT more weight than the OT when it comes to money matters.

Second, Scriptures that encourage us to view our money and all our resources through the lens of warfare.
Take a deep breath, strap on your scuba gear, because there’s a deep ocean of passages to dive into regarding this topic. Mt 6:19-20, 6:33-34, 19:16-30; Mk 10:17-31; Lk 6:38, 12:31, 16:1-13, 18:18-30; Jn 6:27, 12:6; 2Cor 8-9 (yes, an entire 2 chapters!); Phil 3:8, 4; 1Tim 3:3, 6:7-17; 2Tim 2:4, 3:2; 1Th 2:9. I’m just getting warmed up too. 2Pet 3:10-14; Heb 13:5; Jam 2:5, 5:1-7; Rev 3:15-18. Yes, I’ll admit I’m better versed in these type of Scriptures than the former. But could that be because that is also the louder emphasis of the Scriptures, not because I’m being unfair or biased? In fact, I’d love some help bringing in more Scriptures on the first, since I really do want to be fair to this. But at the moment, I see a far greater emphasis on living a wartime lifestyle than one of enjoyment of what God’s given to us. They are obviously not mutually exclusive (and shouldn’t be!).

I will be first to admit that I am weak, easily influenced by worldliness, and thus need TONS of help to grow in this area. Oh for a more eternal perspective! God help us live as He’s called us to live. For our greatest satisfaction, for maximizing praise to His matchless name. The evidence is compiled. There’s more that can be added, but what we have is sufficient to get to the point. If we take a look at the direction in which the Word points us, there’s an inescapable conclusion. We need to give far more serious thought to wartime living than we currently do.