Have an Intentional Devotional Life in 2010

As we get ready to launch into a new year, I'm been thinking a ton about what 2009 has held and what I want to be the same and or different about 2010. The one thing I keep coming back to is our calling to relationship with our God. John 17:3 defines it incredibly well - "This is eternal life, that you KNOW HIM." So regardless of what your relationship with Him has looked like in the past, it can and should look different in the future. Prov. 4:18 teaches us this very truth -- there is alway more of Him to be had in our lives. I found an article written by an Acts 29 pastor on this very topic. I thought this was incredibly helpful and wanted to share it with you. The content is below or you can access the attached link. Will you join me in 2010???

Planning an Intentional Devotional Life for 2010. Do you have a plan?

by JR Vassar, Pastor of The Apostle's Church NYC

The most important thing you can do in 2010 is cultivate a devotional life that facilitates the intimate nearness of God. You won't accidentally get close to God. So, for 2010, I wanted to encourage you to embrace a focused intentionality in your devotional life. Here are some things I have been thinking through with regards to my devotional practices in 2010.

Have a no exemption time and place to meet with God. If you do not schedule in focused time with God, everything else in your life will schedule it out. Have a time and place and treat it as an appointment with the most important person in the universe. And, keep it; no excuses. It might be morning, evening, night, whatever. Just pick a time that you devote to seeking God with uninterrupted focus. If you have to put it on your calendar, do it.

Have a plan. What will you do during that time? The obvious answer is that the time will at least include contemplative bible reading and prayer. But, what will be the content of that contemplative reading? There are several options and no one option is best or right. You need to find what keeps you engaged and maybe even mix it up a little. Here are some options that some friends have shared with me on Twitter:

The M'Cheyne Reading System. Robert Murray M'Cheyne was a minister in the Church of Scotland from 1835-1843. He died at the age of 29 but left an amazing legacy. This is a plan he developed. The esv.org site explains this plan as "featuring four different readings for use in both family and personal devotions. Each day has two passages from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament, and one from either the Psalms or the Gospels. In one year, you read the Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice." You can subscribe theRSS feed and have it delivered into your google reader every day. Or you can download a printable version here.

ESV Study Bible Reading Plan. In my opinion, the best study bible available today is the ESV Study Bible. The Doctrines section in the back exceptional and the notes are very helpful. There is also a reading plan in the back of the ESV Study Bible. The esv.org site describes it as "readings every day from the Psalms and Wisdom Literature, Pentateuch and History of Israel, Chronicles and Prophets, and Gospels and Epistles." You can subscribe to the RSS feed and have it delivered to your google reader everyday.

The Book of Common Prayer. For those of us from the free church tradition, this seems a little foreign, but I have found the BCP daily office to be a great approach. Every day the BCP gives you a morning and evening Psalm, an OT reading, a Gospel reading and an NT reading. The great thing about the BCP is that Christians all over the world are reading the same Scriptures everyday together. You are reading with the Church. The BCP daily office is a two year cycle, each cycle beginning in the season of Advent. We just started Year Two. You won't read through the entire bible in those two years, but you will get a wide and diverse diet of the Scripture. For more information on the BCP visit this site and click on the Daily Office Lectionary. You can also subscribe the RSS feed and have the readings delivered to your google reader everyday.

Customize Your Own Reading Plan. If you want to customize your own reading plan so that your reading is heavier in one area than the other, you can use this website and have your customized plan emailed you to every day.

Choose Individual Books. Some prefer to stick in a book and go deep with it for a season. For instance, you might want to spend a month or two in the Gospel of John focusing on the glory of Christ. It is a good idea to alternate between OT and NT and different genres. Again, which plan you choose is not the most important thing. Don't stress over it. Just have a plan.

Begin your time with prayer and confession. Confess your sins to the Lord and ask him to cleanse your heart (of things you have done and things you have left undone) and open your eyes to behold wonderful things in his word (Psalm 119:18). You want a heart that is open and responsive to God and confession and prayer postures us in that way.

Read out loud. Maybe it is just me, but if I don't, I get really distracted.

Look for Gospel patterns. As you read, realize that Jesus and the Gospel is The One Story of the Bible. Look for Gospel patterns, grace on display, as you read. Especially in the OT. Every story has Christ as the ultimate hero. For example, don't read the story of David and Goliath and leave your devotional time "ready to face your giants." Realize that you are Israel in the story, not David. You are weak, powerless, cowering before your enemies of sin, Satan, and death, and you need an anointed King to defeat your enemies and cause you to rise up in hope and courage. Jesus is the true and better David, and he is the point of the story of David and Goliath. Look for these patterns in everything you read and rejoice in what God has accomplished for you in Jesus. We don't have devotions and pray in order to avoid the guilt of not having devotions and not praying. We have devotions and pray to know Jesus and his Gospel, and revel in all that he is for us and all that he has won for us.

Journal your thoughts and prayers. Journaling helps us process what we are reading and learning from the Lord. It is good to go back and read your journal to remind yourself of how God has been at work in your life in the past. Get a moleskin or a cheap equivalent and just do it for a season and see if it helps you.

Realize that this is a community project. You need to share what God is saying to you and have others share what God is saying to them. Consider doing one of the above plans with a group of people, a spouse, a roommate, or your church staff.

Don't give up. I have missed meals in the past, but never gave up on eating. I just made sure I did not miss the next meal (and usually made up for it). You are going to miss days, often times multiple days. Repent of your neglect of God and press on in knowing him. Your righteousness is not in how consistent your devotional life is; it is in Jesus Christ who is constant and ever faithful. So, relax and pick up where you left off.

The beauty and joy of 2010 will not depend upon your circumstances, but upon your experience of the One you were made for. As much of him that you want to experience, you will experience. He promises to reward those who diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6).

Advent 2009:: The Coming LOVE Friday, Merry Christmas!

Friday Love::

Read Luke 2:1-7

Love is here. The reading today is intentionally short. All of these readings are intended to connect your heart with THE COMING hope, peace, joy and love that is found in Jesus. Reflect on the simplicity of the story you have just read in Luke 2:1-7.

Advent 2009:: The Coming LOVE Thursday Christmas Ee

Thursday Love::

Read Luke 1:39-56.

Starting with verse 46, this is Mary’s song of praise, also called The Magnificant. The title is derived from the first line of the song, “My soul magnifies…” Mary’s song is intended to make larger the love that has come to her and is COMING to the world.

As you read, know that Mary is a teenager and of no worldly significance. Also know that Jesus comes to those who seek Him and who are humble and hungry.

Advent 2009:: The Coming LOVE Wednesday

Wednesday Love::

Read 1 John 4:10

God is the love; not us. Jesus is the love; not us. When Jesus was born to Mary in that stable, true love that gives of itself for the betterment of another was born. True love that has no motive other than the object of love was born.

You might need to know what propitiation means. Simply put, it means "paid for." Jesus is loved defined. That definition is to come and bring to us what we could not bring to ourselves, which is the payment for sin and reconciliation with God.

Pastor and author John Piper says, “"Love is bringing the object of your love to a place where they are enthralled with that which will eternally satisfy the soul, namely Jesus."

Jesus is love. Christmas truly is THE COMING of love.

Advent 2009:: The Coming LOVE Tuesday

Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Think of the person that you love the most. For me it is my wife. I am a pretty decent husband. My wife tells me I am. She tells me that I love her well and that she feels loved by me.

When I read the verses in 1 Corinthians that you just read, I am embarrassed of my love. I am not always kind or patient. I am often proud and rude and easily angered. I hold wrongs against my wife. I am not always protective, trusting or hopeful. I am a failure at the Biblical definition of love.

I am that way with the person I love the most. The bad news is that you're the same way. The good news is that Jesus does not care. He came as love to show us how to love, knowing we would not ever do it fully. But He came anyway.

That is the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our failure does not diminish our acceptance. I want to say that again in a more personal way. Your failure does not diminish your acceptance. The love of God overcomes your failure, and it is not dependant upon you in any way. Jesus is the perfect love; it is love that has no condition.

Advent 2009:: The Coming LOVE Monday

Monday Love::

Read Romans 5:8

The greatest act of love this world has ever seen is God giving His son Jesus. John 3:16 says that God sent His son because He loves us so much, and that if we would just believe in Jesus we would have eternal life.

There is more to this love than just that familiar verse. Read Romans 5:8. There are two striking phrases that are here. The first is easy to miss without knowledge of the Greek language. The phrase is, “God shows his love…” The word that is translated as “shows” is profound.

The word picture that is painted is placing something within your reach. This book that you are holding is within your reach. When my children were very small, we had to make sure things that would hurt them were outside of their reach. There was nothing sharp left too low.

The second phrase is, “still sinners.” As sinners, we are repulsive to God. God cannot be in the presence of sin; it would contradict His holiness. Romans 3 says that as sinners our mouths are as open graves and filled with disease. In our most wretched and repulsive state, love came to our world.

This is what is happening here. As sinners, we are dead and unable to move toward God. But God’s plan to redeem us was to place His life-giving love within the reach of a dead man. Jesus is that love personified, and with the birth of Jesus that love is within our reach. That is what we celebrate this season and what we celebrate in THE COMING of love.

Advent 2009:: The Coming PEACE Wednesday

Wednesday Peace::

I have a good friend in Afghanistan who flies attack helicopters in the war. He gets a chance every now and then to send me pictures and emails about some of the stuff happening. He asks me to pray for his wife and kids who are home without their husband and father. He asks me to pray for the people that he serves with who have been wounded. And he asks me to pray for the families of those who have died in the battles.

As I do that, I reflect on the pain that he and his fellow service men must be facing and that his fellow service men face. I also reflect on the stress and fear that has to overcome these guys’ families. This is not the first time my friend has been in Afghanistan. When he returned home the last time, the reunion of my friend and his family was cherished because they knew intimately what it meant to be apart, to be separated. The peace they have in those moments of reunion is a peace that I cannot fully understand, because I have not been in an attack helicopter over enemy territory.

I think we cannot truly appreciate the peace we enjoy unless we know the pain, fear and difficulties of what it means to be at war. In today’s reading, we see the place that we are before Christ comes into our lives with his peace.

Advent 2009:: The Coming PEACE Monday and Tuesday

Monday Peace::

The following comes from a sermon by Tim Keller given on December 21, 2001 at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, New York.

At some point in all relationships, you get in a conversation that goes something like this:

“You’re to blame!”
“No, it’s your fault!”
“No, it’s you.”
“No it isn’t. It’s you.”

What’s happening? The relationship is falling apart because neither side will take the blame, budge an inch or make any concession. Neither side will admit wrong or drop defenses. And as long as defenses are up, the relationship is going awry.

But then something happens:

“You’re to blame!”
“No, it’s your fault!”
“No, it’s you.”
“No it isn’t. It’s you.”
“Okay, it’s me.”

One person drops defenses. The relationship starts to come back because one person is willing to say, “Yeah it’s me. I am to blame here.” One person makes himself/herself vulnerable, and the relationship is restored.

Why would a person do that? Because in midst of all the yelling and all the hostility, one person decides that, despite how distorted the other person has become because of anger, he/she wants the other person back. He/she wants the relationship to be restored.

The only way to do that is to take down the shield, become vulnerable, and let one of the verbal blows land. It hurts, but it’s the only way. It’s a costly act of redemption. And it works because we were created in the image of the One who gave the ultimate expression of this part of his own nature at Christmas.


Tuesday Peace::

In this passage we see interaction between Mary and Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Mary are related in some way. We are never told how exactly; they are probably close cousins of some sort. In these verses, Mary is pregnant with Jesus and Elizabeth is pregnant with John the Baptist.

Read Luke 1:39-45

"Blessed (in Luke 1:39-45) is to be brought back to full shalom, full human functioning. It makes you everything that God meant for you to be. What Elizabeth is saying is that if Mary believes and owns this incarnation that the angel is speaking to her, she will be totally changed, transformed…blessed." -Tim Keller

This is peace that is offered. We were made to enjoy eternal peace with God. We were made to enjoy Him and His creation and be enjoyed by Him. But the fracture of self dependence and self provision has come. That fracture has taken away our peace, leaving us longing for something more and different.

Even the irreligious would admit that there is something within each of us that longs for something more. We are longing to get back this “full shalom,” this full peace that came in the form of a baby. Celebrate this baby today and the peace that He brings.

My prayer for you this week is that you will have a deeper knowledge and experience of the peace that Jesus came to bring to you and to the world.

Advent 2009:: The Coming JOY Friday

Friday Joy::

Philippians is book that deals greatly with joy and greatly with Jesus. It is a short book. Take a chance this weekend to read the entire book, more than once, if you can. The Apostle Paul wrote the book and uses a form of the word “joy” 12 times in this short book. Many scholars consider joy to be this book’s theme.

Here’s some background for you on the book: Paul’s major job was to start churches. He would go into a town and draw people with his teaching about Jesus, and then he would appoint pastors and invest in them and help them start a church. He’d then go into the next town. Paul did this thing in the city of Philippi . Years later, he wrote this book to the people of Philippi .

Paul is in prison and in very poor health as he writes the book. He expects to be killed for his belief in Jesus and the things he’s spoken about Him. Paul hopes to see the Philippians again, but he expects to be killed by his captors.

There is a man named Epaphroditus, who was one of the pastors of the church in Philippi . The Philippians sent Epaphroditus to Paul during his time in prison. While Epaphroditus was with Paul, he developed a nearly fatal illness.

Advent 2009:: The Coming JOY Thursday

Thursday:: Joy

Joy is not found in the circumstances of your life. Circumstances can change; health can fade, the economy can fall apart, jobs can be lost. If your joy is found in these things, it can fade, fall apart or be lost. The joy that THE COMING of Jesus brought to this world is deeper than that.

Scripture says in 1 Peter that the follower of Christ has an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading. That same passage says that we are strangers in this world and that we were not meant to live in a broken and fallen world. It is a world with death and disease and heartache. But God has given us a hope and a peace that is the epicenter of our joy.

I have a friend named Denny. Denny had a son named Jon who died in a tragic accident just after his junior year of high school. The days and weeks following his death were very difficult on Denny and the rest of his family. I do not remember a father and son closer than Denny and Jon. They were best friends.

As time went by, Denny began to talk about how grateful he was that God gave him the 17 years with Jon and the great memories that would never be lost. He was grateful for the fact they were best friends. There is a lot that Denny likes to talk about in regards to Jon, but this is the most profound for me. Denny doesn’t simply mourn the loss of his son. Denny celebrates his son. Denny celebrates the God who allowed him to spend 17 great years with Jon.

Denny’s joy was not and is not bound by his circumstances. In John 14:6, Jesus calls himself the truth. The definition of the type of truth Jesus uses here is a truth that is unaffected by circumstances. Think of a concrete pillar holding up a great bridge. The waves and boats that pass by do not affect the pillar. This is Jesus. This is the kind of joy THE COMING brought.

If the joy in your life is bound to the circumstances in your life, I invite you to investigate this Jesus that came to bring you real joy that is unaffected by circumstances. Think on that joy – the joy brought by THE COMING of Jesus.

Advent 2009:: The Coming JOY Wednesday

Wednesday Joy::

In Genesis 22, you find the story of Abraham and Isaac. You might know this story. Abraham is over 100 years old when the story takes place, and his son Isaac is just a boy. God has promised Abraham that he will be the father of God’s people. Isaac is the beginning of the fulfillment of that promise.

Then God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Sin is a big deal to God, and in the Old Testament times, God’s people offered sacrifices to appease the wrath of God toward sin. So Abraham trusted God and resolved to surrender his promising-fulfilling son.

The Bible says that Abraham traveled to a mountain and bound his son on an altar and took a knife to slaughter him. As the knife in Abraham’s hand reached its apex, an angel of the Lord commanded him to stop.

In the moments between the command to sacrifice Isaac and the command to stop, Abraham had to be filled with fear. As a father, this story always brings great sorrow to my heart. One of my greatest fears is the loss of one of my children. The scriptures say there were four days from the command to sacrifice until the command to stop. Fear had to grip Abraham. He had to have fear of God, fear of people and what would they think of him, fear of Isaac’s mother, fear of being misunderstood, and fear of the culture having a backlash at God and blaming him for this death. Fear gripped that man on that journey to that mountain.

Imagine what had to be running through Abraham’s mind for those 96 hours. Think on it deeply. Think also on the joy that filled his heart when God stopped the sacrifice. God provided a ram that was nearby to be the sacrifice. Abraham called the name of that place, "The LORD will provide," as it is said to this day.

The Lord will provide, and has provided. Celebrate the joy that God has provided for you today.

Advent 2009:: The Coming JOY Tuesday

Read Luke 2:8-10

God is aboout replacing fear with joy. That is what happened that night on the hillside with the shepherds. Luke 2 says, "the glory of the Lord shone around them." The glory is the presence of God, and it caused them to be afraid. The angel's first words were, "fear not." The angel then said, "I bring you good news of great joy." The angel is speaking the words of God, and essentially they are: "I want to replace your fear with joy."

Their fear came from the knowledge of themselves. When faced with the presence of God, the immediate response in scripture is fear. From Abraham to Moses to Isaiah to these shepherds, they were all afraid when the encountered God. They were afraid because of their sin. But the message of Christmas is: "Fear not, the long expected Savior is here."

That is joy! Moving from "I am dead" to "I have been completely accepted" is God replacing fear with joy. It is the message of Christmas.

Sin is born in our mistaken thought that we can provide pleasure for ourselves. All sin is a conscious or unconscious statement to God that we know how to give ourselves pleasure better than He does. The result is a disconnect with God, from the source of true joy. God has not come to ruin you; He has come to get you back. Our King is here.

Advent 2009:: The Coming JOY Monday

Monday Joy
Joy is and elusive concept. Because it is elusive, we will spend our first day just thinking about the word and what intends to communicate.

Joy, as a concept, is especially elusive for us in the western world in 2009. The inclination of the mind is to bind happiness and joy together. This is a legitimate binding, there is happiness that comes from joy. However, happiness for the western world is bound up in our health, our bank accounts and having enough time to enjoy our hobbies. It is bound in our pursuit of the American dream. Our happiness is tied to how we are doing in that pursuit.

The joy that Jesus brought to the earth with his birth is so much more than the American dream.

The dictionary defines joy as the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying. The joy definition from scripture adds the word gladness. To be filled with joy is to be glad, to have pleasure, to be delighted, to be exceptionally happy.

Think of it like this: Happiness is something you feel on the surface. Joy is something you feel in your bones. It is not easily wiped away. The opposite of happy is sad. The opposite of joy is sorrow. There is a depth to joy. Joy is what Jesus brought into the world.

Advent 2009:: The Coming HOPE Friday

Friday Hope::

Reread Luke 2:1-21. Again, pay special attention to verse 11. Today we will look closely at the phrase “Christ the Lord.”

When you see the word “Christ” in the New Testament, it is the same word as the Old Testament word “Messiah.” It means anointed one. All of the Old Testament points ahead to this anointed Messiah, who will bring this eternal hope to the world. Here in Luke, with this proclamation of “Christ the Lord,” the angels are proclaiming that this long-awaited anointed one is here.

God’s plan to redeem the world to Himself has always been through this Savior, this Messiah, this Christ. He is here, and we are celebrating the hope that has come in Jesus.

Advent 2009:: The Coming HOPE Thursday

Thursday Hope::

If you watch the television show 24, you know who Jack Bauer is. For those who don’t, Jack works for the U.S. government, and his job is basically to be awesome and kill bad guys. He finds himself in situations where death is certain and the safety of his family and country is in peril.

In one particular season, Jack volunteered to fly an airplane filled with nuclear devices that had to be destroyed. The plan was to crash the plane and detonate the devices in a secluded desert where no one would be hurt – that is, no one but Jack. So Jack takes off in the plane and is prepared for this suicide mission. How will Jack make it? There was no one else on the plane, and the plane had to go down or millions of people would die. Maybe Jack was going to die.

However, I had just read on some entertainment website that Kiefer Sutherland (the actor who plays Jack) had just signed on for three more seasons. So Jack could not die. He had to be around for three more seasons. So while I did not know how this subplot would end, I did know that it would end with Jack being alive.

This is the sort of hope that Jesus came to bring to this earth. There is death all around, and at times all looks hopeless. Jesus is a tiny baby in a dirty barn with poor teenage parents who are in a strange town. But, even as that tiny baby, Jesus is destined to live and teach about truth and be killed and then rise from the dead. This is hope.

Advent 2009:: The Coming HOPE Wednesday

Wednesday Hope::

Read Romans 4:13-21 and connect with the hope that was in the heart of Abraham (God made a promise to Abraham that he would have many children and that they would be the foundation of God’s people). Pray that God would allow you to push this hope to the front of your brain this week.

Pay special attention to the last verse in this reading. Abraham was fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Let those words ring in your head today and this week. God is able to do what He has promised.

Advent 2009:: The Coming HOPE Tuesday

Tuesday Hope::

Read Luke 2:1-21. It is the traditional Christmas story. It may be very familiar to you. If it is, read it several times today. Pay special attention to verse 11. The titles for Jesus are profound. Do not miss them.

In this verse, Jesus is called “Savior” and “Christ the Lord.” Today we will look at the word “Savior.” This word means “the one who rescues from danger.” There are difficulties in this world. We live in a world of broken relationships and physical and spiritual pain. We live in a world where evil is present and prominent. But it is not God’s ultimate plan.

God created us to live in deeply intimate relationships with Himself, with each other and with nature. But there was a fracture that broke the rhythm of those relationships. That fracture is sin. That fracture leaves us in this world of brokenness. But it does not leave us without hope, because Jesus has come as the savior of this world. This season, we celebrate THE COMING of that hope.

Advent 2009:: The Coming HOPE

Each day during the Advent season we will post the day's reading. Be sure to check back daily and interact by posting your thoughts on this blog. Today's reading also includes the introduction.

Introduction::

Thousands of years ago, during the time the Old Testament was written, God spoke to his people through prophets. Prophets were people chosen by God to communicate truth about God, revealing His character and His love to His people. When Jesus was born, these prophets had been silent for more than 400 years.

God’s people had no autonomy and were being ruled by Rome. The people were lost, oppressed and lacked hope. But God’s plan was to send his son to redeem the world. His plan was to bring hope, joy, peace and love to the world. His plan was to demonstrate His love by sending His son to the world as a baby.

This booklet is a study that is written to experience the Christmas season in a deeper way. It is designed to help you connect with THE COMING of Jesus. We will center our study on four concepts that Jesus’ coming brought to the world: hope, joy, peace and love.

This booklet is meant to help you celebrate THE COMING.

Monday Hope::

Hope- The New Testament was written in Greek. The Greek word that appears in the New Testament that we translate as “hope” is defined as:: confident expectation. Hope is a general term that is more a sense that you have than it is a tangible feeling.

We use the word “hope” in a totally different context. We say things like, “I hope my team wins this game” or “I hope I pass my math test.” There is uncertainty involved in that sort of hope. The hope that Jesus has brought to the world is confident expectation.

Tim Keller wrote,
When September 11th happened and New Yorkers started to suffer, you heard two voices. You heard the conventional moralistic voices saying, “When I see you suffer, it tells me about a judging God. You must not be living right, and so God is judging you.” When they see suffering they see a judgmental God.

The secular voice said, “When I see people suffering, I see God missing.” When they see suffering, they see an absent, indifferent God.

But when we see Jesus Christ dying and suffering on the cross through an act of violence and injustice, what kind of God do we see then? A condemning God? No, we see a God of love paying for sin. Do we see a missing God? Absolutely not! We see a God who is not remote but involved.

You and I live in a world where there is darkness, suffering, pain and confusion. Much of the time God gets the blame for these things. But God sent Jesus into the world to bring hope in the middle of a dark world filled with suffering, pain and confusion. This week we will look at hope and how God sent the gift of hope into the world with this one life.

Tuesday Link of the Week

This comes from some friends of North Church who started an oprhanage in the Sudan, called His Voice for Sudan. His Voice for Sudan is a ministry that we are connecting with during the Advent season and with the Advent Conspiracy. You can go back and look at the last link of the week to see about the Advent Conspiracy. Each week during Advent (Nove 29-December 25) you will have the opportunity to give to His Voice for Sudan. Consider what you can and will give.

His Voice For Sudan Advent Conspiracy Video from Amber Burger on Vimeo.

Advent is Coming

The Advent season is coming. Advent is about Hope, Joy, Peace and Love coming to the world in Jesus. I have written a short book about this season to be read daily. We will be giving these away starting this week at North Church. I can also Email you a digital version. This is an excerpt from that book...

I have a friend named Denny. Denny had a son named Jon who died in a tragic accident just after his junior year of high school. The days and weeks following his death were very difficult on Denny and the rest of his family. I do not remember a father and son closer than Denny and Jon. They were best friends. As time went by, Denny began to talk about how grateful he was that God gave him the 17 years with Jon and the great memories that would never be lost. He was grateful for the fact they were best friends. There is a lot that Denny likes to talk about in regards to Jon, but this is the most profound for me.

Denny doesn’t simply mourn the loss of his son. Denny celebrates his son. Denny celebrates the God who allowed him to spend 17 great years with Jon. Denny’s joy was not and is not bound by his circumstances. In John 14:6, Jesus calls himself the truth. The definition of the type of truth Jesus uses here is a truth that is unaffected by circumstances. Think of a concrete pillar holding up a great bridge. The waves and boats that pass by do not affect the pillar. This is Jesus. This is the kind of joy THE COMING brought.

If the joy in your life is bound to the circumstances in your life, I invite you to investigate this Jesus that came to bring you real joy that is unaffected by circumstances. Think on that joy – the joy brought by THE COMING of Jesus.

Tuesday Link of the Week

Today's link is from the Advent Conspiracy. If you come to North Church or listen to the podcast, you will find our more about what Advent Conspiracy is. For now, you will just get a taste of it from this link.

Advent Conspiracy

Advent 2009

Advent is coming. At North Church we will be studying the themes of Advent (Hope, Joy, Peace, Love) starting Novemeber 29 and running through Christmas.

As we move toward the season of Christmas and all the materialism that comes along with it, I want to encourage you to connect with a church that is paying attention to the Advent season. Find a place that will guide you to cherishing Jesus during this season.

We have developed a booklet that we will giving out for Advent. It is called Adevent, THE COMING. It is a book of devotional thoughts to read daily to connect our hearts with the meaning of Advent and what came into the world when Jesus came into the world.

The following is the introduction to that booklet::

The Coming.

Thousands of years ago, during the time the Old Testament was written, God spoke to his people through prophets. Prophets were people chosen by God to communicate truth about God, revealing His character and His love to His people. When Jesus was born, these prophets had been silent for more than 400 years.

God’s people had no autonomy and were being ruled by Rome. The people were lost, oppressed and lacked hope. But God’s plan was to send his son to redeem the world. His plan was to bring hope, joy, peace and love to the world. His plan was to demonstrate His love by sending His son to the world as a baby.

This booklet is a study that is written to experience the Christmas season in a deeper way. It is designed to help you connect with THE COMING of Jesus. We will center our study on four concepts that Jesus’ coming brought to the world: hope, joy, peace and love.

Tuesday Link of the Week

This one is for everyone who is tired and really busy. I am guessing it is for a lot of you. It is from Josh Patterson. He is a pastor at The Village Church in Dallas.

Josh Patterson on Rest

An Exposition of Romans 5; Part 5

Rom 5:7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die--
Rom 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
These two verses go together. The message of 7 is leading to verse 8. By the way, verse 8 is the best verse in the Bible. It is the gospel in one verse. We will center the discussion today on this one verse.

To see this verse rightly we have to come grips with a key word. The word that is translated here as “shows” is the Greek word sunistao. It means to set in the same place, to set one with another. Other English translations for the word are proves, demonstrates and commendeth. None of these English words do it justice.

Study of the Greek brings to mind that God has placed his love within the reach of us. Look around the room where you are right now and find an object. Imagine that you can not move. The only way for you get that object is for an outside force to somehow move that object within your reach. This is the concept that is being conveyed here with this language. The love of God is being placed within your reach.

I was visiting an Air Force buddy one weekend on his base and he had to work early in the morning so I took a walk down by the runway. I sat under a tree reading and watching planes take off. Most of them were large transport planes that were not any bigger or faster than a commercial jet. Then there was a very small plane that came along. It slowly rolled down the runway and stopped at the place where the other planes had stopped. I presumed they were making last minute checks and getting cleared for take off. This little plane moved very slowly to its position, the same speed as the other large planes. Then there was a growing roar that came from this small plane. It started small and worked into a fierce, high pitched scream. Just then, the plane sped down the runway with furious speed. In a fraction of the time and distance of the large planes, this little was in the air and completely out of sight.

Sitting there in its ready position waiting for clearance, the plane appeared to have nothing special that set it apart from the others. In an instant, the power of the plane was shown, demonstrated and proved for all around to see.

God shows his love in the same way.

There is more here in this verse. Scripture tells us that God is Holy and cannot be in the presence of sin. Before Jesus, we are filled with sin and literally repelling to God. It also says that as sinners our mouths are as open graves, filled with disease and what comes out of us is disease spreading and putrid. It is this fact that brings out the wonder and awe to the rest of this verse. God demonstrated his love while we were still repulsive to him. He did this by sending his Jesus to die for us.

We were all dead and wasting away in pool of disease when Jesus, in all His perfection came within our reach and brought us to life and pulled us from the disease swamp.

There is a song that some of the leadership of North Church wrote a while ago that talks about this concept of the love of God and it being in the reach of sinners. The message is clear that God’s love remains steadfast without regard to our behavior. Listen to the song and enjoy the steadfast love of our God, bask in it today, worship Him!

Steadfast love

Tuesday Link of the Week

This week's link is to a daily devotional from A W Tozer. Tozer was a pastor and author who died in 1863. Tozer is the author of 40 books including The Pursuit of God , which happens to be #1 on my list.

You can book mark this link, each day this link will take you to that day's thought for the day. They are quick and simple, but tend to stay with you if you engage them.

Tozer's Daily Devotional

Thursday Link of the Week?

I know that Tuesday is the day that we do the link of the week. But I found this today and thought it would be of interest and timely to post now. It contains some history of Halloween and talks about a very important event that happened on Halloween day 1517.

Halloween and The Reformation

An Exposition of Romans 5; Part 4

These expositions of Romans 5 have been rather lengthy so far. I am going to try to make this one very short. I am doing so not for the sake of making easier or more likely to be read. Instead it is being done because the point of verse 6 is simple and vital to come to grips with.

Romans 5:6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

In his book, “Commentary on Romans”, Martin Luther says, “He died at the time when we were still weak, that is, when we were neither righteous of sanctified, but helpless and lost.”

We are not capable of being reconciled to God on our own, so Christ did for us what we could not do for ourselves. He became legs to a crippled man so that the man could walk to the love of God. He became eyes to the blind man so that he could see the beauty of God. He became ears to the deaf man so that he could hear the beautiful song of the Lord. He became breath to the dead man so that he might truly live.

Worship this Jesus today who died for you.

Tuesday Link of the Week

This is a great video by Josh Harris on why it's important to commit to a local church.

Dave Kuntz, an elder at North Church, preached yesterday. It was a very practical sermon. As I sat listening to it, I was thinking to myself, "There are so many people that could use this insight for situations that they currently find themselves in." So I decided to write this blog summarizing what Dave led us to last night.

You can listen to the sermon here

The sermon come from Mark 13:1-13. Jesus is teaching here what scholars call the "Olivette Discourse", he is on the Mount of Olives as he teaches it. This is the last intentional teaching that Jesus will do and he teaching his disciples. We can take application for us as we live in this age. Jesus is giving us practical things to live in a world where evil exists.

Dave brought out 7 imperatives or directives Jesus gave to his disciples that we can apply to us. Here they are::

1. See things eternally/properly- in verse 2 Jesus says that no stone will be left unturned. We were not meant to live in this fallen world, restoration is coming, but for now it is hard. Keep your mind focused on the eternal.

2. Don't be led astray- in the midst of this crazy world confusion can reign about what we are to do and where we are to go. Stay focused on Jesus and what purposes he has given you. The mind can be misleading, trust in Jesus and what he has done in you.

3. Don't be alarmed- verse 7 says bad stuff is going to be happening all around. He says wars and rumors of wars. This has been happening since the beginning of time. People in this world just can't get along. From wars to interpersonal relationships. It will happen, do not let it paralyze you.

4. Be on your guard- This is a great point Dave made. Guard does not mean that we are to try to prevent bad things. Dave said, "You can't prevent evil but you can be prepared for it." Dave also quoted K Edward Copeland, "If God is God, and he is; if truth is truth, and it is; then evil is never capable of a perfect plan. Every lie has an end."

5. Proclaim the gospel- We are to share this news of our sin and Jesus acceptance of us and his death on the cross in the contexts where God has placed us. I also think that we are to continually proclaim to gospel to ourselves.

6. Don't be anxious- This one comes from verse 11. When you encounter hardship, understand that God is in control. Hardship is coming to make us even more keenly aware that God is God.

7. Endure- Dave ran in the Chicago marathon a couple of weeks ago. His wife, Danielle, wanted to be there at the 20th and 25th miles because she knew that was the hardest part of the race for Dave. She said, "I want to be there when it is hardest for you." Just like Dave, we are running a race. Just like Danielle, Jesus is there when it is hardest. The only difference is that Jesus endured the physical pain of the beatings and the cross, the emotional pain of being abandoned by his friends and the spiritual pain of being forsaken by God as he carried the sin the world. Jesus has endured so that we can too.

Take heart and run your race!

An Exposition of Romans 5; Part 3

Rom 5:3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
Rom 5:4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
Rom 5:5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

We will look at three verses today. The focus of them is to use our suffering as a means to connect with God. Let’s walk through this looking at some Biblical definitions that are like ladder rungs which leave us with this unshrinkable connection with God through His love.

Here are the definitions that we have to fully digest in order to get to the end.

Rejoice- Other translations use the word glory. The root of the word is to pray to God. There is a sense of communication to God of your thankfulness for the suffering.
Suffering- A pressing in or pressure. In our 2009 context, it is stress, the things that cause us stress to a great degree. Also translated as anguish, affliction, distress.
Endurance- Steadfastness. In the New Testament context it means: the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.
Character- Trial approved. It is the same word that we get our word for stylus. It brings to mind a chipping away like an artist working on a sculpture.
Hope- Joyful, confident expectation.

These three verses are building on who you are in Christ that Romans 5:1-2 led us to.
What you are is justified and at peace with a God who is a righteous judge. The words
“more than that” provide us with the knowledge that we are not just justified when we stand before God, but we are also climbing a ladder that ends with suffering as a means to godliness. And, godliness is the point of this life.

All of this leads us to this unshrinkable connection to God because of His love. Shame is not an option because of love. We can use the illustration of the scale. When God’s love and the intensity of the joy and pleasure it brings to our fully satisfied souls is weighed against any pressure or anguish this world can bring; the scale is tipped in the direction of God.

This is the basis of the hope that carries the afflicted man to a place of worship in the midst of the affliction. Not in spite of the affliction, but because of it. And, we wind up seeing pain, stress or any sort of affliction as a tool in the hand of God used to make us aware of the treasure that He is.

Tuesday Link of the Week

Matt Chandler is a pastor in Dallas. In this short video clip Matt talks about his personal time with God. He says that he wants to pay close attention to the things that have an affect on his affection.

Enjoy and have a great day.

Matt Chandler on time with God

An Exposition of Romans 5; Part 2

Rom 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rom 5:2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

So last week we looked into what it meant to be justified and to have peace with God. We came up with this:: “Faith is what brings us to the place of being rendered right, which leads to an appeased conscience and confidence with God. That is just the first half of verse one.

The second half is "through our Lord Jesus Christ." If faith is the vehicle that takes us there, the work of Jesus is the road that paves the impassable divide between us and God. But that is just a simple child’s word picture to illustrate what has happened. While it is simple, it is truth. It is what this passage is teaching.

There is another piece here that we cannot miss, even though many times we do. It is the word "Lord." It is not an insignificant title for Jesus. A practical definition for this word is:: The master I serve. When Paul writes, “Lord Jesus Christ,” he is communicating that Jesus is the master that we serve.

In verse 2 Paul brings more reinforcement and clarification with a restatement of sorts. The phase "obtained access" is used. This is another metaphor. We have rights to enter. Think about the Cardinals winning the National League Central. Winning more games than any other team in the division is what obtained them access into the playoffs. The Dodgers winning three games in a row against the Cardinals in the NLDS did not allow the Cards access to the National League Championship Series. If the Cardinals showed up tonight in Philadelphia to play the Phillies, they would not be allowed to play them because they did not obtain access.

For us, Jesus is the one who has obtained our access. Grace is what we have access to. Grace is the gift of God; it is a gift that we did nothing to get. So here we are, standing in the grace of God in His presence, having been made right by faith in our master Jesus. This leaves us with hope. Hope is more than crossing your fingers; it is like watching a game on DVR. If you go back and watch last week's debacle, no matter how much you want it to happen, Matt Holliday is going to drop that ninth-inning fly ball. The Cardinals are going to lose that game. This sort of hope is the same thing. We have the full expectation that we will look with awe into the wonderment of the beauty of God.

1 Corinthians says that no eye has seen or ear has heard or mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. This is what we look to -- what we place confident trust in. This is what Paul means by, “we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Breathe in deep these promises of who Jesus is, who God is, what they have made you into, and what awaits you because of it.

Tuesday Link of the Week

This is a video link of John Piper talking about the gospel. Watch the video and feel free to interact in the comment section with his take on the gospel.

John Piper on the gospel

An Exposition of Romans 5; Part 1

As we have been talking about improving the traffic and content at this blog, we have decided that consistent content is a key. As a result of that, we began the "Tuesday Link of the Week" this week. We also have what we are beginning today, an Exposition of Romans 5. This exposition will appear every Thursday. When it is finished, we will undertake another series.

Before we get started with that, I need to explain two things: First, let's look at the term "exposition." Exposition simply means to expose something. So we will take Romans 5 verse by verse, and at times word by word, and try to draw out deep meaning expose exactly what the author (Paul) is trying communicate to Christians in Rome, as well as what God is revealing about his character.

Why Romans 5? There are several reasons. Do not skip past this part and go on to the actual exposition; this is really important for us as we set out on this journey. Romans 5 is filled with teaching on justification and faith and peace and love and propitiation and atonement and lots more. Some of these are really big and scary words for the average Christian or seeker. But they are key elements to understanding your relationship with God. We cannot shy away from them simply because they are seemingly difficult to understand. My hope is that this study will leave us all with a greater understanding of Jesus and how we relate to him. I also hope it will leave us with a resource that we can look back to in future days for our benefit and the benefit of others.

Another reason for studying Romans 5 stems from a conversation with a friend I had a few weeks ago. She was concerned about her salvation and her security. I do not think she is alone. Many people stand on a shifting-sand faith, and Paul is teaching us about a faith of substance that is not moved by our disobedience but is held firm by a perfect and saving Jesus. It is crucial for us to understand our positional relationship with God the Father, and Romans 5 addresses it.

Since I have already written a lot today, I will be quick with the actual exposition piece this week.

Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.


I once heard someone say that if you see the word "therefore," you must ask yourself what it is there for. That is a cheesy saying, and I do not like cheesy sayings, by my love of truth outweighs by dislike of anything cheesy, and this statement is true. So, we ask, what is the "therefore" there for. Paul has just spent time writing about justification and mentions it again here. He then gives us one of the gifts we have as a result.

The word "justified" here is the Greek word "Dikaioo." It means to render righteous. Tuck that away for a minute, and we will come back to it.

Faith is a big word that has so much meaning and nuances. It packs a lot of truth. Too much for us to get into in great detail. We could, and probably will, do a series on defining faith. For our purposes here, let's say that faith is the combination of trust and surrender and has at its root an understanding of authority. As my son learned to trust in me, he was more willing to jump into a pool where the water was over his head. As a result of that trust, he surrendered his well being and jumped into what would have been death for him had I not been there.

I got in my car this morning and took my daughter to school. My 2001 Saturn is the vehicle that brought my daughter to school. Faith is the vehicle that brings us to justification. Tuck that away for a minute and we will come back to that.

That leaves us with peace to close this part out. Martin Luther says, "The Apostle (Paul) here means that peace of which all the prophets speak, namely, spiritual peace. This peace consists properly in an appeased conscience and in confidence with God, just as conversely the lack of peace means spiritual anxiety, a disturbed conscience and mistrust against God."

So we can say this confidently from scripture: "Faith is what brings us to the place of being rendered right, which leads us to an appeased conscience and confidence with God."

Live in that peace. Christ died for you to have it!

Tuesday Link of the Week

We begin a new piece of the North Church Pastor's Blog today...the Tuesday Link of the Week.

We will be posting a new link each Tuesday. The theme of each link will vary from week to week. Be sure to check the blog every Tuesday for the link of the week.

The first is a link to the introduction of the latest Tim Keller book called Counterfeit Gods. The book is due to hit stores on October 20. Enjoy the link!

Introduction to Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller

More on Authority

I was cutting the grass this morning and had these thoughts while listening to Matt Chandler preach.

Look at the story of Moses and Pharoah and the plagues that God sent to the land. God sent these plagues in the midst of a struggle over authority with Pharoah. In other words, Pharoah says, "I am in charge." God says, "No I have authority."

Please, do not think of this story as some fairy tale kids movie. This is not for kids, it is intense awful stuff that happened to a nation whose leader was in opposition to the authority of God.

Among other things, this is what God to show his authority. Every bit of livestock from the nation of Egypt died. Every horse, camel, cow, sheep and every other piece of livestock just dropped dead. The great river Nile turned into blood. Houses were filled with locusts, dust turned into gnats. Then every first born son of everyone in the land of Egypt died in the night.

Make no mistake, God has authority. We can submit to it or we can be in opposition to it.

Ferocious Faith

When we read and study about the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11, we see that every single example of faith produced in them an outward, ferocious way of living for the Kingdom of God. Faith is never simply an inward thing, but always produces an outward way of living that exalts Christ and advances His Kingdom.

How is the Lord calling us to be bold and ferocious in our pursuit of Him - to live out our faith and be placed into the category as people "of whom the world [is] not worthy" (v.38)?

It goes without saying that what these men and women accomplished by faith in advancing the Kingdom (as described in Hebrews 11), required an act of God and never was it comfortable and easy. In fact, most of the time they were probably out of their element and completely out of their comfort zone. I mean, think about it, what in the world is comfortable about "stopping the mouths of lions, escaping the edge of the sword, being tortured, suffering mocking and flogging and chains and imprisonment, being stoned, and sawed in two (SERIOUSLY!?!?!) and killed with the sword?" ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!! So why do we think that our calling to advance the Kingdom of God should look any different???

As Matthew put it:
12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force (Matt 11:12).

THE ANSWER!!
So how in the world do we do this??? I love it when the Bible shoots you straight...so here it is.

Heb 13:20-21
20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Notice how the gospel produces the power of God in our lives to equip us to be and do exactly what he is calling us to be and do. Oh that God would work this kind of faith in our lives...that we would never be the same...that our church and our community and the nations would never be the same!!!

Will you join me???

Identity Crisis

This is on the front page of Espn.com under a picture of Michael Vick.

"Michael Vick has spent the past 2 ½ years as a symbol. On Sunday, he will become a person again when he takes the field for the Eagles."

Who we are is not defined by what we do for a living or even the gifts that we have been given by God. This statement and this man are prime examples of how we worship false idols and how we find our identity in temporary and destructible things and how those things can and do crumble.

As I read that and started to think about it, I thought of two things. First, is John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" That word truth is the Greek word Alethia. It means that which is true under any matter under consideration. It means that Jesus is unaffected by circumstances or environment. It means that he is unchangeable, unfaltering and unwavering, he is the same today as he has always been.

Second, I thought of the old hymn that says, "My hope is built on nothing less that Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus name." The identity of the follower of Jesus is found solely and completely in the person of Jesus Christ. Colossians 3:3 says that our lives are now hidden in Christ.

May you rest in the hope that your identity cannot perish, spoil or fade and is placed in the unchanging unaffected nature of Jesus Christ.

On Authority, Submission and Covering

Hebrews 13:17 (ESV) Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

I have been thinking a lot about authority and covering. Scripture has a lot of references about submitting to authority. In Gethsemane, Jesus was submitting to the authority of the father. In Ephesians wives are called to submit to their husbands as to the Lord. Romans speaks to submitting to governmental authority as a form of worship. 1 Peter 2 speaks of submission.

Headship is a principle of responsibility for a relationship. Christ is the head of the church, therefore he holds the responsibility for that relationship. The husband is the head of the wife and so it is the same deal, he is responsible for the relationship. A pastor will give an account for the work he has done and for the people in his care. We must understand this concept:God has designed us to be under authority and in submission to that authority.

This is not done for some sort of cosmic power trip. It is not done rob you of freedoms or to be oppressive, even when that authority is oppressive or is perceived to be oppressive. It is done as a covering. It is done for your benefit.

The Road to Perdition
About 1:40 into this clip there is a great speech about submitting and covering. It paints a very Biblical picture of the importance of submitting to authority and the covering that it provides. The rest of the clip is for your entertainment.

From J I Packer

The Way of the Weak Is the Only Healthy Way


By J. I. Packer


“It’s a grand life if you don’t weaken,” says the British platitude. It’s a good life only when you do weaken, says the Bible. Once more the wisdom of God upsets the conventional wisdom, the wisdom of this world. Christians must always be alert to points at which God’s thoughts cut across what society takes for granted and must dare to be different when loyalty to their Master so requires—which is frequently. With regard to strength and weakness, the antithesis between the world’s way and that of Christ is total and stark and may not be toned down.

The world’s stance—that is, the view of mankind in the mass, without God and under sin—is not in doubt. Ever since Lamech and the tower of Babel the world has worshipped successful strength—the physical strength of Goliath, the executive strength of emperors and generals, the strength of purpose that explorers, go-getters, and tycoons display, the mental strength of thinkers and teachers. Individuals have sought to emulate these forms of strength by gestures of self-reliance and self-sufficiency. But Scripture shows that weakness, known and embraced as such, is of the essence of right living.

The world continues as it was. That explains why body-building (gaining an intimidating physical presence) and assertiveness training (learning, by verbal push and shove, how to get your way) and the “success syndrome” are so prominent in North America today; just as it explains why an Englishman feels that his home is his castle and why an Asian cannot contemplate losing face. Our proud world, thus tuned to seek strength, sees personal limitations somewhat pitiful and its compassion for handicapped humans often has a touch of contempt mixed in. It was so when the Corinthians said of Paul, “his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible”(2 Cor. 10:10, NKJV) and therefore declined to take him seriously. The world never has time for weakness in any form.

In its dictatorial way, the world tries to make Christians revere successful strength. When people’s spiritual quality is measured by whether they are good speakers or outstanding athletes or great money-makers or popular TV personalities, rather than by their character as it appears in non-official relationships, the world is making headway in this. When preachers present salvation as God’s gift to us of power to use, whether in maintaining a type of euphoria called victorious living or in effectively claiming health and wealth or in ministries of evangelism and healing or in any other acknowledged type of Christian effectiveness, the world’s strategy is advanced again. To say that God gives us power to use is not at all what Scripture means when it affirms that God’s power works in us and the Christian life is distorted when it sets forth as a use of strength in this way.

Certainly, God strengthens the weak—but understand how! Strength means ability to do something that requires effort. Scripture tells us that God gives strength for three things: endurance of strain and pressure, fidelity in serving God and others, and resistance to Satanic wiles. The Lord Jesus, who showed this threefold strength to perfection in the days of his flesh, now from his throne imparts it to those who are alive in him. In them the moral and spiritual instincts of Jesus’ holy character now seek active expression, and the Holy Spirit acts in their actions to work in them the good works in which the expression of these instincts is seen.

But, and this the crucial point to grasp, what I have just formulated only becomes reality when Christians feel too weak, mentally, morally, and spiritually, and maybe physically too, to rise to the demands of each situation. Then they extend the hand of faith to God as drowning men stretch for the lifebelt. “Help!” is prayer at is truest, as it is weakness at its most explicit. And it is a prayer that God answers!

Why does God shape his children’s lives in a way that keeps them feeling weak and swamped? Why do believers constantly find thorns in their flesh and in their beds? Why does the God of sovereign love periodically plunge his beloved ones in to suffering and strain? Paul’s testimony tells us partly why. “We were under great pressure . . . this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God.” “We who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.” “For Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 1:8 f., 4:11, 12:10). Exactly!

What the world never understands and those who think that the good Christian feels strong and powerful and has life easy never understands is that only consciously weak souls ever lean hard enough on the Lord to stand steady or walk straight in his risen power. Weakness is the true path, the only healthy way.

How weak, I wonder, are you today?

J.I. Packer is professor of historical and systematic theology at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

This article was previously published in Eternity Magazine, November 1987.

Thoughts on hope

The dictionary defines hope as the feeling that events will turn out for the best. It is also what we think of, perhaps subconsciously, when we see the word when it appears in scripture.

The word as it appears in the Old Testament is a trinity of wait, hope and expect. Stop for a moment and reflect on that. Seriously, stop reading and reflect on that. When we are directed to hope in the Lord, we are being directed to wait until the fruit of faith bears it self. We are being directed to know that Lord will come through as he has promised to come through. We are being directed to expect from the Lord; to plan our lives around that expectation. I expect tomorrow to come so I put my kids to bed at their bed times so that they will be refreshed for school in the morning.

Faith is inseparable from hope. You cannot hope in a Biblical sort of way without it being bound up in elements of faith. You cannot have this sort of trinity of waiting, hoping and expecting without knowledge our God and what he has promised to be and what he has not promised to be.

Psalm 130:5 says, “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word do I hope.” In Psalm 130:7 it says, “Oh Israel put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is steadfast love and plentiful redemption.”

See the Lord as the immovable bedrock upon which our hope is built. His unchanging word that was given to us to reveal his character is the object of our hope in verse 5. His steadfast love and plentiful redemption are the objects in verse 7. Notice those image creating adjectives…steadfast and plentiful. His love does not change. It does not change because it is not dependant on us to be deserving of it nor does it need to change to fully satisfy the core of our soul’s need to be loved. His redemption is without end, it is extravagantly given like Thanksgiving pie at Grandma’s.

Stop today and ask God to give you the grace gift of Biblical hope.

Baptism of Repentance

Mark 1:4 says that John appeard, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance.

I preached alot this summer about repentance and used this verse in the set up. But I missed this until this morning, "proclaiming a baptism of repentance. That words means immersion or submersion. Either way, it means put yourself fully and wholly into something.

John's call to those he encountered was to "immerse yourself in repentance." I was thinking just yesterday about how those messages I got to preach this summer impacted my own heart. I was fearful that I had moved past them and onto the next thing that Jesus was talking to me about.

I have prayed for my heart and yours today that Jesus would remind us to live this life immersed in repentance.

Further study on repentance::

North Church sermons on repentance

The two sermons on repentance are from May 24 and 31

A Spurgeon manuscript on repentance

An A W Pink mini book on repentance

All of Life is Repentance by Tim Keller

Click this title to link to a great article

If you click on the title above you will go to a great article by Tim Keller on idols.

From Through Painted Desserts by Don Miller

"It is true that it is a powerful occurrence to have somebody look you in the eye and say you are worth something. I was reading an issue of the Smithsonian magazine the other day and in it was an interview with the poet Maya Angelou. In the interview she talked about the time, as only and eight year old girl, that she was raped by her mother's boyfriend. She spoke about having to heal from the crime, but also about how she told on the man, and how he had gone to prison and shortly after being released was beaten to death by men in the community. Angelou believes she was the one who caused the man's death because she told about the rape. I was amazed to read that after the beating the terrified young child didn't speak for years. It was much later, during a walk with her mother, that she would find the source of her life of freedom, beauty and creativity. Walking down a street near home, Angelou said her mother stopped, turned and spoke to her.

"'Baby,' she said, looking the young woman in the eye. 'You know something? I think that you are the greatest woman I have ever met. Yes. Mary McLeod Bethune, Eleanor Roosevelt, my mother, and you- and you are the greatest.' Maya Angelou said in the interview that she boarded a streetcar with tears flowing down her cheeks, stared into the wood paneling of the car and thought to herself, 'Suppose I really am somebody?'

An yes, she was and is somebody. On the bulletin board above my desk, I have a picture of Angelou in which she is delivering a poem at President Clinton's inauguration. Far from the girl who spent years living in fear and silence, the brilliant poet stood before the nation and spoke compellingly"

But today, the Rock cries out to us
clearly, forcefully,
Come, you may stand upon my
Back and face your distant destiny!

I love the line "the Rock cries out to us." I think that is beautiful, for some reason, maybe because Jesus was like Maya Angelou's mother in that he went around looking people in the eye to tell them they were beautiful, that he stood as a rock for them, a being who, for the rest of their live, they could look back to and hear in their minds, and envision in their memories, God saying to them the world had been lying, an you are indeed beautiful.

Authority and happiness

I talked about an idol of self and self fulfillment in the message yesterday (8.23) I heard some good stuff from Matt Chandler today that got me to thinking deeper about it. It came from his sermon called "Games People Play Part 1" You can find it on iTunes under the Village Church podcast.

Chandler says that as evangelicals, we do not want to tell Jesus that he has no authority and denounce Jesus all together and become atheists. Instead, we decide to redefine his authority. When confronted by the Holy Spirit on a direction, people who do not want to denounce Jesus will most commonly say, "Jesus wants me to happy so he would not ask me to do that." "He would not ask me to go there, to give that away, to do that, to walk away from her or some other thing, Jesus wants me to be happy."

First of all, Jesus has never promised you that he is here to make you happy. So we hold to this flawed idea that Jesus, foremost, wants us to happy, but that is not in the scriptures. So it becomes Jesus that we love, but the scriptures that we do not trust. So Jesus becomes whoever we say that he is and not who the scriptures say he is. We are more comfortable with our invented Jesus than with the one of the scriptures. Why? Because my Jesus lets me do what I want. Chandler says, "Jesus is far more interested in your joy and holiness than in your happiness."

Chandler goes on to say, "I believe that the bulk of evangelicals think that Jesus is Santa Claus and that we have been nice and that he has kept track of that and so there will never be any coal for us. That what we get is candies and fire trucks, everyday."

What you have done is recreate a Jesus that only commands of you what is easy for you to do or submit to. This winds up fleshing itself in the earthly authority that we willingly submit to(Pastors, churches, mentors, parents, friends) so long as they don't tell you to do something that you do not want to do.

That is such a lie and you are your own god and if you are your own god then you have to be your own savior. And that is failure waiting to happen.

Practical application for this is to submit to God and the authority in your life. If you have not authority, find some and expressly ask them to look into your life and challenge you, then submit to that.

A quote I heard today

"If you do not know the purpose of a thing you will eventually abuse it."

I do not know the author of this quote, but it is beautiful. Marriage, scripture, pain, sex, God and so much more fit into this. Thoughts?

Some thoughts on culture involvement

This comes from theresurgence.com, written by Jonathan Dodson (I do not know his background)

"Instead of simply condemning, critiquing, consuming, and copying culture, the way forward is to create a good alternative. Otherwise, we are simply left at square one, with very little Christian progress in various cultures. So, instead of bemoaning bad movies, make better ones. Instead of copying contemporary music and inserting Christian lyrics, create new music and contribute to cultural change through innovation and creativity. Draw attention to your Creator through superior or innovative cultural action."


This articulates my critique on main stream Christian culture and the main stream Christian response to culture very well.

I was indirectly taught as a young person to fear culture. I was told to fear the R rating without looking into why. I was taught to fear certain bands and the people who liked them. I was told to not watch shows like The Simpson's and 90210 and NYPD Blue.

I was also told to like artists like Amy Grant and Petra and if I was really edgy Stryper.

I love Dodson's words, "Draw attention to your creator through superior or innovative cultural action." What a great statement and imperative for us.

Dodson also paraphrases author Andy Crouch by saying, "I have advocated the making of culture—good culture for an infinitely good Creator."

From Knowing God by J I Packer

Lots of things have struck me while reading the first 50 pages of this book. I will share a few now and perhaps more later or perhaps more thoughts from the next 50 pages.

Packer defines godliness as, "responding to God's revelation in trust and obedience, faith and worship, prayer and praise, submission and service and must be seen and lived in the light of God's word. This, and nothing else is true religion."

Take special note of the words responding and revelation. There is an action that takes place in the heart of the godly person when that person is confronted with a revelation of God. Do not let these words pass you by. When something is revealed to you, you see it and experience it. I think of the Wizard of Oz when the crew finally gets to the wizard and his identity is revealed. When you have a revelation of something you see it's essence, the truth of it. You have knowledge if the thing being revealed.

In our quote above it is revelation of God that leads to all these areas of response. So our religious activity is a response to revelation of God and not some contrived way to gain acceptance from God or from men. No one is impressed by that.

There is much to say about the next series of quotes, but instead of giving you my thoughts on them, I will simply list some of them and ask you to let them sit with you like you sit before a good steak and smell the aroma and hear the sizzle and feel the warmth, then cut off a piece and chew it slowly and taste it deeply.

"What makes life worthwhile is having a big enough objective, something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiance; and this the Christian has in a way that no other person has. For what higher, and more exalted, and more compelling goal can there be than to know God?" "...knowing God is a relationship calculated to thrill a person's heart." "You can have all of the right notions in your head without having ever tasting in your heart the realities to which they refer...without this, your relationship can only be superficial and flavorless."

The last thing I want to mention is a beautiful thought about the gospel. Packer writes, "There is, certainly, great cause for humility in the thought that he sees all the twisted things about me than my fellow humans do not see and he sees more corruption in me than that which I can see in myself. There is however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, he wants me as his friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given his son to die for me in order to realize this purpose.

That is one of the greatest proclamations of the Gospel that I have heard. Taste and see that the Lord is good!

The Gospel

I am thinking alot about the gospel today. I just finished up my sermon for this week and the gospel is all over Mark 7:1-23. Jesus goes hard after the religious nuts of the day. He is very in your face about them because they threaten his followers with heresy.

Then after he rips them he turns to his followers and offers a gospel centered message of repentance. It is truly beautiful. My heart has been changed and given hope today.