Lucid Theology

Today Grace to You launched a new page on their site where they plan on providing, free of charge, an expositional study of a book of the Bible. The plan is to have a new sermon online every Friday. They launched it off with the book of Philemon. This sure looks like a great resource for anyone and everyone who seeks to know the Bible verse by verse; or as GTY says it, “Unleashing God’s Truth, One Verse at a Time.”

Here’s an easy way to start an expositional study through a book of the Bible. Each week we’ll update the website with a new message so you can work through an entire book, verse-by-verse, with pastor-teacher John MacArthur.

We’ll post the newest message on Friday (so you can have it for your Saturday morning devotions) and leave it up for the duration of that book study. You can check back each week, or you can add the “GTY Audio Study” to your RSS feeder to receive an automatic reminder (click here to learn more about GTY RSS feeds).

If you’ll set aside the time, we’ll give you the message. So grab your Bible, a notebook and pen (or open a new document!), and get ready to enjoy the profound riches of God’s Word.

How can a young man keep his way pure?
By keeping it according to Your word.
With all my heart I have sought You;
Do not let me wander from Your commandments.
Your word I have treasured in my heart,
That I may not sin against You.

– Psalm 119: 9-11 (NASB)

Christ prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” These are simple words, yet utterly profound words which take us into the very heart of our Savior who understood that the only means of sanctification (of growth in the Christian life) was by the Word–the revealed, God-breathed book of God (see 2 Tim. 3:16).

Today is Palm Sunday, the day in which Jesus entered Jerusalem with the feigned worship of “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel” (Jn. 12:13). May we not be like so many of those gathered that day, worshiping externally yet with empty hearts in the inside.

Seeing all that our Savior gave for us should overwhelm our hearts with gratitude and praise, desiring to live our lives for Him and Him alone. How do we do that? It’s simple: get in the Word. And allow that to be used by His Spirit in order to grow. Now the question is, do you want to grow? Or are you content in being a babe, being tossed here and there, not knowing what you believe? Or do you want to have a life full of discernment, delighting in knowing Your God more and more.

I came across an article I wrote last year which I think is suitable . . . Longing for the Word.

John Piper offers such insightful thoughts on humility:

If humility is not compliance with relativism and is not sophomoric skepticism, what is it? This is important, since the Bible says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5), and “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11). God has told us at least six things about humility.

1. Humility begins with a sense of subordination to God in Christ.

A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. (Matthew 10:24)

Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. (1 Peter 5:6)

2. Humility does not feel a right to better treatment than Jesus got.

If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household! (Matthew 10:25)

Therefore humility does not return evil for evil. It is not life based on its perceived rights.

Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps; . . . while suffering, He uttered no threats, but handed [his cause] over to Him who judges righteously. (1 Peter 2:21-23)

3. Humility asserts truth not to bolster ego with control or with triumphs in debate, but as service to Christ and love to the adversary.

Love rejoices in the truth. (1 Corinthians 13:6)

What I [Jesus] tell you in the darkness, speak in the light. . . . Do not fear. (Matthew 10:27-2

We do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. (2 Corinthians 4:5)

4. Humility knows it is dependent on grace for all knowing and believing.

What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? (1 Corinthians 4:7)

In humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. (James 1:21)

5. Humility knows it is fallible, and so considers criticism and learns from it; but also knows that God has made provision for human conviction and that he calls us to persuade others.

We see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:12)

A wise man is he who listens to counsel. (Proverbs 12:15)

Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. (2 Corinthians 5:11)

6. Humility is to believe in the heart and confess with the lips that our life is like a vapor, and that God decides when we die, and that God governs all our accomplishments.

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. (James 4:13-16)

(HT: Desiring God Blog)

It’s a been a long time since I last wrote on this blog—a long time indeed. And I have to admit that I do miss it a lot; hopefully in the near future I will be able to dedicate much more time to putting my thoughts online.

All Christians go through an ebb and flow of spiritual vibrancy. Sometimes one feels as though one is flying up high in great communion and fellowship with the Lord. Then there are those times when God feels distant and nowhere present. The sad reality is that we, as humans, are vacillating, hesitant, and unsure. In short, we are prone to not be the same person that we were yesterday; either from changing internal or external circumstances.

But thankfully we serve and worship a God who is unchanging: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). In the Old Testament prophet, Malachi, we find that God is dealing with His people, Israel, and with indictments that God is somehow unfair and unjust. God boils down the reason for His mercy shown on Israel due to his unchangeableness: “For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed” (Mal. 3:6).

We change, but not God. We are prone to be swept by our, sometimes, overpowering emotions (whether good or bad) but yet God is fixed and always does what pleases Him.

Recently, as I’ve been examining my heart and my passion for God, I’ve been noticing that things have not been as they have. A certain apathy and lethargy has blinded my view of God and consequently, my desire to be with Him. I’ve immediately thought to myself that I need to get more disciplined; discipline must be the key. And while discipline is a crucial issue, it is not the most important. Through one my good mentor’s advice, I’ve been learning that the key to unlock a consistent and passionate pursuit of God is a matter of love, not discipline.

In the last few years I’ve become an organized maniac who seems to have everything planned (hour-by-hour) at least two weeks in advance. You walk in my room and you’d find my books dewey-decimal’d (I just just made up a verb!) and you’ll find everything neatly arranged. Of course, compared to my good ol’ college dorm-mates, it’s a good thing. Discipline is a good thing; a good thing which many people sadly lack and don’t care for cultivating. Yet the rubber meets the road when I attempt to apply my zeal for discipline to my zeal for God. “If I can just get more organized,” I reason, “I’d glorify God and have more time for Him.” Granted, discipline does play a pivotal and important role in living a life for the glory of God, but as I’ve been made aware of recently, I need to cultivate love first and foremost.

The question that I need to ask myself is, “Do I really love God?” Am I cultivating a real sense of gratitude and passion for Him based on fiery love or mere dry duty? It is so easy to get caught up in doing what we always do, that we become a lot like the Pharisees whom Jesus detested and abhorred for their routinely, lifeless religiosity. I pray to God that we would be awakened, by His Spirit, to love Him more and more; to be filled with a biblical view of sin and an overwhelming view of His grace poured on us–wicked and vile sinners–deserving everything but love, grace, and mercy.

“We love, because He first loved us.”
- 1 John 4:19

Recently, I’ve been realizing how easy it is for one to forget the things which are so obvious.

God is holy and He hates sin. We know that.

God longs to be reconciled with His people. We know that.

God takes the initiative of saving lost and rebellious sinners. He stoops down to us. We know that.

God makes His ways known to us—He reveals Himself . . . and He has in His Creation and His written Word. We know that.

His presence is terrifying yet sweet; His Word is powerful yet gentle; His law is convicting yet delightful. We know that.

But O how so often do we forget that which is so simple and basic.

May God empower us to be effectual doers of the Word and not merely listeners of it (Jas. 1:22). Let us dig deeper into God’s revealed Word and let us always keep reminding ourselves of the basics—we are sinners in need of grace and mercy which is only found and obtained in Jesus Christ.

Do we want to see the glory of God? Are we willing to do whatever it takes to see God’s magnificent radiance on display? In Exodus we find a particular experience that Moses went through that I think stands out from among the others.

Then Moses said, ‘I pray You, show me Your glory!‘ And [God] said, ‘I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.’ But He said, ‘You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!’ Then the LORD said, ‘Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen’” (Ex. 33:18-23, emphasis mine).

This is amazing. Moses had asked to see the very glory of God and how did God respond? By saying yes. God knew that no man would be able to see His glory and survive; at seeing God’s glory, man in his complete sinfulness would not be able to behold such awesome, holy splendor. Therefore, God said He would put Moses in the cleft of a rock and cover his eyes while He passed by and let Moses gaze at His back.

The next day, when this was to occur,

“. . . Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and he took two stone tablets in his hand. The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD. Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.’ Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship” (Ex. 34:4-8, emphasis mine).

There’s so much truth in these texts that reading it alone seems overwhelming, but I do want to highlight the reaction of Moses. Moses here had asked God to see His glory and He conceded; He allowed Moses to see His back so that Moses might not die in the process. Moses’ immediate reaction is in verse eight: “Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship.” What a response! His reaction at seeing God’s back was of complete humility and acknowledgment of his unworthiness to gaze upon such a glorious God.

After having spent “forty days and forty nights” (v. 2 up on Mount Sinai, Moses came down. The text says that “. . . as he was coming down . . . Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him [God]. So when Aaron [Moses' brother and priest] and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him” (v. 29-30).

Now stop and realize that this was Moses—a finite, imperfect, and sinful man who was reflecting the glory of the infinite, perfect, and righteous God on his face . . . even after he had finished being in God’s presence.

Are we, like Moses, in the presence of God sufficiently, that after leaving Him we walk into the world radiating a faint glimmer of the glory we experienced with Him? I’m not saying that we are to scare people with an angelic-like ray of light that blinds people, nor do I want to stretch this text and make it mean something weird and mystical. I also don’t mean that we’re supposed to shout to the everyone how holy we are by the amount or manner of time we spend in God’s Word in communion with Him. But I do want to make a point that our time in the Word of God should be a time where we are entranced by God’s greatness, beauty, wonder, fury, and righteousness, and that that should affect our whole being— our words, our actions, our thoughts, and our motives.

What keeps us from being so impacted by the Word? One of the biggest problems, in my opinion (which is biased but accurate), is that there is a growing plague of biblical illiteracy within the church. Plainly put, people don’t know the Bible. The frightening reality is that many people are content in their illiteracy, which seems absurd when we live in a day and age (and in a country) when knowing God’s Word couldn’t be easier to know; but more than that, God commands us again and again in Scripture to guide our lives and grow our faith by the Word itself.

Not long ago people underwent persecution in simply having the Bible in their common language (let alone studying it), yet many of us have no problem in giving the Bible a place on our book shelf read on sporadic occasions or when we feel “spiritual” or in the “holy mood.” Even today, countless Christians around the globe are reading it with fear and paranoia thinking that at any moment someone might come in and at least beat them and arrest them. Many lose their lives for their love and faithfulness to the Word.

One of the results of this biblical illiteracy in our country is that people then have no way to distinguish truth from error—no discernment. This is all too prevalent in the church today. It seems as though believers are willing to accept anything and everything that sounds or seems Christian, when in fact it might very well be contradictory to the Word. There is no discernment because there is no standard, namely, the Word of God.

Paul, in writing to the young pastor in the Ephesian church, Timothy, wrote, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15, emphasis mine). Paul saw the importance of knowing God’s Word. Timothy was to have a zealous, fervent diligence in handling the word of truth which is the Word of God itself (cf. Jn. 17:17b), knowing full well that he was accountable to God Himself. Paul, during his final days before his martyrdom, wrote to Timothy:

“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Tim. 4:6-8).

This was the closing chapter of Paul’s ministry here on earth. His death was imminent and he wanted Timothy to be steadfast and unwavering in his commitment to the preaching of the Word. Paul knew that while he was there, he would be able to mentor Timothy, but this was his final exhortation. He had passed the baton and the responsibility now fell on Timothy.

Paul exhorts him,

“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths” (2 Tim. 4:1-4, emphasis mine).

Do you see Paul’s point here? Though his life was soon coming to an end, he couldn’t leave while not making it crystal clear that Timothy was to be ready “in season” and “out of season.” (Obviously, we’re living in an “out of season” time right now in America.)

If we are to rise above the biblical illiteracy that dominates the church, we need to go back to the source so that we won’t be as “. . . children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by the craftiness in deceitful scheming . . .” (Eph. 4:14). Satan is not kicking back in his EZ chair popping out on Halloween to scare children. No! His is a continual onslaught against the universal Church of God—constantly scheming ways to discredit and confuse the church with heresy and lies. But we praise and serve a God who is faithful and omnipotent, and one day He will come again and call us home. He promised that He would build His church and that the gates of Hades will not overpower it (Mt. 16:18). That is a comforting truth that underscores the sovereignty of God over all.

Our duty while on this earth is to stand on the truth of God’s Word, know it, cherish it, obey it, and proclaim it. We are to dive into the depths of the Bible and come out with its inexhaustible riches, wanting to go back and dive even deeper than before. We are to be like Moses whose desire was to see the glory of God. He was earnest and he got it. What’s stopping us?

God has given us His Word. Let us not cast it aside and open it on Sunday mornings alone. May we be known as people who stand firm, along with Paul, knowing that whatever new popular fad is going on in the church, it will by no means deter us from our rock-solid foundation, the Word. May we be people of the Book.

SDG

Applying the Gospel to all of Life

Anxiety.

Psa 127:1 A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon. Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

Psa 127:2 It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.

Psa 127:3 Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.

Psa 127:4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.

Psa 127:5 Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

I can sleep cause of your hand. You will fill my quiver. A rich legacy. Be kicking yourself for being so anxious when there is no reason to. Anxiety reveals lack of trust in God and possibly great selfish ambition. So the life lived always anxiously is a vain life. The wise know they can rest in the grace of God, unmerited by their own shortcomings. Christ has earned it all. Submit humbly to him.

Isa 35:1 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;

Isa 35:2 it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God.

Isa 35:3 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.

Isa 35:4 Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”

Isa 35:5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

Isa 35:6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;

Isa 35:7 the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

Isa 35:8 And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.

I am a fool. I will not go astray. Hallelujah for tough guardrails. My heart may feel dry, but you will make it blossom. When I look upon your glory, my own attempts melt to nothing.

Jer 17:7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD.

Jer 17:8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Jer 17:10 “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

You know my heart, you know it’s shortcomings, it’s blatant sin. And yet I am forgiven through the person and work of Christ. You have planted me firmly, I am built on the rock. No drought can scare me.

Mat 6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Mat 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Mat 6:26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

As I serve you only, as my master, I need fear nothing, I need not be anxious about anything. I can humbly walk in peace. Anxiety characterizes those who are living for self. Test my heart, give me peace in you.

you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.

Mat 10:19 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.

Mat 10:20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

Mat 10:21 Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death,

Mat 10:22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

By the power of your Spirit, I will endure to the end. Not by any personal resolve, but by the Spirit that is in me. It is in my new character in Christ, in the Spirit, that I am being made more like him. By your grace, I will remain faithful. Oh that my ways may be steadfast! Fix my eyes on the cross.

Luk 10:41-42 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,
but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Like a child at your feet, may I seek that which is greatest, not being anxious about all the troubles of life, all the many things and details I could worry about, but which ultimately are in your hands. Though I am faithless, you are faithful.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Rom 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Rom 8:33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

Rom 8:34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died–more than that, who was raised–who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

Rom 8:36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

Rom 8:37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Rom 8:38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,

Rom 8:39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus did it all. All to him I owe. I will be forever at peace, welling with joy and sweet harnessed passion because of your blood. I will behold the face of God, and am already called his son, a co-heir with Christ. Oh, reveal to me the truth of this! I want to have eyes opened even more! I don’t want to walk through life lukewarm! I want to be exuding a joy that is unmatched by joy in any other thing!

There is no area of my life that is not effected by this truth, specifically applied in any certain way. Every aspect of the Gospel is powerful. Every piece is atomic. It will have a huge impact on life, and make it so much happier than mere piety, or even than flagrant partying. Life lived in light of the Gospel has no shortcomings, cause it is under the canopy of truth, unsusceptible to rains of hopelessness or bitter fear. It is a perfect life. All imperfections in our life can be attributed to a lack of focus on the truth, a stumbling on our parts as far as gospel focus goes. But God is faithful to us even as we are faithless.

One of the biggest things I miss right now is the ability to write. All throughout this past summer, with the freedom I had, I was able to think a lot and put it on paper (or in this case, the internet). Things have slowed down a bit for me; though I know it won’t be for long. Here I go.

For a while now I’ve been realizing more facets of my constant sinful heart. The other day I was talking to a friend over lunch and I asked her how her time with God was like. After telling me what she did to commune with God, she fired at me with the same question. As a biblical studies major, and chaplain for my dorm, but more than that, as a Christian, I not only have to read the Bible, but I love the word of God—it is the overarching delight of my life. As I answered her question, I told her the truth (”I do such and such . . .”). But how easy is it for the truth to be told with evil motives and intents. I didn’t brag outwardly, but I did brag internally in my own mind.

God’s diagnosis of the human heart is not very uplifting: “The heart is deceitful than all else / And is desperately sick; / Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9). I know my heart. And at that moment when I shared with her my daily routine, I found myself desiring to impress her with my “intimacy” and “tightness” with God. Don’t get me wrong, I love to have that time with God where I can bask in His word, confess my sins, and appropriate the gospel once more. But in that moment, my desire to share with her was skewed—it was sinful. I wanted her to see me and realize how “godly” I was.

How often do we do the right things with sinful, self-seeking motives? Though redeemed and set apart from sin, we still battle our sinful flesh. Paul himself, in Romans 7, understood this constant warring of the flesh with the spirit: “For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want” (Rom. 7:19).

What is the cure for this curse? The gospel! I was hearing Jerry Bridges the other day, and he said that at one point in his life, he saw the gospel only for non-believers. He reasoned that as a saved person, one no longer has need of the gospel. He then went on to say that such thinking is ludicrous!—we desperately need the gospel every day; not only the day we were saved, but every day ’till we see our blessed Savior face to face.

The gospel is the essence of our faith where we need to daily come and bow the knee and find the cure to our constant wayward heart.

“Work out you salvation with fear and trembling”
- Philippians 2:12

How often do we realize that we are to be holy? How many times are we overwhelmed by the holiness of God and cry out like Isaiah, “Woe is me, for I am ruined!” (Isa. 6:5b). At the point our new birth we are are new persons: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17). We are given a new nature, a new way of life. No longer does God seem far fetched, but now He is real and at work in us. Surely sin does remain in our mortal flesh, but no longer are we under the dominion of sin, but of Christ. We have “been freed from sin” and have become “slaves of righteousness” (Rom. 6:18).

Notice, in Philippians 2:12, that Paul does not say to work for your salvation, he tells them to work out your salvation. Our works will never be sufficient for attaining salvation. Before God’s throne, all our works, done in our own strength, are as filthy rags before God (Isa. 64:6b). But our works are a natural outcome of our salvation. We are saved by faith and not by works, so that we won’t boast in our achievements (Eph. 2:8,9).

Much can be said, but suffice it to say that grace is what fuels our works. We grow more and more into the image of our Lord, by grace alone. How marvelous is it to ponder that, though marred by sin, we are being molded and reshaped by our God into the image of Jesus Christ. We are so unworthy, yet by sheer mercy and love He has willed it to be.

May the cross of Christ fuel our lives in complete devotion to God as we, each day, remember the sacrifice He made for us to be His own possession for all eternity.

Glory to God Alone!

“Like newborn babies, long for the pure

milk of the word, so that by it you

may grow in respect to salvation.”

- 1 Peter 2:2

One of the effects of living in the United States is that we get things when we want it, regardless of the impediment. If we don’t have money, we use credit cards. If we want to be more slim, we get an operation. The list is endless when it comes to achieving things that would otherwise be difficult if not impossible

When it comes to spiritual growth, is there a shortcut? Some people think that they can become holy by popping a pill as in this video. Sadly, there is no such thing as a shortcut to spiritual maturity. God has established the means to spiritual growth by His Word. In 1 Peter 2:2, Peter draws on the parent/child relationship to convey a parallel with the spiritual realm. We all know the dependence newborn babies have on their mothers milk. They don’t eat T-bone steaks or munch on cheesecake; all they want is milk, milk, milk.

Our daily (spiritual) diet should consist Scripture reading if we are to see ourselves maturing and being conformed more and more to the image of our Lord. We are not alone in this journey; Christ Himself promised to send the Spirit to lead us into all truth (see Jn. 14:16-31). What a comfort that is?!

Sometimes we experience “mountain” experiences where our excitement and passion for the Word is good, but there are those times when we go through spiritual “valleys” where our emotions are not where we would want them to be; nonetheless, we push onward knowing the prize that’s in store for us.

“And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32).

Sin might also be a hindrance in our time in the Word (cf. 2 Pet. 2:1). If so, we are to confess and pursue holiness . . . and we do that by abiding in the Word constantly as our only supply for spiritual life. We memorize it not show-off, but to have a spiritual bank of sorts in our minds where we can constantly dwell on it and not sin against God.

“Your word I have treasured in my heart / That I may not sin against You” (Ps. 119:11).

More can be said of spiritual growth, but this is one of the essential “ingredients” in growing. May we be like newborn babies—utterly dependent on our heavenly Father— longing for His Word. All in all, may God be glorified as we reflect the glory of His Son more and more to a lost and depraved world in desperate need of the Savior.

Christian joy is the satisfaction in God that sustains the believer through any trial. Jesus endured the cross by pursuing this joy, and we too may find, by God’s grace, that delighting in him is our only, but entirely sufficient, hope in sorrow. The pursuit of this pleasure in God is not a frivolous chasing after fleeting pleasures, but a rock-solid, mature, and truly happy, Christ-exalting endeavor.

What if we believe this but our emotions do not motivate us to seek God? Such is the continual struggle of sanctification. We must fight for joy, because delight in God is the hallmark of Christianity. But it is also a gift only given by God’s grace. What, then, does it mean to fight for what can only be freely given? In these messages, John Piper answers this overarching question and others on both a deeply spiritual level and the most practical, so that when you don’t desire God you will know how to fight for joy.

In January of 1996, the Rev. Joe Wright, senior pastor of the 2,500-member Central Christian Church in Wichita, was invited to offer the opening prayer at a session of the Kansas House of Representatives, and the prayer he offered was this one:

Heavenly Father, we come before You to ask your forgiveness. We seek Your direction and Your guidance. We know Your word says, “Woe to those who call evil good.” But that’s what we’ve done. We’ve lost our spiritual equilibrium. We have inverted our values. We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your word in the name of moral pluralism.

We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism. We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle. We’ve exploited the poor and called it a lottery. We’ve neglected the needy and called it self-preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. In the name of choice, we have killed our unborn. In the name of right to life, we have killed abortionists. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it political savvy. We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it taxes. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, oh, God, and know our hearts today. Try us. Show us any wickedness within us. Cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of the State of Kansas, and that they have been ordained by You to govern this great state. Grant them Your wisdom to rule. May their decisions direct us to the center of Your will. And, as we continue our prayer and as we come in out of the fog, give us clear minds to accomplish our goals as we begin this Legislature. For we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Rev. Wright had been invited to serve as the House’s guest chaplain by Rep. Anthony Powell, a Wichita Republican who was also a member of Wright’s church. Accordingly, Rev. Wright read the prayer at the opening of the legislature on January 23, and departed, unaware of the ruckus he had created until his church secretary called him on his car phone to ask him what he had done.

Rev. Wright said afterwards: “I certainly did not mean to be offensive to individuals, but I don’t apologize for the truth.” His staff stopped counting the telephone calls that came from every state and many foreign countries after the first 6,500. Wright appeared on dozens of radio shows and was the subject of numerous TV and print news reports, and his prayer stirred up controversy all over again when it was read by the chaplain coordinator in the Nebraska legislature the following month. Wright later explained, “I thought I might get a call from an angry congressman or two, but I was talking to God, not them. The whole point was to say that we all have sins that we need to repent — all of us . . . The problem, I guess, is that you’re not supposed to get too specific when you’re talking about sin.”

I found this story on the internet and I was amazed at the truth stated in this prayer, but more than that, the boldness that characterized it which reminded me of Peter and John in Acts 4. We find there that they were imprisoned for their “. . . teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead” (v. 2). In the midst of their preaching Christ and their testimony in the willingness to suffer for His sake led many people to believe (v. 4). The captors were amazed as “they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus” (v. 13). What an amazing experience it must’ve been for these learned men (Scribes, priests, elders, etc.) to hear Peter—who was filled with the Holy Spirit (v. 8)—speak with such authority and boldness. They knew that these men had “been with Jesus”!

The world should be able to see this is us as well. We are not to be “ashamed of the gospel,” Paul tells the Romans, “for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. . . (Rom. 1:16a). The world should not only see our love but a conviction and steadfastness on the Word of God with a spine-chilling boldness in the face of danger.

How much more holy and pure would the Church be if we suffered persecution (mainly here in America)? I was thinking over this with a friend recently: How often do we get “comfortable” with our faith as it becomes in our thinking “hip” or “cool” to believe rather than “moronic” and “anti-intellectual” to the world? We’re thankful to God for the blessing of living in a country where our faith is tolerated, but do we ever stop to think that it is indeed a greater blessing to suffer for the sake of our Lord? Even now, there are millions of Christians who suffer in many parts of the world. They have the ability to set their eyes on heaven and not in this passing and transitory world. They know what it means to be in but not of the world. They know what it means to be a citizen of heaven and not of any nationality. In the eternal perspective, they’ve got it down so much better than we do.

I pray that as we live each day God would grant us the same boldness as He gave Peter and John, knowing full well that the same Spirit that worked in them now dwells in us for the glory of His name.

Soli Deo Gloria!

“What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact that underlies it—the fact that He knows me. I am graven on the palms of His hands; I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends of His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him because He first knew me and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend. . . . There is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is utterly realistic based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery can now disillusion Him about me.”

- J.I. Packer

I came across this quote by J.I. Packer a while ago in his classic Knowing God and it has resonated with me ever since. What great comfort it is to know that God knows me. He knows me as I am. He knows my constant wayward heart. He knows my ever-failing obedience. He knows me as no individual would ever be able to know me (including my mom). He sees my every sin. And you know what the amazing part is? Despite His perfect knowledge of me, God, in His sheer mercy and grace laid down His life on the cross for men such as I to crucify Him with the nails of our sins.

Whenever I read 1 John in my quiet times, I cannot help but stop and linger on, “We love, because he first loved us” (4:19). Our love for God and others is based on His initial love for us. I am always dumbfounded by this statement. What a glorious truth to ponder!

Richard Phillips (author of the recent book, Jesus the Evangelist) posted this recently on the Reformation21 blog:

If we are fascinated or excited about anything more than the fact that the Son of God voluntarily suffered in our place, bearing the guilt our sins deserved, then we are in big trouble. I get the impression that many today — both in the broadly evangelical world and in the Reformed world — are rather bored with the cross of Christ and the justification of sinners through faith alone. But there is no greater mystery and no more glorious theme than this. Do we get bored hearing the “same old gospel?” If so, our ministries and our lives are heading for big trouble. In my opinion, there would be no more powerful influence in our lives and our churches than for us sincerely to exclaim with Paul: May I never boast except in the cross of Christ Jesus my Lord.

These are very wise and convicting words by a man who like me understands how easy it is for one to lose sight of the cross. I remember growing up as a young boy always wanting to buy some new toy. My grandma would buy it for me, I would play with it for a few weeks, then I would jump to the next “big” thing. Things haven’t changed much since then. Last year I was able to buy (with my own money) a Dell E1505 Inspiron laptop; after years of a rugged old desktop with dial-up internet, I was able to zoom on the internet and do all my assignments in half the time with half the stress. I remember being so passionate about my new laptop—taking it everywhere. It didn’t take long for me to get over it.

But when it comes to the cross—the cornerstone of our faith—why do we lose the passion? I’d venture to say that we lose the passion for the cross because we lose sight of the cross. When we stop looking at Calvary where our Savior laid down His life for us, that is where we begin looking at ourselves and our wants and our plans and our good deeds. We lose passion because we get bored with the gospel. But may it never be! The great reformer Martin Luther once said that he felt as though Christ had died yesterday. Every day of our lives we should feel as though Christ had only died but yesterday.

The way is the by the cross. How are we saved? By the cross. How are we sustained? By the cross. Everything in our Christian lives flows out of the work of Christ on the cross. It is there where we have been justified and delivered from our sin.

Are you bored with the cross?

John MacArthur, in preaching on the subject of the cross, gave this final exhortation in one of his sermons:

I would encourage you to look in your own heart this morning; do you glory in the flesh? Do you think that in your own strength, on your own merit, by your own credentials and religious efforts and activities and ethics and morality you’re going to enter God’s kingdom and His eternal heaven? Are you outside the gate negotiating your own price or have you come realizing God has established the way in Jesus Christ? And kneeling at the foot of the cross do you confess your sin and embrace the savior? It’s your choice. Empowered by the Spirit of God may you make the right choice.

I’m often motivated by different articles across the internet that really speak to me. When I come across a particular one that strikes a chord with me, I usually save it. Today I wanted to highlight one which I saved by John MacArthur where he examines how God uses broken, sinful, and worthless people to glorify Himself. I’m sure you’ll be encouraged as I was when I first read this a year ago. Perhaps we would do well in being better nobodies rather than trying to be somebodies.

————————–

Stained-Glass Saints?

If you’ve ever visited the great cathedrals in Europe, you’d think the apostles were larger-than-life stained-glass saints with shining halos who represented an exalted degree of spirituality. But actually, they were very, very common men.

It’s a shame they have so often been put on pedestals as magnificent marble figures, or portrayed in paintings like some kind of Roman gods. That dehumanizes them. They were just twelve completely ordinary men—human in every way—and we shouldn’t lose touch with who they really were.

So what qualified those men to be apostles? The truth is, it wasn’t any intrinsic ability or outstanding talent of their own. They were Galileans. They were not the elite. Galileans were considered low-class, rural, uneducated, people. They were commoners, nobodies. But those nobodies would become the preeminent leaders of the fledgling church—its very foundation!

Now when it comes to church leadership, there are some rather clear moral and spiritual qualifications that men must meet. The Bible sets the standard extremely high (see 1 Timothy 3:2-7; Titus 1:6-9; Hebrews 13:7).

But you know something? The standard isn’t any lower for the rest of the church. Leaders are to be examples for all others who strive to meet the same standard. There is no such thing as an acceptable “lower” standard for rank-and-file church members. In fact, in Matthew 5:48, Jesus said to all believers, “Be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

That’s a tall order! Frankly, no one meets such a standard. Humanly speaking, no one “qualifies” when the standard is utter perfection. What joy there is in knowing that it is God Himself who must save sinners, sanctify them, and then transform the unqualified into instruments He can use.

The twelve were like the rest of us; they were selected from the unworthy and the unqualified. They were, like Elijah, men “with a nature like ours” (James 5:17). They did not rise to the highest usefulness because they were somehow different from us. Rather, their transformation into vessels of honor was a divine work and their incredible influence is a result of the divine message they preached.

Why God Chooses Us

Do you ever become discouraged and disheartened when your spiritual life and witness suffer because of personal sin or failure? We tend to think we’re worthless nobodies—and left to ourselves, that would be true! But be encouraged—worthless nobodies are just the kind of people God uses. If you think about it, that’s all He has to work with!

But have you ever stopped to consider why that’s true? Listen to this: God chooses the humble, the lowly, the meek, and the weak so that there’s never any question about the source of power when their lives change the world. It’s not the man; it’s the truth of God and the power of God in the man. Next time you’re reading through the gospels or the book of Acts, take a few minutes to consider the work of God in the apostles. They were slow to believe, slow to understand, and had horrendous memories! Sound familiar?

Don’t worry—that is perfectly consistent with the way the Lord always works. 1 Corinthians 1:20-21 says, “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” That is the very reason there were no philosophers, no brilliant writers, no famous debaters, no distinguished teachers, and no men who had ever distinguished themselves as great orators among the twelve Christ chose. They became great spiritual leaders and great preachers under the power of the Holy Spirit, but it was not because of any innate oratorical skill, leadership abilities, or academic qualifications they had. Their influence is owing to one thing and one thing only: the power of the message they preached.

On a human level, the gospel was considered a foolish message and the apostles were deemed unsophisticated preachers. Their teaching was beneath the elite. They were mere fishermen and working-class nobodies. Peons. Rabble. That was the assessment of their contemporaries and that has been the majority opinion of the genuine church of Christ throughout history and to this very day! “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called” (v. 26).

But think about this: “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence” (vv. 27-29). God’s favorite instruments are nobodies, so that no man can boast before God. In other words, God chooses whom He chooses so He might receive the glory. He chooses weak instruments so no one will attribute the power to the instruments but rather to the God who wields the instruments. Those who pursue their own glory will sadly find God’s strategy unacceptable—and they’ll miss out on true glory and true joy.

With the notable exception of Judas, the apostles were not like that. They certainly struggled with pride and arrogance like every fallen human being. But the driving passion of their lives became the glory of Christ. And it was that passion, subjected to the influence of the Holy Spirit—not any innate skill or human talent—that explains why they left such an indelible impact on the world.

[Originated in Pulpit Magazine as God Glorified in the Nobodies on September 20, 2006]

I’m a very picky eater. I like corn but I detest carrots; I love black beans but cannot look on lima beans; I enjoy apple juice but cannot bite into an apple. The list can go on and on (seriously). Now meet John:

“Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight!”‘ Now John himself had a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey” (Matt. 3:1-4).

What stands out is not where he lived, or his appearance, or even his diet, but the assessment by Christ Himself who said,

“Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist!. . .” (Matt. 11:11a).

What had made John the Baptist great? In an effort in not to say something blasphemous I need to be cautious and accurate and give the proper context for this verse. Catch how Jesus ends that sentence, “Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matt. 11:11b). Jesus wasn’t saying that John the Baptist was greater for any other reason than that he saw the fulfillment of what all the prophets long before him spoke and prophesied on (see v.13). It’s also clear that with two thousand years later, we can look back on history and see the working of God’s hand from creation to salvation by the Cross to the establishment of the Church (and all things in between). The entire Old Testament pointed to the Cross and we are fortunate to see the grandiose picture of God’s redeeming plan fulfilled (except the final act of His Second Coming and reign)—that’s what Christ had in mind. John’s greatness was linked to his forerunning and heralding the Messiah, not anything in himself.

But nonetheless, I think there’s one particular lesson that can be seen in the life of this cricket-eating man. John – who baptized (I don’t want to offend non-Southern Baptists) — saw himself in proper perspective. In his life, his philosophy could be summed up by his own words: “[Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn. 3:30).

One must not forget that John was a very popular man despite his outlandish ways. Israel had had a period of about four-hundred years of silence from God in the form of a prophet (since Malachi ca. 424 B.C); though of course God has, was, and will always be active in the course of history. John had broken that silence with a trumpet call as he prepared the way for the Messiah who had long before been prophesied of. His message of repenting and getting baptized for the Messiah resonated with and attracted the common “sinners” and the riffraff of society. They all fled to him. His fame was widespread and his popularity unmatched in the land of Israel.

But when Christ appeared in the picture, John knew his role was to be only a neon light pointing to the Savior. He had fulfilled his duty.

“The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He on behalf of whom I said, “After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.” I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.’”

John had no doubt over his role now. He had no problem stepping behind the curtain and letting Jesus pick up the show. As the people came to John, he pointed to the One who would save them and himself.

How much more of a difference would the Church make if it recognized that it’s not about itself but all about Him? We would shine more for the glory of God if we realized that it’s not about how we feel or about what makes us better and happy; it’s about Christ. Paul had this attitude when he said, “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (Phil. 3:7). David had a similar mindset, “One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the day of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD and to meditate in His temple” (Ps. 27:4). Both Paul and David were lost in the purposes of God.

John’s greatness was found not in his clothing or sharp words but in his satisfaction and delight in making much of Christ in letting Christ increase by his decreasing. Though I’m a picky eater and I will probably never eat locusts, stepping aside, and letting God increase is one lesson we would do well to learn from John the Baptist.

Let us all decrease.

As a college student I am very good friends with Mr. Debt. Having to owe money is not a nice thing when you start realizing that one (and soon) you’ll be paying it all back (and for a very long time)—I guess it’s that way with most people (that are poor). On my side of the bill (no pun intended) I’m doing everything within my power to incur the least debt as possible knowing that it’ll one day affect my future education plan, my marriage plans, and with enough foresight, my children’s plans. I will one day pay it all back in one form or another.

Do you ever stop to realize that we all share one debt that one day we all will have to pay for? It’s a debt that is not optional but comes with the package of just being human. It isn’t for school and it isn’t for a mortgage; it isn’t for a car and it isn’t for a house. In fact, it doesn’t even exist materially (insofar as it cannot be paid with any material asset). What I’m referring to is our sin debt. We all carry this debt on our accounts whether we realize it or not—its existence is not dependent on our knowledge or assent to it, it’s outside of our control.

The apostle Paul traces this debt all the way to the early days of the world, saying, “. . . [T]hrough one man [Adam; cf. Gen. 3] sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. . .” (Rom. 5:12). Adam passed down to all of us our natural bent to sin. Ain’t that something special! From the moment we are born our sin is present as David makes clear, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me” (Ps. 51:5). In Romans we find a dark picture for mankind, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and then with a strong follow-up, “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 3:23; 6:23).

In the garden of Eden (before the Fall [in chapter 3]), God warned Adam, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat from it you will surely die” (Gen. 2:16,17). One must see the full scope of “death” as the Bible describes it. It is death physically, but it is also death spiritually. In other words, spiritual separation from God occurred when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. God mercifully spared Adam and he lived to be nine—hundred and thirty years (Gen. 5:5) but spiritually, there was a debt to be paid that could not be escaped.

In our complete absence of good we are dead in our transgressions (Col. 2:13a), which only adds to the utter helplessness. We are unable to pay back God even if we mustered enough willpower to somehow appease Him for our sin. The inescapable result is death—to be banished eternally from God presence.

Being in that predicament God “. . .made [us] alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Col. 2:13b,14).

Do we have hope? An emphatic yes! Our Savior bore the sins that we committed and the wrath of God was poured on Him. Having abolished sin by His death, Christ stamped “PARDONED” on us and more than that, He gave us His righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21).

In the Old Testament:

“Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our wellbeing fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him” (Isa. 53:4-6).

In the New Testament:

“Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. . . .He [God] made Him [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:16-17,21).

That is the heart of the gospel. Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, who “knew no sin,” didn’t sin, but became sin for what?. . .so that we would become the righteousness of God. Our disobedient lives were traded in for the sinless and righteous life of Christ.

Our “certificate of debt” (Col. 2:14) was, along with Christ, nailed on the cross where He gave up His spirit saying, “It is finished!” (Jn. 19:30). At that moment, the entire work of Christ redeeming His own and canceling their sin and giving them His righteousness had been complete. The love and justice of God had been met and the words of John 3:16 never rung truer,

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

While in this life I’ll be paying off debt for a while, there is one debt that has been paid for already. I rest assured in the grace of God who loved me and gave His own Son for me. I place my trust in Him and He gives me all that ever matters: being with Him forever. Remove all else in this life and one thing remains intact—my debt has been paid and I belong to Him.

If I said, “I’m perfect,” what would you say? It’s obvious that I’m not (especially if you know me), you would just laugh and say, “Yeah right.” I’m infamous for at times doing very idiotic stuff. I distinctly remember years ago being at my grandma’s house. It was getting dark and I followed her to the balcony where she was hanging her clothes on a line to dry. I, quiet and discreet as a cat, went behind her and shut the glass sliding door. I backed away and a few minutes later, as she finished hanging the wet clothes, mind you that she had just hand-washed, she turned around and walked head-on to door. What happened in the next few minutes determined whether I would live or die. I can’t even begin to tell you how remorseful I felt as she wailed and screamed. Her nose was a bit bent out of place. You see, when people question the total depravity of man, just point them to me. Thankfully she showed me mercy that night—and I am forever grateful.

Are we perfect? The only reasonable answer is an emphatic “no.” On a more serious note, there is no need for us to go to a jail facility or a strip club to find evidences of depravity. We need only examine ourselves and we see the stains of sins. On the human plane, we know our thoughts better. We know our pride. We know are desire to be recognized and applauded. We know our unkind thoughts and our evil tendencies. But then we find God, or rather God finds us.

Throughout the pages of Scripture we see God calling out a people and molding and perfecting them so that they might reflect the glory of Himself to all peoples. We see in the Old Testament with the Israelites and we see this all through the New Testament–God is in the business of changing people. It has been accurately said that God loves people the way the way there are, but he loves people too much to leave them the way they are.

Chapter 17 of John’s gospel is for me a Mt. Everest experience. In it we find the interceding heart of Christ who pleads to the Father for His disciples (and us by inclusion as well), as He knows full well that the time is near of His arrest. In verse 17 we find a beautiful statement: “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” There isn’t an esoteric experience or a mystical revelation that somehow transforms us, it’s by the Holy Spirit’s illumination of the Word that we find our true sanctification. As we encounter God through pages of the Bible, we are confronted with our sin and our need for help. It is the Word where we find our sure strength for overcoming sin. The psalmist wrote, “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I might not sin against You” (Ps. 119:11). We are set apart, after being declared righteous by God through Jesus’ death, unto good works (cf. Eph. 2:10) by the internalizing the truth of God’s Word. This is one of the most precious means of grace that we enjoy.

Paul tells the Thessalonians, “…[T]his is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess. 4:3). While the context for this command is in regards to sexual purity, we still cannot miss the heart of God whose aim is to call people of this world to live a life that is in complete obedience and surrender to Him.

Now the point must be made that God doesn’t expect us to somehow muster enough will power to be sanctified on our strength. Rather, He is the means for our being set apart. In 2 Thessalonians we find Paul, rehearsing the salvation experience to his readers who were “beloved by the Lord” and were chosen by Him “from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth” (2 Thess. 2:13, emphasis added). You see, we are set apart from sin unto God by God’s Spirit. Paul told the Philippians, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6). His work in us is not complete until we bear the image of His son (cf. Rom. 8:29).

There are many seemingly contradictory doctrines in the bible. For example, Jesus is seen as both God and man. God is seen as loving (Ex. 34:7a) and gracious yet just and a consuming fire (Ex. 24:17; Heb. 12:29). When it comes to our sanctification, it is no different: In Philippians Paul encourages the believers to “…work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (v.12b). And then in the following verse we read, “[F]or it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (v.13). John MacArthur writes in his commentary regarding these verses,

“The [Greek] verb rendered ‘work out’ means ‘to continually work to bring something to fulfillment or completion.’ It cannot refer to salvation by works (cf. Ro 3:21-24; Eph 2:8,9), but it does refer to the believer’s responsibility for active pursuit of obedience in the process of sanctification…”

He then adds:

“Although the believer is responsible to work…, the Lord actually produces the good works and spiritual fruit in the lives of believers (Jn 15:15; 1Co 12:6). This is accomplished because He works through us by His indwelling Spirit….God energizes both the believer’s desires and actions….God’s power makes His church willing to lives godly lives…”

Thank God for His salvation and for His continual delight in conforming us to be like His Son. It is an awesome privilege that the God of the universe would find pleasure is showing mercy and grace to us. While we are on this side of heaven–in our flesh–we will never be fully sanctified, yet we do not lose hope or despair because like His salvation, our sanctification is a gift bestowed by Him. So we push forward till that day when we shall be a perfect picture of our great Savior.

“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
- Phil. 4:13

God desires our worship. He is a jealous God who seeks our energy, our praise, our devotion, and our heart. We either freely render it or we choose to withhold it from Him. God did not make us as robotic people, but rather He has given us the freedom to choose to whom or to what our worship will go to. We all worship something – it is innate to us. Our worship is displayed in that which we spend our time with most; it is exposed in what we think on all the time; and it is manifested in our day to day dealings with people. We all worship something – again, it is something that comes natural to us as humans. Some people worship money; spending their entire lives resting on the assurance of the numbers at the bank. Others worship their bodies; spending countless hours in the gym making sure that they meet that seemingly “perfect” standard. And then there are others who worship pleasure - be it drugs or sex, they do whatever needs to be done to feed that insatiable desire.

Over Christmas break, during my freshman year in college, I spent seven days watching the show 24 – I became so addicted that at the end of that week, I was packed and ready to transfer to Langley and work for the C.I.A. As I drove my car I constantly looked through my rear-view mirror to see if someone was following me. I just became paranoid beyond belief – always looking over my shoulder like Jack Bauer. The simple fact is that we become like that which we worship — if we pour our lives into something, that “something” will inevitably mold us into the person that we will become (for me, that week, I had become “Jack Bauer”…go figure!). Our past is not merely comprised of isolated events, but they are, on the contrary, events which define the tone for us and set the pace for the rest of our lives on this side of heaven.

But now the question arises of whom are we to worship? The answer I present is God. Not merely some abstract impersonal deity that exists somewhere in the cosmos, but rather the God revealed in the pages of the holy Scripture. This is the God who created the universe and the one who sustains it to this day by his loving mercy and grace. He is the one who made you and me and every single living thing that walks in the planet (that we take for granted o so many times).

Beyond the fact of God creating and sustaining the universe, what has God done to make Him worthy of our worship? Well, many things - just the fact that He is God is reason enough. But even more than that, God has done something greater. In spite of our rebellion and rejection, this God, stooped down and came to us. The Bible states of God in 1 John 4:19 that “[w]e love because He first loved us.” You see, He is the standard for love. And He exemplified it for us as He hung on the cross to bear our guilt and our sin. How awesome is that?!…that God would make the initiative and come to us and pour His love on us in simply mind-boggling! It is that fact that should draw us to Him in worship. It is in gratitude that we cannot help but render all that we are to Him knowing what we have been delivered from–knowing we have been made right with the Father on the account His Son.

It is my ardent desire that we realize that worship is not merely singing songs and chanting a prayer, but that it is so much more than that. In Romans 12:1, the apostle Paul urges the church to, “…in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” It is our lives He wants…not some outward ritual that means nothing to us. He longs for our hearts to be lost in His praises.

I think God expects more than just worship, I think He longs for us to be known as worshipers. Many people today take a casual attitude towards church. There are many who simply go to church to sing some songs that they like and to enjoy a charming speaker whose words tickle their ears every Sunday. My favorite music group is Casting Crowns, and in one of their songs they paint an accurate picture of the estate of the church:

“Is there anyone who’s been there?

Are there any hands to raise?

Am I the only one who’s traded

In the altar for a stage?

The performance is convincing

And we know every line by heart

Only when no one is watching

Can we really fall apart”

There is so much truth in those verses– but may we live on a higher standard where God has called us to be! May we never approach God’s holy house as a show. As we come to church may we step into holy ground, taking off our pride and desires, knowing that we are there to meet with God…to bring Him our praise, adoration, confession, and even our worries. It is to church that we must come in with an attitude of giving rather than of receiving. We are to be, like Paul said, “living sacrifices” – dead to sin but alive in Christ! We are called to live in a way that is totally submissive and surrendered to the hand of God. It is more than half an hour once a week – it is a lifestyle, it is a “24/7” deal.

Let us draw closer to the flame of our faith–that it might ignite our very soul. May we go beyond the usual knowing of God and let us seek to know Him more intimately every day. Let us just worship the God who rescued us and loved us by giving up His Son as a ransom for us all. May God grant us all the wisdom and passion to be true worshipers of Him.