The Aim Of Our Charge Is Love

The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. - 1Ti 1:5

Is the essence of the Christian life really this simple? And this difficult?

The more I read and listen and thoughtfully, prayerfully consider the word of God, it really does come back to love. Love drives the Trinity. Love commissioned the Son. Love crafted the gospel. Love took Jesus to the cross. Love brought Jesus out of the tomb. Love sent the Holy Spirit. Love bound the early church. And love is the call in each of our lives.

Here are just a few things I am praying through and trying seriously to put into practice, by the grace of God.

- Love for God, with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, cannot be separated from loving my neighbor as myself. We can often limit one or the other, which is the challenge of the parable of the Good Samaritan, but to separate them is to deny them both. To love God truly, I must love my neighbor. To truly love my neighbor, I must love God.

-  I don't live self-consciously enough. Too much of my life flows like water down the Mississippi, simply gone, without a trace. How does one love subconsciously (or unconsciously). It seems to me the very definition of love would preclude this. Perhaps, the fruit of the Spirit will allow an alertness, an attention to the moments of life and that love can be exercised and displayed with much more frequency.

- Love, like grace and faith and mercy, is a gift. I cannot conjure up love just because I want to. God gives it. And yet, God is the giver who keeps giving to those who ask. So, where is my prayer request for grace? For faith? For love? Whatever container I hold these in is very leaky. I need the love of Christ as much today as any day before. And I think the same will be true tomorrow.

In the end, I think it is a simple and as difficult as Paul states in 1 Timothy. Let everything--prayers, worship, giving, teaching, eating, reading, talking--be done in self-conscious love.

your affectionate, though unworthy brother and servant in Christ,

To God Alone Be The Glory

People of the Book

Last week I heard a sermon by Kevin DeYoung (linked here: People of the Book http://www.universityreformedchurch.org/teaching/sermons.html?date=2013-10-01&enddate=2013-10-31&preacher=3) that struck me as both incredibly practical and thoroughly convicting. I had intended to transcribe the main points, but he has done it for me on his own blog. The links to his posts are below. What follows are simply a recapitulation of his points.

To God Alone Be The Glory

How To Be Better Bereans - Kevin DeYoung

1. Listen to the Sermon With an Open Bible
2. Don't Rush On From the Word of God to the Rest of Your Life
3. Get In the Word as a Way of Life
4. We Must Approach the Bible With Eager Expectation
5. Be Prepared to Study the Word Deeply
6. Be Confident That You Are Able to Study the Bible and Discover the Truth of God's Word
7. Recognize That Some Things Which Claim to Be From the Bible Are Not
8. Test Difficult Doctrines Against the Scriptures Before Simply Discarding Them
9. Be Humble Enough To Take the Bible At Its Word No Matter Who You Are
10. Give the Bible the Final Say In Every Matter On Which It Means to Speak

http://thegospelcoalition.org/mobile/article/kevindeyoung/how-to-be-better-bereans
http://thegospelcoalition.org/mobile/article/kevindeyoung/how-to-be-better-bereans-2
http://thegospelcoalition.org/mobile/article/kevindeyoung/how-to-be-better-bereans-3-of-3

That Christ May Dwell In Our Heart Through Faith

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith - Eph 3:14-17a

At least two things have conspired  together to motivate me to write this post. The first is that as I scanned my blog for a previous post, I was reminded that I hadn't posted a new entry in over 6 months. This served as a poignant reminder that there are no time vacuums. Any margin I had for blog writing was gone.

The second thing that called me forth to write this post was not just reading but praying through Eph 3:14-21. As I did so, I was convinced and convicted again of a few realities that I felt a compulsion to share. These realities are not new by any stretch of the imagination. However, I you're like my, they are easily lost in the business and distractions of day to day life.

First:  Earnest, heart-level, prayer is essential to the Christian life. In Eph 1 & 3, Paul prays from is heart in a way that transparently shows he aches for the Ephesians to really, really, really know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the depth of his love. This cannot nor will not happen without prayer.

Second:  There is a bigger reality that is outside of us that the Holy Spirit will give us incredible glimpses into if we actually seek them. That is part of Paul's prayers "let them see with the eyes of their heart" "to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge". We all live quite myopically on our own. But God can give us the corrective lens of the Spirit if we simply, continuously ask him.

So here are the questions the Holy Spirit is pressing in my heart and mind right now. Why does Paul think I need strength to have Christ dwell in my heart through faith? Doesn't Jesus just do it? Maybe there is more to having Jesus dwell in my heart by faith than I realize?

Why does it take strength to comprehend the dimensions of Christ's love? Is it, perhaps, because Jesus' love isn't just ooey-gooey Valentine's Day love, but gritty and transformative? Is it, perhaps, that Jesus' love has implications to me, to my love both for God and others and how I respond to the gospel?

How can I, or anyone, know a love that surpasses knowledge? Is this part of the onion like reality of God, Jesus and the gospel? The more when press in, the more the Spirit reveals, the more we know and press in. Can a God who is infinite ever be fully known? Maybe the amazing, gracious thing is that a God who is holy can even be known at all.

How can I, or anyone, ever be filled with all the fullness of God? Would this take some renovation, some reconstruction, some demolition within my own heart? Would this take some strengthening and some shoring up of any love that I have? Wouldn't this require that Jesus really live in my heart through faith?

After listing these questions--and there probably are more--I can see why Paul concludes with his mini doxology. So that is how I will end as well.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. - Eph 3:20-21

To God Alone Be The Glory