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

A Crucifixion Narative

Some may have heard this before, but it is well worth its 22 minutes. Especially this weekend, as our calendars call us to pay a little closer attention to the magnitude of the Cross. May God richly bless your Good Friday / Easter weekend. And may we rejoice over what Jesus has accomplished at the Father's hand by the Spirit's power so that we might stand forgiven, cleansed, remade and alive.

Here are two excerpts:

"In that moment Jesus hears his own word of power: the word of power that holds the merciful centurion in existence, the word of power that causes the hammer to be. He’s speaking it all into being: the soldiers, the priests, the thieves, the friends, the mothers, the brothers, the mob, the wooden beams, the spikes, the thorns, the ground beneath him, and the dark clouds gathering above. If he ceases to speak they will all cease to be. But he wills that they remain. So the soldiers live on, and the hammers come crashing down."

------------------

"(Jesus) downs every drop of the scalding liquid of God’s own hatred of sin mingled with his white-hot wrath against that sin. This is the Father’s cup: omnipotent hatred and anger for the sins of every generation past, present, and future—omnipotent wrath directed at one naked man hanging on a cross.  

The Father can no longer look at his beloved Son, his heart’s treasure, the mirror-image of himself. He looks away.  

Jesus pushes himself upward and howls to heaven, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'

Silence."

To God Alone be the Glory

A Crucifixion Narrative - link 1

A Crucifixion Narrative - link 2

(these are the same message in two different locations)

In The Night

For Good Friday and Easter Sunday, this song by Andrew Peterson captures the breadth of what the Father, Son and Spirit accomplished and the joy that reality should emblazon in our souls. SDG


In The Night - Andrew Peterson

I am weary with the pain of Jacob's wrestling
In the darkness with the fear, in the darkness with the fear
But he met the morning wounded with a blessing
So in the night, my hope lives on

And when Elisha woke surrounded by the forces
Of the enemies of God, the enemies of God
He saw the hills aflame with angels on their horses
So in the night, my hope lives on

I see the slave that toils beneath the yoke unyielding
And I can hear the captive groan, hear the captive groan
For some hand to stay the whip his foe is wielding
Still in the night, my hope lives on

I see the armies of the enemy approaching
And the people driven, trembling, to the shore
But a doorway through the waters now is opening
So in the night, my hope lives on

Like the son who thought he'd gone beyond forgiveness
Too ashamed to lift his head--but if he could lift his head
He would see his father running from a distance
In the night, my hope lives on

And I can see the crowd of men retreating
As he stands between the woman and their stones
And if mercy in his holy heart is beating
Then in the night, my hope lives on

Well, I remember how they scorned the son of Mary
He was gentle as a lamb, gentle as a lamb
He was beaten, He was crucified, and buried
And in the night, my hope was gone

But the rulers of earth could not control Him
No, they did not take His life--He laid it down
All the chains of death could never hope to hold Him
So in the night, my hope lives on

And I can see the Son of Man descending
And the sword He swings is brighter than the dawn
And the gates of Hell will never stand against Him
So in the night my hope lives on

The Grace of a "Throw Away" Verse

[God], who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. - 1 Cor 1:8

Name the Corinthians' problem. Divisive over the gifts? Arrogant toward their sin? Triumphalistic in their view of their own sanctificaation?

Name Paul's attitude toward the Corinthian church. Frustrated at their lack of spiritual growth? Surprised by their willingness to treat other brothers with contempt? Upset that they would willingly tarnish the bride of Christ?

All of this (and probably much more) serves as a helpful diagnostic when reading 1st and 2nd Corinthians. But nowhere do we get the real sense that the Corinthian church was doubting God's sustaining love and grace.

So my question the other day was this: Why did Paul insert v8 into his introduction to his letter? He never really follows up. He never really stresses this theme again (ala Rom 8). So, why did you do it Paul?

I think the answer is this: the power and promise of Jesus' life, death and resurrection are so central in Paul's mind that he doesn't see the need to repeat himself. Everything flows from this reality. Christ paid the infinite price. Therefore we don't have to, now or forever. Jesus secured our redemption, not just for Good Friday, not just for Easter Sunday, not just for the day we "accepted" our salvation, not just for the day we are ushered into heavenly glory, but for everyday and for all time.

Paul's whole thesis to the Corinthians, be the Christians Jesus has called you and saved you to be, is grounded on the fact that Jesus died and rose (15:1-4) and through this sacrifice of himself, Jesus will hold us secure and guiltless to end. No matter what.

To God Alone be the Glory

To Cling and Hunger Like Never Before

A prayer by CH Spurgeon

"O Lord, that we would cling to you more firmly than ever we have done. We trust that we can say we love you Lord, but Oh that we would love you more! Let this blessed flame feed on the very marrow of our bones. May the zeal of your house consume us; may we feel that we love you Lord with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, with all our strength, and hence may there be about our life a special consecration, an immovable dedication unto you O Lord alone...

"O Lord Jesus, deepen in us our knowledge of you. We would that the Word of God were more sweet to us, more intensely precious, that we had a deeper hunger and thirst after it. Oh that our knowledge of the truth were more clear and our grip of it more steadfast. Teach us, O Lord, to know the reason for the hope that is in us, and to be able to defend the faith against all comers. Plough deep in us, great Lord, and let the roots of your grace strike into the roots of our being, until it shall be no longer we who live, but 'Christ who lives in us' "