Saturday, October 19, 2013

Consider 101913

The following quote is  John Owen's,  Spiritual Mindedness.  It's a tough one but worthy of our full attention and efforts.

"Do we love God because we see a glory, a beauty, a loveliness in the glorious attributes of his nature?  Have we bothered to find out what those attributes are?  Do we always rejoice when we remember that he is holy?  Is it our great joy and satisfaction that God is what he is?  De we love him for the glorious revelation he has made of himself and all his holy excellencies in Christ?  Do we love him becasue he communicates himself to us and by christ?  If we do love God for the above reasons, then our love has come from a renewed heart.  But if we say we love God, but do not know why, or becasue we feel it is the right thing to say, or becasue we think it is wicked not to love God, then we have no evidence tht our hearts have been renewed by grace
A renewed heart loved spiritual things becasue God is in them.  It loves God for himself and not for what he does for us.  All other things are only loved becasue God is seen to be in them and because they are from God. . . . "


This is a great part of our work as believers.  To examine our hearts continuously and consistently for any discontinutiy or inconsistency.  How do we love God?  Why do we love God?  Who is the God we love?  Are we loving him well?

Your servant,
MS

Friday, October 18, 2013

A challenging text 101813

Ephesians 5:9b-10 ESV
[9b] Walk as children of light [10] and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

I find that in general things it is not hard to disccern what is pleasing to the Lord.  It's in the details that I find I struggle.  What should I do with me freetime?  Should I take this opportunity or that other one?  Should I go here or go there?

Perhaps the hardest thing to do is to seek His pleasure in our vocation, our calling.  What is it?  How do I do it?  Is it really what He wants me to do?  How can I tell if indeed He is pleased with what I am about?

Doing His will pleases Him but discerning what that will is (what pleases Him) is tough.  There's are many ways we try to discern if we are pleasing Him but most of them are dubious at best.

You sense His calling on your life and while you are about it you know His joy nd sense His pleasure.  But circumstances make you question if indeed this sense you have is from Him or not.  How do you measure, how do you know you are pleasing Him?

I have counseled not a few young men and women concerning their sense of vocation.  I have always advised them that numbers, praise, popularity even affirmation from friends and family can all be decptive measures.  I've always had a sense that though we are bent to look for success, our measure of success is something of which we must be very very wary.  We are so steeped in the measure- ments of the world that we impose those measures upon God.

Let me ask you how you measure your vocation - what you do by the grace and emrcy of God in service to Him whether it is direct ministry or a "secular" vocation. Is it money?  is it numvers?  Is it acclaim?  Is it confirmation from others?  

This is a dangerous place for us all - perhaps especially for we who are involved in direct ministry.  People tell us that if it is "of Him"" He will bless it.  After many years I still don't know what that would or should look like.

The best I can do is to simply trust Him in that if He has me here, doing what I am doing for Him to use me in just one life, that is enough for me.  No great vision, no big plans just doing what He brings for me to do and doing it faithfully - and doing my best to do it as it would please Him.

I have to trust Him for my pleasing Him.  I have to wade through all the doubts, all the hesitations, all the questions and all the painful comments of others and keep doing what He brings to me to do --  trusting that He is (not that He will - but that He IS) leading me in His providence according to His promises.

Paul tells us to "try" to discern what is pleasing to Him.  For me this is an admontion to constancy in prayer - seeking His providence in general and in the minutia.  It is an admonition to spend much time in prayer for the vocation I am engaged in - and to spend that time consistantly.  

I don't know how many of you struggle with your calling but I know that even though have been convinced of mine for over 20 years I still stuggle with the idea that I have missed it somehow because it is a small thing by the world's measure.  But there's the rub isn't it?


Thursday, October 17, 2013

Consider -Keeping the Heart 101713

In his work, Keeping the Heart, John Flavel writes:

"Man, by the apostacy, is become a most disordered and rebeleious creature, opposing his Maker, as the First Cause, by self-dependence; as the Chief Good, by self-love; as the Highest Lord, by Self-will; and as the Last End, by self-seeking.
Thus he is quite disordered, and all his actions are irregulat.  But by regeneration the disordered soul is set right; this gret change being as the Scripture expresses it, the renovation of the soul after the image of God, in which self-dependence is removed by faith; self-love, by subjection and obediecne to the will of God; and self-seeking by self-denial.  The darkened understanding it illuinated, the refractory will sweetly subdued, the rebellious appetite gradually cconquered.  Thus the soul which sin had universally depraved, is by grace restored.  This being pre-supposed, it will not be difficult to apprehend what it is to keep the heart, which is nothing but the constant care and diligence of such a renewed man to preserve his soul in that holy frame to shich grace has raised it." (Emphasis mine)

He goes on,
"For though grace has, in a great measure, rectified the soul and given it an habitual heavenly temper; yet sin often actually discomposes it again; so that even a gracious heart like a musica instrument which though it be exactle tuned, a small matter brings it out of tune again; yea, hand it aside but a little, and it will need setting again before another lesson can be played upon it."

The heart is kept by diligent attention to those gracious gifts God has provided us for this purpose.  We have the Word and the Spirit we have prayer and worship.  Propper and diligent attention in and to these gifts are God's gracious provision but we must attend to them dutifully and consistantly our else we will be out of tune and sounding distressing instead of comforting notes in our lives and the lives of others.

Keeping the heart is keeping the heart from sin not retrieving it from sin.  Keeping the heart is watchfulness and diligence is the graces and mercies God has provided.  We are called to be oly and holiness is a great hinderance to sin.  We must be about the business of holiness first in our hearts and then, as a consequence, in our living.

But we fail to keep our hearts and suffer greatly in lack of confidence and lack of assurance.  Confidence in proclaiming Christ and assurance that we are in Christ.  Hence we are settled in a mediocre life - lukewarm and strangers to the joy of the Lord.  Adversity becomes a greater burden than it actually is and prosperity becomes a greater trap than is should be.

Keeping the heart is critical to keeping all else from disorder and confusion.

Consider.

Monday, October 14, 2013

An uncomfortable truth 101413

J. Burroughts wrote in his work, The Rare Jewel of  Christian Contentment:
"To grant great good after great evil is one thing, and to turn great evil into the greatest good is another, and yet that is God's way:  the greatest good that God intends for his people, he many timesworks out of the greatest evil, the greatest light is brought out of the greatest darkenss."  Kindle, location 1603

To know Christ and Him crucified.  Enough said!

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Principles for the journey 101013

S. Ferguson draws the following list from John Flavel's work, The Mystery of Providence.


  • God is in control of His universe.
  • God is working out His perfect purposes.
  • God is not my servant.
  • God's ways are far more mysterious and wonderful than I can understand.
  • God is good - all of the time;  I can trust Him - all of the time.
  • God's timetable is not the same as mine.
  • God is far more interested in what I become than in what I do.
  • Freedom from suffering is not part of the promise of the Christian gospel.
  • Suffering is an integral part of the Christian life.
  • God works through suffering to fulfill His purpose in me.
  • God's purposes, not mine, are what bring Him glory.
  • God guides me by enabling me to read His Providence through the lense of the Word.
  • I have few greater pleasures than tracking the wonders of God's ways.
Enough said.

Friday, October 11, 2013

Mind the mind 101013

"The mind is the faculty which ought to guide and conduct the soul.  It is to the soul what Moses said his father-in-law might be to the people in the wilderness, as eyes to guide them (Num. 10:31).  It is the eye of the soul, without which the will and affections would perpetually wander in the wilderness of this world, drawn to every object which seemed to offer some present good.  The first thing , therefore, that sin aims at is to draw off and divert the mind from the discharge of its duty.

There are two particular duties of the mind in this matter:

1.  To keep itself and the whole soul ready to obey God in all that he requires, and to watch against enticements to sin.
2.  To see to it that all particular actions are performed as God requires, in the right way, and at the right time; and to refuse all temptations concerning things forbidden."
Indwelling Sin In Believers -- John Owen --- p 63

In Romans 12 Paul admonishes us to renew our minds and that my deaar friends in no small task.  We take in so much that we shouldn't.  We are entertained by that which should offfend us and tittilated by that which should horrify.  From Movies to TV shows to commercials we allow the world to provike our flesh having little care for the dmamge it does to our minds.

And so we live weak and pathetic lives for Him.  We neglect duties we forego service we fail in keeping out hearts fixed on Him.  Instead we live as "Gentiles" in the futility of the world tossed here and there by our affections and thoughts never knowling the peace He has for us.

Our minds dear friends need to be protected from the dung the world offers and filled with His Word - guided by His Spirit.  But it is easier and more comfortable to be of the world with a veneer of Jesus than it is to be in Jesus suffering the smears of the world.

Take heed how you think, what you thing and why you think.  Your mind is indeed a critical faculty and when it is not guarded it yields to everything that enter it.  This keeps us from serving Him, it keeps us from being holy,it hinders our sactification and sullies our witness.

We should rail against the world and its attempt to pervert our thoughts away from Him and even pervert our thoughts of Him.  If we do not, how can we call oursleves His?  How can we have any assurance.  For we cannot say, "not I but Christ."

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Synopsis - wisely said 101013

Mark Deckard write (base upon a work by J. Burroughs (the Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment)

"Contentment is not found in obtaining our desires, although God may sometimes grant them to us if they are not harmful.  Rather it is found in finding God in the midst of our unmet desires and in the end discovering that he is all we trule need (Matt. 6:25-33)."

Matthew 6:25-33 ESV
"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? [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? [27] And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? [28] And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, [29] yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. [30] But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? [31] Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' [32] For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. [33] But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

How hard it is to lay aside our own answers and solutions and to wait upon His!  The flesh is strong when we are in distress and contentment seems so far from us.

The occassional Christian who runs to God when they have run out of themselves will find times of trial and discontent harder to bear than that believer whose habit it is to go before the Lord regularly seeking His will and the mortification of the fleshly, abiding sinful desires.  

I have come to think that we are to see our lives as a moment by moment battle not just an occassional skirmish with the world the flesh and the devil.  To see our lives as having but an occassional struggle is to see our lives as needing God only occassionally.  This leads to spiritual weakness and desperation in tiimes of great confrontation.

There are "musts" in the Christian walk.  Prayer, worship, stewardship to name a few.  They are not intended to gain us favor with God but to keep us close to Him to facilitate our growth and usefulness.  They also prepare us for those times of trouble and discontent that we must know we will face in this life.  When we fail in these Christian duties we are simply setting ourselves up for pain and agony.

Is he all you truly need?  Can you accept that and settle your soul?  Are you seeking to discover that through faithfully engaging with Him?  Are you seeking His kingdom, His kingship and all the mercies that come with them?  

Or, are you simply getting through life as best you can under your own power and effort?

Contentment is wonderful but without godliness it is an empty shell, a fractured pillar, a damaged foundation.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Thinking about thinking 100413

John Own wrote in his work, Spiritual-Mindedness;

"There can be no greater evidence of a renewed heart and mind that a change in the habit and stream of our thoughts."

Certainly a great insight and powerful admonition but how often do we really think about our thinking?  Yes, when we have a real doozie of an evil thought we do but do we examine them more commonly?  Do we examine what they run to, what they are occupied with?

In these tough times many of us are, well, anxious about the course of events around us.  This can occupy our thoughts to the exclusion of any or all spiritual thoughts.

Ok, what are "spiritual" thoughts?  I'm not referring to some airy fairy thinking about heave and angels although there's nothing wrong with that.  But rather I'm thinking of thoughts of God's grace and mercy to us - His providence - His moment by moment providence.

Do we manage our thoughts or do we simply let them run their own course?  If we do the latter the flesh will always find its way in and as it does our thoughts are poisoned.  Deliberately setting our minds on the bountiful mercies that we see and those we don't serves as a strong hedge against the intrusion and manipulation of the flesh in our thought lives.

Paul writes of taking every thought captive and indeed though the context is pretty specific we may extend its boundaries to include all of our thoughts.  They must be attended to with diligence and constancy or we are liable for a fall.

Worry and anxiety, though experienced in the physical body, are thoughts.  They are thoughts that question the providence - indeed the willingness of God to provide what is best for us now.  These are thoughts that must be addressed and resisted - and changed to thoughts of His graciousness and mercy.

The "habit and stream" of our thoughts are indicators of the condition of our hearts.

God tells us that 'the thoughts of men's hearts are only evil continually,' (Gen.6:5) and Owen comments, "What a hell of horror and confusion there must be, then, in the minds of men."

He goes on, "To be delivered from this state must be the most desirable deliverance in all the world."  And indeed apart from the deliverance from the bondage of sin, I agree.

What is the habit and stream of your thoughts?  Mine is toward not being good enough, not being useful to Him, financial distress, health, current events.  They can preoccupy my Mind to the exclusion of "spiritual" thoughts.

Indeed, we need to be thinking (and praying) about out thinking.

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Tough questions - deep thoughts. 100513

John Owen wrote in his work, On Being spirituall Minded;

Can the majority of Christians honestly say that they think of such things {{hardship, calamity and disaster}} in such a way that leads them trust themswlves nd ll they love and have to God?  Can they say they so meditate on God's providential calls and warnings as to make themselves ready to part with anything and everything at God's time and pleasure"  How can such people pretend to be spiritually minded when all their thoughts resisit the idea of trusting everything to his will and pleasure?

I want to answer "Yes," to the first two questions but I am deeply confronted by a hesitation, a cold chill that goes to the bone.  I am hindered by pride and fear.  Perhaps the greatest fear is of man and what man might say of me if God were to call for it all.

It is common to see those who, even by God's providence, lose it all as failures, objects of scorn and pity.  It is common to withdraw from those in such distress as we look for their failures that have brought about their circumstances.  It is easier to leave them alone than to draw near.   It is easier to look for some blame to lay at their feet than to contemplate as an act of God's providence, a part of His plan.

I think many of us would rather suffer some disease and hence be empoverished than to have the hand of God sweep everythiing away.  Then we would have a reason, a cause for it and still be able to hold up our heads and look people in the eye.

To trust everrything to His will and pleasure is what He means by calling ut to be alive to Him and dead to ourselves and the world.  To trust everything to Him - or at the very least to struggle to do so is the fundamental condition in which we are called to live.  It is dieing to self - and to the good graces and acceptance of other people.

When we pray, "Thy will be done." do we realize what we are asking, what we are saying, what He might do?  I don't think we do.  I know that I have grown to be chilled when I pray that.

But it is my rebellious and tainted heart that is chilled.  It is the remnant of sin - that principle of evil yet dwelling in me that makes me struggle to simply surrender.  So I find myself in a fight with God and a struggle to maintain my sanity.  The assurances that "Everything will be OK," does little moer than drive my thoughts to death and the assurances I have of eternal lie with Him.  This is not a bad thing but it should not be the first thing.

When God acts in our lives whether we sense it to be good or bad, sour or sweet, it is for His glory and honor.  Are we willing to see Him glorified in our lives in a painful and uncomfortable manner?  Are we willing to suffer and have man-imposed shame torment our heads and hearts?

I want to and I don't want to.  I say "Yes!  BUT....."

And I ask Him to forgive me.

Friday, October 4, 2013

A critical question and comfort

"Has God weakened your ability to sin, denied you the opportunity, taken away the object of your lust, or diverted your thoughts?  Be sure that you have received mercy in this.  If God had not so dealt with you, you might by now be a terror to yourself, a shame to your family, and under the punishment due to some notorious sin.  You would have incurred additional guilt, perhaps ruined others, or caused some to be eternally ruined by your example.  All this has been prevented by these providences and eternity will witness that this is a special mercy.  These are not accidents.  The merciful hand of God is in them.  And you are less wicked than you would otherwise be."  John Owen

How often do we consider God's providential interference with our flesh?  How often do we, in prayer, thank and praise Him for intruding into our lives so that we can avoid offending Him?

How may times has a lost minute, a traffic light, a phone call, a cable outage, some interruption kept us from sin.

I don't think we consider this very often at all.  But there are no small mercies, no small blessing and this is one that we somehow don't see and certainly we don't give thank for.

Our consciences both spiritual and social may keep us from the "biggies" but it in God's providence none the less.  And when our consciences are diverted, when we are distracted from our service to Him it is His gracious providence that hedges us in, redirects our glance, halts our tongues, stops our train of thought.

When you pray don't forget these mercies, these blessings.  You may not have any specific thing to thank Him for but He knows where He has provided even if you don't.  Praying for those unknown - unseen mercies will bring depth and joy to your prayers.  They will also serve to make your conscience more tender so you will begin to see them and count them wonderful.

Indeed, even when we are unaware, "There but for the grace of God go we."

Thursday, October 3, 2013

God and our enemies 100513

John Owen writes:
"God has amazingly various and effective ways of stifling their {{our enemies}} purposes.  He can put a stop to their fury when He pleases (Psa. 76:10).  When they have vented as much of their wrath as shall advance His praise, He can set up a power greater than the combined strength of all sinning creatures to restrain the rest.  Some He will cut off and destroy, some He will terrify, but He will restrain the rage of them all.  He can knock them on the head, break out their teeth or chain up their wrath; and who can oppose Him?"

More good news!  We have a God who has no sense of humor when if comes to those who would injure His servants.  They will all get what they deserve and if they don't them they will have become our dear brothers and sisters with whom we will then share enemies.

Have you seen His hand in this in your life?  I have and hope to see it more and more.

We need to pray that He will indeed, "knock them on the head," for our safety and protection.  There is nothing wrong with this.  I see it as an obligatory part of my prayer life.  Why?  Because it is not my place to knock them on the head regardless of how my flesh encourages it.

Remember, He calls admonished us:
Romans 12:18 ESV
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.


An reminder in other words 100213

Oz Guiness wrote;
"Invisible, unimaginable, unmanipulable - The God of Sinia is the One before whom all hearts lie open and no secrets are hidden, the One before whom all other authorities, loyalties, allegiances, and accountabilities rapidly recede into a distant second place."

For we believers this is a, "yeah duhh!"  But it is also a fact that we allow the business and buzy-ness of our lives to obscure.  Though we know it is true we so sadly fail to live this truth moment by moment.

I know it is easy for me to become so caught up in "my thing" that I forget that all of "my thing" must be determined by a focused and intentional appeal to Him and His Word and Spirit.  I am not my own - bought I am - indeed a slave to Christ.  Yet I find it all too easy to default to my own thinking apart from His direction.

As I eat and drink food and fluids to sustain my body soul I must eat and drink of Him to sustain my soul.  We are too prove to attempt to live malnurished and dehydrated lives for Him.  Actually, when we do this we are not living for Him as much as we are living for ourselves.

We are always on the edge of "paganizing" our God making Him pliable and portable, a creation of our own lusts and desires, wants and wills.  That's why statements like that above are so important.  The proclaim the truth and admonish us in "other words" and perhaps - just perhaps these "other words" will drive us back to The Word and the disciplines He has blessed us with for our growth, our conformity to the likeness of His Son.

I'm just sayin'.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

A disturbing reason for praise and thanksgiving 100213

John Owen wrote:
"And this is a remarkable feature of God's providence in the world:  He limits the flood of sin that would overflow the earth by restricting men's power to bring it to pass."

Couple this with the fact that in the last century over 800,000 million men, women and children have been killed in secular conflicts and I believe we should all be driven to our knees in thankfulness and humility.

Should God "blink" the evil we know would seem child's play - a mere discomfiture - compared to what sinful man is capable of.

Evil, as we know it within God's limits, must be a arrow pointing to a greater goodness we can only know in part.  As great as the evil we can know is the goodness of God is greater.  Every stick has two ends.  On one end we see the limited evil man is allowed and on the other we see (in a limited way) the great goodness of God.

There has to be two ends to the stick or there is no meaning, no purpose worth our efforts.

In my work in law enforcement as well as in my ministry I have seen the raw effects of sin.  I've smelled the bile and washed the blood from my hands.  As a young child I was witness to terrorist actions up close and personal where there was no regard for any human life.

Evil is and will be until He returns but we must keep in mind and be awed that it is a very very limited evil, restrained by an utterly unlimited God.  We need to not allow the commonness of evil in our world numb us.  Terror should terrify, injury should hurt, fear should birth fear - these are normal, human responses.  But none of these can be allowed to shock us into numbness.

Pray in gratitude for God's restraining hand.  Somehow the truth that regardless of how bad things are they, "could always be worse," should comfort us as it is our God who restrains, prohibits, denies the greater evil of which sinful man is capable.

For a good insight into the problem of evil I suggest Oz Guinness' book;  "Unspeakable' Facing up to the challenge of evil"

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Sinning away conviction of sin.

In his book, Indwelling Sin in Believers, John Owen writes of the believer who, "sins away his conviction of sin."

I must admit that this was a source of very real conviction for me.  I reflected upon how often I catch myself engaged in something that one might consider a "little" sin with less conviction than I should have.  Maybe a book or a TV show or a movie.  Even the purchase of something that I delude myself into believing will bring some lasting satisfaction and meaning to my life.

I am confronted with the question, "How sensitive to sin and I - really?"  I have to admit that like many folks I don;t do well in my answer.  As James tells us, my desires create havoc in my soul that unfortunately is common enough to be dismissed unless directly confronted from outside.

This is due to several things not the least of which is an intentional examination of most of my life in the light of the Word and the Spirit.  What seems OK is most often not.  The law of grace loses it's power to restrain me because my mind is not fixed upon Him, His sovereignty and His calling.  I simply find it distressingly easy to let the "little" one's slip by.

Though these "sins" are (according to man;s measure) "little" they have the cumulative effect of numbing my heart to sin in general.  The old "everyone does it," or the "it's not a biggy," even "I'm redeemed and forgiven," are poor rationales for my failure in regards to these sins.

I have to make myself remember that if I had only committed the least of these "acceptable" sins Christ would have still had to suffer the horrors of their payment.  There only one acceptable payment for any and all sins but I, maybe like may of you, have a tough time keeping this in the front of my mind.

So I grow numb to conviction in an ever increasing way and find myself humiliated by greater lapses.  Lapses that would not have been so easy to make had i dealt honestly and directly with the "lesser" sins.

All this is to say that we must (ok, maybe it's just me) must do whatever is needful to become and remain sensitive to all sin in our lives.

This take intentional commitment and discipline.  It is hard and tedious work.  It looks a lot like legalism but though the law was fulfilled its use in our lives still stands.  Some how I have to move from being a mere fan of Jesus to being a fanatic for His glory.

Sin is spelled  S-I-N not O-O-P-S!

It's a scary proposition to consider praying for a level of sensitivity to sin that truly honors God.  So much of what is our lives - my life - will have to be examined and re-evaluated.  So much will have to change - even what seems like the minutia.

But - gratitude demands it.  God expects it.  The Word and the Spirit enable it.  Who am I to refuse it?

Pray to see to what degree you may had sinned away some of your conviction of sin.