The Language of 'Professing' Believers?

Try as I may, I don't understand why professing believers in Jesus Christ attempt to "blend in" or "fit in" with the culture by adopting and using language they would never use in their own prayers to/with their professed Savior, Lord, and Father. Civil, humble, and sincere comments are welcomed.  :-)

Celebrating 30 yrs. of God's Grace and Mercy in My Life!

This week 30 years ago, the Lord changed my heart, adopted me as His very own, gave me the desire to follow Him, and the ability to obey Him! Believe me, if He hadn't initiated and completed this, I would never have given Him a second thought. Here's my full (long) testimony for those who care to read how the Lord graciously took hold of me, My Testimony May ALL the glory be His.

How God Changes Us and Conforms Us to Christlikeness

"...God uses three primary catalysts for changing us and conforming us to Christlikeness, but only one is largely under our control...the Lord uses...people...circumstances...the Spiritual Disciplines..."

"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" (Proverbs 27:17). Sometimes God uses our friends to sharpen us into more Christlike living, and sometimes He uses our enemies to file away our rough, ungodly edges. Parents, children, spouses, coworkers, customers, teachers, neighbors, pastors--God changes us through these people."

",,,circumstances. The classic text for this is Romans 8:28: 'We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.' Financial pressures, physical conditions, even the weather are used in the hands of Divine Providence to stimulate His elect toward holiness."

"...the catalyst of the Spiritual Disciplines. This catalyst differs from the first two in that when He uses the Disciplines, God works from the inside out. When He changes us through people and circumstances, the process works from the outside in. The Spiritual Disciplines also differ from the other two methods of change in that God grants us a measure of choice regarding involvement with them. We often have little choice regarding the people and circumstances God brings into our lives, but we can decide, for example, whether we will read the Bible or fast today."

"So on the one hand, we recognize that even the most iron-willed self-discipline will not make us more holy, for growth in holiness is a gift from God (John 17:17, 1 Thess. 5:23, Hebrews 2:11). On the other hand, we can do something to further the process. God has given us the Spiritual Disciplines as a means of receiving His grace and growing in Godliness. By them we place ourselves before God for Him to work in us."

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life , by Don Whitney ~ I've read this book at least 3-4 times over the past 10+ years for my own spiritual health, and refer to it often for discipleship and counseling purposes. I highly recommend it!

Sometimes I wish that I just didn't care...

...about theology cause at times it can be exhausting--and even a bit 'messy'.

"For Christ's love compels us..."

So, what 'drives' a Christian to know and understand God? According to Paul it is the love of Christ: "For Christ's love compels us" (2 Cor. 5:14).

In "The Discipline of Grace ~God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness", Jerry Bridges points out (emphasis mine),

"To live no longer for ourselves but for Him is the essence of discipleship...But what is it that will motivate us to live not for ourselves but for Him? Paul said it is the love of Christ...Notice though, what compelled or motivated Paul in such a strong manner. It was not a continual challenge to be more disciplined, or more committed, or more holy. Rather it was his constant heartfelt awareness of Christ's love for him...Rather his overwhelming sense of Christ's love for him that spurred him on.

We believers do need to be challenged to a life of committed discipleship, but that challenge needs to be based on the gospel, not on duty or guilt. Duty or guilt may motivate us for awhile, but only a sense of Christ's love for us will motivate us for a lifetime."

And, just how does one gain this 'sense of Christ's love for us'? Bridges goes on to say,

"...how then can we come to the place where we are acutely conscious of His love? The answer is, through the gospel. It is of course, the Holy Spirit who pours out His love into our hearts (Romans 5:5), but He does this through the message of the gospel..."

I'm afraid that many misunderstand and think it is OUR love for Christ that motivates us, but we forget that "We love, because He first loved us." (1 John 4:19). As my favorite hymn puts it, "I find, I walk, I love; but O, the whole of love is but my answer Lord to Thee! For Thou wert long beforehand with my soul; Always, always Thou lovedst me."

May you seek and gain a greater understanding of His love for you--only then will you respond in a manner pleasing to God.

Thus Saith...

Jerry Bridges:

"Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace."

The Discipline of Grace - God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness

What is the Purpose of the "Refiner's Fire"?

If you're presently feeling more than a little uncomfortable in the "refiner's fire", or have vivid memories of a recent time when the "heat" seemed almost unbearable, please do your soul a favor and read the post Steve Camp made recently.

To whet your appetite, here's a portion of his closing comments, but don't be satisfied with this little snippet--follow THIS LINK and be reminded afresh that it is God who is at work!!

"So if today you are in the heat of the flame and are in the center of the blaze of His refiner’s fire, remember that God has His eye on you and by His grace will keep purifying you (He will not let it destroy you) until He sees His image reflected in you."

A Recurring Theme ~ My Sin

Pulpit Magazine has posted a review of Jerry Bridges' newest book, "Respectable Sins". I posted another review earlier HERE.

I'm really NOT trying to "hammer" on this topic/theme, but it keeps coming to me, so here's what jumped out at me this morning while reading the Pulpit review:

“Stepping forward to accept my place as a sinner in need of the gospel each day drives a dagger into my self-righteous heart and prepares me to face up to and accept the reality of the sin that still dwells within me”.

For obvious reasons, I'm looking forward to reading this book more than before. I even searched for it while scouring the bookstores at the recent NANC conference!

Thus Saith...

Elyse Fitzpatrick ~

"God's intent for each one of His children is that they be sanctified. Sanctification is "the process of God's grace by which the believer is separated from sin and becomes dedicated to God's righteousness.""

Women Helping Women, General Editors: Elyse Fitzpatrick & Carol Cornish

For God or For Me?

What should be the Christian's motivation to obey God--fear of hell, desire for rewards, a "happy" life, financial security, avoidance of trials and suffering, increased blessings, anticipating seeing loved ones who have passed on?????? How 'bout a love for God? Sound too simple? To some it does, and that is exactly what I've been pondering for several weeks now.

This is something that has become more and more settled in my own mind during 25+ years as a professing believer. However, like many things that we Xians have "settled" in our minds, God has a way of reintroducing a matter to cause us to wrestle with it again. What I find amazingly wonderful and comforting is how God causes such thoughts and efforts to benefit us as we seek to serve and minister His truths to others!

To begin with, please go read Why Do You Do What You Do For God? over at "A Complete Thought". Now, focus on this portion of the quote, "It is because God has saved us by grace entirely apart from any merit in ourselves that we love and want to please Him." Keep that in your mind for a moment while we consider this:

"Regardless of your age when you trusted Christ, the Cross divides your whole life into two periods: you as an unbeliever and you as a believer...

...what one word describes the Bible message you most needed to hear as an unbeliever? I suggest that word is the gospel. It is the gospel that is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1:16). We need to hear that Jesus died for sinners and that if we come to Him in faith, we will receive the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of eternal life...

We need to continue to hear the gospel every day of our Christian lives...

It is only gratitude and love to God that comes from knowing that He no longer counts our sins against us (Romans 4:8) that provides the proper motive for responding to the claims of discipleship...

The gospel is meaningful for us only to the extent that we realize and acknowledge that we are still sinful. Although we are new creatures in Christ, we still sin every day in thought, word, and deed, and perhaps even more importantly, in motives. To benefit from the gospel every day, then, we must acknowledge that we are still sinners. "

Clearly, it is the gospel--and only the gospel--that grants us joy or provides any "benefits". With me so far? Good! Because the gospel is often seen synergistically, "I did something to contribute to my salvation" (i.e. I prayed a prayer, I walked an aisle, etc.) as opposed to monergistically--many Christians live their lives believing their salvation and sanctification is dependent upon them in some way. Consider this:

"Without a continual reminder of the good news of the gospel, we can easily fall into one of two errors. The first is to focus on our external performance and become proud like the Pharisees. We may then begin to look down our spiritual noses at others who are not as disciplined, obedient, and committed as we are and in a very subtle way begin to feel spiritually superior to them.

The second error is the exact opposite of the first. It is the feeling of guilt. We have been exposed to the disciplines of the Christian life, to obedience, and to service, and in our hearts we have responded to those challenges. We haven't, however, been as successful as others around us appear to be. Or we find ourselves dealing with some of the sins of the heart such as anger, resentment, covetousness, and a judgmental attitude...impure thoughts or impatience, or a lack of faith and trust in God. Because we have put the gospel on the shelf as far as our own lives are concerned, we struggle with a sense of failure and guilt. We believe God is displeased with us, and we certainly wouldn't expect His blessing on our lives. After all, we don't deserve His favor. "

A Biblical view of the gospel relieves us of unnecessary uncertainty and frees us from a works oriented faith. How do we bring our thinking in line with Scripture on this? Read on:

"Because we are focusing on our performance, we forget the meaning of grace: God's unmerited favor to those who deserve only His wrath. Pharisee-type believers unconsciously think they have earned God's blessing through their behavior. Guilt-laden believers are quite sure they have forfeited God's blessing through their lack of discipline or their disobedience. Both have forgotten the meaning of grace because they have moved away from the gospel and have slipped into a performance relationship with God...

...God never intended that we relate to Him directly. Our own performance is never good enough to be acceptable to Him. The only way we can relate to God is through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. It is only the blood of Jesus that will cleanse us from a guilty conscience and give us the confidence to enter into the presence of God (Hebrews 10:19-21).

The gospel, applied to our hearts every day, frees us to be brutally honest with ourselves and with God. The assurance of His total forgiveness of our sins through the blood of Christ means we don't have to play defensive games anymore..."

God does not merely accomplish salvation in His children and leave them to live it out, our obedience is nothing less than our expression of love and gratitude for the matchless grace He has showered upon us! This is particularly humbling when, through a clear understanding of the gospel, we see that we were hopelessly dead in our sins--enemies of God--when He sent His son to die in our place. What more could possibly motivate us to express our love to God?

As you evaluate your relationship with God, take courage or caution--according to your spiritual condition--in these words:

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. (2 Peter 1:5-9)

If you've been reading here for very long you KNOW that I rely heavily on the works of Godly men and women. In this case I owe thanks to Jerry Bridges and his book, "The Discipline of Grace--God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness".

Theology 101 - Sanctification

I've already addressed justification and how it is a once and for all act of God declaring us "justified". Today we'll look at sanctification and consider how God has ordained this facet of our salvation as a process to mold and refine us into the image of His Son! No matter how you look at it, it is to His glory alone--not ours.

"Sanctification may be defined as that gracious and continuous operation of the Holy Spirit by which He purifies the sinner from the pollution of sin, renews his whole nature in the image of God, and enables him to perform good works.

The Characteristics of Sanctification

1. God and not man is the author of sanctification. This does not mean, however, that man is entirely passive in the process. He can and should co-operate with God in the work of sanctification by a diligent use of the means which God has placed at his disposal.

2. Sanctification is not, like justification, a legal act of God, but a moral and re-creative activity, by which the sinner is renewed in his inner being and made to conform ever-increasingly to the image of God.

3. It is usually a lengthy process and never reaches perfection in this life. In cases in which regeneration and conversion are soon followed by death, the process may, of course, be very short.

4. The process of sanctification is either completed at death or immediately after it as far as the soul is concerned, and at the resurrection in so far as it pertains to the body."

(My unending debt and appreciation to Louis Berkhof!)

Yet I Sin

I'm wrestling with something today.

Several months ago I began to slowly and deliberately work through the book of Romans, today I focused on Romans 5:6-11

For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Like so many other passages I've studied thus far, this passage reminds me of what I was without X, what God has accomplished for me through X, and what that means (should mean) for my life in X. But like Paul, I'm troubled by the continuing struggle within me!

Here's how Paul put it in Romans 7:15-25,

For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate...For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my
members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

I understand that just struggling with this is a "good" sign and evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work, but it just gets so hard sometimes. Shouldn't my life always reflect my love for my Saviour? As a verse in my favorite hymn says, "I find, I walk, I love; but O, the whole of love is but my answer, Lord, to Thee!" Shouldn't "my answer" to the Lord always be "yes, I'll obey"?

I know I'm not alone in this struggle. I recently enjoyed a wonderful brunch (lovingly prepared and beautifully presented by a relatively new friend) with several other Xian ladies where we discussed this and shared our confidence that the Lord was indeed at work in and through us--sanctifying us for His glory! And, today as I searched for and wrestled to gain a Biblical perspective, I found the following Puritan prayer in the book, "The Valley of Vision". Perhaps it will encourage you, too.

Yet I Sin

Eternal Father,
Thou are good beyond all thought,
But I am vile, wretched, miserable, blind;
My lips are ready to confess, but my heart is slow to feel, and my ways reluctant to amend.
I bring my soul to thee; break it, wound it, bend it, mould it.
Unmask to me sin's deformity, that I may hate it, abhor it, flee from it.
My faculties have been a weapon of revolt against thee; as a rebel I have misused my strenght, and served the foul adversary of they kingdom.
Give me grace to bewail my insensate folly,
Grant me to know that the way of transgressors is hard, that evil paths are wretched paths, that to depart from thee is to lose all good.
I have seen the purity and beauty of they perfect law, the happiness of those in whose heart it reigns, the calm dignity of the walk to which it calls, yet I daily violate and contemn its precepts.
Thy loving Spirit strives within me, brings me Scripture warnings, speaks in startling providences, allures by secret whispers, yet I choose devices and desires to my own hurt, impiously resent, grieve, and provoke him to abandon me.
All these sins I mourn, lament, and for them cry pardon.
Work in me more profound and abiding repentence;
Give me the fullness of a godly grief that trembles and fears, yet ever trusts and loves, which is ever powerful, and ever confident;
Grant that through the tears of repentance I may see more clearly the brightness and glories of the saving cross.

Sanctification through New Year's resolutions????

Well, it's January 11, 2007 and I wonder how many have already stumbled and/or completely given up keeping (or even remembering) their New Year's resolutions?

I sometimes use the new calendar year to "kick off" a new practice or serve as a benchmark for some renewed effort. But I'm not in the habit of making resolutions each New Year. I'm not opposed to resolutions, neither were Jonathan Edwards and many other "Church Fathers", but their example was more of a "life" of resolution(s). Which brings to my mind the Biblical principle of sanctification ("What is Sanctification?" Answer: Sanctification is a work of God’s free grace whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness.--Westminster Shorter Catechism; Question 35).

In light of this, I found the recent series at Girl Talk to be very encouraging and insightful. The series begins with, Keeping Our Resolutions by Carolyn Mahaney (wife of C.J. Mahaney), and is followed by these posts by her daughters, Righting Wrong Resolutions, Pick One, Tell Someone and finally, Keep At It.

I've enjoyed these posts, but what stands out most to me is their encouragement to "pick one". I think this is wise counsel in our day and culture of "mulit-tasking" and "instant gratification". These ladies most definitely understand the "battle" we share in growing in grace and obedience in our Xian life. Enjoy!