Fat Souls

Piper and Chesterton

2012-01-12T11:03:00.001-08:00

This is just great stuff: http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/the-sovereign-god-of-elfland-why-chestertons-anti-calvinism-doesnt-put-me-off

On Reading Sermons

2011-12-06T16:10:00.000-08:00

When you do so much reading it is difficult to join with you in what you are saying. Reading tends to keep your emotion and intonation out of your presence and voice. In the same way that affirmation brings the person you are affirming along with you and puts them on your side, so too does emotion in the message. The preacher needs to get fired up about what he is talking about and then that emotion needs to carry over into the listener and bring them along with where the preacher is going.

Reading tends to cause you to lose the congregation's attention because you lose eye contact, you tend to read in either a sing songy tone, or a monotonous tone, or with a steady speed. Speaking extemporaneously allows you to vary what you are saying to keep the flow interesting for the listener and to engage them in the subject. They want to hear what you are saying because they are caught up in what you care about, because you care about it, and they care about you.

Reading keeps your personality out of the message. Some think this is a good thing because, they say, it lets Jesus and not the preacher shine through. But that goes against the Scriptural model. The Biblical preacher speaks for God, but each preacher is different because each one is also preaching. Isaiah is clearly not like Job. And Moses is clearly not like Paul. You can tell them apart because each man was also preaching. A preacher needs to let his own person shine through so the people can rally around him and come near to Christ with him. This can be done by a person reading most of his sermon, but only in rare circumstances and not for very long periods of time.

We Played the Flute and You Did Not Dance

2011-12-02T14:12:00.000-08:00

Luke 7

Introduction:

If you are careful, when you read the bible, you will see two very stark differences between the world of the Bible and the world we live in. First is that the culture of the godless world is incredibly godless. They evil seems to be able to get no worse. People kill one another at the drop of a hat. Kings and princes rule with absolute authority and no one, other than someone equally terrible has anything to say or do with it. At least in our world, people are generally nice. You can disagree on almost any topic without worrying that the one you are talking to will kill you the moment you turn around.

The other stark difference is that the Godly are immeasurably more godly than we are. Christians and god fearers in both Testaments are regularly killed for their faith. They are tortured, they are sawn in two, they are crucified, they are starved, lose their homes, are spit upon, families leave them, you name it, they receive it gladly because they know they have a glorious home waiting for them with Christ. You could say that this only highlights the first point. But I bring it up to show that Christians in the first century believed the truth of the Gospel to the point where they would put up with any and every affront to their personhood to obtain what was promised.

Text:

After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant… (Luke 7)

Summary of The Text:

Because this is a long chapter, I will summarize the text according to each vignette by vignette rather than verse by verse.

The end of chapter six finds Jesus preaching on what Luke calls the sermon on the plain, or the ESV has a “level place” (6:17). After that chat, Jesus goes down into Capernaum (7:1). In Capernaum, a centurion hears about Jesus and all the things he has been saying and doing. One of his favorite servants is sick and near death. The Centurion thinks the only hope the servant has is if Jesus will come and heal him, so because he is too humble to go himself, he persuades the Jewish leaders to go to Jesus and plead with him to come and heal him. As Jesus get near the house, the Centurion thinks further about who he is asking to do service to him and humbles himself even more when he tries to get Jesus to go on his way. He doesn’t even go to Jesus, he is too struck by his lowly position and sends servants to talk to Jesus. “I’m not worthy to have you come under my roof.” He goes on to say that if only Jesus will simply say the word and the servant will be healed. He understands that Jesus is working in a realm far higher than the one he is working in. But he realizes too that Jesus is not a simple underling. He is in a position of authority and when he says something, things happen. The centurion likens it to the chain of command he has with his troops. This attitude causes Jesus to marvel at him and even though the man is a Roman, Jesus has found no greater faith in all Israel than what he sees in this man. And the text says, “when the ones who had been sent went home, they found the servant well.”

Shortly after this event, Jesus went to a town called Nain (v. 11). There, Jesus comes across a funeral procession. He pauses, sees what is happening, goes to the mother and full of compassion, tells her to stop weeping. Then he reaches up on the bier and tells the young man to “rise up.” The dead man sat up and began chatting with everyone and Jesus gave him to his mother. The result was great fear of God and the word spread about Jesus like there was never any greater news on the planet.

When the news got to John the Baptist, he was, as Matthew tells us, in prison. He was near his own death and seemed to have wanted to make sure that his mission was truly over. He sent two of his disciples to Jesus to find out if he was the one they were waiting for or not. Jesus’ response was to tell them to examine the fruit. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them” (v. 22).

After this, Jesus notices a number of people who were in attendance were talking in a derogatory way about John. Jesus lights into them and says that John had a cosmic role in the history of the world. He was sent to prepare the way for the Messiah and had done exactly as he was directed. Many of the people, who had been baptized by John rejoiced in John’s faithfulness. The rest, mostly Pharisees and lawyers, rejected God’s gift to them in John and now in Jesus (v. 30).

Jesus goes on to say that their generation is like the children who wouldn’t dance though others played the flute for them (v. 32). The leaders played the tune, but John and now Jesus wouldn’t play the game they way they wanted it played and they were accusing John and Jesus of all sorts of things—interestingly they were opposite things. John was an ascetic and Jesus was a drunk. In the end wisdom is justified by her children.

The last story is one in which one of the Pharisees has invited Jesus to dine with the family. While he is there a woman, who is from the city and is a sinner, comes in and weeping, pours very expensive ointment on Jesus feet and mixes it with her tears and kisses and anoints Jesus’ feet with her hair. The Pharisee, of course, is incensed that Jesus wouldn’t know what kind of woman this was and that he would let her even touch him (v. 39).

Jesus goes on to tell one the more famous stories of the Bible. If one person is forgiven a huge debt, he will be much more likely to feel close to the one who does the forgiving than someone whose debt is pretty minor. Simon knows this principle, but doesn’t see himself in the story. He doesn’t see, first that the women is simply responding to great forgives, and second that if he were seeing the world rightly he would realize that his sin is much greater than hers because his sin is against the Holy God who Simon pretends to serve. Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little" (v. 47).

The Kind of Faith that Changes Nothing

This chapter teaches two kinds of faith. And these last two verses encapsulate them both. The first is the kind of faith that recognizes that something happened, “who is this, who even forgives sins?”, but nothing changes. The second kind of faith is exemplified by the statement, “your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

These two kinds of faith are potentially present in each story, but the stories are not about the first kind as much as they are illustrations of the second. If the centurion had heard about Jesus, but had not sent for him to have his servant healed, his servant would have died right then. If the woman had not stopped the bier to let Jesus touch her son, the son would have stayed dead. If none of the people Jesus healed had gotten out of their beds, or opened their eyes, or could actually hear, or had stayed on their piers, or had kept their crutches, or had stayed in their sins, they would have had the first kind of faith, but not the second.

Later in the chapter the first kind of faith is exemplified by the Pharisees, the lawyers and their friends. They were the ones who went into the dessert to see a reed blowing around in the wind (v. 24). They were the ones who went to see a man in soft clothing (v. 25). But those kinds of men are in kings’ courts, the very places that these Pharisees and lawyers normally hung out. These people saw John, listened to him, saw the changes he made in all the people who believed his message, but did nothing about it. At the time of this discussion, John was languishing in prison awaiting the removal of his head. And they did nothing to free him from the Jewish king who ruled at the time.

And then, they complained when John and Jesus did what God wanted, ignored the “leaders” of Israel and did what God wanted instead of what the Pharisees wanted. They wouldn’t dance. Matthew adds, “we sang a dirge for you, but you wouldn’t mourn” (11:17).They wouldn’t play the game. And they suffered the human consequences for their godliness, but also received the rewards of their holiness.

The Second Kind of Faith—Real Faith—Saving Faith

The main point of the chapter, however, is that when people heard about Jesus, they believed what they heard, and it transformed their lives. The centurion knowing who Jesus was, sent Jewish leaders, to use the chain of command, to Jesus, then thought about it further and sent his servants to ask Jesus to simply give a command to the cosmos and his daughter would be healed. The commanded young man got out of the bier and lived. The blind received their sight. The deaf heard. The lame walked and according to Acts leaped as well (Acts 3:8). The sinful woman crept into the pompous Pharisees house and poured her costly perfume on Jesus’ feet and weeping for the joy of having been in the presence of the creator of the universe, wiped it on his feet with her hair. All because they believed the news they heard about Jesus. And it changed their lives. It changed the world.

Conclusion

I mentioned in the beginning that we live in a very different world from the one Jesus lived in. Our non-Christian world is no where near as ugly as the world John lived in when they cut off his head on the whim of a young girl. And our Christian world is not as holy as Jesus world when the woman wept on Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her most precious possession with her hair. What is the difference? I believe it is that Christianity changed the world to be a much more watered down world in terms of evil. Nice is what rules our part of the world. Fair is another word you hear a lot. But this makes the non-Christians a lot “nicer ‘and a lot more “fair.” On the other hand, not having a worthy opponent has allowed the Christians to soften up. We no longer need to stand for Christ with the potential loss of limb or life. We have become correspondingly soft. As the world has become nicer, Christians have become less faithful. We have slowly slid into the first kind of faith. We read what Jesus did, but we don’t act on it anymore. We don’t stand up to the evil of the world, partly because it isn’t all that evil, but also because we don’t want to give up our cushy life.

But think about this, isn’t what we are doing the same thing as what the Pharisees were doing? Aren’t we asking Jesus to dance to our tune? Aren’t we asking Jesus to mourn when we cry our sad song? When Jesus says rise up, are you jumping up in strong and life changing belief, or are you stretching first and then slowly rising, making sure that it doesn’t offend anyone, or if it does, it does it in the most polite way?

It is interesting that the world changed because the Christians acted like Christians, now we say our world is in the mess it is in because the non-Christians are so powerful, so mean and nasty. But who did God make to be the leaders around here? Christians led us into this mess, and only Christians, who believe, who have faith, and who trust in the promises of God can get us out of it. But only for God’s glory.

God of glory, full of promises, we beseech you to reveal to us ways in which we have not believed like the centurion, the young dead man, the formerly blind, deaf, lame, poor, and the woman who wept at your son’s feet. Please turn the hearts of your people back to you in a way that shows a difference in the way we live in our families, in our jobs, in our studies, in every area and facet of our lives. We beg you to transform our lives as we believe you and believe in you. Help us in our unbelief. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus Christ the Holy one. Amen.

Living Together In Faith

2011-12-02T14:10:00.000-08:00

We call this part of the service, Communion, because that is what we do here. We commune. We eat, we drink, we fellowship with and in the Lord. We do it in a somber and controlled way. In the early church they used to have what they called “love feasts.” It sounds like they had a rollicking good time. In Corinth, they even had people drinking enough wine to get drunk and eating so much that they were accused of debauchery and gluttony. I think it would be good to figure out a way to make the service a serious feast in both senses of serious: seriously lavish, and seriously solempne, as CS Lewis coined the word.

The main point of the service is to remember that we are all one in Christ Jesus. Jesus died on the Cross for us, rose from the dead with us, and now sits at the right hand of the father on high, interceding for us.

With a sermon like the one we just experienced we may be tempted to think we aren’t worthy to participate in this sort of meal. But this is the best place to begin acting out our faith.

Do you believe that Jesus died for your sin, even your sin of unbelief? Then this table is for you.

Do you believe that Jesus lives so that you can live a new life, filled with the kind of life that many of the saints in history lived and in other parts of the world are living? Great! This meal if for you.

Do you believe that try as hard as you might, much of the time you just can’t get it right? And do you believe that that is precisely why you need an arbiter, an intercessor, and a mouthpiece? Do you believe that only Jesus can fulfill that role? Wonderful! This meal is for you. So, come and eat, come and drink.

The Bema Judgment

2011-12-02T14:07:00.000-08:00

I recently was reacquainted with a doctrine called the “Bema Judgment of God.” The Bema judgment is the teaching that says that at the end of time, before the final judgment of God all men will be judged for what they have done in this life, whether good or sinful.

The teaching comes primarily from Romans 14:10 which says “we will all stand before the judgment seat of God” and 2 Cor. 5:10 which says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”

From these, Christians have concluded that though their sins may actually be forgiven (according to 1 John 1:9), they will still have to face God in the end, and explain all the crazy, sinful things they did in this life. They will stand before God and be embarrassed for all eternity because of their shameful behavior.

But the Bible does not teach this doctrine. The bible clearly and plainly teaches that those who have put their trust in Jesus have an advocate in Jesus Christ (1 John 2:1), Jesus intercedes for those who come to God through him (Heb. 7:25), Jesus is our representative (Heb. 2:17), and because Jesus is our high priest (Heb. 4:15) we will stand before God bathed in the righteousness of Christ.

There will be a judgment in the end, but what the Bible teaches is that something like this will happen. God’s people will stand in the box and God will start to ask us to give an account of ourselves. That that point Jesus will step forward and shout for all creation to hear, “This is my brother. I died for him.” “This is my sister, I shed my blood on her behalf.” “This is my father and my mother, they are mine. They belong to me.”

And God will say to Jesus, “That’s good enough for me.” Then, he will turn to us and say, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into my rest” (Matt. 25:21).

The Bible does say that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9), but it goes on to say that if we sin after having confessed them already, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous (1 John 2:1). Once confessed, they will never be brought up again. They will be forgotten never to be remembered (Heb. 10:17).

With this in mind, as you are able, join me in kneeling before the Lord of glory to confess our sins.

Everlasting God

2011-12-02T14:05:00.001-08:00

O God, you are the everlasting God, you were before anything, and from you everything came. And because of you everything that lasts will last because you hold it in your hand and in you all things hold together.

O God, you are the everlasting God, you chose our father Abram from Ur of the Chaldeans and separated him from his relative and his land and brought him into a foreign land in order to create an everlasting covenant.

O God, you are the everlasting God, you sent your only Son to die in our place so that we could be included in that same covenant. You raised Jesus from the dead so that we could live new lives.

O God, you are the everlasting God, you chose us to continue the everlasting covenant into all eternity.

We come to you now, in the great Name of Jesus asking that you would accept our worship because he died for us and now intercedes on our behalf. We know fully that you are from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

And so Everlasting Father, we worship You now through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end, amen.

Terminal Illness

2011-12-02T13:56:00.000-08:00

At times like this it is good to remember that God is God. We/you don't have to do anything except wait on him and remember that he is God. Everything will work out the way he wants it to work out and everything will work out for his glory.

What I mean by times like this isn't the events that are happening all around you. I mean the results or affects that you can have in those events. These, in particular, are events whose results are totally outside your ability to control them. Nothing you can do, say, think, or feel will change anything. You can only rest in God's judgments, mercy and grace. You can only draw closer to him and wait and see what he's going to do.

Radically Changed My Life

2011-10-25T15:51:00.000-07:00

Leading this ministry has radically changed my life. It's dramatically impacting the hurting souls of men and women.

From Equipping Counselors for Your Church, by Robert Kellemen, p. 142.

Rejoice Before the Lord

2011-10-25T15:49:00.000-07:00

And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters...

Deuteronomy 12:12

Members of One Another

2011-10-25T15:47:00.001-07:00

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Romans 12:4-5

Gives Grace to None But...

2011-10-21T16:40:00.000-07:00

Martin Luther describes this good news: “God receives none but those who are forsaken, restores health to none but those who are sick, gives sight to none but the blind, and life to none but the dead….He has mercy on none but the wretched and gives grace to none but those who are in disgrace.”

Justin and Lindsey Holcomb, Rid of My Disgrace, p. 17

The Luther quote is from Martin Luther, The Seven Penitential Psalms, 1517

As I Have Loved You

2011-10-21T16:34:00.001-07:00

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

John 13:34

Peace With One Another

2011-10-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.

Mark 9:50

Marx's Greatest Error

2011-10-19T15:06:00.000-07:00

This was Marx’s greatest error. He assumed the myth that the rich can only get rich at the expense of the poor. One man’s gain must spell another man’s loss. That may be true in a poker game, but not in the real world of business. With the increase of production by better tools, the cost per unit of goods declines (through the law of supply and demand). This makes it easier for people to receive the goods and services, and it raises the poor person’s standard of living. No economic system has been as effective as capitalism in raising the human standard of living.

R. C. Sproul, The Consequences of Ideas p. 144.

Primarily a Savior

2011-10-19T14:57:00.000-07:00

Paul's religion was based not on right ideas about God and His relations to the world, but upon one thing that God had done. Not upon an eternal truth, the Fatherhood of God, but upon the fact that God had chosen to become the Father of those who accept the redemption offered by Christ. The religion of Paul was rooted altogether in the redeeming work of Jesus Christ. Jesus for Paul, was not primarily a revealer, but a Savior.

Gresham Machen

A Bit of News

2011-10-19T14:55:00.000-07:00

There were lots of moral teachers in the ancient world, but Christianity was started not by lots of moral teachers in the ancient world, but by a bit of news." The news that He was born, suffered, raised, and ascended.

Gresham Machen

Recently Happened

2011-10-19T14:53:00.001-07:00

The religion of Paul was a religion of redemption. It was founded not upon what had always been true but upon what had recently happened.

Gresham Machen

Change for the Long Haul

2011-10-04T09:43:00.000-07:00

Hello Pastor Elmore,

I hope this letter finds you doing well. I can give you some answers.

First, always remember that there is a higher right than being right. Love covers a multitude of wrong doctrine, immaturity, and sins. Let it do so.

Second, guard like the plague becoming tight shoed and getting your skivvies in a knot. The temptation, as your church studies doctrine, will be to become students of the word instead of worshippers of God. Don't let that happen. Knowledge of God is only good as long as it is expressed in worship of God and devotion to one another.

Third, change slowly. It took us around 10 years to have all wine in in the communion trays after Pastor Wilson decided that we should be doing that. He taught on it, and mentioned it, and made oblique references to it until everyone was screaming at him for taking so long to actually do it. This doesn't mean that you have to wait until every single person in your congregation is behind you, but wait until the vast majority are board. There will always be curmudgeons who won't want to change no matter what it is about. Just blow right by these folks, kindly, but don't let them hold you back.

Fourth plan for the long haul. This goes with the third one, but it can't be emphasized enough. Try very hard to keep your sights on the horizon without letting that view keep you from ministering to the flock at your feet.

Fifth, and this goes to one of the earlier ones too. Make worship on Sunday mornings central to all that you do as a church. Make fellowship, parties, feasts, hoop-la second. And have a great time. Make joy in the presence of God the aim. Hold that vision in front of the people all the time.

Sixth, be careful not to be heavy handed in your leadership. You'll need to incarnate the love of Jesus in all that you propose to do. If what you want is not godly and reflecting the love of Christ, you might as well hang it all up.

Some books to read to start would be Mother Kirk and Angels in the Architecture both by Doug Wilson the second was written with Doug Jones.

I hope this helps. If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

Worried About Health

2011-10-03T12:31:00.001-07:00

Worry is generally a situation where people take trust for the future out of God's hands and try to figure it out for themselves. But we are limited and can't see very far into the future and so we worry.

While it is true that we are all dying and that many of us will die of not very comfortable things, God is still using the circumstances in our lives to make us like Jesus. Last week's lecture pointed out that God often doesn't change our circumstances, but he will and does change how we think about those circumstances. Yesterday, our pastor preached through 1 Samuel 23 and noted that even though David was the rightful King of Israel, he was still hiding in the woods. He needed Jonathan to come and give him comfort. Did David have reason to worry? Well in the sense that he didn't know the future, yes. But in the sense that he knew the one who controls the future, no.

Worry is always a lack of trust that God has things under control. Either he does, or he doesn't. Either he loves us or he doesn't. He can be in control, and he can let us die of a terrible untreatable cancer, and he loves us, all at the same time. Colossians 2:6 says that we are to live our lives from day to day in the same way we came to Christ in the first place--by faith. 'Faith' is translated from the Greek word that is also translated 'belief' and 'trust.' When we walk by faith, we are living in a way that trusts whatever God has in store for us.

The only thing worry can do is to bring on the thing we tend to worry the most about--bad health. It robs our joy. It saps our strength. It makes us edgy. It gives us an excuse to be angry with God, which unrecognized turns into bitterness. And it makes us no fun to be around.

The end of Matthew 6 has a lot of good things to say about worry.

Whatever you do with your wife, to it gently and kindly. Relate with her in such a way that she will want to be like you, trusting in Jesus for every aspect of life.

To This You Were Called

2011-09-13T09:57:00.001-07:00

Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.

1 Peter 3:9

Confession and Petition

2011-09-13T09:55:00.001-07:00

Holy Lord, I have sinned times without number, and been guilty of pride and unbelief, of failure to find Thy mind in Thy Word, of neglect to seek Thee in my daily life. My transgressions and short-comings present me with a list of accusations, but I bless Thee that they will not stand against me, for all have been laid on Christ. Go on to subdue my corruptions, and grant me grace to live above them. Let not the passions of the flesh nor lustings of the mind bring my spirit into subjection, but do Thou rule over me in liberty and power.

I thank Thee that many of my prayers have been refused. I have asked amiss and do not have, I have prayed from lusts and been rejected, I have longed for Egypt and been given a wilderness. Go on with Thy patient work, answering 'no' to my wrongful prayers, and fitting me to accept it. Purge me from every false desire, every base aspiration, everything contrary to Thy rule. I thank Thee for Thy wisdom and Thy love, for all the acts of discipline to which I am subject, for sometimes putting me into the furnace to refine my gold and remove my dross.

No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin. If Thou shouldst give me choice to live in pleasure and keep my sins, or to have them burnt away with trial, give me sanctified affliction. Deliver me from every evil habit, every accretion of former sins, everything that dims the brightness of Thy grace in me, everything that prevents me taking delight in Thee. Then I shall bless Thee, God of Jeshurun, for helping me to be upright.

All Things for Good

2011-09-12T13:10:00.001-07:00

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Romans 5:3-5

Be Constant in Prayer

2011-09-12T13:00:00.001-07:00

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Romans 12:12

Beauty Is More Than Skin Deep

2011-09-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

First, there are no guarantees. Life is funny that way.

Second, I don't think you should be stressed out about keeping your husband out of sin. On the other hand, you would be his helpmeet to help him walk with God and not be a hindrance. This does not mean checking on him all the time, it means making his home a place where he wants to go and be.

Third, this can only come about by your walking with God. It is not burdensome (1 Jn. 5:3), it is a joy to be who God made you to be. Your being a lovely woman of God will help your husband to also walk with God. When you read 1 Peter 3 and see what a women is supposed to do with a husband who is not walking with God, the word is essentially, “stop trying to change him and just walk with God.”

Fourth, your husband's sin is his sin. It is not related to you in the sense that if you are pregnant and not as endearing as that twenty-year-old at the market, it is not because of your appearance that he strays, it is because of his mind and heart. If a man sins in a lustful way, it is not because his wife is ugly; it is because he is not satisfied with what God has given him. It is his sin, not her "shortcomings."

Fifth, just because a man enjoys looking at a beautiful woman does not mean that he is lusting after her. He may simply be enjoying God's creation. This does happen. There is much more going on than simply lust, want of ownership and desire to have sex. Sometimes, a guy can enjoy a beautiful woman in the same way he enjoys a beautiful sunset. God made them both and they are beautiful.

Finally, you may need to face the fact that you may not always be a physically beautiful woman. You may, I'm not saying that you won't. It’s just that the way the world works is that things, over time, sag. When a woman has children, their bodies do change. Sometimes they can't get that girlish figure back no matter what they do. The solution is to read your Bible and realize that physical beauty is not all that there is to real beauty. As the saying goes, beauty is only skin deep. But godliness is real beauty and is what you should be striving after. It is that kind of beauty that will be most attractive in the long term, especially to a godly man.

In making your home a joy for your husband to come home to, you should be concerned with the fruit of the Spirit, not the upholstery and the hangings. These things matter, but I would much rather come home to a cluttered home that is full of warmth and hugs than a home that is spic and span clean, but has no joy (those are not the only options). It is the same with you. It is good that you are beautiful, don't stop working on that, but if that isn't accompanied by a deep abiding godliness, things will fall all apart when you begin to show your age.

Just Stop It

2011-09-12T12:46:00.000-07:00

The way the Bible views sin and the way the world views addictions is very different. Repeated sin is just that repeated sin. It may be a habit, but it doesn't absolutely cause a person to do what he does. A habit is just a decision we make quicker. Pornography is no different. It scratches an itch for men and women. It fills a void in their lives. It gives something they aren't getting anywhere else. It is all false, idolatrous, sinful, shortsighted, and temporary, but it is not an addiction in the sense that the world thinks of addiction.

To answer your question, yes, if a person handles his sin in the Biblical way, by confessing, repenting, and walking with God, he can and will be free from it in the same way that everyone is free from past sins. God is good and he does work in hearts to free people from the sin that entangles them.

Many non-Biblical counselors do recommend people go to 12-step groups for everything from sex to clutters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_twelve-step_groups). It is the world's way of dealing with things that are too large for them because they don't know where behavior comes from and how to help a person change. Think about how the 12-step groups work. They assume a disease model, but do they "treat" the people as if it were a disease? No. They tell the person to stop doing whatever it is and then help them stop by putting them with a friend, calling on God as they perceive him, go to meetings every day or week, and shame them into stopping. But it is all simply, "stop doing whatever this meeting is about." It never gets to the heart which is where behavior comes from (Lk. 6:45).

I don't think anyone can overcome his past with will power and prayer. These two things can't change anything. But because God is real and he cares, he can enter into a person's heart and transform him and clean his heart and make him new in this area of his life. This does not mean that the temptations will ever stop, but it does mean that he will handle the temptation differently than he used to. Does it guarantee that he will never fall again? No. But it does mean real change, deep change.

Break Up Without Being Devastated

2011-09-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

Might I make an observation? It is virtually impossible to learn to be a good wife or Christian by participating in the dating world. That system prepares people for divorce not marriage. The only thing you really learn by dating is how to break up without being totally devastated. And this in turn makes marriage very difficult because you are learning to not give yourself totally. You can’t afford to give yourself in a dating situation if you might break up in a week, a month, or even a year. And this inability to give yourself will keep you from being real enough to actually get married. It taints every relationship, even your relationship with Christ. You have to always be on guard, to guard your heart from the chance of the pain of rejection, or even the pain of needing to do the rejecting.

The Right Lens

2011-09-10T10:59:00.000-07:00

Hi George,

Your letter seems to be a little bit inward and self oriented. It is true that we need to examine ourselves, but we need to do it only after we’ve been examining the gracious, loving, and joyous God we serve. It is only then that we get an accurate picture of ourselves. His lens is very different from ours. He sees us through Christ and that is reality, not what we see when we look at ourselves without the right lenses on.

If we get things turned around, we become bound up, tied in a know, and joyless. We only see the terrible state we are in and only hope that God can do something with this useless piece of pot. But when we are able to take our eyes off of ourselves long enough to look into his glorious face and feel his pleasure, then when we look back at ourselves we more able to see Christ in us. Sure, we’re worthless, but we’re in Christ and he’s not worthless. That makes all the difference.

I hope this helps.

Fervent in Spirit

2011-09-07T15:25:00.001-07:00

...not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;...

Romans 12:11

One of the Liveliest Places On Earth

2011-09-07T15:23:00.000-07:00

Now this has direct implications for preaching and teaching. Those who are ministers of the Word must never consent to handle that Word in a truncated or wooden fashion. This conservative and safe fashion in preaching is neither conservative nor safe. A preacher must never behave as though he were an engineer trying to write a phone book. God speaks the eternal Word of God, our Lord Jesus. He created the universe through Him. The universe is God speaking, and this is how the universe declares His glory—the heavens and earth speak through being spoken. The pulpit should be one of the liveliest places on earth, because in it, words are imitating the Word. This should never be done for the sake of mere entertainment; it is to be done in obedience.

Douglas Wilson, The High Church Puritan

'In' Small But Important

2011-09-07T15:19:00.000-07:00

Dear Mike,

I would also like to ask you what you think about remarrying the same man.

By the way, the man who believes that everybody will be saved in Christ often quotes the following passages: 1 Cor. 15:22, 1Tm 4:10, Col:1:20, Ef.1:10.

Betty.

Hi Betty,

Deut. 24:1-4 says that a woman may not remarry her husband after he has married someone in between her first marriage and what would be the second with the same man. This probably had economic basis, but the fact remains that the Bible says that someone may remarry the same person, but only if there hasn't been a marriage in between the first and second marriage.

So getting remarried is okay as long a there hasn't been an intervening marriage.

1 Cor. 15:22 says, "for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." The key to figuring this verse out is the small word 'in.' In Adam all sin. In Christ all shall be made alive. We are born in Adam, but we are only transfered from being in Adam to being in Christ by faith. No faith, no transfer. So all who are in Christ will be saved, but not all are in Christ.

1 Tim. 4:10 says, "for to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe." The word 'especially' is a word that emphasizes the case rather than distinguishes the case. In other words it is not saying that God saves everyone and in some funny sense, those who believe have some kind of special salvation. He is saying God saves everyone who is saved. And salvation comes to those who believe. The Greek word translated (in English) 'especially' should have been translated 'that is.' It would then read, "who is the Savior of all people, that is, of those who believe."

Col. 1:20 simply says that all things will be reconciled, or made right. This does not mean that all will be saved, only that all will be made right. Rom. 9 makes it clear that sending people to Hell will bring glory to God and so sending rebellious people to Hell will help bring all to reconciliation. The cross made enemies as well as friends. Jesus came to bring a sword after all (Mt. 10:34). Judgement works both ways. It reconciles books in both directions. It gives everyone what they want. Those in Christ get Christ. Those in rebellion against Christ, get to be freed from him forever.

Eph. 1:10 is followed immediately by 1:11 which starts with "In Him" which further explains and qualifies what Paul is talking about in verse 10. The Bible is clear that only those who have faith will be saved for eternity. The rest don't want to be saved. They want to be apart from God, to have nothing to do with him. It would be Hell for God to make those who hate him to have to spend eternity with him. Hey, maybe I'm on to something here.

No God tells that there is a special place for those who refuse to submit themselves to God and to embrace his loving provision for them (Mt. 25).

I hope this helps.

An Emotional Conclusion

2011-09-02T16:30:00.000-07:00

Dear Mike,

Thank you for your answer very much! It was good to read it and it helped
me a lot.

Well, it is difficult for me to understand their beliefs - they believe that there
is hell but it is not a place of eternal torment. After some time everybody who
is there will be released and saved.

Betty

Hi again Betty,

Yes, that isn't Christian. It could be that they are simply immature and don't know what is going on. They need to hear the Gospel and believe in it. But I wouldn't let them join the church until they think through that simple but very important doctrine.

Sin and the consequence for sin is pretty important to the Gospel. As I said before Jesus saves sinners. If he didn’t need to die…he died for nothing.

I know there are some in the Church who think that Hell either doesn't exist or isn't eternal (John Stott and William Barclay for example). They usually believe that the people who die in their sins are simply annihilated and cease to exist. These folks usually hold to this teaching doctrines, not because they have searched the Scriptures, but because they know someone who died in their sins and they can’t admit that God would send their loved one to an eternal Hell. It turns out to be an emotional conclusion, not a principled one.

Still, faith in God is what is necessary for salvation. If the folks are simply immature, but they believe Jesus died for their sins and they will stand before God and answer for their sins on the basis of Jesus’ death and resurrection, they will be saved, even if they are wrong about Hell. Salvation isn’t so much about how much or what we believe as it is about putting our trust in the eternal God. If they are just immature, I would probably do some teaching, and then possibly let them join with wrong beliefs.

But if they believe what they believe because they are in rebellion against the Word of God, they are exalting their own opinions above the Word of God. They are trying to be God instead of submitting themselves to God. I would not let them join the church.

I hope this helps.

Universalism Does Not Save

2011-09-02T14:15:00.000-07:00

Dear Mike,

I would like to ask you who can become a member of a church.

A married couple (baptized) with two children went to a church for three years. Then they finally decided to become members of this church. Yet, the church said they could not join them because of their religious beliefs (universalism) and they did not like the man's testimony - the man could not say that there had been one particular moment in his life when he was born again.

Betty from Boston

Hi Betty,

I would not have a problem with someone wanting to join the church if they could not pinpoint when they were saved. Many people can't name the day. It similar to knowing when the sun came up. You don't need to know when it came up to know that it came up. So someone who could not identify the exact moment of their salvation would not be a problem for me.

I would want to do a lot of questioning about that universalism thing, however. If by "universalism" they mean that they believe that God will save all mankind in Christ and they mean that they are standing on the promises of God in 1 Jn. 4:14 and other similar passages, I wouldn't have trouble with them joining.

If they meant that God will save everyone regardless of their beliefs about God, just because God is a god of love and wouldn't send anyone to Hell, I would say that they cannot join. In this case, they clearly do not understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus was sent to save sinners from the wrath of God.

We earned this wrath because of our rebellion and thus sin against the holy God. Some might counter with something like “the sin was done by simple men and women and we should not assume that our simply sin should be judged so harshly.” But that is not how anyone measures these kinds of things. Sin is not measured by the one committing it, but by the one it is against.

We do this all the time. For example, which is worse someone stealing your neighbor's car, or their stealing your car? It is a bad deal for your neighbor, but when it is against you, your reaction is much stronger. When we measure the wrong, it is much worse when it is against us than when it is against someone else (unless, of course, we are afraid it might turn toward us in the future). In the case of God, our sin against him is much greater in an absolute way. This is because God is the absolute. He is the source of all ownership, of all being, of all right, of all wrong, and he is the final authority for everything. So when you poke him in the eye, you are doing a much more evil thing than when someone pokes you in the eye.

The thing that makes all this even worse is that there isn't anything we can do to fix the wrong done against God. There is no restitution and no penance great enough to solve the problem. You cannot make the situation right on your own. The fact that our sin is against the infinitely holy God means that our sin is infinitely evil and deserves an infinitely terrible consequence. And that is how the Bible depicts the end of those who have rebelled against God. Not everyone is saved in the end. The world in not a universalist world. Evil will be judged in all its forms.

But the Bible also tells us that God loved the world (sinful men) and sent Jesus to take the penalty for our sins on himself. This seems like a pretty strange statement since it is hot on the heels of the statement about no one being able to appease a prefect and holy God. But that is because you don't understand that Jesus is God incarnate. He is wholly man, but he is also the creator of the universe in human form. God himself provided a sacrifice who could appease his wrath (1 Jn. 2:2). And God himself was that sacrifice. Jesus is God. The Bible tells us that Jesus was the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, and that Jesus is the high priest who offers the lamb. Therefore, Jesus' death on the cross takes away the sins of those who believe in him (Jn. 3:16). What a great transaction! My sin was laid on Jesus and he paid my penalty.

How is this just? How can a man who did not sin (God cannot sin) take the punishment for the sins of sinful people who did sin? The Bible tells us that this is a mystery, but that it is a mystery that has been disclosed to us. God works in a way that is called “covenantal” in the Bible. One of the aspects of covenant is that the leaders of groups are representatives of those groups. When the leader does something, his whole group is help accountable for that something. We see this sort of thing all the time in normal life. For example, suppose our congress decides it is a good thing to go to war. They decide to go and have a vote. Because they are our leaders in a covenantal sort way, when they decide to go to war, we go to war.

It also works the other way around. If someone in the group, the leader is over, does something, the leader, because he is responsible for the group, suffers or is blessed for that person's behavior. Suppose a worker in Microsoft were to invent a computer that could read your mind and type everything you thought. The worker would get rewards, but so would Bill Gates. In fact, not many know who invented the touch screen that is so popular on our phones, but Bill Gates is getting plenty of money out of the deal. In the other direction, when a submarine runs into a mountain under the ocean, the captain is released from his command, but not necessarily the sailor who was on watch at the time. This is also an example of a covenant relationship.

The Bible tells us that Jesus is our head, or leader. When he died, those who would believe in him also died with him because he represented us. Also, when he rose from the dead, those who would believe in him also rose from the dead. Jesus died, we died. Jesus rose, we rose.

This has a number of implications for us as Christians. If we died in Christ, because he died to sin, we also died to sin. This means that we don't have a reason or excuse to sin anymore. In fact, we may not sin. It also means that since Jesus rose from the dead and we rose from the dead, that we also are to live a new, resurrected life. We are to count ourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ, to Christ. This is why a person who is a Christian should live a new life. It should be completely different from the old one. We should be taking off the old life with its rebellion and sin, and putting on the new life with its loveliness, joy, peace, and holiness.

To get back to your question: I would not let a person who believes in universalism join the church because they are not Christians. The church is a gathering of people who have acknowledged their rebellion and sin, but who have embraced the realization that Jesus died for their sins and have committed themselves to living for God and doing it in a covenantal relationship with the others in the church. Since these folks do not believe the Gospel they are still in their sins. Because they are still in their sins, they will continue to sin as before and if allowed to join the church will either destroy the church from within, or be asked to leave pretty soon anyway.

I know this is long and I got carried away a bit, but I hope it helps.

O God, My God

2011-09-02T12:27:00.001-07:00

Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!
Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.

Psalm 43:3-4

No One Owns Anything

2011-09-02T12:25:00.001-07:00

Under communism, as Marx envisioned it, everyone labors together for the common good and everyone owns everything. The problem, of course, is that when everyone owns everything, no one owns anything.

R. C. Sproul, The Consequences of Ideas p. 142.

They Only Smell Skunk

2011-09-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

One of the ways to check our motives in following God is to ask ourselves, what am I getting out of it? The Bible assumes that people are going to want to be blessed, just look at the beatitudes. "If you want to be first," Jesus said (Mk. 9:35). "If you want to be great," Jesus said (Mt. 5:19). The assumption is that people desire things for themselves and they want to be someone great.

If the answer to the question is I want to be great, because I want to be great. Or I want to be great because I'm the center of the universe, then you're going to have trouble with God. He wants to be first, biggest, and best. He is God and won't share that glory with another.

The key is submission, acquiescence, laying down your desires for fame and glory and realizing that the only fame and glory that matters is Jesus Christ and his father. When you can say, "I want what God wants for my life, no matter what it is." When that "no matter what" includes possible/probable suffering, sickness, persecution (2 Tim. 3:12), hunger, loneliness, and/or unknown pain, then you have truly put yourself in a position where God can lift you up and use you for his kingdom. Jesus said, "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted"(Lk. 14:11).

In Luke 14: 26ff Jesus said, ""If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." Becoming a disciple is what is necessary to being blessed by God. Taking up your cross means dying to your own desires and measuring everything according to God's desires.

If God's best and God's fame (glory) is first in your mind, and if you have counted the cost and are willing to take or do anything to please God, then trust in God's goodness and favor. Don't continue to naval gaze and doubt. Give yourself over to God, love him, trust him, talk to him, sing with and to him (Zeph. 3:17), relate to him. Let him bless you and lift you up.

One more thought: we don't "come to God righteously." We come to God in Christ and because he is righteous and our presence in him, the father sees us as righteous. Its kind of like when a hunter sprays himself with skunk smell. All the other animals only smell skunk, they don't smell hunter. The difference is that this is covenantal language rather than hunter language.

The appropriate response to salvation, therefore, is humble obedience. The great thing is that God's commands are not burdensome (1 Jn. 5:3). They all involve loving, rejoicing, being at peace, and spending lots of time in the presence of God. How can this kind of obedience be anything but thrilling?

I hope this helps. Thank you for bringing up the topic.

Creation

2011-09-01T15:24:00.000-07:00

When darkness reigned and dimmed the sky,

The stars knew not their seats on high.

The Sun had yet to spill her grace

On Earth’s broad span, the shadowed-place.

Then one light flashed and filled the gap,

And Darkness fled to dens unmap’d.

The Fauns and Satyrs found their way

From holes deep hid’, and hailed the day.

The winged-ones came from winds-retreat,

They sang delight at Dark’s defeat.

The gods ascended to great Mount Ida;

And sphinxes dwelt in south Al Minya.

The Kings arose and reigned with might;

The people passed the period of Night.

Mankind grew strong, and cared for life;

When Time decreed, they captured Strife

And did not let him loose again,

Till man-kind lost what might have been.

By Rachel Lawyer

An assignment to write a poem in the style of Beowulf

The World is a Jungle

2011-08-24T11:34:00.001-07:00

In short, Kant argues fro the Christian God on the basis that he must exist for eh5tics to be meaningful. Kant says that even if we cannot know that god exists, for practical purposes we must live “as if he exists for ethics and society to be possible. He anticipates Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s maxim, “If there is no God, all things are permissible.” Without an absolute ethical norm, morality is reduced to mere preference and the world is a jungle where might makes right.

R. C. Sproul, The Consequences of Ideas p. 131.

Outdo One Another

2011-08-24T11:31:00.001-07:00

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

Romans 12:10

True Parental Wisdom

2011-08-24T11:29:00.001-07:00

Wisdom is not made out of wood and neither are our children. When Christian parents seek to bring together wisdom and children, they must resist all wooden techniques. They must be wise themselves, and wisdom is supple. The only useful wood in the whole scenario is that of the spanking paddle, provided it is not applied by parents with wooden heads.

Douglas Wilson, Excused Absence, pg. 124.

The Green Thing!

2011-08-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

In the line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment." He was right—our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts—wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house—not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

HT: Naomi Poole

Receive What is Due

2011-08-16T12:12:00.000-07:00

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

2 Corinthians 5:10

Trust Forever

2011-08-16T12:10:00.001-07:00

Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.

Isaiah 26:4

Caring for Others

2011-08-16T12:09:00.000-07:00

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.

Romans 15:1-3

Abuse in the Name of Orthodoxy

2011-08-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

This paragraph is quoted from Randy Booth’s article “Covenantal Antithesis”

A wooden hermeneutic, which artificially restricts the way in which a word or concept may be employed, often results in a failure to appreciate the richness of that word or concept as it is used in the Bible. Ironically, the stiff approach is often employed as if it were a tool of orthodoxy when, in fact, it becomes a means by which the Word of God is abused.

Ain't Nothin Hid

2011-08-11T13:57:00.001-07:00

The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.

Proverbs 15:3

Speaking Nonesense

2011-08-11T13:55:00.001-07:00

People are quite capable of speaking nonsense, but they cannot speak nonsense intelligibly.

R. C. Sproul, The Consequences of Ideas p. 130.

The Snare of the Devil

2011-08-11T13:53:00.001-07:00

And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

2 Timothy 2:24-26

Goat Lobby

2011-08-11T13:51:00.001-07:00

When Paul cites a similarly kind provision for animals, i.e., that an ox treading out the grain must not be muzzled, he makes a passing comment we would do well to note: “Is it oxen God is concerned about?” (1 Cor. 9:9, emphasis mine). A man could woodenly obey the law and have his oxen unmuzzled—“That’s what the law says,” he mutters—and that same man could refuse to support ministers of the Gospel financially. If he were to do so, he would be disobedient to the law that speaks of oxen only. Paul applies this Old Testament law to a New Testament situation. His method is to argue his point from the usual order of things (1 Cor. 9:7) and to argue it from the law (v. 8). So was this law concerning baby goats a random piece of Mosaic legislation in response to diligent activity by the goat lobby? Those who think so understand neither the Scriptures nor the kindness of God.

Douglas Wilson, The Case For Classical Christian Education, pg. 146.

For the Love of God

2011-08-11T11:47:00.001-07:00

The first memory verse most of us learned when we became Christians was John 3:16—“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but should have everlasting life.”

But what does it all mean? What does it mean that God loved the world? What does it mean that he gave his only Son? What does it mean that if we believe in him we shall not perish? What does it mean that if we believe in him we will have everlasting, or eternal life?

There is another question I would like to answer in the process of answering the other questions, it is—Could God have secured our salvation in some other way? In other words, did God have to kill his own son to save us from death? Couldn’t God have just said something like, you’re free and we’re all friends again?

We need to know that everything God does is motivated by love. John said, “God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8). This means that whatever God does and for whatever reasons, everything he does is an act of love. But love does not just sit there contemplating the empty cosmos, basking in what might be. Love creates, it gives to the beloved. If it is not a giving, changing, active, and living entity, it is not love. Love changes things. Love is efficacious. Because God is love, he can do nothing that is not loving. And this includes our salvation. Paul said, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). And again, “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Eph 2:4-5). His love is determinative. It has an end, a goal. God’s love is the cause and source of our salvation.

In fact, God’s love for his creation demanded that he save us, love required God to act on our behalf, love necessitated saving mankind. God was constrained by who he is, to save us from our terrible plight.

What this means, practically, is that God loves you. He knows all about you and your weaknesses. He knows all about your strengths, he knows every thought, every intention of your heart. He knows the words you are about to say. He knows what you will be doing later tonight. He even knows what you will be doing tomorrow. He knows about your skin problems, he knows about your emotional hang ups, he knows how many hairs there are on your head. And he knows it all because he cares for you. He loves you.

Pray For Your Pastor

2011-08-09T13:12:00.001-07:00

Mike,

Thank you very much for your help.

Should this pastor be told that he does not behave properly? Who should do it? There are only two pastors/elders in the church and the other pastor thinks everything is all right.

Paula

Hi Paula,

If you have a good relationship with the pastor, you might sweetly ask him some of the questions I've suggested. Otherwise, you should simply pray for him. Ask God to make him more Christ like, to give him wisdom and grace. Pray that God would bless your pastor with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus.

Then, I would also suggest that you work hard to encourage your pastor in everything he is doing well and if he is trying, even those things that he isn't doing very well. Cheer for him, root for him, build him up. Praise him every chance you get. Respect him. Serve him.

Then, when he respects you and asks for your opinion, you can gently share with him your views on pastors and girlfriends. Anything you do with him before he is ready to listen to you will come off as a gong and a clanging cymbal. Just a lot of noise and a quench on his spirit.

This will take a lot of love, perseverance, patience, and kindness on your part. But notice that all these things are fruit of the Spirit. So pray for yourself too. Remember that God loves your pastor more than you do. He loves your church more than you do. He loves you more than you do. God will glorify himself in you as you live for him in the way he has called you to.

I hope this helps.

Turn Away From Evil

2011-08-09T12:57:00.001-07:00

By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil.

Proverbs 16:6

Descriptions are not Explanations

2011-08-09T12:52:00.001-07:00

Describing an event, a process, or a motion does not necessarily explain it. Even if our descriptions come in the form of mathematical equations that yield a certain predictability, does that mean we have achieved knowledge of reality? Like Ptolemy’s geocentric system, our theories can “save the phenomena: without achieving accurate knowledge of reality.

R. C. Sproul, The Consequences of Ideas p. 105.

You Don't Understand a Thing

2011-08-09T12:49:00.001-07:00

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, do not lean on your own understanding.

Proverbs 3:5

Love Toward Another

2011-08-09T12:47:00.001-07:00

Mike,

Another question is : Can a pastor show his feelings publicly - e.g.tender embracing, hugging each other? He has known his girlfriend only for about three months.

Paula

Hi Paula,

Of course he can show his feelings publicly. But should he?

An even greater question is: Should he be having those feelings after only three months? In my view, which I think is Biblical, a person should keep his physical contact and emotions reined in to match their level of commitment he has with the woman. A Christian should never let his emotions run the show. And thus, unless a man has committed himself to a woman, he shouldn't be doing physical things with her that accompany commitment. In other words, if he has only an emotional friendship with a woman, but has not committed his life to her, a man should not be touching her in ways that only people committed to one another ought to be doing.

One way of measuring this would be to ask the questions: If you were married to someone else, would you be acting that way with a woman who was not your wife? Would you be holding her hand? Would you be kissing her? Would you be doing X with her?

Or another way to ask the question is: Would you like your future wife to be treating another man the way your current girlfriend is treating you? Or you could ask it this way: After you are married, would you like for your wife to be treating another man like this woman is treating you now?

You might also ask: Why, assuming he has no official commitment to this woman, he is treating someone else's wife like this? And: Why is he robbing his future wife of his heart by giving it to another woman?

I hope this helps.

Pastor Lawyer

Follow Me

2011-08-09T12:46:00.001-07:00

But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Matt. 16:23-25

Handling the Word of God

2011-08-09T12:45:00.000-07:00

Hermeneutics, the art and science of interpretation, sounds to many like a horribly dusty affair. And of course, some have handled the subject along these lines. This is not how it should be; when the question of how a text is to be interpreted arises, we should feel a leaden weight in the gut, and adrenaline in the veins, as men feel before a battle. Of course we need to pay sound attention to our texts—but not as the scribes.

How we handle the Word of God has eternal consequences. If we trifle with the text, we are risking our own eternal salvation. Peter spoke of hermeneutics as a life and death issue; he noted that ignorant and unstable people twist the Scriptures, and that they do so to their own destruction. The word he used to describe the twisting is a word out of ancient torture chambers. The plain meaning of the text is put to the rack, and bizarre confessions are coerced from it. And unfortunately, to this day, when many self-appointed interpreters turn to their text, torture and mayhem are in the air.

Douglas Wilson, Mother Kirk, pg. 199.

Pastors and Women

2011-08-09T12:27:00.000-07:00

Dear Mike,

This time I would like to ask you if you think it is all right when a pastor goes on a two-week trip around the country only with his girlfriend.

Paula

Hi Paula,

Generally it is not a good idea.

It takes so little to destroy a pastor’s reputation and his ability to minister the Word of God that taking a vacation with his girlfriend is virtually a death knell for his life as a pastor. The precautions I’ve suggested here are precarious at best and a lot has to do with the pastor’s relationship with the girlfriend when everyone can see them together. If they have a physical relationship, they should not go on the trip. If they like one another, but are obviously keeping their relationship in control and their reputation is stellar, then they might be able to go on the trip. I would generally say, don’t do it.

It might be sort of okay as long as it he makes it very clear to the whole world that they are sleeping in separate rooms, when they are together they are clearly not hanging all over one another, and that they spend very little time alone together when they can help it.

It isn't a very good practice and I would pretty strongly caution him/them to go way out of his way to make it clear that nothing sinful is happening.

I hope this helps.

Pastor Lawyer

Tyranny of the Majority

2011-08-08T15:10:00.001-07:00

The law of nature should protect individuals from the tyranny of the majority. Here are the seeds of the distinction between a republic (where rule is by law) and a pure democracy (where rule is merely by the will of the people).

R. C. Sproul, The Consequences of Ideas p. 102.

Know the Name of God

2011-08-08T15:09:00.000-07:00

Those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD,

Psalm 9:10

God Is a Consuming Fire

2011-08-08T15:06:00.000-07:00

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

Hebrews 12:28-29

Addressing Difficult Cases

2011-08-08T15:02:00.000-07:00

Second, in our discussion in the earlier section of another pastoral qualification (that an elder should be a one-woman-man), we noted that we are evaluating character, not counting rocks. The world is a messy place, and this is frequently hard on perfectionists. Thus, all questions flowing from weird circumstances not addressed in the text should be acknowledged to be anomalous and dealt with on a case-by-case basis. What about a pastor who adopts his fifteen-year-old nephew whose parents just died, and that nephew never comes to faith? What about a child fathered out of wedlock ten years before the father was converted and married? The man’s six legitimate children are all faithful Christians. My point is not that we should apply Paul’s requirements in a wooden manner, with our eyes tight shut, but rather that if we are careful to obey him in those areas which are clearly addressed in the text, we will have the wisdom necessary when we come to the difficult cases.

Douglas Wilson, Mother Kirk , pg. 192.

Chance...No Power

2011-08-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

Aquinas…Chance is a perfectly meaningful term to describe mathematical possibilities, but the word becomes a sneaky bogeyman when used to describe something that has the power to influence anything. Chance has no being, and that which has no being has no power to do anything.

R. C. Sproul, The Consequences of Ideas p. 75.

Qualities vs Check List

2011-08-05T12:03:00.001-07:00

The second attitude is often a reaction to this modernist refusal to take God's Word seriously. In this reaction, the list of attributes ceases to be descriptive of a certain kind of man and hardens into a checklist. And as with all “checklist” approaches to godliness, a clear arbitrariness begins to creep in—no less humanistic even though it is thought to be “strict” or “conservative.” Countless churches have fallen away from faithfulness to Christ into an unbiblical woodenness, because they were faithless first in how they selected their leaders.

Douglas Wilson, Mother Kirk , pg. 188.

Called to Eternal Glory

2011-08-05T12:02:00.000-07:00

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

1 Peter 5:10

Holiness to Completion

2011-08-05T12:01:00.000-07:00

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

2 Corinthians 7:1

Who Would'a Thunk It?

2011-08-04T16:43:00.000-07:00

We live in perhaps the most anti-intellectual period of Christian history. We affirm technology and education, but we demean the role of the mind or intellect, particularly in the religious realm.

R. C. Sproul, The Consequences of Ideas p. 66.

What is a Christian?

2011-08-04T16:16:00.000-07:00

Offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the LORD

Psalm 4:5

Until He Comes

2011-08-04T16:13:00.001-07:00

Communion Meditation

In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth. Everything that has been created was created by him and for him, for his glory. In the beginning was the Word. The word was with God and was God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate…Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, he was buried, he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve…and to more than 500 others.

Now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe…In him, we live and move and have our being. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together…And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Such Men Do Exist

2011-08-04T16:11:00.000-07:00

But with all this said, the basic qualifications which the Bible sets forth are character qualifications, both in the man’s life and in his household. We should not consider a man for the office of minister unless he fully meets the description that Scriptures give us. Every ministerial candidate will be a sinner, and no one will achieve absolute perfection before God. But Paul and Peter describe a certain kind of man for a reason. Such men do exist, and the church should be governed by them.

Douglas Wilson, Mother Kirk , pg. 186.

Called, That...

2011-08-04T12:21:00.001-07:00

Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.

1 Peter 3:9

Abides in God

2011-08-04T12:19:00.001-07:00

God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

1 John 4:16-18

Parish Bible Studies

2011-08-04T12:16:00.001-07:00

At our last HOH meeting the elders disclosed that we will be providing Parish Bible Studies in the fall. These Parish Bible Studies will begin September 21 and will continue until November 16.

These studies will be Wednesday evenings at 7:00- 8:00 PM. The questions that will be discussed will be provided via the church email system on Monday before the studies. It will take less than an hour to prepare for the Parish Bible Study.

This short announcement is not all there is as more information is coming. However, if you can’t wait, feel free to ask any of the elders if you have more questions.

More information

The following was taken from: http://www.smallgroups.com/articles/2008/sevenadvantagesofsermonbasedsmallgroups.html

They Increase the Educational Impact

A number of years ago, I heard about a study that Harvard conducted for one of the military branches. Apparently the military was sending people to different conferences and training sessions, and they wanted to maximize the educational impact of those sessions by figuring out what helps people learn—and most importantly, retain and apply—the information they receive.

Some of the best minds at Harvard tackled this study, and they uncovered three ways to maximize the benefit of any training experience. The first was maintaining a high sense of expectation. The study showed that if people went into a training experience with high expectations, they generally learned and retained a lot more. Obviously, this one is common sense when it comes to churches. If people are coming to your church thinking, Oh, this is going to be boring, then you can probably understand why they're not retaining what you say.

But here's the second ingredient. The Harvard researchers also discovered that if people took good notes during the training experience, the educational impact and the life-change upon returning home would accelerate measurably. The third key had to do with discussing the material with others. If they got together and discussed the notes—and the broader training experience as a whole—their education impact and subsequent life-change was significantly increased. .

Strangely enough, those last two things are exactly what using a sermon-based small group model forces people to do.

We Proclaim The Lord's Death

2011-08-03T13:11:00.000-07:00

No Grumbling?

2011-08-03T13:10:00.000-07:00

What would it look like if there were no grumbling? Or What would the world look like if no one complained? Some of us are pretty introspective, and we might be wondering what our lives would look like if we didn’t grumble. Immediately thoughts of peace, light, security, rest, comfort, ease, and patience flash through our minds. Life would be very different if we didn’t complain or whine or grumble.

But then, just as quickly those peaceful thoughts are pushed aside by reality. “What about the unfairness of life?” “I deserve a lot more than I’m getting.” “Who does that guy think he is talking to me like that?” “Doesn’t she know who I am?” “Who does she think he is?” I have a lot to complain about. Real life isn’t fair. Things happen; things that aren’t good. Grumbling is how we fix things while being too timid to actually do anything constructive.

I wonder what does God think about grumbling? I remember a story with a lot of grumbling in Numbers 14. The people were in the desert and were grumbling because there wasn’t any food or water out there. They were about to stone Moses and Aaron because it was all their fault when God interceded for them and sought to kill all the people. Moses interceded on the people’s behalf and God relented and didn’t kill the people…then.

God thinks our grumbling is ultimately a complaint against him and the way he’s telling our story. You know, of course, that when I say, “telling our story,” I mean that as he speaks, we exist and things happen. The things that happen in our lives are the actual story God is telling working itself out in reality. When that guy said what he said about you (the fellow you were grumbling about), the things he said were put into his mouth and then given to you by the story teller. Nothing happens to us that is not given to us, as a gift from our Father in Heaven.

Not only was the reason for our complaint and subsequent grumbling given to us by God, but it was actually given to us as something meant to make us more like Christ, for our good, and to bring glory to God. It was actually a gift, something wonderful, given to you. You may think you’re grumbling to a person, or complaining to yourself, but in reality it is all about God. “You don’t know what you’re doing. Do you have any idea at all who you’re dealing with? I’m not happy with your choices. Who do you think you are? Who died and left you…God?”

I wonder what life would look like if there were no grumbling and complaining.

Make Our Joy Complete

2011-08-03T13:08:00.001-07:00

Confession of Sin

Introduction

We all know that being a Christian is about not going to Hell when you die. But if that’s all you know, you’re in serious trouble. Being a Christian is not simply about not going to Hell when you die. It is really about living with God for eternity. Living with God means living in a close relationship with him. It means caring that he is God, caring that he wants a relationship with us, caring that he wants us to have relationships with one another, and caring that we know our place in the system.

Text

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Overview of the Text

This is one verse in the first chapter of a letter written by the Apostle John. We don’t know where the original recipients resided, nor much about them. We can tell from the context that they were being bothered by folks claiming to have knowledge that differed from the Apostles and thus from Christ. These folks are called AntiChrist by John in 2:18, 22; and 4:3. But John’s over all goal in writing the letter is so that the readers might have full and complete fellowship with God and with one another (1:3). He goes on to say that writing this and having the readers heed the writing will bring John and his readers great joy, complete, finished joy (v. 4).

He begins the actual body of the letter by saying that if someone is not living like a Christian, he is lying to himself about whether his one or not (v. 4, 5, & 6). On the other hand if we live like we are all lit up by the presence of God, we really do have fellowship with God and with one another (v. 7). Then, in verse 8 and again in verse 10 he tells us that if we claim to walk in the light, but continue to sin, we are lying. And if we say we have no sin, or say that we have not sinned at all we make him out to be a liar. We are sinners (Rom 3:9, 23; 5:12). There is no one who is not. Saying you are not only calls God a liar (v. 10).

Nestled in between these two verses is our hope (v. 9).

Sin Is

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. (1 Jn 3:4). Love God with all your heart (Deut. 10:12; Mt. 22:37)…Love your neighbor as yourself (Lev. 19:18; Mt. 22:39)…love your enemy (Mt. 5:44)…love your wife (Eph. 5:25)…love your husband (Tit. 2:4)…love your children (Tit. 2:4)…honor your parents (Eph. 6:2)…the brothers (1 Jn. 5:2). Love means laying down your life for the beloved John 10; 1 Jn. 3:16).

All wrongdoing is sin. (1 Jn 5:17)

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. (Jas 4:17)

The devising of folly is sin, and the scoffer is an abomination to mankind. (Pro 24:9) Living, thinking, talking, joking, existing like a pagan is living according to folly.

But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. (Rom 14:23)

The Fact of Discipline

Hebrew 12:5ff tells us that God disciplines his children. In fact if he didn’t discipline us, we would know that we are not his children. The fact of his discipline encourages us to come to him for help.

Application of Discipline

Psalm 32:3, 4;

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

38:1-11;

O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger,

nor discipline me in your wrath!

For your arrows have sunk into me,

and your hand has come down on me.

There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation;

there is no health in my bones because of my sin.

For my iniquities have gone over my head;

like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

My wounds stink and fester

because of my foolishness,

I am utterly bowed down and prostrate;

all the day I go about mourning.

For my sides are filled with burning,

and there is no soundness in my flesh.

I am feeble and crushed;

I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

O Lord, all my longing is before you;

my sighing is not hidden from you.

My heart throbs; my strength fails me,

and the light of my eyes—It also has gone from me.

My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague,

and my nearest kin stand far off.

Isa. 59:1-3

Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness.

Confess your sins

The Greek word for confess used in our text means to “say the same thing.” When you confess your sin to God and to those you have sinned against, you are to say the same thing about it that God says about it. Was your anger, fear, hurt feelings, envy, lust, strife, or retaliation something that God looked on with pride and good cheer? What does God think about your thoughts, motives, and behavior? Well, find out, and then say the same thing about it that God says. He hates it. He abhors it. He is embarrassed by it. Because of your behavior, he has turned his face away from you and has withdrawn his joy (Ps. 32:4, 5; 38:1-8; Isa. 59:2; Heb. 12:5ff).

Part of this confession means that you need to acknowledge that your sin is your sin. It was not caused by anyone else. You chose to behave in the way you did and nothing anyone did or might have done forced you to do it. Suppose your wife burned the toast and as a result you flew into a rage, screaming, yelling and throwing things. Of course you can accuse your wife of causing you to sin by burning your toast, but think about it for a minute. How did her burning the toast force you to react the way you did? Did she burn the toast and then run over and grab your brain and squeeze it really hard until anger and rage popped out? I don’t think so. Your sin is your sin. You did it yourself. Your wife is not your leader. You need to own your sin.

According to James your desires were enticed when your wife did not act in a way that suited your perceived role as head of the home and king of your castle (Jas. 1:14). She did something that you did not want and that you did not think you deserved. The burnt toast, enticed you to grasp for your right to be in charge. Your wife was not giving you what you thought was your due. Then, when your desires were tweaked and you gave in to them, you flew into a rage and sin was present (Jas. 1:19). But your wife did not cause you to sin. She simply presented the temptation to sin. You saw the temptation, the burnt toast, assumed that she did it to “get to” you, and you chose to respond in anger. Your behavior was your sin. It had nothing to do with her or her burnt toast.

Incidentally, your sin consisted not only of the anger expressed by yelling and throwing things, but also your heart. Where do these desires live to pop out at the most inopportune times? Jas 4:1 says the fights and quarrels are caused by the pleasures that dwell within you. The Bible says evil things come from an evil heart (Lk. 6:45). The root sin, then, was a heart that thought it deserved more than it was getting. The yelling and throwing things was only the indicator that more is going on deeper inside you. Your real sin is that you believe the world revolves around you. And this belief is exhibited when circumstances don’t go your way or when events differ from what you think you deserve.

Putting these things together, so far, you must acknowledge that your sin is yours alone. You must admit and embrace the fact that the anger, the yelling, and the throwing things were sin, and that the sin comes from your evil heart. The heart, incidentally, is the core of your being. The heart is who you are deep inside. If you were to strip away all your inhibitions and the controls on your tongue and behavior, the things you would say and do would be a direct reflection of your heart—who you really are. When we sin, we are exhibiting who we really are in that instance. We are throwing off all restraint and doing what our heart desires. Confession of sin admits this and begs God to create in us a new heart (Ps. 51:10).

Pre-Conclusion:

Why might a person not confess their sin? Or what might they do instead?

Ø Justify the behavior by pointing out the other persons fault in the fracas.

Ø Excuse the sin based on the other person’s responsibility in the fracas.

Ø Pass the buck—these are all examples of this so far.

Ø Hide from the situation—get a new job, move away, never come again, etc.

Ø Delay confession

Ø Confess in vague, general terms.

Ø Claim there are too many to do this, I’m going to do it again anyway, Nobody’s perfect.

Ø To proud

Ø Can’t afford the restitution

Ø Bitterness—sees only the other person’s fault in the fracas and can’t see their own part. They are angry, hurt, frustrated, feel embarrassed, justified,

Conclusion

Confession of sin means, then, to say the same thing about your thoughts, motives, and behavior that God thinks of them. This includes admitting that your sin as yours alone and not related to anything anyone else did, said, or thought. You may not blame your sin on the perceived motives of what anyone else did. You were not being controlled by anyone or anything else. You chose to act the way you did, and you must own it. When confessing sin to others, you must be very careful not to mention their sin. This is a time when you are confessing your sin, not accusing someone else of their sin. You also must be very careful not to accuse the other person of putting a stumbling block in front of you. This comes across like a ploy to redirect whose fault your sin is. When confessing sin, only mention your sin and your choices.

As part of the confession of sin process, you need to make a plan for restitution. You need to make right anything you did in your sinful state. If you stole anything, broke anything, hit anyone or anything, destroyed anyone or anything, you need to make arrangements to repair the ruins.

Also, as part of the confession process, repentance needs to be present. You must confess your sin, but also make provisions for turning away from the sin, for doing what is right. You must renounce your claim to yourself as lord of your life, and submit yourself to Jesus as Lord of all. Repentance means to turn from your way to God’s way. This begins in the heart and mind and comes out your finger tips. You must “put off the old man” and put on the new (Eph. 4:22, 23).

Do you want to be clean before God and man? Confess your sins. Do you want to be cleansed from all unrighteousness? Confess your sins. Do you want to walk with God as a friend for eternity? Confess your sins. Do you want to live at peace with all men? Confess your sins. Do you want to live as a beacon set on a hill testifying to the glory and majesty of God? Confess your sins. Make our joy complete. Begin by confessing your sins.

From the Heart

2011-07-29T10:59:00.001-07:00

And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

1 Peter 1:17-25

Leaving You An Example

2011-07-29T10:58:00.001-07:00

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

1 Peter 2:21

Q & A Pt. 3

2011-07-29T10:57:00.000-07:00

Is temptation sin? What is the difference between temptation and sin?

Temptation is not sin. Jesus was tempted in every way as we are and did not sin (Heb. 4:15). Temptation is something that happens around us, or inside our heads, that seeks to get us to take our eyes off Jesus. Positionally, we are sitting in the lap of God (1 Jn. 1:9). Temptation tries to get us to leave God’s presence and indulge in our desires. We sin when we hop down and give in to the temptation (Jas. 1:14, 15). One of the goals of the Christian life is to learn to live in a world full of temptations and, like Jesus, not sin.

It is similar to a martial arts student who strives to learn to defend himself in any and every situation. Early on in his training, he may get beat up by the bully, but over time, he learns to rebuff and overcome even the most sophisticated maneuvers. And when he is mature, he will be able to defeat the foe without even thinking about it. The Christian, when he is young, may be overwhelmed by every temptation that comes along. Over time, by proper training and instruction, he will learn to react to temptation in a godly way. He may never completely come to the place where he ceases from sin, but the Bible is full of teaching about how he can live a godly life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1, 2; 1 Cor. 1:4-8).

How can I institute this idea of confession of sin if I’ve never done it and I’ve been sinning for the past twenty years? I can’t remember all the sins I’ve committed.

The point is that we have been created for God’s glory (Isa. 43:7). We are not here to please ourselves. We aren’t the center of the universe. Paul said whether he is here or there, he makes it his goal to please the Lord in every way (2 Cor. 5:9).

We also exist in order to have a relationship with the Father through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit. We exist to have relationship with God and with his people. Sin breaks the relationship. We need to confess our sin because it destroys our relationships with God and our fellow man.

I know that if you haven’t confessed sin in a long, long time, you are probably feeling pretty overwhelmed. God knows it too. Remember, however, that God wants to be in fellowship with you a lot more than you want to be in fellowship with him. He proved his desire to you by sending Jesus to die for you so that you could have this relationship with him. Here’s what I suggest you do. Plan to go off by yourself for an extended period of time, several hours if needed. Bring your Bible and a pad of note paper. Read your Bible, and, as you read, ask God to reveal to you any sins that you have not confessed. Begin writing them on the pad of paper. Record in detail what the sin was and who it was against; also, record how you plan to make things right.

When you can’t remember anymore sins, stop writing. Go back over the list, and tell God about each sin, confessing, asking him to forgive you and to begin changing your heart. Then begin making appointments with everyone on the list to confess your sin to them, where needed. Confess your sin to them and include in that confession your plan to make things right: either restitution or a plan to help them to believe you won’t do that sin again.

Remember that God wants this relationship with you more than you want it with him. If there is sin that you haven’t remembered, he will bring it to your mind. If you run out of things to confess, assume there isn’t anything left. Praise the Lord and go on. If God brings something to mind later, confess that, ask for forgiveness and go on.

From now on, keep short accounts with God and man. If you sin, as soon as you can, make it right. As I said earlier, if you can catch yourself sinning, even in the middle of a sentence, confess it right then.

Proclaim His Excellencies

2011-07-28T10:40:00.000-07:00

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

1 Peter 2:9

Hatred of Evil

2011-07-28T10:38:00.001-07:00

The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

Proverbs 8:13

Q & A Pt. 2

2011-07-28T10:37:00.000-07:00

You don’t understand how terrible my husband is. He is the most unlovely man on the planet. He is a slob, never showers, plops down in the den and watches TV for hours and hours, and he never leads in worship. The husband God gave me is not worthy of being revered or treated with anything but contempt.

Dear sister, you are correct. I don’t understand what you are going through. What I do understand is that God is God and you are not. I know that God is the giver of good things (Mt. 7:11). I know that God has given you what you need to become more Christlike (Rom. 8:29). I also know that the Bible is sufficient to help you live in any kind of circumstance, to be godly, and to not sin (2 Pet. 1:3ff). What you are doing is passing the buck. You are blaming your sin on your husband and on God (Gen. 3:12). You haven’t got what you think you deserve and are living in a way that expresses your dislike of your situation. Sister, this too is sin. Confess the sin of thinking you deserve more than God has given you. Confess the sin of thinking you are of greater value than you are. Confess the sin of having a heart that is above doing what God has provided for you to do in your circumstances. Repent, turn to God in humility, ask him to change you heart, and do what is right.

When should I confess my sin? Can I do it once a month? Once a week? Once a day?

You should confess your sin when you recognize it as sin. Remember that the point of all of this is fellowship with God and with those God has placed in your life. If you sin, the fellowship is broken. You should want to restore fellowship at all costs and as quickly as you can. This means that if you sinned against your sister this morning and what you did or said eats at you for the rest of the day, you should seek her out and make things right as soon as you can. In a perfect world, you should realize in the middle of the sin that it is sin and should confess it before the sentence is even completed.

To Draw Near To Listen Is Better

2011-07-26T09:35:00.000-07:00

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes with much business, and a fool's voice with many words.

Ecclesiastes 5:1-3

Questions and Answers Pt. 1

2011-07-26T09:33:00.000-07:00

What if, in the circumstances, the thing I did was really the right thing to do?

Was what you did sin? Often, people want to justify their sin. They say, you don’t understand. You didn’t see the look they gave me. You didn’t hear what that man said. You would have responded the same way I did, had it been you she had cheated. To this I respond in two ways. First, you don’t want to compare your life with the way I might live my life. I might have acted the same way you acted. I might not have. I’m not the issue. Second, you do want to compare your life with Jesus’ life. Jesus would not have done what you did. Jesus took abuse, shame, scourging, beating, a crown of thorns, nails in his hands and feet, even death, and he never said anything close to what you said to that woman (1 Pet. 2:21-24). Jesus said that when we are persecuted, we are to bless and curse not (Lk. 6:28, cf. Rom. 12:14). If what you did was sinful, you need to confess it and make things right with that person. Sin can never be justified by claiming that it was the right thing to do in the context.

Okay, so it was wrong, but she knows how to push my buttons, and she pushes them all the time. She needed to get what was coming to her.

What you’re doing now is trying to excuse your sin. Did you sin? Who was the sin against? God is the one who commands you to love your wife as Christ loved the Church (Eph. 5:25). Your sin was not primarily against the woman, it was against God (Ps. 51:4). Your excuse that it was okay to be nasty to your wife because she was being unlovely is not an excuse to sin against God. You may not sin against God. You must confess your sin to God and also to your wife.

There may be times when another person has sinned against you and you simply have to give it over to God to deal with. God knows what is best for his world and his people. He will not allow evil to rule; he is just and vengeance is his (Rom. 12:17-19). In these times, if the choice is to sin or to let God deal with another sinner, it is best to allow God to work.

There is also warrant to let love cover other people’s sins (1 Pet. 4:8). This means that you simply let it go. You do not go after them and you certainly are not allowed to sin yourself. Your sin never accomplishes God’s plan. You need to let love prevail and do what God has called you to do.

Worth More Than Sparrows

2011-07-25T14:18:00.000-07:00

So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Matthew 10:26-31

Called To Be Holy

2011-07-25T14:16:00.001-07:00

“…but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct…”

1 Peter 1:15

Conclusion

2011-07-25T14:14:00.000-07:00

Where Your Heart Is

2011-07-22T09:39:00.001-07:00

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:19-21

Restitution and Repairing the Ruins

2011-07-22T09:37:00.003-07:00

When you are working on confessing your sin remember that part of confessing sin means to do whatever you can to restore the relationship. We have already discussed the fact that this means that you need to begin with admitting your sin in the whole shebang. Now you need to turn your attention to repairing the ruins. If, in your anger, you threw something at the wall and broke it, you will need to repair whatever was broken. If your sin was that you stole money from someone, you will need to make restitution (Ex. 22:15; Lev. 5:16; 6:2ff; Num. 5:5ff, etc.). If the sin was breaking your wife’s heart, you’ll need to do whatever you can to repair her heart. Admitting the sin is the first step, but now you’ll need to go way above and beyond anything you have done before to make things right.

This change from sinning to doing what is right is called repentance. Repentance means literally to “change your mind.” In the context of the Bible, it means to change your mind from what you thought before about yourself, your life, your deserts, your rights, your desires, and your place in creation and replace them with thoughts about what God thinks about you in all those areas. Your immediate behavior is an indicator of what you think of yourself. If you are sinning, you have replaced Christ as the center of your life with yourself. If you are standing up for your rights, you are not standing up for Christ’s rights. If you have been offended and you are reacting to that affront, you have abandoned Jesus as Lord and have sought to take his place. Repentance means confessing your sin, changing your mind about who you are, and replacing those wrong thoughts with a renewed allegiance to follow Christ wherever he leads.

You Did it To Me

2011-07-21T13:03:00.000-07:00

Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'

Matthew 25:37-40

Feeling and Doing

2011-07-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

The discussion of the counseling problem in terms of the two ways of life, with their two orientations and two life motivations (desire or obedience), raises the question of the relationship of feeling to doing. I have discussed this to some extent in Competent to Counsel and will not repeat what I have said there. However, some additional comments may prove of interest. Perhaps the following excerpts from Ichabod Spencer will set the problem in perspective.

The following "sketch" (Spencer's word for case study) deals with the matter of feeling and behavior from the point of view of a conservative Christian. It is also a sample of one sort of pastoral counseling that was done by a Presbyterian preacher prior to the near capitulation of the Christian ministry to psychiatry. In his Sketches (which appeared in a First and Second Series), Spencer discussed a large variety of problems and how he handled them. There are many good insights in Spencer, although his work is outdated. In this sketch, among other things, Spencer rightly observed:

1. That feelings are largely involuntarily ("Your heart will not feel at your bidding").

2. There is no biblical injunction to feel ("The Bible never tells you that you must feel, but that you must repent and believe").

3. That feelings flow from behavior ("He could 'feel' when he found his father's arms around him"; "I find, if a poor creature will turn to God, in the name of Jesus, he will learn to feel as he never felt before").

A careful study of this interesting sketch demonstrates (in what now seems a quaint manner) the basic dynamic that exists between feeling and doing. For more information concerning the fundamental principle that feelings flow from action and attitudes, cf. Competent to Counsel, especially pages 87-97.

Case by Spencer
From early spring down to the autumn of the year, a very sedate and contemplative man had been accustomed to call upon me, in respect to has religious thoughts and anxieties. At first he seemed to have thoughts only, but they ripened by degrees into anxieties. He began by asking about theories, or doctrines, apparently without any idea of making an application of the truth to himself. He had points of difficulty which he wished to have explained, and then he found other points; and these gradually changed in character from abstract questions to those of the application of the truth. From the first, I tried to lead him on to the personal application; but months passed away before he appeared to have much sense of his sin, or much anxiety about himself.

But he came to this; and after quite a struggle of mind, as it appeared to me to lead himself to believe in salvation by personal merit, he gave that up; he said to me, "I have become convinced that sinners are saved, not by their own goodness, but because they
are pardoned on account of Jesus Christ. Faith in Him is the only way for them.

After this, I had conversed with him several times, when he appeared to me to be not far from the kingdom of God; but I was often disappointed, for he would come back to me again in as much trouble and unbelief as before. Again and again I had answered all his inquiries, teaching him out of the Scriptures; had brought up to his mind all the doctrines of truth, the divine promises and directions, sin and salvation; but all in vain. He had become very solemn, and seemed to be entirely candid and really in earnest. His Bible had become his constant study; he was a man of prayer; he attended upon all our religious services with manifest interest; he appeared to have a deep sense of his sin and danger. But he had no hope in Christ.

I finally said to him one evening, "I do not know' my dear sir, what more can be said to you. I have told you all that I know. Your state as a sinner lost, exposed to the righteous penalty of God's Law, and having a heart alienated from God; and the free offer of redemption by Christ; and your instant duty to repent of sin and give up the world and give God your heart; and the source of your help through the power of the Holy Spirit assured to you, if you will 'receive' Christ: all these things have become as familiar to you as household words.. What more can I say? I know not what more there is to be stud. I cannot read your heart. God can, and you can by His aid. Some things you have said almost made me think you a Christian, and others again have destroyed that hope. I now put it to your own heart—If you are not a Christian, what hinders you?"

He thought a moment,—said he,—

"I can't feel!"

"Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"I never thought of it before, sir."

"How do you know this hinders you?"

"I can think of nothing else. But I am sure I shall never be converted to God, if I have no more feeling than I have now. But that is my own fault. I know you cannot help me."

“No sir, I cannot; nor can you help yourself. Your heart will not feel at your bidding."

“What then can I do?" said he, with much anxiety,

“Come to Christ, now. Trust Him. Give up your darling world. 'Repent: so iniquity shall not be your ruin.'"

He seemed perplexed—annoyed—vexed; and with an accent of impatience, such as I had never witnessed in him before, he replied,

"That is impossible. I want the feeling, to bring me to that; and I can't feel!''

"Hear me, sir," said I, "and heed well what I say. I have several points:

"1. The Bible never tells you that you must feel, but that you must repent and believe,

"2. Your complaint that you 'can't feel," is just an excuse, by which your wicked heart would justify you for not coming to Christ now.

"3. This complaint that you 'can't feel,' is the complaint of a self-righteous spirit." (He started rose upon his feet, and stood as in amazement.)

"How is it?" said he.

"Because you look to the desired feeling to commend you to God, or to make you fit to come, or to enable you to come.''

"Yes, to enable me," said he.

"Well, that is self-righteousness, in the shape of self-justification for not coming, or the shape of self-reliance, if you attempt to come. That is all legalism, and not the acceptance of a gracious Christianity. You cannot be saved by Law.

“4. Your complaint is the language of the most profound ignorance. To feel would do you no good. Devils feel. Lost spirits feel.

"5. Your complaint that you 'can't feel,' tends to lead you to a false religion—a religion of mere self-righteous feeling. Religion is duty."

"But, sir," said he, "there is feeling in religion."

“But, sir,” said I, “there is duty in religion; and which shall come first? You ought to feel: you ought to love God; and grieve that you are such a senseless sinner."

"I know I am a sinner; but I can't feel any confidence to turn to God, to draw me to Him."

"You are like the prodigal in the fifteenth of Luke, when he thought of saying to his father, 'make me as one of thy hired servants.' Poor fool Say that, to his father? Why, the very idea is a libel on his father's heart! But he didn't think so. Poor fool! he knew no better. And you are a greater fool than he. He went home. And where he met his father, he found his heart. He could 'feel,' when he found his father's arms around him, and felt the strong beatings of his father's heart. Do as he did. Go home and you will feel, if you never felt before. You will starve where you are; your 'husks' will not save you."
As I was uttering this he hung his head, cast his eyes upon the floor, and stood like a statute of stone. I let him think. There he stood for some long minutes. Then turning suddenly to me, reaching to me his hand, says he,—

"I am very much obliged to you; good night." I let him go.

About a month afterwards I met him riding alone in his wagon, and he insisted upon my taking a seat with him, for he had "something to say" to me, and he would "drive wherever I wanted to go." I was no sooner seated in the wagon than he said to me,—

"The human heart is the greatest mystery in the world; inexplicable, contradictory to itself; it is absurd. Man is a riddle. Who would imagine that when a sinner really wishes to feel his sins more, and wishes to have the love of Christ in his heart, it is because he is not willing to give up the world. He says, (as I said to you that last night) 'I can't feel,' as an excuse for holding on to it. I found as soon as I was willing to 'go home,' as you called it, the road was plain enough."

"Were you hindered long with that want of feeling?"

"No; I never thought of it till that night. It came upon me like a flash; and then, just as I was thinking it was a good reason in my favor, you dashed it all into shivers."

"And can you 'feel' now?"

"Oh, yes; I have no trouble about that. I find, if a poor creature will turn to God, in the name of Jesus, he will learn to feel as never felt before."

Sinners, not willing to give up the world, and wanting an excuse for their irreligion, exclaim, "I can't feel."

Spencer has put the matter into perspective. One feels those sensations that accompany the judgment that he is saved when he is saved. He feels those sensations that we call grief, sorrow, shame, fear, and conviction when he is truly repentant. Sinners always turn matters about. But the biblical rule is plain: the student feels that combination of sensations that we call "confidence" in taking an examination when he knows he is prepared for the examination. At the end of the day the man who has worked productively is tired but satisfied (Ecclesiastes 5:12: "The sleep of the working man is sweet"); at the end of a day of idleness or worry, he feels tired but dissatisfied. He must do that which "brings satisfaction," as we say. Whenever Martha cheated in school [an earlier case study], she experienced the feelings that accompanied guilt, and in her case these were so strong that she threw up. The diagram that follows indicates the process.

From Jay Adams, The Christian Counselor’s Manual, pp. 130-135

We Gotta Talk About Greek

2011-07-21T11:48:00.001-07:00

The Greek word for confess used in 1 John 1:9 means to “say the same thing.” When you confess your sin to God and to those you have sinned against, you are to say the same thing about it that God says about it. Was your anger, fear, hurt feelings, envy, lust, strife, or retaliation something that God looked on with pride and good cheer? What does God think about your thoughts, motives, and behavior? Well, find out, and then say the same thing about it that God says. He hates it. He abhors it. He is embarrassed by it. Because of your behavior, he has turned his face away from you and has withdrawn his joy (Ps. 32:4, 5; 38:1-8; Isa. 59:2; Heb. 12:5ff). Brothers and sisters, you are in deep trouble unless you do something about it and in a hurry.

Trust God

2011-07-20T15:40:00.001-07:00

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

Heb 10:39

Faith in God

2011-07-20T15:39:00.000-07:00

When my daughter was very little, her mother and I used to go with walks with her. Often, when we came to a curb alongside the road, I would lift Rachel up and set her on the curb so she could balance on it and walk along it with us. At first, she was afraid because it was high and something new. I would hold her close and tell her that I loved her and wouldn't let her fall. She would smile at me, take my hand, and off we would go.

After awhile, I thought she should be stepping onto the curb all by herself. So when we got near to the curb, I began to encourage her to step up on the curb. She was afraid, and again, I bent down, took her in my arms and told her that I loved her and wouldn’t let her fall. She gave me that same grin, and off we would go.

This went on for several months until Rachel was not only stepping onto the curb all by herself, she was continuing to go up higher and higher as the curbs turned into planters and the planters turned into walls and fences. At each step of advancement and several times during each outing, however, I continued to encourage her, telling her that I loved her and wouldn't let her fall.

From my perspective, helping her to walk along the curbs was a pretty simple task. She only weighed 30 pounds when we began, and even when she no longer needed me to help her, she was still pretty easy to help, had she needed me. From her perspective, however, this was all very different. To her, the curbs were huge, overwhelming, dangerous, and very scary. On her own, she would never have even considered stepping up on that first curb. She was content to let it be “over there” and her “over here.”

But I had lifted her up and asked her to walk. Now she had a pretty amazing decision to make. “In the light of the possible danger, do I trust my father to keep me from harm? Or do I trust my instincts and go my own way?” I suppose, because I was close and had always taken care of her before, she always chose to trust me and walk.

It is interesting to note that every time we came to that curb and I lifted her up, Rachel had to remake that same initial choice, “Trust what might happen? Or trust Papa?” And each time she trusted me, and didn’t fall, her faith in me grew, and it became easier and easier to believe that I did love her and would not let her fall. Her faith in me grew.

But then the next level came. She had just gotten used to being lifted up and put on the curb, now she was being asked to step up all by herself. This was the same choice all over again. But now there is a new element to the event. “Now I have to stand on one foot and balance all by myself until I can get my other foot up there.” And then the next challenge: the planter is higher than the curb. If I fall off that, I could really be hurt. What if my father doesn’t really love me or can’t keep me from falling?” Again, the question is: does Rachel trust me to keep her from falling? Do I really love her that much? Am I able to keep her from falling? Does she trust me to protect her as much as she trusts the evils that might be there if I can’t help her?

What kinds of situations do you find yourself in? What areas of life is our loving, trustworthy Father asking you to trust him in? What curbs has he lifted you up and placed you on? What curb is he asking you to step up on and continue to walk on with him? Does the possibility of falling seem too great? Is God big enough, does he care enough, is he able to keep you from falling?

We are all like Rachel when she was little, being asked to walk on the curb. Even Rachel, who is almost seventeen now, is like Rachel when she was little. God is asking us to trust him. He has told us over and over and over that he loves us and won’t let us fall. We’ve seen him and his faithfulness for thousands of years and in the lives of millions of people. God loves you and won’t let you fall. Believe him, have faith in him, trust him.

Owning Your Sin

2011-07-20T11:02:00.000-07:00

Your sin is your sin. It was not caused by anyone else. You chose to behave in the way that you did and nothing anyone did or might have done forced you to do it. Suppose your wife burned the toast and as a result you flew into a rage, screaming, yelling and throwing things. Of course you can accuse your wife of causing you to sin by burning your toast, but think about it for a minute. How did her burning the toast force you to react the way you did? Did she burn the toast and then run over and grab your brain and squeeze it really hard until anger and rage popped out? I don’t think so. Your sin is your sin. You did it yourself. Your wife is not your leader. You need to own your sin.

According to James your desires were enticed when your wife did not act in a way that suited your perceived role as head of the home and king of your castle (Jas. 1:14). She did something that you did not want and that you did not think you deserved. The burnt toast enticed you to grasp for your right to be in charge. Your wife was not giving you what you thought was your due. Then, when your desires were tweaked and you gave in to them, you flew into a rage and sin was present (Jas. 1:19). But your wife did not cause you to sin. She simply presented the temptation to sin. You saw the temptation, the burnt toast, assumed that she did it to “get to” you, and you chose to respond in anger. Your behavior was your sin. It had nothing to do with her or her burnt toast.

Incidentally, your sin consisted not only of the anger expressed by yelling and throwing things, but also your heart. The Bible says evil things come from an evil heart (Lk. 6:45). The root sin, then, was a heart that thought it deserved more than it was getting. The yelling and throwing things was only the indicator that more is going on deeper inside you. Your real sin is that you believe the world revolves around you. And this belief is exhibited when circumstances don’t go your way or when events differ from what you think you deserve.

Confession of Sin

2011-07-19T16:24:00.000-07:00

I thought I would throw down a few thoughts regarding confession of sin for any of you who are wondering about it.

Repairing Broken Relationships

The main goal of confession of sin is to repair a broken relationship. Of course, confession of sin is actually only half the equation; forgiveness is the other. If you confess your sins, but the person to whom you confess does not forgive you, the relationship is still broken. However, whether the person against whom you have sinned forgives you or not has nothing to do with whether you should confess your sin or how you confess your sin.

Christians Get Depressed Too by David P. Murray

2011-06-29T13:16:00.000-07:00

This was one of my new Kindle books. I was hoping for a lot more. Oddly, the first thing I read when I got this book was the appendix. I don't usually read appendices at all, but this one was really good. Mr. Murray wrote a really good article about how Christians should view secular science. He said that we should not take everything we hear, see and read as Gospel truth. Instead, we should be steeped in the knowledge of the Word of God and view everything we see through the lens of Scripture. How great is that?

Then I went back and read the book. In many ways the book was very good. It did a good job of pointing out various characters in the Bible who suffered from depression for various reasons. Mr. Murray had spend many years with depressed people and so he knew what depression was. The down side was that other than observing that Biblical characters were depressed, he almost totally took the non-Christian medical model as the standard for explaining depression.

He said over and over again that depression and anxiety should be viewed as a medical condition rather than as a result of sin or of sin itself. He never addressed the fact that the Bible specifically commands us not to be anxious (Mt. 6:25-34; 10:19; 1 Cor. 7:32; Phil 4:8). Even in those situations in the Bible when people are depressed he didn't ever examine the contexts of those cases and see if sin was involved in any way. He just mentioned them and went on to tell Christians that depression is primarily a medical, biological and chemical problem. I don't know what happened to the lens.

I always find it interesting, even when reading specifically non-Christian literature on so called mental disorders, how often they are compared to clearly physical diseases. For example, Mr. Murray, on several occasions compared depression with polio, diabetes, and cancer. He said that we should think of depression in the same way we think of those kinds of physical maladies. But then when he went on to talk about how to "treat" depression, he mentioned examining yourself to see where the depression came from, confessing any sin in your life, making restitution where it is needed, and walking with God. But that is not how you treat cancer. You try to find it and kill it. You don't change your behavior to avoid polio, you get a shot. If you were to take a person off the street and give him a simple blood test, you could tell him, when the tests results came in, whether he had diabetes or not. It is testable. You can test for cancer. You can test for polio. With depression where is the test? It is a completely different animal from a disease.

Am I saying that depression is not a chemical, biological and physical event in a person's life? Not at all. I know that depression has physical components, but I also know that when you ask the question, "What was going on in your life when the depression first hit you?" and the person always comes up with some stressful event I would look at the event, or the response to the event before I would begin pumping the person full of an anti-depressant.

There are aspects to this that are not even about the difference between a Biblical Counselor and non-Christian counselor. This is simple logic. Even after Mr. Murray explained that the problem is first chemical and biological, he goes on to help the depressed person eliminate sinful responses and behaviors from the person's life. He says it is chemical, but then treats it as if it were not chemical.

There is one area in all this I tend to agree with Mr. Murray. He said that people are different from one another. I'm with him on that. He also said that different people's bodies react differently to different kinds of stimulation. I'm with him on this too. Some people get ulcers from worry. Some people get heart attacks, when others have strokes, when others get various forms of dementia. People are different, we're all dying, all falling apart in different ways. I'm with him on this. And some people get depressed when others, going through the same life events, don't. I'm there with him too. His conclusion is that therefore depression is unavoidable and just comes on some folks and not on others. On this last point, the jury is out on. There is no proof that anyone gets depressed independently from the things going on around them. And even if there was proof, given the world we live in, it would be the exception, not the rule.

This means that even if some people do get depressed apart from anything else going on in their lives, this should not be the first thing we think when we seek to minister to them. It should be in the back of our minds, but not the assumption that Mr. Murray is suggesting. The vast majority of people who come to us for counsel concerning depression are depressed for reasons other than that their body is falling apart. Their bodies are falling apart and maybe even because of the depression, but usually there are things going on with them. These things that are going on with them are usually related to handling the situations of their lives in unwise and sinful ways. They are often angry, bitter, hurt, in grief, or a myriad of other things, all piled up and crushing the person into bitterness.

Overall the book was thought provoking, but I disagree with the premises and with Mr. Murray's attempt to apply what he said about viewing non-Christian science through the lens of Scripture. It didn't appear that he read his own appendix before writing his book. I would love to discuss these things with him in person some time.

Marriage Matters by Winston Smith

2011-06-29T13:14:00.000-07:00

Winston hit this one out of the park. This book is really good. I was a little put off by the subtitle "ordinary change through ordinary moments" because I don't consider living in sin an ordinary moment. I think of ordinary as when I am walking with God. But perhaps others ordinarily don't walk with God and thus for them ordinary is pretty ugly.

If the tone of your home, or aroma of your home (to borrow from another great book on marriage) is one of bitterness, anger, hurt feelings, and silence because of lack of fellowship, this book is for you (or if you know someone who lives like this). Winston hits the nail on the head in every chapter. Every topic is focused on helping people evaluate, observe, and measure every aspect of their relationships, first with God and then with one another.

Chapters 12 and 13 are really stellar: "Foundations for Forgiveness" and "Forgiveness in Marriage." I don't know if these really spoke to me because I'd already read the rest of the book or if these chapters would stand alone. But I think you all should buy this book and jump to those chapters and read them first. Then go back and read the rest of the book. Forgiveness is huge. Letting go of the past is huge. Accepting and forgetting and not holding "it" against one another for years and years is amazingly important in all relationships, especially in marriage.

The funny thing is that we have such a difficult time accepting that God has forgiven us. He does not hold our sin against us. He even refuses to remember our sin (Heb. 10:17, 18). One of the most difficult things in the normal Christian life is to believe that we are cleansed from our sin. And when we think that way about our own sin and God, to then turn it around and ask us to forgive someone who has sinned against us, especially someone close to us, who has hurt us in a personal way, is virtually unthinkable. But the prayer we pray every Sunday is, "Lord, forgive us our debts, trespasses, sins, as we forgive those who have broken our hearts."

It is still sad for me to think that the family that needs to constantly work through these things is an ordinary family. But perhaps if enough folks read and apply Winston's book, the ordinary will become the extraordinary and the world will will see that we love one another and believe that we are followers of Christ (Jn. 13:35). When that happens, we will have an effective witness to our communities and Jesus will begin to reign in the lives of those around us. Oh, and then the Kingdom will come on earth as it is in Heaven. Hmmm. Its beginning to sound familiar.

Great job Winston. I can't wait to see what's next.

Father's Day Tribute

2011-06-20T12:27:00.001-07:00

I don't know this fellow, but he wrote a great testimony to his Grandfather. Enjoy—
http://sheepdogger.blogspot.com/2011/06/man-who-was-my-father.html

Effective Change

2011-05-31T12:56:00.000-07:00

Jesus said that when we are fully trained we will become like our teacher (Lk. 6:40). As we study our Bibles we find that there are many ways for us to be trained. We learn by hearing lectures, we learn by hearing stories, we learn by singing songs, and we learn by simply being with someone we want to learn from. In fact the greatest way to become something or someone we aren't is to hang around with someone we want to be like.

When you think back over your life, you can see many ways in which you are like the various people you have admired. That favorite art teacher, or coach or scout leader, for instance. When you admire someone you naturally want to be like them. You may not even notice the changes, you simply begin to walk like them, talk like them, and think like them. You easily and naturally become little or smaller versions of them.

At the same time you are also like those people you simply spent time with whether or not you appreciated your time together. For example you probably get angry like your father did, or you may find yourself manipulating people through guilt in the same way your mother did. You may stand like your father, who stands like your grand-father. You may find yourself cooking or cleaning like your mother. This is all because we learn things by being with others as much as or more than we learn by being lectured to or by being formally taught.

At The Center for Biblical Counseling & Discipleship we work diligently to help you grow into Christ’s likeness in the most biblical way possible. That is primarily through meeting, knowing and spending time with the creator of the universe. If you spend time with him, you will, over time become like him. And that is where real glory, real fulfillment, and real life come from.

With this in mind you need to know that we are not as interested in helping you overcome your problems as we are in helping you in your relationship with God. This is because solving your problems can only occur through your relationship with God. Your problems will never go away as long as you are focused on them. So, come, meet God through his son Jesus Christ. See him on the faces of his people. Become like him as you spend time with him. Where he is, there are no problems with living.

His Praise is From God

2011-05-26T11:35:00.000-07:00

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

Romans 2:28-29