Find the Point of Entry

Stephen Kneale

We’re coming into that time of year when we are under attack. I don’t mean spiritually; Satan doesn’t particularly abide by the seasons. No, our house is currently under attack from ants. Every year, they find some way in. Through some crack in the wall or gap in a floorboard. Every day we hoover them up and, the next, come down to find them swarming in again.

As I was trying to remove the latest incursion, I was given some simple but effective advice. Find where they are coming in and focus preventative measures on the point of entry. I was able to follow a line of ants to a tiny gap near the front of our house. We have initially put down washing up liquid (they seem not to like it) which is keeping them at bay. This is tiding us over until we can get some ant powder to ensure they don’t keep coming back.

But sin seems to have a similarly persistent habit of encroaching on us. We may find ourselves falling into sin again and doing little more than the spiritual equivalent of hoovering up the ants. We sin, we repent, but the very next day, there it is back again. We think we have dealt with it, we think we have resolved the problem, but really we have only cleared up the mess left from the latest iteration. And so, unsurprisingly, it happens again, and again, and again. It’s not that we don’t want rid of it, it’s just that the only tool we ever reach for is one that deals with the problem after it has arisen.

Just like with our ant problem, we need to find the point of entry and enact some preventative measures. If we know we are prone to particular sins, its not much good simply clearing away as and when it happens. We might be repentant, and genuinely mean it, but its not going to do much in the long run to stop it happening again. And if we know we are prone to such sins, genuine repentance means more than just cleaning up after the fact but putting ourselves in a position, and putting things in place, to limit the possibility of it happening again.

In other words, we have to find the point of entry for the sins to which we are prone and lay the spiritual equivalent of ant powder to prevent it getting in. There comes a point at which, knowing we are tempted to certain besetting sins, we are dicing with death if we aren’t willing to inconvenience ourselves enough to stop falling into it. That is not to say you will necessarily never see that sin again – just as my laying ant powder doesn’t mean I will never see another ant inside my house – but it does make it that much less likely and evidences a desire to mortify it.

If Jesus can talk seriously about hands chopped off and eyes gouged out if they cause you to sin (cf. Matthew 5:29f), why should we be any less serious about it? If your internet connection causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. Better to lose your ISP than to enter Hell with your wifi password. It’s no good insisting that you need the internet (or even, your computer) for your work. The prostitutes who came to Jesus, no doubt, had similar concerns. If your ministry is causing you to sin, stand down and do something less visible. Better to end your ministry than to enter Hell with your pastor’s contract. It’s no good insisting your church will probably fall apart if you leave. No doubt the early church viewed the apostles as they were martyred similarly.

We are, by nature, self-justifying creatures. Any sin to which we are prone may come with excuses. The circumstances under which we repeatedly find ourselves falling can readily be justified as necessary. Yet a repentant heart would do what is practicable to inconvenience itself enough to minimise repeat occurrences. There comes a point at which, if we’re not willing to do so, we are proactively giving sin a foothold and evidencing a heart that is happy to indulge sin. And that, dear reader, is a treacherous path indeed.

We will all have besetting sin this side of glory. None of us will free ourselves from sin influence in this life. As such, we must find the points of entry and take preventative measures before we find ourselves infested. Some of that will be positively stepping into our time with the Lord, being honest with him in our prayers about our struggles, seeking to surround ourselves with those who will encourage us to press on in the church. But some of it might involve placing ourselves in positions where the sins to which we are prone will have a much harder time gaining entry. It may mean doing what some would consider drastic because we don’t want to dishonour the Lord.

If we’re frequently failing to honour the Lord in our existing circumstances, we have to ask whether we love the Lord more than we want the thing causing us to sin. A genuine love for the Lord will mean we want to honour and glorify him more than we want anything else. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

Posted at: https://stephenkneale.com/2019/05/22/find-the-point-of-entry/

Chip Away at Your Child's Spiritual Growth

By Jen Oshman

My husband loves to tell the story of speaking with a World War II veteran almost 20 years ago. Mark was working at Oppenheimer Funds, advising and serving clients with their mutual funds. He got a call one day from a man in his 80s who, Mark quickly found out, had well over a million dollars in his account. 

Would you like to know the secret to his financial success? 

He put away $25 per month starting from the age of 18. That’s it. Nothing aggressive. No getting rich quick. Just small, slow, steady deposits each and every month. 

It reminds me of what my Crossfit coach says during seemingly insurmountable workouts: Chip away at it. Just chip away. 

It’s the principle of how you eat an elephant: one bite at a time. 

It’s the “daily drip of obedience” that my friend’s mentor admonished him to pursue. 

We humans are drawn to get rich quick schemes, to lose 10 pounds by this weekend diets, to the express lane. Like moths to a flame, we love instant gratification, magic formulas, and silver bullets. But we know silver bullets are rare. We know the truth is that real growth comes in one small, right decision after another. 

And so it is with bringing up children in the Lord. 

Late Easter (yesterday) afternoon I received a photo by text from a friend. It was of one of my teenage daughters leading a Sunday school class of toddlers through the twelve Resurrection Eggs. My friend said the kids were captivated, as she told the story of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection using the eggs and the little figures they each contain. 

I immediately texted another photo back to my friend. It was of me about eight years ago doing the same thing: teaching the resurrection story to some young children, using the same eggs  at our church in Okinawa. 

Every Easter since my first daughter was born, I have used the Resurrection Eggs on Easter morning to tell my own children, as well as the children of our church, the story of Jesus. Each time I go through the story it only takes about ten minutes. There’s nothing fancy—no video or song or take-home craft. Just some eggs, some figures, some Bible knowledge, and a young, listening audience. 

Apparently my daughter has been listening, because without prompting from me or anyone else, she grabbed the eggs and did exactly what she has seen me do every Easter of her life. My small, steady investment paid off. 

This story is a simple one, but it’s one of many, now that my girls are all twelve and above, Mark and I keep witnessing the dividends of our small, but repetitive, investments. It has been in their outspoken refutation of a secular TV show, and their conversations with one another about what modesty is and what it isn’t, and their robust conversation in the car about how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament laws (all three of these things transpired in the last week). 

You must believe me when I tell you that we have never done a whole lot in the way of spiritual formation with our kids. I can tell you honestly that is has just been one small bite every day. We’ve chipped away, unimpressively, at their spiritual growth. 

Our routines have usually consisted of the following: 

• asking the girls to keep some kind of Bible reading plan that they maintain on their own

• watching 10 minutes of global news together about four times a week and discussing it from a Biblical worldview 

• me reading a chapter a day (about 4/7 days a week) from some kind of spiritual formation book out loud (see my “Book Reviews” for ideas)

• praying together about 4/7 mornings a week for our family’s needs, missionaries, unreached people, our neighbors, and others

• eating most dinners together, praying as a family at dinner, and discussing my husband’s sermon or what’s going on in the world or in their own lives

• attending church (and serving) together every Sunday no matter what 

• Mark reading them a story before bed (about 4/7 times a week), praying with them, and often striking up a deep conversation about once a week

These few and simple tasks add up to mere minutes a day. They are routine and rythymic, but they are not deep or impressive in any way. And, as you can see, none of them happens every day. We aim for general consistency, but know that perfection is not at all realistic. 

And I’m seeing now that these small things make an impact. These seemingly insignificant habits have formed some significant things in my daughters: some solid theology, an ability to critique pop culture and media, a capacity to apply a biblical worldview to the news, an awareness of Bible stories and the so-what behind them, an understanding of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection, and a desire to teach the Bible to younger children. 

God, in his mercy, has seen fit to impress one little truth upon another in their lives. Our tiny, but frequent (not perfect! not even daily!) investments are paying off. This is not to say—at all—that my girls have arrived. It is not to claim that they’ve made it to Christian maturity. There are still so many ways I look forward to seeing them grow. This is only to say that God has been faithful to us, in spite of our weak offerings, our imperfect skill, our laziness, our quick-get-this-done mentality at times.  

Like the millionaire on Mark’s phone call, setting aside a little something on a consistent basis has added up over time. Be encouraged. Your children are listening. Your children are absorbing. Your small monthly payment is going to pay off in a big way in the decades to come. 

Don’t believe the hype—you don’t need a silver bullet, a glossy kids program, a magical summer camp (though those can be sweet added bonuses). You just need a commitment to put in small amounts of time, consistently over time, and God will take care of the rest.

And then you’ll likely find yourself on the phone one day with a younger parent asking you how you became a millionaire in the spiritual formation of your kids. You will be able to tell them then that it was nothing fancy. You just protected and deposited a small amount each month, you chipped away at it, you took one bite at a time. 

Posted at: https://www.jenoshman.com/jen-oshman-blog/2019/4/22/chip-away-at-your-childrens-spiritual-growth

THE GRACE THAT SAVES ALSO TRAINS

Posted by Justin Huffman 

The grace of God that saves us also trains us: “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us…” (Titus 2:11-12).

God’s grace teaches us to adorn the gospel with our behavior (Titus 2:9-10), to deny ungodly desires (Titus 2:12), to live well in this present age (Titus 2:12), and to look for the coming of our Savior (Titus 2:13-14).

First, God’s grace teaches us to adorn.

The context of Paul’s saying that the grace of God trains us is that Paul is graciously telling us what God requires of servants.

It is God’s grace that he tells us what is right and good in the details of daily life.

The grace of God saves, yes, but it saves by teaching! It trains us to battle against sin, to battle for our marriages, and not to battle endlessly with our employer.

The grace of God delivers us from — among other things — our own solutions. So, Paul tells Titus, the grace of God teaches us to adorn the gospel with our behavior. Our chief concern is no longer our personal rights or selfish interests; our goal in life grows beyond ourselves to embrace the cause of Christ in the world.

God knows the areas where we struggle to implement the gospel, to live out the implications of the gospel. It is at this difficult-but-essential point of personal application that God’s Word meets us with its sufficient, equipping instruction. You adorn the gospel, you make the doctrine of God our Savior look beautiful, by … working hard at your job each day, by being a trustworthy, reliable employee.

The grace of God teaches us to adorn the gospel by doing the difficult work of faithful, cheerful, trustworthy participation in the plan of God for us — whatever mundane, unglamorous details may be involved in this endeavor.

Second, the grace of God teaches us to deny.

There’s no way around it. God’s grace brings salvation, freedom, everlasting joy … but it also brings self-denial as a means to these very ends. The grace of God brings with it the power to say “No!” to sin, in all the various ways it presents itself to us (Romans 6:2, 11-18).

The adjective “worldly” in front of “passions” in Titus 2:12 is important, because strong desires are not in and of themselves bad. It all depends on what it is you are passionately desiring! Jesus desired [same word] to take the Lord’s Supper in Luke 22:15; Paul desired to meet with other believers face-to-face in 1 Thessalonians 2:17.

The problem with many Christians is that we are saying “No!” to the wrong passions, to the wrong lusts!

We long to be in God’s Word, communing with God in prayer, seeking out the fellowship of the saints … but we say “No!” to these desires. The grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness, to say “No!” to worldly passions — and to say “Yes!” over and over again to our longing for Christ.

Third, the grace of God teaches us to live.

The Christian who is adorning the gospel with their faithful service, who is turning away from sin and to Christ each day, is truly and deeply living.

The grace of God teaches us this life matters and teaches us to live it well. But the grace of God also teaches us that living “well” means more than merely living for our own pleasure or purposes. It means living righteously, godly in this present age.

There is a right way to live, and a wrong way to live.

It is not merely a matter of personal preference or perspective. There is an objective standard for “right” — and that standard is God. The grace of God teaches us this present life matters … and it teaches us how to live it well, how to live it in a way that is truly, eternally good!

Finally, the grace of God teaches us to look.

Jesus Christ gave himself for us! This is the amazing revelation that is the Christian gospel. Jesus gave himself in order to redeem us from all lawlessness, from all sin. Not a single stain left. Jesus came to redeem us from all sin, and you and I must rest in his ability to do what he came to do.

But Jesus gave himself, not only to redeem us from sin but also to purify for himself a group of separated saints who are zealous of good works. They are not just saying “No!” to worldly lusts; they are saying “Yes!” to the glory of God being displayed in their lives. And Christians do this by looking to Jesus each and every day.

This is the lesson we must learn over and over again: to live in this present world, but not to live for this present world.

We live in this world, looking for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ! We adorn the gospel in order to dimly reflect the glory that will be on full display in that final day of Christ’s return! We deny worldly passions because our affections are set on the superior pleasure of seeing Christ face to face. We seek to live right in this present age because we know there is a standard of “rightness” that transcends this world, and by whom this world will one day be judged.

Posted at: http://servantsofgrace.org/the-grace-that-saves-also-trains/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=SocialWarfare

Killing Sin by the Spirit

By Steve DeWitt

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” (Romans 8:13 ESV)

The key phrase here is, “put to death the deeds of the body.” The Greek word for put to death is used 11 times in the New Testament, 9 for actually killing people.[1] One example is Stephen, the first martyr, who was put to death. Same word. This is not a nice word. This is a bloody word. A word of execution. It simply means, kill it. Legalism says, stop it. Romans says, kill it. This requires a posture toward sin that is much more like an assassin. Ruthless. Cold, hard hatred of sin.

Jesus said the same when he said, “if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off.” (Matthew 5:30) It is not physical dismemberment, but a spiritual dismemberment that sees sin as leading to death. It is an abuse of grace that makes us OK with sin thinking, I’m going to heaven anyway. That is an incredibly dangerous posture toward sin and calls into question if we truly understand Jesus shedding his blood for that sin.

We should think of sin like cancer patients think of their cancer. The fighter-types hate cancer. What if you talked with someone after a bout of cancer and they said,

I miss my cancer. Oh, I remember when I had lots of cancer. Such freedom I felt. Those were the days. Wow, the cancer parties were incredible! Many of my entertainment choices celebrate cancer. I remember driving for my chemo treatments—those were great days. If only I could have another chemo day. Cancer made me so happy.

When you talk with cancer patients, they’ll tell you the only way to beat cancer is to declare war on your cancer. When you see a bald woman wearing a wig, or a scarf on her head, respect her; she went to war. You must kill those cancer cells. How many of them? All of them. You hate it. You are willing to deal ruthlessly with it. Change your diet. Change your lifestyle. Stop your smoking. Whatever. You will shoot chemicals and radiation in your body to kill cancer. The courage in those cancer wards comes from people who don’t want to die, they want to live!

Romans 8:13 says, hate your sin. Hate it. See it as creating death in you. Don’t coddle it. Don’t ignore it. Go to war with your sin. You can’t defeat cancer by loving cancer and you can’t overcome sin and temptation by loving your sin. There is an old word that describes going to war and killing sin. Mortify it. When you see that word, it means, kill zone. DEFCON 1. Going nuclear. Annihilation. Is this the posture of your heart toward your sin?

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

© 2019 by Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

Posted at: https://stevedewitt.org/2019/03/10/killing-sin-by-the-spirit/

Cut Off Your Hand: How Far Will You Go to Save Your Soul?

Article by Jon Bloom

Losing a sense of God’s holiness is the first warning sign of entering a spiritually dangerous place.

Externally, everything might look fine: Our families might be well, our ministries might be flourishing, we might be receiving recognition and walking powerfully in our spiritual gifts. But inwardly, we’re wandering.

External phenomena do not reliably indicate our spiritual health. Families and ministries can struggle and go wrong for reasons that have nothing to do with our spiritual states. And history is full of examples of men and women who exercised spiritual gifts with great power for a period of time — even when involved in gross secret sin. Besides that, externals are usually lagging indicators of spiritual decline. By the time our decline starts surfacing, it often has reached a serious state.

What to Watch

The thing to watch is our sense of God’s holiness.

“The loss of the sense of God’s holiness always produces the loss of the sense of sin’s sinfulness.”

I don’t mean our doctrinal knowledge of God’s holiness. That’s something we might affirm and even teach when secretly we are in a place of decline. The doctrine of God’s holiness is real to us only when we have real fear of God. And one clear evidence of this is our fear of sin. The loss of the sense of God’s holiness always produces the loss of the sense of sin’s sinfulness. When God is not feared, sin is not feared.

A tolerance of habitual indulgence of sin — a lack of fear over what slavery to sin might imply (John 8:34) — is an indictor that the fear of God is not governing us. And when we are in such a state, Jesus tells us what we need to do: cut off our hand.

Absolutely Terrifying Reality

Matthew 18 is a sober read. Jesus gets very serious about the extremely horrible consequences of sin. And he says this:

Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. (Matthew 18:7–9)

Note the words eternal fire in verse eight. For most of the history of the church, some have asserted either some form of ultimate universal salvation for everyone or ultimate annihilation of the lost. But for the entire history of the church, the vast majority of Christians and the vast majority of the church’s most eminent and reliable theologians have affirmed that what Jesus and the apostles taught about hell is eternal, conscious punishment. Those three words describe an absolutely terrifying reality.

Metaphor, But No Hyperbole

I used the words “extremely horrible” and “absolutely terrifying” very carefully and intentionally. They are among the only fitting words we have to describe hell, the eternal death that is the wages of sin (Romans 6:23). No one wants to experience this. And it will be the reality experienced by everyone who is a slave to sin and not set free by the Son (John 8:36).

“If we don’t reverence God as holy in our private lives we are on a perilous path that leads to destruction.”

That is why Jesus uses the extreme metaphor of cutting off our hand and tearing out our eye. Extreme danger calls for extreme measures of escape. Yes, the mutilation imagery is a metaphor, but it is not hyperbole. We know it is a metaphor because the literal loss of a hand or an eye doesn’t get to the root issue of sin. But radical and painful amputation of stumbling blocks out of our lives may be the only way to escape falling headlong into sin’s insidiously deceptive snare.

We may need to “mutilate” — chop off — a habit, a relationship, a career, certain personal freedoms, whatever is causing us to stumble. Because far better that we enter life having lost those things than kept them and lose our souls (Luke 9:25).

Cut Off Every Hand

When we lose the sense of God’s holiness, Jesus’s warnings in Matthew 18land lightly on us. We reason that such a warning is for someone else. We don’t seriously think it applies to us. Nor do we seriously think it applies to other brothers and sisters who are characterized by worldly concerns and pursuits and are rather numb when it comes to sin.

We might take consolation that our affirmation of orthodox doctrine, external affirmations, and “fruitful” labors demonstrate we’re on the right path. But if in the secret place, we’re tolerating sin, tolerating relative prayerlessness, tolerating a lack of urgency over lost souls, it is an indicator that something is wrong. If we don’t reverence God as holy in our private lives, we are on a perilous path that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13).

“A tolerance of habitual indulgence of sin is an indictor that the fear of God is not governing us.”

Jesus provides us the cure to this deadly infection: cut off every hand that is causing you to stumble. And he really means it. “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart” (Hebrews 4:7). Whether we have just ventured on to this road or been on it way too long, the time is nowto repent and take the extreme measure to amputate whatever is entangling our feet in sin (Hebrews 12:1). We must plead with the Lord and do whatever it takes to see the fear of the Lord restored in our hearts.

Choose Life

For the Christian, the fear of the Lord does not compete with our joy in the Lord. Rather, it’s a source of our joy in the Lord. Isaiah prophesied this about Jesus: “And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:3). Jesus delighted in the fear of his Father, and God wants us to enjoy this delight too. Because “the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death” (Proverbs 14:27). And “the friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant” (Psalm 25:14).

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). Conversely, losing the fear of the Lord is the beginning of foolishness. The reward of such wisdom is eternal life (John 3:16) and fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11). The reward of such foolishness is absolutely terrifying.

When we notice a diminishing of our healthy fear of God, the loss of a sense of his holiness, that is the time to take action. Let us repent by cutting off every foolish hand and, as Deuteronomy 30:19 says, choose life.

Jon Bloom (@Bloom_Jon) serves as author, board chair, and co-founder of Desiring God. He is author of three books, Not by Sight, Things Not Seen, and Don’t Follow Your Heart. He and his wife have five children and make their home in the Twin Cities.

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/cut-off-your-hand?fbclid=IwAR1imRst4w_BUYraBBq_tNkY9ZGiB6M78GQTEFS3K17hKgBHfKupWUjsW0Y

Elisabeth Elliot: "Your Suffering Is Never For Nothing"

Editors’ note:  This is an adapted excerpt from Suffering Is Never for Nothing(B&H Books, 2019).

It’s only in the cross that we can begin to harmonize the seeming contradiction between suffering and love. And we will never understand suffering unless we understand the love of God.

We’re talking about two different levels on which things are to be understood. And again and again in the Scriptures we have what seem to be complete paradoxes because we’re talking about two different kingdoms. We’re talking about this visible world and an invisible kingdom through which the facts of this world are interpreted.

Suffering in Scripture

Take for example the Beatitudes, those wonderful statements of paradox that Jesus gave to the multitudes when he was preaching to them on the mountain (Matt. 5:3–12). He said strange things like this:

How happy are those who know what sorrow means. Happy are those who claim nothing. Happy are those who have suffered persecution. What happiness will be yours when people blame you and ill treat you and say all kinds of slanderous things against you. Be glad then, yes, be tremendously glad.

Does it make any sense at all?

Not unless you see there are two kingdoms: the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of an invisible world. And the apostle Paul understood the difference when he made this stunning declaration. He said, it is now my happiness to suffer for you, my happiness to suffer (Col. 1:24). It sounds like nonsense, doesn’t it? And yet this is God’s Word. Janet Erskine Stuart said, “Joy is not the absence of suffering but the presence of God.”

It’s what the psalmist found in the valley of the shadow of death: “I will fear no evil” (Ps. 23:4). Now the psalmist was not naïve enough to say, “I will fear no evil because there isn’t any.” There is. We live in an evil, broken, twisted, fallen, distorted world. What did he say? “I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”

My Suffering

When I stood by my shortwave radio in the jungle of Ecuador in 1956 and heard that my husband, Jim Elliot, was missing, God brought to my mind the words of the prophet Isaiah: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee” (Isa. 43:2). You can imagine that my response was not terribly spiritual. I was saying, “But Lord, you’re with me all the time. What I want is Jim. I want my husband.” We had been married 27 months after waiting five-and-a-half years.

Five days later I knew that Jim was dead. And God’s presence with me was not Jim’s presence. That was a terrible fact. God’s presence didn’t change the terrible fact that I was a widow, and I expected to be a widow until I died because I thought it was a miracle I got married the first time. I couldn’t imagine that I would ever get married a second time, let alone a third. God’s presence didn’t change the fact of my widowhood. Jim’s absence thrust me, forced me, hurried me to God, my hope and my only refuge.

Suffering is an irreplaceable medium through which I learned an indispensable truth: God is God.

And I learned in that experience who God is in a way I could never have known otherwise. And so I can say to you that suffering is an irreplaceable medium through which I learned an indispensable truth: God is God. Well, I still want to go back and say, “But Lord, what about that little child with spina bifida? What about those babies born terribly handicapped, with terrible suffering because their mothers were on cocaine or heroin or alcohol? What about my little Scottie dog, McDuff, who died of cancer at the age of six? What about the Lindbergh baby and the Stams who were beheaded? What about all of that?”

Mystery of Suffering

And I can’t answer your questions, or even my own, except in the words of Scripture, these words from the apostle Paul who knew the power of the cross of Jesus. And this is what he wrote:

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom. 8:18–19).

The creation was made the victim of frustration—all those animals, all those babies who have no guilt whatsoever—not by its own choice, but because of him who made it so; yet always there was hope. And this is the part that brings me immeasurable comfort: The universe itself is to be freed from the shackles of mortality and enter upon the liberty and splendor of the children of God.

Where does this idea of a loving God come from? It is not a deduction. It is not man so desperately wanting a god that he manufactures him in his mind. It’s he who was the Word before the foundation of the world, suffering as a lamb slain. And he has a lot up his sleeve that you and I haven’t the slightest idea about now. He’s told us enough so we can know that suffering is never for nothing.

Elisabeth Elliot was a Christian author and speaker. Her first husband, Jim Elliot, was killed in 1956 while attempting to make missionary contact with the Auca of eastern Ecuador.

Posted at: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/elisabeth-elliot-suffering-never-nothing/

5 Steps You Can Take to Keep Your Heart

Colin Smith

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. (Proverbs 4:23)

Every time you hear the story of a Christian whose life has gone into total moral collapse you can be sure of one thing: behind that story the person had a long history of not dealing with their own sin. Don’t let this be you. Instead, keep your heart with all vigilance!  

A wise Christian studies the Bible and his or her own heart. You have to become the expert on your own heart. No one is in a better position to do this than you.  

Here are five steps that are involved in guarding your heart with all vigilance. 

1. Watch  

Jesus said, “Watch and pray so that you do not enter into temptation” (Matthew 26:41). Paul said to Timothy, “Watch your life and your doctrine” (1 Timothy 4:16), and he said to the Ephesians elders, “Watch yourselves and the flock over which God has made you overseers” (Acts 20:28).

How are we to do this? Most of you will be familiar with the concept of a dashboard. Think about your car—as you drive along the road there is certain information that you need to have close at hand: What speed are you going? How much fuel do you have left in the tank? 

Then there is other information like the temperature of your engine, and the level of your oil. You don’t watch that constantly, but if the temperature of your engine rises you need to know. All of this information is displayed on a dashboard in front of you. 

What would a dashboard for your soul look like? There would be red lights and green lights. Red lights would be impulses in your soul that have the tendency to secret, perpetual, and alarming departure from God. 

Let me give you some examples of red lights that you might put on your dashboard: Fear, pride, greed, self-pity, resentment, cowardice, anger, hard thoughts about God, and coldness in worship—any sense of formality in worship, or any sense of going through the motions. 

I encourage you to get a pen and paper and write these things down. Begin making a list of things that belong on your dashboard. Do this because it will give you clarity. 

2. Investigate 

You were running well. Who hindered you? (Galatians 5:7)  

There was a time when you were making good progress in the Christian life. You had a heart for God. But that is no longer true of you. 

You found joy in Christ. Your love for the Savior burned brightly. You had greatpassion for the advance of the gospel: You made significant sacrifices. You faced difficulties with courage. And, you battled against deeply rooted sins in your life and you grew in holiness. 

What happened to you? What is in you that has got in the way of your continued progress? Who or what hindered you? 

This is a place to be ruthlessly honest with yourself. You say, “I’m not really sure.” Then ask God to show you your own heart, “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. And see if there be any grievous way in me” (Psalm 139:23-24). 

Talk it out with a Christian friend or with a pastor if you need to, but don’t settle without the answer. It’s too important. 

I fear that there are many Christians who study the Bible, but who hardly give their own hearts a second look, because they have never learned how to do this. 

3. Confess  

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) 

This is a marvelous promise, but we must take its condition seriously: “If we confess our sins…” In other words, if we see the red light, and then we bring it to God in confession and trust in the blood of Christ to cover it. What is the last sin you confessed? 

Confession must always be first to God, but it will help you if you are able to talk honestly with someone who knows you and cares about you. This has been such a help to me in my own life. 

Recently, I was in a conversation with a few of our lay leaders. I told them that I saw some things changing in my own heart, and that I didn’t like what I saw. I listed several things. One of them was that I am becoming less patient. That’s a red light. It needs to be addressed. 

I was talking with a friend the other week. He is in his early 70’s and he is experiencing another passage of life, in which he is moving away from some responsibilities that he had before. 

He said to me, “I can see the path to becoming a grumpy old man from here and I don’t want to go down it.” Do you see what he’s doing? He’s watching his heart. 

4. Commit 

For every red light on the dashboard, showing impulses that lead us away from the Lord, there is a green light that will be its opposite. Green lights are impulses in your soul that reflect what the Bible calls the “fruit of the Spirit” in your life. 

You can make a list straight from Galatians 5:22-23. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This is not an exhaustive list. You could add others. Forgiveness would be one example. Courage would be another.

Identify the green lights that correspondence to your red lights and commit to pursuing them. 

“Lord, by your grace and through your power, I renounce this impatience. I want nothing more to do with it. Lord, help me now to grow in the patience that I seek. Guard my heart from this enemy within, and use the circumstances that have provoked this impulse to sin in my heart to become the occasion of new growth in likeness to Jesus, for your glory.” 

That’s how Christian growth happens. The very circumstances that provided the red light, are the very things that produces new growth. 

5. Trust  

The person who is far from God has no interest in looking into his own heart. But when God gives you a new heart, you have a new interest in keeping it, as he calls you to do. Examining your heart to discover the trends of sin in your own life is something that godly people do. 

But when godly people look into their own hearts, they find it very discouraging. We are amazed that after all God has done for us, after all we’ve experienced, there should still exist in our hearts this principle that tends towards a secret, perpetual, and alarming departure from God. 

So, looking at your own heart can easily lead to you feeling defeated. Robert Murray McCheyne had the answer for that: “For every look at self, take ten looks at Christ.”

As you look at your own heart, Christian, remember that by his blood he opened a fountain for cleansing. We need it every day of our lives. Let’s be done with this pious religion of moral superiority that so many have confused for Christian faith. 

We need the cleansing of the blood of Jesus. The sins that lurk in our hearts are not greater than the power of the blood of Christ to go on cleansing our lives. And he loves to do it. 

So, will you commit to keep your heart with all vigilance? 

Posted at: https://unlockingthebible.org/2019/02/five-steps-you-can-take-keep-your-heart/

Be Good for God's Sake

Article by Jen Wilken

“Be good.”

How many times did I say it as I walked out the door, leaving my kids in the care of another? Spoken in that context, it expressed a parting wish that the little one to whom it is spoken would, at bare minimum, not do anything bad, and at best, be a source of help and joy to the caregiver in charge.

When the kids were small, it was hard to find sitters brave enough to take on all four of them. It was harder still to find money to make it worth the sitter’s time and still be able to afford dinner out. When I told the kids to be good, I needed them to be. It was code for “Please don’t drive off this teenager, whom I really need to have a positive experience.”

You know the rules. They are for your good. For our sake, please abide by them. Until your parents return, be good.

Jesus spoke a similar word to his disciples on a mountainside:

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matt. 5:14–16)

Be good. Others will see it. You’ll be a light causing others to glorify the Father of lights.

GOOD AS HE IS GOOD

But what does it mean to be good as his children? As those who are the recipients of the good and perfect gifts of God, goodness toward others means generosity. It means we recognize that God gives us good things not so that they might terminate on us, but so that we might steward them on behalf of others.

The tenth commandment forbids coveting because doing so denies the goodness of God. Jesus speaks against hoarding because doing so denies the goodness of God. Coveting implies a lack in God’s present provision and hoarding anticipates a lack in God’s good provision in the future. Neither mindset will translate into generosity. Generosity flourishes only when we do not fear loss.

Possessing the good and perfect gift of Christ, we can count all generosity as affordable loss. God gives good things to us generously, risking no loss in doing so. We, too, should give good things to others generously, recognizing that we, too, risk no loss in doing so. We can be generous with our possessions, our talents, and our time on behalf of others because we see these good gifts as a means to bring glory to their Giver instead of to us.

AN EARTHLY PICTURE OF HEAVENLY GOODNESS

Generosity is not strictly for those who have material abundance. Because Oseola McCarty recognized this truth, the world is a better place. Born in 1908 in rural Mississippi, she quit school after sixth grade to support her ailing aunt, spending the rest of her life as a washerwoman. She never married, lived quietly in her community, and attended church regularly with a Bible held together with Scotch tape.

Throughout the years, the people of Hattiesburg paid her in coins and dollar bills to keep them looking freshly pressed. She found immense dignity in her work, noting that hard work gives life meaning. “I start each day on my knees, saying the Lord’s Prayer. Then I get busy about my work.”[1]

In 1995, at the age of eighty-six, she contacted the University of Southern Mississippi to let them know she would be donating a portion of her life savings to fund scholarships for African- American students to receive the education she had missed—a sum of $150,000. “More than I could ever use. I know it won’t be too many years before I pass on,” she said, “and I just figured the money would do them a lot more good than it would me.”[2]

Oseola McCarty, child of poverty and child of God, wanted to do good, and generously so. Praise God. Those who know good awaits them in heaven can afford to be generous on earth. They lose nothing in the giving of what has been given to them.

Generosity is the hallmark of those who are determined to be lights in the darkness as children of their heavenly Father. It is the calling card of all who are recipients of the generous good news of salvation through Christ.

BE GOOD FOR GOD’S SAKE

Be good. Be the person who seeks the welfare of others. Be the person who gives without counting the cost. Be the person who serves joyfully with no expectation of thanks or recognition. Be good employees, good next-door neighbors, good parents, good children, good musicians and public servants and artists and volunteers and caregivers and bankers. If you are, you’ll draw attention like a city on a hill at midnight in the desert.

But don’t expect that others will necessarily flock to your light in glad acceptance. The somewhat surprising thing about doing good is how often it meets with a negative reaction. Others may see your good deeds and give glory to God, but they may not. Cynics call the chronically benevolent “do-gooders.” Their exceeding goodness is indeed a light, and to those who love darkness, it’s also exceedingly unwelcome. It has a similar effect to that of sunlight hitting the crawly critters exposed under an overturned rock in the garden. Exposing the goodness deficit of others, the do-gooder meets with reviling.

Take, for example, the ultimate do-gooder, Jesus himself.

DON’T GROW WEARY OF DOING GOOD

“He went about doing good. . . . They put him to death by hanging him on a tree” (Acts 10:38–39). Peter’s words to the Gentiles about how evil responds to good instruct us. If we are to walk in the light as he is in the light, we will strive to be good and do good, and we should prepare to be treated as he was treated. There is no room among the children of God for any goodness aimed at securing favor with God or others.

Only a goodness aimed at expressing our gratitude to a good God will do. Only a goodness seeking to reflect him will suffice. Only a goodness bent on loving our neighbor will store up treasure in heaven. If our neighbor rejects us, so be it. We have done as Christ would have done. If our neighbor accepts us and glorifies God, we rejoice with the angels.

It will not do to “be good for goodness’ sake”—we must be good for Goodness’s sake—for God’s sake, whose goodness we daily enjoy. And we must persist in being good. Paul encourages us that goodness may be wearying, but that it yields a harvest: “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Gal. 6:9).

The fight for goodness is one that will take time and effort. We may grow weary of our own internal resistance to growing in goodness, or we may grow weary of the resistance of others to our goodness lived out. But steadfastness in doing good will yield fruit in season. As it ripens, it will mark us out increasingly as the sons and daughters of the Father of Lights.

[1] Karl Zinsmeister, “Oseola McCarty,” The Philanthropy Roundtable, “The Philanthropy Hall of Fame,” accessed June 27, 2017, http://www .philanthropyroundtable.org/almanac/hall_of_fame/oseola_mccarty/.

[2] Rick Bragg, “All She Has, $150,000, Is Going to a University,” The New York Times online, August 12, 1995, http://www.nytimes.com /1995/08/13/us/all-she-has-150000-is-going-to-a-university.html.

Content taken from In His Image: 10 Ways God Calls Us to Reflect His Character by Jen Wilkin, ©2018. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, Il 60187, www.crossway.org.

Jen Wilkin is a speaker, writer, and teacher of women’s Bible studies. During her seventeen years of teaching, she has organized and led studies for women in home, church, and parachurch contexts. Jen and her family are members of the Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas.

Posted at: http://gcdiscipleship.com/2019/01/10/be-good-for-gods-sake/

A New Year

Article by Bev Moore

Here we are at the start of a new year.  Many of us will make resolutions or set goals, hoping that this year will be better than the last one.

One of my goals is to grow in my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.  I pray this verse for myself: “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death” (Philippians 3:10).  The first two requests sound pretty good—to know Christ and the power of His resurrection.  But then there’s one more—sharing in the fellowship of His sufferings. If I’m going to grow in my understanding of God and know the power of His resurrection, I’m going to have to understand that life this side of heaven is going to be hard and include suffering.  Growth is difficult and will require effort on my part as I trust God for His grace to help me in good times and as well as in hard times.

To aid me in my desire to grow in my relationship with the Lord, I’d like to share with you some thoughts to aid me in my quest.  These should be relatively easy to remember since they all start with the letter P.

Passion

I’m praying that the Lord will give me a passion for Him and for His Word.  If I’m going to grow I need to go to the source of truth on a daily basis.  I have to read His Word every day.  I have found that I need to think great thoughts of God if I want to develop a love and passion for Him.  If left to myself, I’m prone to conform God to my idea of who He is or what He should be like. He is a magnificent God and I don’t want to reduce Him to something He’s not.

Application: To develop a passion for the Lord, we have to truly know Him.  We can grow in our understanding of Him by reading the Bible, praying, and reading books that aid us in our Christian walk.  Decide on a plan to read God’s Word, and then stick with it, even if you miss a day here or there.  Read through the entire Bible or maybe just the New Testament this year.  Start your prayer time with focusing on God’s attributes—His holiness, His faithfulness, His power—and how those relate to your life.  Ask your pastor or Sunday school leader for recommendations for good books to read.

Purpose

My purpose in this life is to glorify, honor, please, and reflect the image of God.  I would like people to get a better picture of who God is by the way I live my life and respond to life’s difficulties.  Any lesser purpose focuses on me and my comfort.

Application: Memorize 2 Corinthians 5:9: So we make it our goal to please Him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.  Repeat it to yourself several times during the day so that this truth will influence the daily choices you make.  All of life should be filtered through pleasing and honoring God because of who He is and what He has done for us.

Productivity

I want to bear fruit for the Lord.  The Lord Jesus said that He chose us to bear fruit, fruit that will last (John 15:16).  But I have to keep in mind that earlier in this passage Jesus said that God is working in my life to make me more fruitful.  This entails being trimmed or pruned.  God is chipping away everything in me that doesn’t look like Jesus Christ.  And chipping can be painful.  God disciplines us so that we will share in His holiness.  Even though discipline is painful, it will reap a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:10-11).

Application: Get involved in serving, either at your church or somewhere in your community.  Don’t be afraid of committing to serve on a regular basis.  You may need to shadow someone for a while to understand a particular ministry.  This may seem uncomfortable for a while, but there is great joy in serving others.

Perseverance

I think most of us would like to grow in perseverance.  We like seeing a project the whole way through.  There’s something very satisfying when a job is finally done and you’re enjoying the fruit of your labor.  But developing perseverance is not easy.  The Apostle Paul tells us that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope (Romans 5:3-4).  And James tells us that we are to consider trials joy because they produce perseverance in us and helps us mature in our Christian life (James 1:2-4).  The only way I’m going to grow in my relationship with Christ and develop perseverance is to go through the sufferings He willingly experienced on my behalf.

Application: Remember that life is a marathon, not a sprint.  Resist giving in to discouragement when life gets hard.  Even though there may be times we want to give up, we have to keep the end goal in mind.  Choose to keep up with daily or weekly commitments, even when you don’t feel like it.  Feelings can’t be in charge.

Praise

When life is going well, praising God for His goodness is not that difficult.  Praising God when life is hard is very much a challenge.  We want life to go smoothly, but when we go through trials, we don’t always experience joy.  Yet we can praise God because He promises to work all things (even our difficulties) together for our good as He transforms us into the likeness of His Son (Romans 8:28-29).  He is preparing us for eternity with Him, when there will be no more pain, sorrow or death.  We can praise and thank God because He desires to use us to further His kingdom.  Much of this goes back to having the right perspective of our purpose: to know Him and the power of His resurrection, and sharing in the fellowship of His suffering, becoming like Him in His death.

Application: Spend time daily praising God for who He is.  Start a list of things to be thankful for and add to your list each day.  If you’re struggling, make a list of His attributes and start thinking about the greatness of our God.

So, if you haven’t made any resolutions or goals for this new year, gear up for a year of growth.  This will happen by purposefully and prayerfully growing in your passion for God and His Word.  Remember that your purpose in life is to please, honor and glorify God as you seek to be more fruitful for His kingdom.  Persevere in the goals you set for yourself and be sure to praise Him for His goodness to you!

Posted at: https://blogs.faithlafayette.org/counseling/2019/01/a-new-year/?fbclid=IwAR3JDYGen0WEFpkJOPrv5S541fE05U32cEfNiWWHQFeIfnVkq2lDDWhHY-k

Spurgeon's Top 4 New Year's Resolutions

Article by Brandon Freeman

Charles Spurgeon preached at least 14 sermons about the New Year in his 38 years at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. Though many themes arise in his comments, belief is as pervasive as any.

“Oh, to believe from January to December!”

Spurgeon prayed and called for belief in every New Year's sermon—for Christians and non-Christians. He hoped that the New Year would bring forth the new mercy of the new birth.

“I pray God that a new year may not be begun by you in sin, but may God begin with you at the fall of the year, and bring you now to know his power to save.”

“Ere yet the midnight bell proclaims the birth of a new year, may you be born to God: at any rate once more shall the truth by which men are regenerated be lovingly brought under your attention.”  

“If this New Year shall be full of unbelief, it will be sure to be dark and dreary. If it be baptized into faith, it will be saturated with benediction. If we will believe our God as he deserves to be believed, our way will run along the still waters, and our rest will be in green pastures. Trusting in the Lord, we shall be prepared for trials, and shall even welcome them as black ships laden with bright treasures.”

Spurgeon's New Year's Resolutions

On the last evening of 1891 and first morning of 1892, Spurgeon gave two brief addresses. He hadn’t preached at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in several months because of sickness. He was a month away from death. In reflecting on 1891, he spoke about the God-intended lessons of the year, such as the “instability of earthly joys.” As friends came together again in the morning, he gazed upon the new year journey of 1892.

Spurgeon's New Year's resolutions involved seeing more than being.

“Let me tell you, in a few words, what I see as I look into the new year.”

So what did Spurgeon resolve himself to see? Here are the preacher's top four resolutions:

1. God’s Sovereignty

“I see a highway cast up by the foreknowledge and predestination of God. Nothing of the future is left to chance; nay, not the falling of a sparrow, nor the losing of a hair is left to haphazard; but all the events of life are arranged and appointed. Not only is every turn in the road marked in the divine map, but every stone on the road, and every drop of morning dew or evening mist that falls upon the grass which grows at the roadside. We are not to cross a trackless desert; the Lord has ordained our path in his infallible wisdom and infinite love.”

2. God’s Guidance

“I see, next, a Guide provided, as our companion along the way. To him we gladly say, ‘Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel.’ He is waiting to go with us through every portion of the road. ‘The Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee.’ We are not left to pass through life as though it were a lone wilderness, a place of dragons and owls; for Jesus says, ‘I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.’”

3. God’s Strength

“Beside the way and the Guide, I perceive very clearly, by the eye of faith, strength for the journey provided. Throughout the whole distance of the year, we shall find halting-places, where we may rest and take refreshment, and then go on our way singing, “He restoreth my soul.” We shall have strength enough, but none to spare; and that strength will come when it is needed, and not before…God all-sufficient will not fail those who trust him. When we come to the place for shouldering the burden, we shall reach the place for receiving the strength. If it pleases the Lord to multiply our troubles from one to ten, he will increase our strength in the same proportion….Our lamps shall be trimmed as long as they shall need to burn. Let not our present weakness tempt us to limit the Holy One of Israel. There is a hospice on every pass over the Alps of life, and a bridge across every river of trial which crosses our way to the Celestial City. Holy angels are as numerous to guard us as fallen ones to tempt us. We shall never have a need for which our gracious Father has furnished no supply.”

4. God Glorified

“One thing more, and this is brightness itself: this year we trust we shall see God glorified by us and in us. If we realize our chief end, we reach our highest enjoyment. It is the delight of the renewed heart to think that God can get glory out of such poor creatures as we are….We hope that God has been in some measure glorified in some of us during the past year, but we trust he will be glorified by us far more in the year which now begins….We wish our whole life to be a sacrifice; an altar of incense continually smoking with sweet perfume unto the Most High. Oh, to be borne through the year on the wings of praise to God.”

Only God Knows the Future

On the morning of January 1, 1892, Spurgeon confessed, “We know nothing of the events which lie before us: of life or death to ourselves or to our friends, or of changes of position, or of sickness or health.”

Though Spurgeon didn't see much of 1892, he put his trust in the fact that God knows the future. This truth blessed him and made him dependent on God in all things.

Whatever is before us in 2018, let's rest in God’s sovereignty, lean fully on God’s guidance, rely on God’s strength, and live for God’s glory. As Spurgeon said:

“Throughout this year may the Lord be with you! Amen.”

Originally published at The Spurgeon Center Blog

Brandon Freeman

Brandon Freeman is a member of Liberty Baptist and a Master of Divinity student at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biblical Studies from Ouachita Baptist University. He is married to Kaylee Freeman. You can follow Brandon on Twitter at @brandon_free_. 

Posted at: https://ftc.co/resource-library/blog-entries/spurgeons-top-4-new-years-resolutions