Take Care How You Hear: How to Receive God’s Word

Article by Marshall Segal . Staff writer, desiringGod.org

We fall out of Bible-reading habits a hundred ways, and all of them are deadly serious. Jesus warned us, with a story, about the perils we face.

When we hear the parable of the sower, are we quick to plant ourselves in the good soil? Do we stop to wonder whether we’re the plant without roots, or the one that dries up and withers, or the one choked out by thorns? Many of us assume we’re Peter, not the Pharisees, and certainly not Judas. We’re more prone to assume safety, security, and blessing for ourselves. For some, the parable of the sower might inspire relief and confidence, rather than healthy fear and vigilance. Thank God I wasn’t like the others.

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But if the parable comforts us without awakening urgency and expectation, we have missed Jesus’s point. He ends by saying, when he’s alone with his disciples, “Take care then how you hear” (Luke 8:18). In other words, don’t assume you’re in good soil, but look carefully at how you receive the word of God. Relentlessly plead with God to water the seed he has given you, to send your roots ever deeper, and to protect you from the temptations and distractions around you. Plead with God to keep you.

With heaven and hell at stake, joy and misery in the balance, and obstacles before us and within us, we must take care how we hear the words of God.

What Are These Words?

Before we consider the kind of soil we should be, we need to know what kind of seed this is. The seed gets lost, as seeds often do, in the shuffle of Jesus’s parable. But the seed, not the soil, is the real story here. Nothing comes from any soil, no matter how fertile, if a seed is never planted. And this seed is unlike any the earth has ever received.

Jesus begins by saying, “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11). The first test of the soil in our own hearts is how those seven simple words fall on us. Why would we ever bear fruit if we don’t treasure the seed — the very word of the one who spoke the galaxies into reality? Hearing God well in the spoken gospel and written Bible begins with the awareness that we are hearing — really hearing — God himself in his word (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

“All Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16–17). Every word came from the infinite wisdom and imagination of God. Every sentence, paragraph, and book was conceived by the Author of life, the Alpha and Omega, the Lord of heaven and earth. Nothing in the Bible made it into our hands without first passing through his.

Humility: Defeating the Greatest Threat

What kind of soil, then, should we hope to be for such a seed as this? What will be our posture toward God when we open his word? Three ingredients, among others, will be humility, submission, and prayer.

Humility comes first. Pride poisons the soil in our hearts like nothing else. Busyness is not the greatest threat to daily Bible reading. Self-confidence is. None of us forgets to eat for days, because everything in us tells us we need food. What does it say about our hearts when we skip the food we need the most, sometimes for days or weeks at a time? One powerful way to ignite our time alone in God’s word is to confront and kill our remaining pride. We pray with king David, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23–24).

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The seed of God’s word loves to grow in the rich soil of humility. Our Lord says, “This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (Isaiah 66:2). The man whose delight is in the law of the Lord knows he does not deserve these words — he doesn’t deserve to have them, to understand them, or to delight in them. He knows well that the having, the understanding, the enjoying, even the obeying are each their own staggering gift of grace. He prays, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18).

Submission: Welcoming God’s Authority

Humility, then, leads to glad submission to God’s authority. If the Bible truly is the word of a sovereign, holy, and just God, how we hear can bear frightening and wonderful consequences. These are not tips for living a better, more productive, more successful life. These are not merely suggestions for improving our spiritual health. These words are the wondrous promises and unmitigated commands of a God who will and must judge sin.

These words have authority, an increasingly unpopular word today, at least in our society. And God’s authoritative words demand from us an even more unpopular posture: submission. We don’t want anyone to have full, unqualified authority over us. We want to be able to “commit” with one foot safely outside the door, in case someone, even God, asks us to do anything we don’t want to do. The Bible, however, does not give us the option to be half in — to enjoy comfort while we sow to sin, to receive forgiveness and forgo holiness, to gain joy without suffering and sacrifice.

To ignore, neglect, minimize, or avoid the word of God is to ignore, neglect, minimize, or avoid God himself (Deuteronomy 18:19) — which is an offense greater even than theft, adultery, or murder. Disregarding what God has said is, in fact, the sin that ultimately makes every other sin so horribly wicked. To gladly submit to the Bible, however, is to gladly submit to God himself.

Prayer: Asking God for Help

Finally, then, humility and submission lead us, in prayer, to ask for God’s help. The longest chapter in the Bible is an extended, even uncomfortably long, prayer about the words of God. Psalm 119 sings,

I will meditate on your precepts
     and fix my eyes on your ways.
I will delight in your statutes;
     I will not forget your word. (Psalm 119:15–16)

If we don’t know what to pray for when we read the Bible, this psalm gives us plenty of good places to start. To take care how you hear, consider seven ways you might pray, inspired by Psalm 119.

1. God, incline and enlarge my heart toward you.

Incline my heart to your testimonies. (Psalm 119:36)

I will run in the way of your commandments
     when you enlarge my heart! (Psalm 119:32)

2. Help me understand what I read.

Make me understand the way of your precepts,
     and I will meditate on your wondrous works. (Psalm 119:27)

Your hands have made and fashioned me;
     give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.
    (Psalm 119:73; see also Psalm 119:125, 144, 169)

3. Make me diligent to keep your words.

This blessing has fallen to me,
that I have kept your precepts. (Psalm 119:56)

Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
     who seek him with their whole heart. . . .
You have commanded your precepts
     to be kept diligently. (Psalm 119:2, 4)

4. Pour your light on the path of my life.

Your word is a lamp to my feet
     and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105)

The unfolding of your words gives light;
     it imparts understanding to the simple. (Psalm 119:130)

5. Strengthen me in sorrow.

My soul melts away for sorrow;
     strengthen me according to your word! (Psalm 119:28)

6. Shield me from every kind of distraction.

Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;
     and give me life in your ways. (Psalm 119:37)

7. Keep your promises.

Uphold me according to your promise, that I may live,
     and let me not be put to shame in my hope! (Psalm 119:116)

Your promise is well tried,
     and your servant loves it. (Psalm 119:140)

Come Eagerly to the Word

Jesus says, “As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15). May God be pleased to increasingly make our souls into good soil for his word — in humility, in submission, and in prayer. He loves to give his people the faith-filled posture of the Bereans, who “received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11).

John Piper says, “Every day with meekness receive the word of God. That is, every day be in the Bible. Breathe the Bible. Don’t try to hold your breath from Monday to Wednesday. Breathe every day” (“Receive with Meekness the Implanted Word”). Breathe in the wonder of having the words of God, humble yourself and gladly submit before them, and pray for greater insight and delight. Take care how you hear, and live in the pages of the Bible.

Marshall Segal (@marshallsegal) is a writer and managing editor at desiringGod.org. He’s the author of Not Yet Married: The Pursuit of Joy in Singleness & Dating. He graduated from Bethlehem College & Seminary. He and his wife, Faye, have a son and live in Minneapolis.

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/take-care-how-you-hear?fbclid=IwAR3GRTB_P1pTokUXawnfoMxFqhUjrH5-V6h60oA9LLIjZ3bMUtaXHOUR53g

Is the God of the Bible a Genocidal Maniac?

Michael Kruger

Armenia. Cambodia. Rawanda. Bosnia. Darfur. All well-known modern examples of genocide where entire people groups were wiped out (or almost wiped out).  These are awful tragedies, worthy of our sorrow and grief.

And yet, ask the critics, is the God of the Bible really any different? When the Israelites entered the land of Canaan, was it not God that commanded them to wipe out all the indigenous people (Deut 20:17)? Is God not guilty of genocide? It makes me think of the famous bumper-sticker quote, “The only difference between God and Adolf Hitler is that God is more proficient at genocide.”

Admittedly, this is a difficult, complex issue. We feel obligated, understandably, to find a way to get God “off the hook” for the deaths of so many people. Many possibilities come to mind for how that might be done. Maybe we’ve misread the passage. Maybe it’s just symbolic. Maybe the Israelites misunderstood God’s command. And so on.

But, in the end, I don’t think we need to get God off the hook. I don’t think he wants off the hook.  As painful as this issue is, it highlights what we, and our culture, need to hear more than ever: God is holy, people are sinful, the world is broken, and his judgment is just.

If we are going to rightly understand the destruction of the Canaanites, several principles must be remembered:

First, every human being on the planet deserves God’s judgment not just the Canaanites. Right now, all humans everywhere—from the kind old lady that lives next door to the hardened criminal on death row—are all deeply sinful. And they were born this way. Since birth, all human beings stand guilty, not only for their own sins but for the sin of Adam which has been passed down to them (Rom 5:12). And the penalty for our sin is clear, “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23).

So, what does this mean?  This means that, at any moment, God could take the life of any human as judgment for their sins. And he would be totally justified in doing so. God owes salvation to no one. And this quickly changes our perspective on the Canaanite conquest. Rather than being surprised that God would finally judge people for their sins (even in great numbers), perhaps we should be shocked that he waits so long to do it. Every one of us is alive and breathing solely by God’s incredible patience and grace.

Second, the timing of God’s judgment doesn’t always match human expectations. Sometimes we think God should judge the most sinful people first and work down the list. But, of course, God doesn’t always work the way we expect. In fact, Jesus made this exact point when he was asked why the tower of Siloam fell and killed a bunch of people. Jesus replied, “Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:4-5).

Ouch. In other words, people don’t have to be the worst of sinners to receive God’s judgment. God is not obligated to judge all people simultaneously.

While the Canaanites were not the only sinful people in the world, and not necessarily even the worst, their sins were quite egregious. God drove them out of the land primarily because their practices were “detestable” in his sight—gross idolatry, use of sorcerers and mediums, sexual perversions, and even sacrificing their own children to the gods (Deut 18:9-14). Despite these practices, God had been incredibly patient with the inhabitants of Canaan for generation after generation, dating back even to the time of Abraham (Gen 15:13-16). But, God’s patience had run out.

Third, God uses a variety of instruments to accomplish his judgment. Sure, God could just miraculously take all the lives of the Canaanites in a single instance. But, he has a history of using various means to bring judgment. Throughout Scripture, such means have included natural disasters, disease and pestilence, drought, economic collapse, and yes, even human armies. At numerous points throughout biblical history God “raises up” a human army to accomplish his purposes. And in the Canaanite conquest, God used the nation of Israel as his instrument of judgment.

It is here that we come to a key difference between the Canaanite conquest and modern day genocide. Yes, both involve great loss of life. And both involve human armies. But the former is done as an instrument of God’s righteous judgment whereas the latter is humans murdering others for their own purposes. On the surface, there may be similarities. But, they are decidedly not the same act.

An example might help. Imagine a scenario where one human injects another human with a deadly toxin which causes that person to die. Is that murder? Well, it depends. If this was done by a gang member who wanted to knock off a rival gang member, then the answer would be yes. But, if this was done by an official at a federal prison who was authorized by the state to administer lethal injection, then the answer would be no.

On the surface, the two acts might look the same. But, everything comes down to whether the taking of life is properly authorized. The issue is not whether a life is taken, but how and why it is taken.

Let me try to draw all of this together. If every human deserves judgment (and we do), and if God is justified in taking a life whenever he decides to execute that judgment (and he is), and if God uses various instruments for that judgment (including human armies), then there is nothing immoral about the Canaanite conquest. Indeed, to object to the conquest would require us to object to all of God’s acts of judgment. Do we also object to Noah’s flood, or to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, or to the plagues on Egypt?

In the end, the conquest of Canaan remains a difficult and complex issue. And yet, if the conquest is viewed within the context of the Christian worldview, rather than from outside of it, then the objections quickly fade away. God’s judgment is just, even if we don’t fully understand it.  And if we take that away, then we are left with something other than the God of Christianity.

Posted at: https://www.michaeljkruger.com/is-the-god-of-the-bible-a-genocidal-maniac/

WHEN YOUR PLAN FOR KILLING SIN ISN’T WORKING

Lara d’Entremont

Pen and journal in hand, I was ready to crush this sin once and for all. I had laid out a step-by-step plan detailing how I would smother my depravity and finally deal it a death blow.

I was serious now, and I had decided I would have victory over this sin this week. Eventually, I reasoned, I would never struggle with it again. I was resolved. I was passionate. 

Many of us know this empowered feeling. Many of us also know the crushing defeat when the same sin continues to tempt and sway us. I am well acquainted with the doubt that follows when a sin persists. “Maybe I’m not truly saved. Maybe I’m not seeing victory over this sin because I’m still a nonbeliever. Maybe God isn’t with me. Maybe he’s disappointed that I have yet to get myself together in this area. Maybe he’s turned his face away from me once and for all.”

Burdened brothers and sisters, we can’t sanctify ourselves. Along with the apostle Paul, I gently ask you (and myself): Having begun by the Spirit, do we believe we’re now being perfected by our own strength (Gal. 3:3)?

While it is good to pursue holiness, at the end of the day, we must know that it is the Spirit—not our plans, works, obedience, or Bible memorization—who sanctifies us.

UNDERSTANDING SANCTIFICATION

Sanctification is how we grow in Christlikeness. When we are justified (forgiven of our sins by grace through faith in Christ and given the righteousness of Christ) we begin our lifelong journey of sanctification. Sanctification isn’t immediate, and we will never reach a point on earth when we can say we are finished with sanctification. We don’t arrive at our destination until we embrace Christ in heaven.

What makes the process of killing sin so frustrating is that we want to be finished with sin once and for all. We consider success to be when sin and temptation are no longer present. But as long as we abide on earth, we will face temptation, probably on a daily basis. The apostle Paul felt this same struggle with sin:

“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out” (Rom. 7:15-18).

In some cases, victory over sin will mean never falling prey to it again, but the temptation may continue to remain. Other sins may take longer, and we may find ourselves having to repent over and over again.

Consider forgiveness. Though we have forgiven a person, we may need to forgive them repeatedly as bitterness grapples for our attention. But repentance, hatred of our sins, and desires for righteousness are actually victories, not failures. As John wrote, 

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:8-10).

As much as we hate sin, it would be deceitful to say it is absent from us. But as we repent, we can trust that God is faithful to forgive us every time. He will not give up his efforts to make us holy.

ENTRUSTING OUR SANCTIFICATION TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

who does John say is faithful to cleanse us from all unrighteousness? God. Paul says this even more clearly in his letter to the Philippians: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13, emphasis mine).

We can’t will ourselves to be holy. We can’t force sanctification. Rather, our repentance and obedience are the fruit of the Spirit’s work in us.

“We need the Spirit every moment of the day to be at work in our hearts to make us more like Christ.

In salvation, we couldn’t make ourselves good enough before God. We couldn’t open our eyes to behold and believe the gospel. We needed the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts and produce saving faith. In the same way, we need the Spirit every moment of the day to be at work in our hearts to make us more like Christ.

As John Fonville said, “Do you know how many people believe that sanctification is their work? ‘God gets you in by grace, but you keep and complete yourself by your work or your cooperation with grace.’ That’s not the gospel, and that’s not how it works. Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace.”[i]

OUR ROLE IN SANCTIFICATION

The Holy Spirit is the one who sanctifies us, but this doesn’t mean we do nothing. The Holy Spirit works through means of grace such as baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and hearing the Word of God preached. He applies Scripture to our hearts as we read and meditate on it. God provides fellow believers to encourage and correct us as we fellowship with them. God works in our hearts as we pray to align our will with his. 

“We don’t need to toss out our plans for defeating sin, but we shouldn’t expect them to produce holiness in us, either.

Michael Horton has said that it’s good to protect our hearts from temptation. Setting up safeguards is not a lack of trust in God’s work, but an act of wisdom! If we’re fighting the temptation to watch pornography, we can set up computer programs to kill our access. If we struggle with anger, we can step away from a frustrating situation to calm down. If we are addicted to social media, we can delete the apps.

Though these steps in and of themselves don’t sanctify us, they are helpful. As Solomon wrote, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life,” (Prov. 4:23). 

We don’t need to toss out our plans for defeating sin, but we shouldn’t expect them to produce holiness in us, either. So, if you can’t produce sanctification in yourself, what can you do?

BELIEVE HIS PROMISES

Trust God. Look to him in your battles. Rely wholly on his strength. Don’t be discouraged if it’s a slow process. Your Father knows your frame, that you are only dust (Ps. 103:14). He knows your weaknesses, and he is not disappointed in you. He loves you, and he promises to carry your sanctification through to completion (Phil. 1:6). 

[i] Fonville, John. “The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, Part 2.” Paramount Church (sermon), September 8, 2019. https://www.paramountchurch.com/sermons/sermon/2019-09-08/the-gospel-mystery-of-sanctification-part-2.

Lara d’Entremont is a wife, mother, and writer. She seeks to stir women to love God with their minds and hearts by equipping them with practical theology for their day-to-day lives. You can find more of her writing at laradentremont.com.

Posted at: https://gcdiscipleship.com/article-feed/2019/10/26/when-your-plan-for-killing-sin-isnt-working

MAKING PEACE AT HOME

David McLemore

The hospital won’t tell you this. Neither will the pediatrician. And parenting books don’t warn you. Here’s all you need to know about raising multiple children: it requires a degree in conflict management. Or at least a certificate.

Take my home, for example. The front door is a portal into a tornado of Nerf guns, baseballs, and empty snack carton. We moved during January and some walls could already use a fresh coat of paint! It wouldn’t matter, though. In our last house, the freshly painted ceiling lasted a week before the pristine white acquired a grease blob from one of those sticky hands traded in for tickets at Chuck-E-Cheese. My house has constant chatter and an ongoing wrestling match that may never have a winner but daily has losers, as the cries down the stairwell prove.

My house is just one example of the conflict swirling around all the time. Everywhere I go, conflict looms. We’re one decision away from it at the office. One misspoken word away at church. One tweet away online. I wish I had the ease of John Lennon’s imagination, that peace is “easy if you try." But I don’t, and you probably don’t either.

Peacemaking isn’t an easy gig. But God has called believers to be people of peace, so we can’t ignore it.

DEFINING PEACE

Have you ever tried defining peacemaking? It’s not as easy as it seems. My attempts, especially early on to my children, were filled with negatives. “Don’t do this.” “Don’t do that.” Peace sounded like the absence of things. And that’s true, to a degree. Peace does mean the calming of relational storms. It means forgiving and moving on. It means forgoing retaliation and removing oneself from the fray. But it also requires positive action.

When Isaiah looked down the corridor of history to see what was coming, he said, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’” (Isa. 52:7, my emphasis).

In the midst of national conflict, Isaiah saw the end of it in the gospel’s publication. He saw the positive action of God swallowing up the negative action of his people. He saw not merely news of a cancellation or removal, sending Israel to its proverbial room, but news of justification and righteousness, a divine hug reconciling all things to himself.

God’s good news is the “gospel of peace” that Paul tells us to wear (Eph. 6:15). Paul’s Ephesian 6 metaphor is not a defensive strategy. It’s an offensive one. We are to put on God’s armor not to protect us from the world but to give us the tools by which we can push his kingdom forward. Of all the armor he gives, only the shield is to protect. The rest of the armor is for offense. So why do we hide so often? To be a peace maker means to be a warrior in Christ’s kingdom, suited in his armor, ready for every good deed, advancing into the conflict to pull things together.

When hell broke loose on earth, God moved in with holy action. When conflict arises, we need to step in. When it’s set loose in the home, we must do the same. And our children must learn to do so, too.

MAKING PEACE

Given our long history of sin, the bible shouldn’t reflect as positively as it does about God’s people. We have a glorious future because something happened two thousand years ago that changed the story. The Apostle Paul put it succinctly: Jesus made peace by the blood of his cross (Col. 1:20). While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8). Facing cosmic conflict, God didn’t avoid it. He entered into the fray. He made peace.

In history’s most famous sermon, Jesus told his followers, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they are sons of God” (Matt. 5:9). To be a son of God means to be like God, like Jesus. He is an intervening God, willing to get his hands dirty, to empty himself, to serve as a slave. The reigning one became the crucified one. Why? To make peace.

So making peace is a messy business. It is cross-shaped and soaked with blood. To follow Jesus into his peacemaking work is to follow a path that leads to the grave where we lay down our selfish desires for the good of God’s kingdom, too. We set aside what we want for what God wants. We make peace like he did.

Like Christ, we must endure—and teach others to endure—the cross of peace-making for the joy set before us. The joy won’t come in the moment. It lies on the other side. The happiness of the gospel came with the resurrection, three days later. It might take days for peace making to unravel the shrouds of conflict. Pride. Anger. Resentment. Jealousy. Frustration. All are bound strong.

Going to those places and slaying those dragons is no easy task. It takes faith, hope, and love. It requires endurance. It necessitates the Spirit breaking into our lives. No wonder to do so is to be a son of God.

BRINGING PEACE

The easy way out of conflict is to avoid it, to usher in silence, to put the kids in separate rooms. But that only shifts the conflict from external to internal. Yes, the fists stop flying, but our hearts don’t stop feeling. We take what is seen on the outside and hold it captive inside. Hiding conflict in the corners of our heart, burying it in the darkest places of our soul only ensures the conflict rages on, and, in fact, grows. Like sin, conflict dies in the light. It breathes it’s last when something brighter enters in, when it is brought before Christ’s blazing glory.

The #MeToo and #ChurchToo movements prove this point. Those who kept conflict under wraps failed not only to love and care for those abused but failed to bring peace as Christ brings it. Those responsible for shepherding failed to fight off the lion, opting to move the sheep to a different pasture instead. The external conflict may have ended in one field, but peace was not brought to the world.

“A harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace,” James 3:18 says. The wisdom of God tells us to be active sowers. “The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing” (Proverbs 20:4). A farmer faces conflict every time he faces his field. To do nothing guarantees an empty harvest. Why do we think it’s any different in other matters? Diligent ones reap a full harvest.

The harvest of righteousness sown in peace is, like farming, an active duty. We may think we are bringing peace by not confronting conflict head on. But that is to let the weeds grow deeper roots. As Ray Ortlund has said in a sermon, “Just not building relationships of comfort and honesty and gentleness—not doing that is peace-depriving. We might have many ways of doing life that seem natural to us but in fact are forms of death.” Bringers of peace don’t neglect the field, they sow and reap.

The cries from my stairwell will never be silenced by sending the boys to their rooms. I must step in as Jesus taught me, making peace for his sake. Conflicts may loom large, but there is a king on a throne who can bind the strong man. We can trust him for a peaceful heart, for peaceful homes, and even for peace in the world.

David McLemore is an elder at Refuge Church in Franklin, Tennessee. He also works for a large healthcare corporation where he manages an application development department. He is married to Sarah, and they have three sons. Read more of David’s writing on his blog, Things of the Sort.

Posted at; https://gcdiscipleship.com/article-feed/2019/10/11/making-peace-at-home

How Can I Know God?

Colin Smith

If you are wondering, “How can I know God,” here are three different answers you might hear: 

1. “We cannot know God.” 

This is the position of many people today. If you look at any of the recent religious surveys, it is clear that don’t knows are on the rise. That may well be your position too: You don’t feel able to commit yourself to a firm confession of faith, but on the other hand you would not want to say that you are an atheist, so you say, “I don’t know.”

Some of us will speak with a friend or colleague or neighbor who is a don’t know. They ask what you did over the weekend, and you mention that you were in church. They say, “That’s great if you find it helpful, but I’m an agnostic when it comes to these things.” 

You could say to them, “Well, I can understand why you would think that. It says in the Bible ‘No one has ever seen God’ (John 1:18). So how could any of us know? But have you ever considered the second half of this verse? It says that God the one and only has made Him known!”

John is telling you that if you get to know Jesus Christ, you have truly come to know the living God, who no one has ever seen. John’s Gospel was written so that you may know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name (John 20:31). 

2. “We all know God.” 

This answer is surprisingly (and disturbingly) common among Evangelicals. Evangelical Christians have long talked about having a quiet time. A quiet time is an excellent thing, and I hope you have made a commitment to have a regular quiet time. But my question is, “What are you going to do in that time?” 

In the past, what Evangelicals meant when they talked about having a quiet time was a regular time of Bible reading and prayer. Christians through the centuries rightly believed that God speaks to us through the Bible and that we speak to Him through prayer. But as large parts of the church have drifted away from the Scriptures, many people have latched onto the idea that we can listen to God simply by being quiet.

It has become common among Christians to think that listening to God means being quiet and listening to our own hearts. But here’s the problem with that: God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” (Isaiah 55:8). 

If you believe that you listen to God by listening to your own heart, then what have you done? You have put your own heart in the place of God. If you make an idol of your heart, that will inevitably lead to a life of following the impulses of your own heart. And who knows where that will lead you? 

John’s Gospel does not say, “In the beginning were our hearts, and our hearts were with God, and our hearts were God.” It says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… The Word became flesh, and he has made the Father known.” 

That is why the Bible says that the “entrance” of God’s Word gives light (Psalm 119:130, KJV). We do not have entrance to God through any other way, except the Word of God. You won’t get to know God by reflecting on your own thoughts and feelings on the sofa with some Christian music on in the background. You listen to God with an open Bible!

3. “Jesus Christ knows God.” 

No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. (John 1:18) 

A. No one stands beside the Lord Jesus Christ.

About who else could it ever be said that he or she is eternal, personal, divine, creating, life-giving, incarnate Son of God? No one else stands beside Him. 

Who else could ever say to us, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6)? Rest assured of this: You will not find a higher way than you find in Jesus Christ. You will not find more reliable truth than you find in Christ. You will not find a better life than you find in him. 

B. No one else will ever go beyond Jesus Christ.

We live in the world of upgrades, where every product eventually become obsolete as we move on to the next model. No one ever upgrades on Jesus Christ! No one has ever gone beyond Jesus Christ, and no one ever will—in this world or even in the world to come. 

A man by the name of H. R. Mackintosh wrote this about Jesus, “Never in any experience of God here or hereafter will you or I ever find anything that is not already there for us in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh.” [1] 

At the end of the Bible, John, who wrote this Gospel, was given a glimpse into heaven, a vision of the future. He saw the people of God gathered with great joy in the presence of the Lord with every tear wiped from their eyes, and he said, “The Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them into springs of living water” (Revelation 7:17). 

When parents take children to a theme park, the instinct of the children when they arrive is to run off and explore the rides—the swings, the slides, or whatever else may be there. Heaven will not be like that. 

When God’s people are in His presence, it is not that they are welcomed by Jesus Christ and then go running off to explore the celestial playground. Jesus Christ is the joy of his people in heaven. He is the center of it all. They never move beyond Him. Everything that God’s people enjoy forever comes from him, and no joy is theirs without Him.  

There is no greater joy than to meet and to know Jesus. 

This article was adapted from Pastor Colin’s sermon, “Knowing Who God Is,” from his series Meet Jesus.

Posted at: https://unlockingthebible.org/2019/10/know-god/

Behold the Faithfulness of Our Savior

Davis Wetherell

Faithfulness is often a target for our modern culture. Being in the same place for a long time apparently means you lack initiative, aspiration, or innovation. Some people assume that being in the same relationship with the same person for your whole life is just plain wrong. And many distrust anyone who is too committed to one worldview.

But from the outset of the Bible, God makes it clear that He will be faithful to us and that God’s people are to be faithful to Him alone. As Christians, we believe this and strive for this. But as people in culture, we are pulled in every direction away from it. I invite you now to return to the center, to gaze at the faithfulness of our Savior, Jesus Christ, in order to increase your fruit of faithfulness.

Jesus was faithful to His mother, even when she didn’t understand Him.

And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” (Luke 2:48)

Jesus’s mother, Mary, did not always understand everything about Jesus. In the above verse, we see she is confronting the boy Jesus as to why He was not with them. As any mother would be, Mary was worried sick! But this was no regular boy, Jesus was the Savior of the world, the promised Messiah, and a person of the triune God.

Surely, there would have been other moments like this throughout Jesus’s lifetime. As God of the universe, Jesus “would have had the right,” as we like to say, to be angry with her. To say, “You really don’t get it, do you?” Or, “don’t you know who I am?” But in the face of someone misunderstanding Him, Jesus responded with grace and faithfulness.

In his sermon “Giving as Much as You Know of Yourself,” Pastor Colin said, “Jesus spent three years in public ministry, but before that He was a carpenter for about 20 years. He cared for his mother. He offered himself to God, as much in his carpentry and in caring for His mother as He did when he preached the gospel and performed the miracles.”

Jesus perfectly served his mother, and his father, even though at times they did not understand Him. Can we say that about ourselves? Are we faithful to those who don’t get us? Do we serve those who don’t give us as much respect as we think they ought?

Jesus was faithful to His friends, even when they criticized Him.

So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” (John 11:20-22)

Perhaps “criticized” is too strong of a word here to describe what Martha said to Jesus. And even if she was criticizing Him, she seems to take some of it back in her next sentence. Yet the effect is still there. She is bothered that Jesus was not around when Lazarus seemed to need Him the most.

I don’t know what happens to you when you’ve been working hard and then someone criticizes you for something you didn’t do. But I do know what happens to me! I fill up with rage, I turn away, and I start muttering to myself. This person has no idea how hard I’ve worked today. He has no right to say that to me. And I either begrudgingly do what they asked, or I don’t do it all!

Jesus, however, said to Martha: “Your brother will rise again” (John 11:23). He was faithful to His friends. He knew their pain, and He did not abandon them in their time of need.

Jesus was faithful to His disciples, even when they denied Him.

[Peter] began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly. (Matthew 26:74-75)

Imagine yourself at work or school. A supervisor comes over to you and says you are in big trouble. You are going to be fired, or expelled, even though you did nothing wrong!

As you are led down out of the building, you see your best friend in the middle of a crowd of people. And you hear him or her saying to the others, “No, I’m not friends with them! I barely even knew them. In fact, I swear I did not know them at all!”

The next time you see that person, what would you say? I can’t believe you would do that! We’re done. I’ll never forgive you.

But Jesus was faithful to Peter. He welcomed Him back, allowing Peter to express his love for his friend, Jesus. And Jesus kept His promise to have Peter be the rock upon which the Church was built (Matthew 16:18).

Jesus was faithful to His persecutors, even when they killed Him.

And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments. (Luke 23:33-34)

When we are treated wrong, we like to make a fuss about it. When we can prove that someone has done us wrong, we are unlikely to let it go.

Now, much of what we consider “persecution” in America is not that at all. I don’t deny that there is persecution, but web algorithms pushing Christian content away into the recesses of the internet is not it. Yet even if it were, Jesus gives us a stunning picture as to how we are to respond to true persecution: “Father, forgive them!”

Let us be faithful to the people God has called us to be a light to.

Jesus is faithful to us, even though we rejected Him.

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. (Romans 5:7-9)

And here’s the kicker. The family member who didn’t understand Him, the friend who criticized Him, the disciple who denied Him, and the persecutor who killed Him is no different than us.

Christ died for us, even though we were still sinners! We were enemies of His Lordship; we rejected His commandments. But Christ was faithful to us all the same. He loved us, and He came for us.

His faithfulness is unmatched, unparalleled on earth. Even so, let us spend our lives gazing and chasing after the perfect faithfulness of our Savior.

Davis Wetherell (MA in English, Marquette University) is a writer and editor. He currently manages article content for Unlocking the Bible. He previously taught college classes on literature, rhetoric, and composition. Davis has a heart for writers and loves to serve them. Check out his blog, or connect with him on Twitter!

posted at: https://unlockingthebible.org/2019/10/behold-faithfulness-savior/

My Joy Rose as Sorrows Fell

Vaneetha Risner

I used to have a great life. I went on exciting vacations, cooked gourmet meals for my family, and painted everything from dishes to canvas. Sure, I had limitations from my childhood polio, but I was able to do whatever I wanted. Slowly, however, all that changed. Today I use a wheelchair to go where I once walked. I admire art I once created. I need assistance when I once only offered it. My world has grown smaller.

Decades ago, the words from 2 Corinthians 6:10, “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing,” seemed admirable in theory but impossible in practice. I couldn’t imagine joy and sorrow even coexisting; by definition, having one meant the absence of the other. The only way I could have imagined rejoicing when I was sorrowful was if my temporary sorrow were to be displaced by swift, miraculous deliverance. Then I could rejoice, while everyone marveled at my faith and God’s goodness.

My Unexpected Sorrows

So, when I was unexpectedly diagnosed with post-polio syndrome sixteen years ago, I couldn’t see how I could find joy apart from healing. The doctors said there was no cure for my condition, and I would live with continual loss. To slow down the progression, they advised me to reduce life to a bare minimum and stop overusing my arms. As a wife and mother of young children, I was forced to make difficult choices daily, and new losses cropped up every month. It felt relentless. Honestly, it still does.

Today I can’t even make my own coffee, much less carry it to the table. I deal with ongoing pain that will only intensify. While this may sound depressing, it has surprisingly made me more joyful. I’ve learned to stop fixating on my circumstances and start rejoicing in the God who has drawn closer to me through them.

How I Still Rejoice

As my body weakens, God has become more real and present than ever. I can echo the words of Psalm 46:1, that God is my “refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” In all my trials, the Lord has never failed me, never left my side, never let me go.

“As my body weakens, God has become more real and present than ever.”

The Bible has become more precious to me because God’s assurances of comfort, strength, and deliverance are no longer simply words I’ve memorized; now they are promises that sustain me. Because I have to depend on God for even the smallest tasks, I must constantly look to him. It is a conscious decision to stop focusing on what’s around me and start focusing on God. It’s a choice I must make all day, every day.

As I have walked with God through the valley of the shadow of death, I have learned three great lessons for being “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.”

1. Weep

Before I can rejoice, I need to lament. This step is critical because it is only through acknowledging and grieving my pain that I’ve experienced God’s presence and comfort. Without this step, my words may sound spiritual and even eloquent, but they are disconnected from my life — I’m left feeling empty and alone.

I used to think it was wrong to lament. I would pretend my pain didn’t bother me, silently pulling away from God while outwardly praising him. I didn’t know how else to handle being “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” Since then, I’ve learned that God understands our lament. The Bible has given me words to use — God, in his kindness, shows us how to be real with him.

In the Bible, David (Psalm 69:1–3), the apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 12:7–9), and even Jesus himself (Mark 14:36) all asked God to take away their suffering, so I boldly ask God for deliverance as well. God doesn’t expect me to stoically approach pain, pretending it doesn’t hurt, but rather invites me to cry out to him and tell him what I long for. It is in this authentic, intimate conversation with God that he changes me. I tell him when I feel abandoned. I ask him for renewed strength. I beg for a reprieve from pain.

David begins Psalm 13 by saying, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1), and yet he ends a few verses later by saying, “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation” (Psalm 13:5). What caused his new outlook? How could he go from questioning God one moment to rejoicing the next? For me, just as for David, this shift happens when I talk directly to God, expecting him to answer.

“In suffering, I often see God most clearly, perhaps because I am more desperate to find him.”

When I follow David’s example, my perspective changes as David’s did. My circumstances may be unchanged, but what’s happening around me is no longer my focus. Something inside me shifts as I read God’s words and pour out my unedited thoughts to him. God himself meets me, comforting and reviving me. One moment I am overwhelmed by the pain in my life, and the next moment I have renewed hope and perspective. Countless times, I have prayed Psalm 119:25, “My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word!” And God has done just that.

2. Look for Him

In sorrow I have learned the joy of God’s presence. God is always with us and there is nowhere we can flee from him, but there are times I am more aware of him. In suffering, I often see God most clearly, perhaps because I am more desperate to find him. As Hosea 6:3 says, “Let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”

God comes to us as we look for him. I can echo David’s proclamations in the Psalms — I have found fullness of joy in God’s presence, and I’ve tasted and seen God’s goodness firsthand. This kind of joy is in God alone who comforts me, strengthens me, and assures me that he will never leave me.

3. Trust His Design

I have joy knowing there is a purpose to my suffering. My suffering was designed by God for my good — not to punish me but to bless me. Though I may not readily see or understand what God is doing, I know God is transforming me through my trials. My suffering has produced a resilient joy — one that leads to endurance, character, and hope (Romans 5:3–5). The things of this world are less appealing, and the things of God are far more precious.

After living through my worst nightmares, I have less fear of the future and more joy in the present. I am confident that God will be with me, even through the valley of the shadow of death, and I know he is working all things for my good. Being “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” doesn’t mean we need to rejoice about our suffering, but that we can rejoice even in the midst of our suffering.

Yes, I used to have a great life, but now my life is even better. My sorrow has produced an overflowing joy that can never be taken away.

Vaneetha Rendall Risner is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Desiring God, who blogs at danceintherain.com. She is married to Joel and has two daughters, Katie and Kristi. She and Joel live in Raleigh, North Carolina. Vaneetha is the author of the book The Scars That Have Shaped Me: How God Meets Us in Suffering.

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/my-joy-rose-as-sorrows-fell

Want to Be Like Jesus? Be Gentle

Dane Ortlund

Jonathan Edwards wrote that “a lamblike, dovelike spirit and temper” is “the true, and distinguishing disposition of the hearts of Christians.” And he has something to teach us.

Not many have identified gentleness as a major theme in Edwards (more common are titles such as Jonathan Edwards: The Fiery Puritan), and not many identify gentleness as a major need in the church right now. And yet gentleness is perhaps the most neglected virtue among Christians today.

Edwards wrote in his diary: “A virtue, which I need in a higher degree, to give a beauty and luster to my behavior, is gentleness. If I had more of an air of gentleness, I should be much mended.”

True for him then. True for us now.

Is Gentleness Manly?

But some Christian men resist gentleness because they associate it with being effeminate. Strength and gentleness can seem mutually exclusive. As we picture what it means to man up and be a leader in the home and in the church, gentleness isn’t, for many of us, a defining element of that picture.

The way forward isn’t by choosing gentleness over against manliness, but by rightly defining manliness according to Jesus Christ. After all, if anyone was ever a man, a true man, he is. And while he could drive money changers from the temple, he also delighted to gather up into his arms the little children whom his disciples tried to send away (Matt. 19:13–15). He dealt gently with outsiders. He wept over the death of a friend (John 11:35). He welcomed healthy, manly physical affection with his dear disciples. The apostle John, for example, was (to translate the text literally) “reclining . . . at Jesus’s bosom” (John 13:23—the very relationship said to exist between Jesus and the Father earlier in John 1:18).

Gentleness is perhaps the most neglected virtue among Christians today.

The supreme display of Jesus’s manhood, however, was in his sacrificial laying down of his life on behalf of his bride, the church. When the apostle Paul defines what it means to be a husband, he can speak simultaneously of the husband’s headship and also the husband’s sacrificial, Christlike laying down of his life on behalf of his bride (Eph. 5:25–33). Such sacrifice isn’t unmanly: it’s the supreme display of masculinity.

Any immature man can be a forceful, unheeding, unloving “leader.” Only a true man can be gentle.

Majestic and Gentle

Men who long to be the leaders God is calling them to be must see that the glory of Christ, into whose image they’re being formed, unites together awesome majesty and tender gentleness.

In the sermon preached at David Brainerd’s funeral, Edwards speaks of what saints in heaven will look on when they see Christ:

The nature of this glory of Christ that they shall see, will be such as will draw and encourage them, for they will not only see infinite majesty and greatness; but infinite grace, condescension and mildness, and gentleness and sweetness, equal to his majesty . . . so that the sight of Christ’s great kingly majesty will be no terror to them; but will only serve the more to heighten their pleasure and surprise.

True manhood, to Jonathan Edwards, isn’t a hard, tough exterior with a soft, spineless interior, but just the opposite—a steely, rock-solid interior mediated through an exterior emanating with the beauty of gentleness. Manliness isn’t machismo. Masculinity isn’t inadequacy-mitigating posturing and chest-puffing. On the other hand, gentleness isn’t cowardice. Both non-gentle masculinity and also non-manly gentleness are to be avoided.

Any immature man can be a forceful, unheeding, unloving “leader.” Only a true man can be gentle.

We’re after a life that’s both courageous and contrite, both tough and tender, both manly and gentle. But only in the power of the Holy Spirit can we be both at the same time (22).

Walk in a Manner Worthy

The turning point of Ephesians drives home Edwards’s insistence on the importance of gentleness in the Christian life. After reminding his readers what God in Christ has done, Paul tells them what this means for their personal conduct: “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all _________” (Eph. 4:1–2).

How would you expect Paul to finish that sentence? We might expect something like “with all sacrifice,” “with all zeal,” “with all boldness,” “with all fortitude.”

Paul says, “with all humility and gentleness.”

That is where the first three chapters of Ephesians take us. Jonathan Edwards understood this point. The lofty theological discourse of Ephesians 1–3 funnels down, above all else, into an aroma of gentleness exuded by ordinary Christians in their ordinary lives. Yet such an aroma isn’t ordinary. It’s extraordinary, supernatural. It’s where the Spirit takes us.

Editors’ note:

This is an adapted excerpt from Edwards on the Christian Life: Alive to the Beauty of God (Crossway, 2014).

Dane Ortlund (PhD, Wheaton College) is executive vice president for Bible publishing and Bible publisher at Crossway in Wheaton, Illinois, where he lives with his wife, Stacey, and their five kids. He is the author of several books, most recently Edwards on the Christian Life: Alive to the Beauty of God. Dane blogs at Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology. You can follow him on Twitter.

Posted at: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/want-jesus-gentle/

When Life is Hard.

Shepherd’s Press

Life is hard. Life brings pain. Moments of happiness and joy fade quickly when darkness comes. When life is hard God calls out to his people, his voice remains strong and sure.

It is in this setting that David writes Psalm 27. David has known joy and victory. But he has also known the despair of failure and agony. Some of this has come from the betrayal and manipulation of those closest to him. Some have been self-inflicted.

David hears the call to doubt God. He hears the taunts of his oppressors. He hears that he is mocked and his God is mocked. He is tempted to believe that God is unfair. There is a taunt — “God, are you for real?” This is the world of Psalm 27. It is David’s world. But even against this painful tapestry the voice of the Spirit remains.

David chooses to respond with courage, with bravery. Even as people have failed him, as he has failed himself and God, he hangs on to the clarion call of truth.

Read David’s words against this setting. He is not writing in an idyllic pasture on a perfect fall morning. He writes in the storms of life and he cries out for mercy and courage to believe it is a good thing to wait in patience.

Where is God when life is hard? He is there calling you to patience and courage.:

Hear me as I pray, O Lord.
Be merciful and answer me!

My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.”
And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”

Do not turn your back on me.
Do not reject your servant in anger.

You have always been my helper.
Don’t leave me now; don’t abandon me,
O God of my salvation!

Even if my father and mother abandon me,
the Lord will hold me close.

Teach me how to live, O Lord.
Lead me along the right path,
for my enemies are waiting for me.

Do not let me fall into their hands.
For they accuse me of things I’ve never done;
with every breath they threaten me with violence.

Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness
while I am here in the land of the living.

Wait patiently for the Lord.
Be brave and courageous.

Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.

Posted at: https://www.shepherdpress.com/when-life-is-hard/?fbclid=IwAR2JiF_uUldovB2Mjoue7UCyHGg-n4K1vnu1f983Yls9HLW2dRSdgf3VZuk

A Life-Changing Sentence in Deuteronomy

When was the last time you started a Bible reading plan with the book of Deuteronomy?

Maybe you should. There’s a life-changing sentence in the first chapter of this historical book that we need more than ever today.

To briefly set the scene, God commanded his people to leave Horeb and enter the Promised Land. The Israelites were understandably afraid of the battle that lay ahead, but instead of bringing their fear before the Lord, they chose to murmur in their tents.

The result of their self-counsel? Their conclusion is shocking: “Because the Lord hated us, he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.” (Deuteronomy 1:27, ESV)

This Old Testament narrative couldn’t make it any clearer: we are always preaching to ourselves.

There’s something else to be said: theology is not just something we study in the academic classrooms of seminary; theology is the lens through which we examine and respond to everyday life. Our understanding of God will inescapably shape our perspective on our circumstances.

But maybe their conclusion shouldn’t be so shocking. I’m deeply persuaded that we, just like the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 1, are always asking five deeply theological questions. The way we answer them will push us toward hope or panic.

1. Is God Good?

You can rest assured that the goodness of God will confuse you. What looks good from God’s perfect eternity-to-destiny perspective doesn’t always seem good to us at street level.

2. Will God Do What He Promised?

Few questions in life are more important than this one. Since we are small and weak, since we never really know what is going to happen next, and since God calls us to do difficult, sacrificial things, we need to know that his promises are reliable.

3. Is God In Control?

In some ways, all the other questions rest on this one. God’s promises are only as trustworthy as to the extent of his control. What good is his goodness if he lacks the authority to exercise it?

4. Does God Have The Needed Power?

You will be motivated to do what you don’t have the natural ability to do when you know that God’s awesome power is with you. Confidence in God’s power produces courage in the face of weakness and enables you to admit your limits while living with courage and hope.

5. Does God Care About Me?

Perhaps this is the question we’re most conscious of, but the Bible never debates God’s care; it assumes and declares it. God’s care is foundational. It lets me know that all that he is, he is for me.

What are you preaching to yourself? What are you saying to you about the goodness, promises, control, power, and care of God?

As you ask these questions, remember that he is so rich in grace that he will never turn a deaf ear to your cries.

God bless,

Paul David Tripp

Reflection Questions

1. Read the first full chapter of Deuteronomy. What additional application can you find in the text? How does it relate to your life right here, right now?

2. Which of the five questions have you asked most recently? What prompted you to ask this question?

3. How did you answer that question? Where did your answer find its inspiration or evidence?

4. Are you murmuring in your tent? What unbiblical thoughts or beliefs are you preaching to yourself? How can you combat these with gospel truths?

5. Who do you know who is discouraged or afraid? How can you help them avoid a Deuteronomy 1:27 response? Be specific.

Posted at: https://www.paultripp.com/wednesdays-word