Piper: "The ministry is one of selective neglect."

Piper - Majeski - Pastor-to-Pastor - 2 from waterbrook multnomah on Vimeo.

The soul that feels "it's no use" needs Good News.

Sin is a least five things.

First, it is common among every living person (Romans 5:12).

Second, we cannot be naive or overly "spiritual", it is attractive. I wouldn't exist if it wasn't. We do what we want to do and when we sin there is a part of us that wants it. Sin's promise of satisfaction is real and it delivers temporarily with horrible repercussions to our consciences, our faith and our loved ones.

Third, it is self-fueling. The tiny drop of pleasure provided by sin leaves us craving for more. Without an alternative, our thirsty souls will return for more. We trifle with this self-fueling to our own peril. Tolkien's Gollum aptly pictures the progressive implosion of our souls. Eventually, our attention will be adhered to the object of our sinful (read God-less) desire.

Fourth, it is, then, horrible. It strips a person of their dignity and it leads them to despise God and use others - the very opposite of the Great Commandment (Matt. 22:37-40). Sin destroys. Idolatry destroys. Unbelief destroys. There is no avoiding the destruction of God's image when we sin. It is anti-God and His purposes. We tend to see only the vilest and fullest expressions of sin as horrible but that is a deceptive device of the devil. Every rape began with a rogue sinful idea. Every murder's root is an undercover bitterness.

Fifth, it is NOT the Christian's master. In Christ, we have been delivered from bondage to sin (Romans 6:6) to walk in "newness of life" (Romans 6:4). But, just as soon as the celebration of our freedom begins, we find that a battle still rages in our soul (Romans 7:14-20). Is this freedom real? How do we experience it? Peter gives us a glimpse in 2 Peter 1:3-4:

[3] His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, [4] by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 

Here Peter tells us that an intimate knowledge of the one who saved us and what he has promised us in salvation is God's means of deliverance.

This session of "How The Gospel Changes People" (Summitview's Leadership Training) entitled "How the Gospel Addresses Sin" unpacks this idea to provide hope for those who are tempted to feel that sin has won and there is no longer any use in trying to resist it (Jer. 2:23-25).

Additional Resources
Teaching Notes
"Kill or Be Killed" - a series of supplementary messages to "The Mortification of Sin" by John Owen
Leadership Training Resources from Summitview

• Notes
• Messages
  

The Johnny Cash Project

You are all invited. Regardless of your ability or stature, you are all invited. It is a fundamental component of the Gospel and now, those who steward Johnny Cash's legacy have brought this Gospel idea to create his last music video: "Ain't No Grave." At thejohnnycashproject.com everyone is invited to bring their creative expression to a frame of this video. The concept is brilliant and the result is a rich expression of the effect of a life that put Christ on display- not in its perfection but in its redemption. 

2 Corinthians 4:7:

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

It is hard to imagine anyone but Cash having the ability to draw thousands of people together to consider his hope in Christ and to, together, create to express it. Thank God that he still does and thank God there ain't no grave.

Prayer: It is either effective or a work for idiots (Spurgeon)

We find a powerful reason for expecting prayer to be effective in the fact that it is an institution of God. In God's Word we are over and over again commanded to pray. God's institutions are not folly. Can I believe that the infinitely wise God has ordained for me an exercise that is ineffective and is no more than child's play? Does He tell me to pray, and yet does prayer have no more of a result than if I whistled to the wind or sang to a grove of trees? If there is no answer to prayer, prayer is a monstrous absurdity, and God is the author of it, which it is a blasphemy to assert. Only a fool will continue to pray when you have once proved to him that prayer has no effect with God and never receives an answer. If it is indeed true that its effects end with the man who prays, prayer is a work for idiots and madmen, not for sane people! - C.H. Spurgeon, "The Power in Prayer"

What's in it for Him?

Jesus showed his supreme love of the Father in His obedience to death (John 10:14-15,17-18). But how did the Father show His love for the Son? What made the crucifixion of the Son an expression of fatherly love?

Answer: The joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2), namely, the intimacy, acceptance, mutual love and trust with the elect. The reward for Christ’s atoning work was the restoration of perfect love between Creator and creature (John 10:27-29). To the degree that Christ showed His love for the Father in His obedience to the Father, the Father showed His love for the Son by granting Him this desire (John 17:24 ) and drawing the Church home (John 6:44).

You may be weary from disappointment with human love. You may feel distant from God. You may be crashing from the sugar high of indulging in created things. If so, have you considered this? What more does He need to say? Look to the greatness of Christ and to the Cross of Christ until your soul is warmed again. His desire is to do more than forgive. Forgiveness is not an end; it is a means to an end. Yes, the display of His glory is His first objective, but how is that glory most clearly put on display? Answer: In His perfectly-loving, personally-loving, and justice-satisfying sacrifice that brought you to God and secured your joy in Him forever. To get that, He endured the Cross and mocked its shame.

These inward trials I employ...

After feeling a little 1 Cor. 4:11-13 for the last couple of days, Mr. John Newton jumped out from the past (1779) to remind me of God's providence in everything.

I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek, more earnestly, His face.


I hoped that in some favored hour,
At once He’d answer my request;
and by His love’s constraining pow’r,
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.


Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry pow’rs of hell
Assault my soul in every part.


Yea more, with His own hand
He seemed intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.


“Lord why is this,” I trembling cried,
“Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?”
“’Tis in this way,” the Lord replied,
“I answer prayer for grace and faith.”


“These inward trials I employ,
From self and pride to set thee free
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”

John Newton, “I Asked the Lord That I Might Grow” (1779).

The mingling of grace and corruption in our lives... Why?

The last few weeks have been brutal for me. Not because I am a victim, but because I am a sinner. The stubborn pride of my heart and my inability to change has, at times, caused me to despair. But it has occurred to me that this season is one of the "all things" of Romans 8:28. What good could God possibly be working through my own wretchedness? Puritan Richard Sibbes' classic work "A Bruised Reed" has provided tremendous encouragement. I offer this section as encouragement to those who feel overwhelmed by their sin. There is always a mingling of "smoke and fire" in our lives; grace and corruption.  Thankfully, Christ will not snuff out the smoldering wick (Isaiah 42:1-3).

In pursuing his calling, Christ will not quench the smoking flax, or wick, but will blow it up till it flames. In smoking flax there is but a little light, and that weak, as being unable to flame, and that little mixed with smoke. The observations from this are that, in God's children, especially in their first conversion, there is but a little measure of grace, and that little mixed with much corruption, which, as smoke, is offensive; but that Christ will not quench this smoking flax.
 ...

GRACE IS MINGLED WITH CORRUPTION

But grace is not only little, but mingled with corruption; therefore a Christian is said to be smoking flax. So we see that grace does not do away with corruption all at once, but some is left for believers to fight with. The purest actions of the purest men need Christ to perfume them; and this is his office. When we pray, we need to pray again for Christ to pardon the defects of our prayers. Consider some instances of this smoking flax:

Moses at the Red Sea, being in a great perplexity, and knowing not what to say, or which way to turn, groaned to God. No doubt this was a great conflict in him. In great distresses we know not what to pray, but the Spirit makes request with sighs that cannot be expressed (Rom. 8:26). Broken hearts can yield but broken prayers. When David was before the king of Gath (1 Sam. 21:13) and disfigured himself in an uncomely manner, in that smoke there was some fire also. You may see what an excellent psalm he makes upon that occasion, Psalm 34, in which, on the basis of experience, he says, `The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart' (Psa. 34:18). `I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes.' There is smoke. `Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications' (Psa. 31:22). There is fire. `Lord, save us: we perish' (Matt. 8:25), cry the disciples. Here is smoke of infidelity, yet so much light of faith as stirred them up to pray to Christ. `Lord, I believe.' There is light. ‘Help thou mine unbelief.' There is smoke (Mark 9:24). Jonah cries, `I am cast out of thy sight.' There is smoke. `Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.' There is light (Jon. 2:4). `O wretched man that I am!', says Paul, with a sense of his corruption. Yet he breaks out into thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 7:24). `I sleep,' says the church in the Song of Solomon, `but my heart waketh' (Song of Sol. 5:2). In the seven churches, which for their light are called `seven golden candlesticks' (Rev. 2 and 3), most of them had much smoke with their light.

The reason for this mixture is that we carry about us a double principle, grace and nature. The end of it is especially to preserve us from those two dangerous rocks which our natures are prone to dash upon, security and pride, and to force us to pitch our rest on justification, not sanctification, which, besides imperfection, has some stains. Our spiritual fire is like our ordinary fire here below, that is, mixed. Fire is most pure in its own element above; so shall all our graces be when we are where we would be, in heaven, which is our proper element.

From this mixture arises the fact that the people of God have so different judgments of themselves, looking sometimes at the work of grace, sometimes at the remainder of corruption, and when they look upon that, then they think they have no grace. Though they love Christ in his ordinances and children, yet they dare not claim so near acquaintance as to be his. Even as a candle in the socket sometimes shows its light, and sometimes the show of light is lost; so sometimes they are well persuaded of themselves, sometimes at a loss. 

Additional Resources
Complete in Christ - Spurgeon
What should we seek in Scripture? - Calvin

Our lack of denial of self betrays our lack of knowledge of "the great passionate heart"

From Jim Elliot's (1927-56) journal:

"Surely those who know the great passionate heart of Jehovah must deny their own lives to share in the expression of His.

Consider the call from the Throne above, "Go ye," and from round about, "Come over and help us," and even the call from the damned souls below, "Send Lazarus to my brothers, that they come not to this place." Impelled then, by these voices, I dare not stay home while Quichuas perish. So what if the well-fed church in the homeland needs stirring? They have the Scriptures, Moses, and the Prophets, and a whole lot more. Their condemnation is written on their bank books and in the dust on their Bible covers. American believers have sold their lives to the service of Mammon, and God has His rightful way of dealing with those who succumb to the spirit of Laodicea."

(H.T. Radical)

Elliot's first sentence is critical. Everything hinges on knowing the great passionate heart of God. And knowing that "great passionate heart" comes from seeing it demonstrated at the Cross (Romans 5:8). And the Cross only has value if my sin was so serious to God in His holiness, so permanently separating, and so impossible to overcome that it was absolutely necessary for the Son of God to suffer there in my place for my redemption. If everything hinges on knowing the great passionate heart of God, then everything hinges on knowing the Gospel.

Our lack of burden for people, our Mammon-loving bank books and our dusty Bibles all have the same source, namely, unbelief in God and the Gospel. But how do we overcome this?

• Repentance for our coolness and idolatry (Ezek. 14:6, 1 John 4:20-21, Rev. 2:5).
• Prayer for divine help to see Christ as He is and the Gospel for what it is (Mark 9:24, 2 Cor. 4:4-6, Ephesians 3:14-19).
• Participation in a community that stirs us to remember our confidence in Christ (Hebrews 3:12-19, 10:19-25).
• Urgent, Gospel-service to the "Quichuas" God puts on our heart (Romans 10:1, 1 Cor. 9:19-23).

Our clocks are ticking...

Leadership Fridays: A New Middle Road

If our responsibility is to encourage, spur on, shepherd...lead people to follow Jesus, we need to do it first.

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. (John 14.21–24 ESV)

Additional Resources
A Summary of the "Membership, Leadership and Discipleship" series
Leading Yourself - by Dave Kraft at theResurgence

Complete

"Ye are complete in Him." - Col. 2:10

The pardoned sinner for a while is content with the boon of forgiveness, and is too overjoyed with a sense of freedom from bondage to know a wish beyond. In a little time, however, he bethinks himself of his position, his wants, and his prospects: what is then his rapture at the discovery that the roll of his pardon is also an indenture of all wealth, a charter of all privileges, a title-deed of all needed blessings! Having received Christ, he hath obtained all things in Him. He looketh to that cross upon which the dreadful handwriting of ordinances hath been nailed; to his unutterable surprise he beholds it blossom with mercy, and like a tree of life bring forth twelve manner of fruits- yea, all that he requires for life, for death, for time and for eternity. Lo! at the foot of the once accursed tree grow plants for his healing, and flowers for his delight; from the bleeding feet of the Redeemer flows directing love to lead him all the desert through - from the pierced side there gushes cleansing water to purge him from the power of sin - the nails become a means of securing him to righteousness, while above the crown hangs visible as the gracious reward of perseverance. All things are in the cross - by this we are purified, by this we continue firm to the end. While sitting beneath the shadow of our Lord we think ourselves most rich, for angles seem to sing , "Ye are complete in Him!." - C. H. Spurgeon, Complete in Christ and Love's Logic, Baker Books 1978

Additional Resources
You'll find plenty like this at Ray Ortlund's blog

How Christ wins the life or death war for our affections

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. (Proverbs 4.23)

There is a war within the heart of every Christian. It is subtle and the heavy artillery often arrives as whispers.

The ground? What will we love?
The world and its offerings are tangible and immediate. And, yet, every time we foster that romance there is something in us that feels sick. The indulgence was sweet, but desperately unhealthy. And it comes with a crash.

This is sin. James tells us plainly that friendship with the world is hatred towards God (James 4:4). In our souls, we know it and we feel the degrading effects. This unhealthy feeling is a blessing. Cursed is the heart that isn't restless in the siege. But what do we do to address it?

Generally our first inclination is to go on a diet - to stop eating the world's sacchariny smorgasbord. This is good, but it is never enough. We need to develop a hunger and a love for good food.

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant (Isaiah 55.2–3)

This was the point of Thomas Chalmer's (1780-1847) famous sermon "The Expulsive Power of a New Affection."

An excerpt:

In a word, if the way to disengage the heart from the positive love of one great and ascendant object, is to fasten it in positive love to another, then it is not by exposing the worthlessness of the former, but by addressing to the mental eye the worth and excellence of the latter, that all old things are to be done away and all things are to become new. To obliterate all our present affections by simply expunging them, and so as to leave the seat of them unoccupied, would be to destroy the old character, and to substitute no new character in its place. But when they take their departure upon the ingress of other visitors; when they resign their sway to the power and the predominance of new affections; when, abandoning the heart to solitude, they merely give place to a successor who turns it into as busy a residence of desire and interest and expectation as before - there is nothing in all this to thwart or to overbear any of the laws of our sentient nature - and we see how, in fullest accordance with the mechanism of the heart, a great moral revolution may be made to take place upon it.

The Love of God and the Love of the World are Irreconcilable

This, we trust, will explain the operation of that charm which accompanies the effectual preaching of the gospel. The love of God and the love of the world, are two affections, not merely in a state of rivalship, but in a state of enmity - and that so irreconcilable, that they cannot dwell together in the same bosom. We have already affirmed how impossible it were for the heart, by any innate elasticity of its own, to cast the world away from it; and thus reduce itself to a wilderness. The heart is not so constituted; and the only way to dispossess it of an old affection, is by the expulsive power of a new one. Nothing can exceed the magnitude of the required change in a man's character - when bidden as he is in the New Testament, to love not the world; no, nor any of the things that are in the world for this so comprehends all that is dear to him in existence, as to be equivalent to a command of self-annihilation.

But the same revelation which dictates so mighty an obedience, places within our reach as mighty an instrument of obedience. It brings for admittance to the very door of our heart, an affection which once seated upon its throne, will either subordinate every previous inmate, or bid it away. Beside the world, it places before the eye of the mind Him who made the world and with this peculiarity, which is all its own - that in the Gospel do we so behold God, as that we may love God. It is there, and there only, where God stands revealed as an object of confidence to sinners and where our desire after Him is not chilled into apathy, by that barrier of human guilt which intercepts every approach that is not made to Him through the appointed Mediator. It is the bringing in of this better hope, whereby we draw nigh unto God - and to live without hope, is to live without God; and if the heart be without God, then world will then have all the ascendancy. It is God apprehended by the believer as God in Christ, who alone can dispost it from this ascendancy. It is when He stands dismantled of the terrors which belong to Him as an offended lawgiver and when we are enabled by faith, which is His own gift, to see His glory in the face of Jesus Christ, and to hear His beseeching voice, as it protests good will to men, and entreats the return of all who will to a full pardon and a gracious acceptance. It is then, that a love paramount to the love of the world, and at length expulsive of it, first arises in the regenerated bosom. It is when released from the spirit of bondage with which love cannot dwell, and when admitted into the number of God's children through the faith that is in Christ Jesus, the spirit of adoption is poured upon us - it is then that the heart, brought under the mastery of one great and predominant affection, is delivered from the tyranny of its former desires, in the only way in which deliverance is possible.

Additional Resources
Chalmer's Entire Sermon
What should we seek in the Scripture?
Tomorrow we should feel

The litmus of the heart; worship in the face of a dismal future

The future didn't just look gloomy. God promised it would be so. The king's response to this certain future revealed the true substance of his heart.

King Josiah
Since becoming king of Judah at age eight (2 Chronicles 34), Josiah had always been "God-haunted." Because Judah had so abandoned God, he had no specific, special, written revelation of God. Still, this "God-haunted-ness" had led Josiah to destroy false idols and altars and to rebuild the temple.

The high priest over the re-construction discovered something that would both solidify Josiah's devotion to the LORD and reveal a dismal future for Judah.

While they were bringing out the money that had been brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the LORD given through Moses. Then Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. Shaphan brought the book to the king, and further reported to the king, “All that was committed to your servants they are doing. They have emptied out the money that was found in the house of the LORD and have given it into the hand of the overseers and the workmen.” Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it before the king.

And when the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his clothes. (2 Chronicles 34.14–19)

Josiah's first response was grief for how far Judah had fallen. It is important to note that he had no knowledge yet of the results of this disobedience. His grief is simply about the separation between Judah and God. After tearing his clothes in grief, he looks to God for direction about the future.

“Go, inquire of the LORD for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do according to all that is written in this book.” (2 Chronicles 34.21)

God would bring a promised punishment. It would be devastating to Judah. Not maybe. Definitely. Josiah himself would not see this devastation. He would die in peace. But the future is set. God promised it.

Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the curses that are written in the book that was read before the king of Judah. Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands, therefore my wrath will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched. (2 Chronicles 34.24–25)

you have humbled yourself before me and have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the LORD. Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place and its inhabitants.’ (2 Chronicles 34.27–28)

What happens next is important
Josiah doesn't develop a fatalistic despair. He doesn't numb himself to the future. He doesn't rebel. He doesn't indulge. He leads doomed Judah into repentance.

Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. And the king went up to the house of the LORD, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites, all the people both great and small. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD. And the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. Then he made all who were present in Jerusalem and in Benjamin join in it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. (2 Chronicles 34.29–32)

And he did this not for a change in outcome, not for desired result, but because God was Josiah's all-consuming joy and sovereign Lord.

This challenges me. How much of my pursuit of God has strings? Would I parent my kids in obedience to the Scripture if I knew they wouldn't grow up to follow Christ? Would I sacrifice for my wife today as a type of Christ if I knew she would leave me in the future? Would I be generous if I knew that I would never be rewarded and, in fact, people would take advantage of me? Would I encourage others to love and follow Christ even if I knew it was a pathway to hardship and suffering (which, by the way, it is)? Would I continue to preach if it was absolutely certain that it would be fruitless? Do I know him well enough, do I see him clearly enough, do I cherish him as more than enough to worship in the face of a certain dismal future?

Where your answer is, there your heart is also.

Additional Resources
Coming to Jesus without hating what we have left
No one thanks a vending maching

The "feedback" of atheism and porn (or any willful sin)

A recent conversation with a friend helped me see something chilling about sin. This friend is looking at porn and, simultaneously, discovering a growing doubt in his soul. This is because every indulgence of pornography must include some level of atheism. To keep looking we have to believe:

• God is not there.
  
• God is not good (at least He is holding out on me, so I will get what I want for myself).
• God does not see.
• God doesn't care about my sin.

To do what God forbids, at least one of these prerequisite beliefs is required. I couldn't look at porn if Jesus were physically present. (Some of the more hardened types might think they could, but my guess is they aren't free with their viewing when any person walks in the room). So I must repress the idea that he sees, cares about and must deal with my sin.

The problem with "believing" these things (even temporarily) is that I cannot plant the seed and not expect it to grow. Puritan pastor John Owen said it this way:

"Every time sin rises to tempt or entice, it always seeks to express itself in the extreme. Every unclean thought or glance would be adultery if it could; every covetous desire would be oppression; and every unbelieving thought would be atheism. It is like the grace that is never satisfied."

So the temporary atheism required to willfully sin will increase to more lasting doubt in God and His promises. This doubt will open the way for more sin. It is a feedback loop that leads to hardness of heart. We shouldn't be surprised if we find a growing doubt in the midst of our willful sin. We are fostering it.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. (Hebrews 3.12–14)

There is much more than morality at stake here. With every click (or any willful sin) you are choosing to lose softness to God and your original confidence in the gospel.

Stay Tuned...
This year's Spring Training for Men starts on 3/24 (for 7 weeks) and will include reading "The Mortification of Sin" by John Owen (I have purchased 40 copies)

No one thanks a vending machine

I have an agreement with vending machines. Their job is to take my change and give me what I want. When, as often is the case, I don't receive the reward for my offering, I am furious. My frustration is often proclaimed in an indictment against the machine. "Stupid machine!" I exclaim. I am indignant that the machine has not followed the rules. On the flip side, when I get exactly what I paid for, I walk off merrily enjoying the dispensed with no regard for the dispenser. Why should I? The dispenser has only performed its duty - no hoopla necessary.

Over the past couple of years, Ryene (my 10 year-old daughter) and I have been discussing vending machines. Specifically, how easy it is to make God a vending machine with all the same arrangements. Last week Ryene pointed out that this mentality didn't arrive with the industrial revolution and the advent of vending machines. She saw it in Luke 17 in Jesus' exchange with the ten lepers.

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers,who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17.11–19)

The lepers in this story understood and obeyed the rules. They didn't interact with the non-leprous and stood at a distance from Jesus. They knew that Jesus had the power to heal. They knew his healing power was bound up somehow with his mercy toward them. When he told them to go and show themselves to the priests, they responded with remarkable obedience and faith. Showing yourself to the priest was an act reserved for those who had already been healed (Leviticus 14:1-32). In going to the priests, they were communicating trust in Jesus implied promise to heal them. Indeed, on the way, they were healed.

To this point in the story, we see a great picture of humility, obedience and faith and, yet, something is missing that can only be revealed by the end of the story. Nine of them went on their way without thanking the one who had healed them. In fact, we are left to decide for ourselves whether they actually even made it to the priests. As Ryene pointed out, they saw Jesus as a vending machine and, when he delivered as expected, no thanks was necessary.

It's remarkable. We can have humility, obedience and even some measure of faith toward God and still miss the picture completely. The nine lepers had all these things and they had themselves at the center of their universe. Jesus' words to the returning Samaritan leper reveals the point of God's healing in our lives. Whether in our redemption from sin, binding our broken hearts or healing our physical bodies, God is looking to be the object of praise not the dispenser of good gifts. The thanks and not the healing is the point.

These lepers eventually experienced more physical aliments which eventually led to their own death. The gift of healing they had received was temporary but the gift of seeing their God, Savior and King was the very substance of eternal life (John 17:3). To miss that is the very root of sin (Romans 1:21,25).

Am I Like One of the Nine Lepers?
When the gifts are the true objects of our affection, we will see it in our gratitude. It's easy to take our spiritual temperature with the wrong thermometer. Often we look for signs of humility, obedience and faith. These are important indicators of life in the Kingdom of God. But the point in this exchange is that these things may exist and our affections may be somewhere else all together. God will not settle for giving us second best. His discipline and withholding is often an expression of that passion. His best comes when our eyes are not fixed on the temporary gift but on the eternal giver.

After receiving the grace we have sought in prayer, do we stop and give legitimate, heart-felt thanks? If, after all my prayer and obedience, my prayers aren't answered, am I quick to indict God with no regard for the previous 10,000 days of His grace? The answers to these questions reveal more of the work of the gospel in our lives than a thousand works of service. If you want to know the real temperature of your heart, put down the "Am-I-Obedient?" thermometer and use the "Am-I-Grateful?" one. It works better.

(Thanks Rye!)

Additional Resources
Burning Out? Don't forget the end to which we labor and strive
Real Gritty Joy: All Things Rubbish
Coming to Jesus without hating what we have left

A Sweet and Bitter Providence

"I can help daddy"

On a couple of occasions one of our children has overheard Shelli and I talking about financial concerns and responded by putting change into an envelope and giving it to us to "help." Two things hit me in these moments:

1. I am profoundly moved. It is an instant emotional explosion. Their wholehearted, no-strings-attached, because-I-adore-you response is pure beauty.
   
2. It is so small. A buck seventy-three isn't really going to help us pay many bills. What they are capable of bringing is so much smaller than the need and much smaller than I can provide myself.

Today I am overwhelmed by the amount of work I want to do. I can honestly say that much of it is motivated by a love for God. The thought that my Father sees a tattered envelope with a buck seventy-three is at the same time comforting, joy-giving, perspective-providing and energizing.

Well done kids.

Additional Resources
Matthew 14:13-21
Matthew 26:6-13
Mark 12:41-44
John 14:21-13
Luke 13:32
Romans 11:32-36
Hebrews 6:10

Monotony or Encore?

Yesterday's sunrise over the Nebraska plains and a morning of cross-country skiing this morning has me thinking of "The Ethics of Elfland" (from Chesterton's Orthodoxy). The sunrise took us by surprise yesterday as we were heading to Cedar Falls for Christmas. The sky was exploding with pink and blue streaks and it seemed we were driving into ground zero. The skiing came after nearly an hour of searching for decent trails in the river bottoms of the Cedar. I discovered kilometers of the most well-groomed trail I had skied since my last race almost 20 years ago. The next hour felt like soaring.

What had me thinking of Chesterton was that these events were normal and staggering. While the sunrise was captivating, it has happened before. I've seen hundreds. The soaring feeling on the skis this morning came, not from something novel, but from something known. The frustration of trying to ski on poorly groomed trail for an hour, left me longing for an old muscle memory. When I was finally able to ski, flat out, I was rejoicing in the familiarity of it all. It was exhilarating. Enter Chesterton:

All the towering materialism which dominates the modern mind rests ultimately upon one assumption; a false assumption. It is supposed that if a thing goes on repeating itself it is probably dead; a piece of clockwork. People feel that if the universe was personal it would vary; if the sun were alive it would dance. This is a fallacy even in relation to known fact. For the variation in human affairs is generally brought into them, not by life, but by death; by the dying down or breaking off of their strength or desire. A man varies his movements because of some slight element of failure or fatigue. He gets into an omnibus because he is tired of walking; or he walks because he is tired of sitting still. But if his life and joy were so gigantic that he never tired of going to Islington, he might go to Islington as regularly as the Thames goes to Sheerness. The very speed and ecstasy of his life would have the stillness of death. The sun rises every morning. I do not rise every morning; but the variation is due not to my activity, but to my inaction. Now, to put the matter in a popular phrase, it might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not to a lifelessness, but to a rush of life. The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical ENCORE. Heaven may ENCORE the bird who laid an egg. If the human being conceives and brings forth a human child instead of bringing forth a fish, or a bat, or a griffin, the reason may not be that we are fixed in an animal fate without life or purpose. It may be that our little tragedy has touched the gods, that they admire it from their starry galleries, and that at the end of every human drama man is called again and again before the curtain. Repetition may go on for millions of years, by mere choice, and at any instant it may stop. Man may stand on the earth generation after generation, and yet each birth be his positively last appearance.

Hear the encore as you slow down this Christmas.

Additional Resources
Fear Not! My very first blog post (2004 and at Christmas no less)

"Handling Criticism" thoughts from Tim Keller

Convicting thoughts from Tim Keller on handling criticism:

The biggest danger of receiving criticism is not to your reputation, but to your heart. You feel the injustice of it and feel sorry for yourself, and it tempts you to despise not only the critic, but the entire group of people from which they come. "Those people..." you mutter under your breath. All this can make you prouder over time
...
So how can you avoid this temptation? First, you should look to see if there is a kernel of truth in even the most exaggerated and unfair broadsides. There is usually such a kernel when the criticism comes from friends, and there is often such truth when the disapproval comes from people who actually know you. So even if the censure is partly or even largely mistaken, look for what you may indeed have done wrong. Perhaps you simply acted or spoke in a way that was not circumspect. Maybe the critic is partly right for the wrong reasons. Nevertheless, identify your own short-comings, repent in your own heart before the Lord for what you can, and let that humble you. It will then be possible to learn from the criticism and stay gracious to the critic even if you have to disagree with what he or she has said.

If the criticism comes from someone who doesn't know you at all (and often this is the case on the internet) it is possible that the criticism is completely unwarranted and profoundly mistaken. I am often pilloried not only for views I do have, but also even more often for views (and motives) that I do not hold at all. When that happens it is even easier to fall into a smugness and perhaps be tempted to laugh at how mistaken your critics are. "Pathetic..." you may be tempted to say. Don't do it. Even if there is not the slightest kernel of truth in what the critic says, you should not mock them in your thoughts.

read more

(By the way, I repent)

Additional Resources
Fools Rush In Where Monkeys Fear to Tread - by Carl Trueman (A essay on self-promotion & pride in the blogosphere)

"Knowing for Good (week 2): Teach what accords with sound doctrine" (Titus 2:1-10)

Week 2 in our series on Paul's letter to Titus. Here we examine Titus 2:1-10.

"There are two things, conscience and reputation; conscience for yourself, reputation for your neighbor. Those who, being clear in their consciences, neglect their reputations, are being cruel."
-Augustine

Summary: "Teach what accords with sound doctrine"

In this passage, Paul reveals the kind of supernatural lives that spring forth from a belief in the Gospel. There is a way that older men, older women, younger women, younger men, teachers and slaves can live that confirms the veracity of the Gospel. Our "reputations" are meant to proclaim the Gospel and, because the Gospel is for sinners, sometimes that happens in the midst of our greatest failures. (There is a pretty good story of my "goober-ness" in this one).

Listen to "Teach what accords with sound doctrine" (Titus 2:1-10)

Additional Resources

Discussion Questions

"Lurking and nourished sins are always a sign..." (D.A. Carson)

From "Basics for Believers" by Don Carson:

"...we are exhorted (in Philippians 4:4) to rejoice in the Lord. The controlling issue is not the style of the rejoicing, but the ground.

...

Our delight must be in the Lord himself. That is what enables us to live with joy above our circumstances. As Nehemiah puts it, "The joy of the LORD is your strength" (Neh. 8:10).

...

Whatever the mysteries of evil and sorrow, they do have the salutary effect of helping believers to shift the ground of their joy from created things to the Creator, from the temporary to the eternal, from jingoism to Jesus, from consumption to God.

...

Obedience to this command is possible because the ground of this rejoicing is changeless. Our circumstances may rightly call from us grief, tears and sorrow. Unless the Lord comes back first, each of us will face death - our own, and if we live long enough, the death of loved ones and friends. And we will weep. But even in our tears, we may rejoice, we will rejoice, we must rejoice, for we rejoice in the Lord. He does not change. And that is why we shall rejoice in the Lord always.

God well knows that a believer who conscientiously obeys this command cannot be a backbiter or a gossip. Such a believer cannot be spiritually proud or filled with conceit, cannot be stingy or prayerless, cannot be a chronic complainer or perpetually bitter. The cure for a crushed and bitter spirit is to see Christ Jesus the Lord and then to rejoice in him. Lurking and nourished sins are always a sign that our vision of Jesus is dim and that our joy in him has evaporated with the morning dew."