Mercy for Today

Devotional by John Piper, Solid Joy Devotionals

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.(Lamentations 3:22–23)

God’s mercies are new every morning because each day only has enough mercy in it for that day. God appoints every day’s troubles. And God appoints every day’s mercies. In the life of his children, they are perfectly appointed. Jesus said, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34). Every day has its own trouble. Every day has its own mercies. Each is new every morning.

But we often tend to despair when we think that we may have to bear tomorrow’s load on today’s resources. God wants us to know: We won’t. Today’s mercies are for today’s troubles. Tomorrow’s mercies are for tomorrow’s troubles.

Sometimes we wonder if we will have the mercy to stand in terrible testing. Yes, we will. Peter says, “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Peter 4:14). When the reviling comes, the Spirit of glory comes. It happened for Stephen as he was being stoned. It will happen for you. When the Spirit and the glory are needed, they will come.

The manna in the wilderness was given one day at a time. There was no storing up. That is the way we must depend on God’s mercy. You do not receive today the strength to bear tomorrow’s burdens. You are given mercies today for today’s troubles.

Tomorrow the mercies will be new. “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9).

The Most Important Thing My Parents Did

Article by Tim Challies

I grew up in a church culture, a catechizing culture, and a family worship culture. Each of these was a tremendous, immeasurable blessing, I am sure. I am convinced that twice-each-Sunday services, and memorizing the catechisms, and worshipping as a family marked me deeply. I doubt I will ever forget that my only comfort in life and death is that I am not my own, but belong in body and soul, both in life and death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, or that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. I can still sing many of the psalms and hymns of my youth, and I have precious memories of my family bowing our heads around the kitchen table.

What was true of my family was true of many of my friends’ families. They, too, grew up around churches and catechisms and rigid family devotions. In fact, in all the times I visited their homes, I don’t think I ever witnessed a family skip over their devotions. It was the custom, it was the expectation, and it was good. Our church had near 100% attendance on Sunday morning and near 100% attendance on Sunday evening. It was just what we did.

But despite all of the advantages, many of the people I befriended as a child have since left the faith. Some have sprinted away, but many more have simply meandered away, so that an occasionally missed Sunday eventually became a missed month and a missed year. Not all of them, of course. Many are now fine believers, who are serving in their churches and even leading them. But a lot—too many—are gone.

Why? I ask the question from time-to-time. Why are all five of my parents’ kids following the Lord, while so many of our friends and their families are not? Obviously I have no ability to peer into God’s sovereignty and come to any firm conclusions. But as I think back, I can think of one great difference between my home and my friends’ homes—at least the homes of my friends who have since walked away from the Lord and his church. Though it is not universally true, it is generally true. Here’s the difference: I saw my parents living out their faith even when I wasn’t supposed to be watching.

I had the rock-solid assurance that my parents believed and practiced what they preached.

When I tiptoed down the stairs in the morning, I would find my dad in the family room with his Bible open on his lap. Every time I picked up my mom’s old NIV Study Bible it was a little more wrecked than the time before, I would find a little more ink on the pages, and a few more pieces of tape trying desperately to hold together the worn binding. When life was tough, I heard my parents reason from the Bible and I saw them pray together. They weren’t doing these things for us. They weren’t doing them to be seen. They were doing these things because they loved the Lord and loved to spend time with him, and that spoke volumes to me. I had the rock-solid assurance that my parents believed and practiced what they preached. I knew they actually considered God’s Word trustworthy, because they began every day with it. I knew that they believed God was really there and really listening, because they got alone with him each morning to pray for themselves and for their kids. I saw that their faith was not only formal and public, but also intimate and private.

Here is one thing I learned from my parents: Nothing can take the place of simply living as a Christian in view of my children. No amount of formal theological training, church attendance, or family devotions will make up for a general apathy about the things of the Lord. I can catechize my children all day and every day, but if I have no joy and no delight in the Lord, and if I am not living out my faith, my children will see it and know it.

For all the good things my parents did for me, I believe that the most important was simply living as Christians before me. I don’t think anything shaped or challenged me more than that.

Originally posted on Tim Challies website:  https://www.challies.com/christian-living/the-most-important-thing-my-parents-did/

Who Causes Your Suffering? The Sovereignty of God and Reality of Evil

Article by Christopher Ash, Guest contributor at DesiringGod.org

When suffering comes to us, we naturally — instinctively — want to know what or who has caused it. The answer to that question often affects how we respond to the pain. We focus immediately on the obvious causes. For an illness, we think about what has gone wrong with our body biochemistry. After an accident, we visit and revisit what happened, how it happened and whose fault it was.

“When suffering comes to us, we naturally — instinctively — want to know what or who has caused it.”

When a so-called “natural” disaster strikes, we may think about why people were living where they lived, why the early warnings didn’t work, why the flood defenses were inadequate, and so on. We want to blame somebody or something. And, whether or not we can blame a human agent, behind all that we want to blame God. For God — if there is a God — must have something to do with it all.

After that, we may react with bitterness, recriminations, or resentment. Perhaps these are specific, or maybe we are just left with a residual sense that we have been unfairly treated. At the beginning of the book of Job, Job suffers four terrible tragedies (Job 1:13–19) before losing his health (Job 2:7–8). Two of the four tragedies we might today call “natural disasters” (although the Bible never uses this expression); the other two would perhaps come under the label of “terrorism.”

God’s Job or Satan’s?

One of the deepest questions in the book of Job is this: who caused Job’s terrible sufferings? There is one clear answer, given or assumed by Job, by his three so-called “comforters,” and by the divinely-inspired storyteller. This answer is expressed crisply at the end of the book, where the narrator describes how Job’s family and friends “comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11).

The Lord, the covenant God, is the one who brought these sufferings upon Job. He did not simply allow them; he caused them to come upon Job (the Hebrew verb here indicates active causality). Job shows that he knows this is true when he says, “. . . the Lord has taken away” (Job 1:21). He reiterates this conviction when he says to his wife, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). In saying this, the inspired narrator indicates that “Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. . . . Job did not sin with his lips” (Job 1:222:10). Job believes God has done it; and Job is right to believe this.

In both Job 2:10 and Job 42:11, the word translated “evil” indicates not moral evil, but disaster — things that are terrible to experience. The three friends share this conviction. The most common title for God in the book is “the Almighty” (e.g. Job 5:17).

God’s Strange Servant

But under and alongside this shared conviction of the active sovereignty of God, there is an important subsidiary conviction: Satan causes Job’s sufferings. Satan (or, more properly, “the Satan” – this is more of a title than a name, and means something like “the adversary”) is a supernatural creature who has a strange place in the council or cabinet of the “sons of God” (ESV) or “angels” (NIV). He is utterly evil and malicious; and yet he has a job to do. It is his “hand” that actively strikes Job (Job 1:122:6). So, in a sense, he causes them. But as we see if we read the book carefully, he is not the ultimate cause.

“Satan is God’s strange servant to do the will of God by afflicting Job with suffering.”

Older liberal commentators take the easy way out of splitting Job into a part in which God causes Job’s sufferings and a part in which Satan causes them. So, for example, H.H. Rowley takes the words “that the Lord had brought upon him” in Job 42:11 as simply indicating the (erroneous) assumptions shared by Job and his friends. But these words are spoken by the inspired narrator of the story, so we must not take this erroneous, albeit easy, way out.

But more responsible commentators recognize that the Bible holds these together. The parallel accounts of David’s census demonstrate this same parallelism of views. Who motivated David to call this census? The Lord did (2 Samuel 24:1); and Satan did (1 Chronicles 21:1). The Bible — and the book of Job — hold these together. Satan is God’s strange servant to do the will of God by afflicting Job with suffering. Satan does this out of malice; the Lord out of a loving concern for his glory. Satan is — as Luther so vividly put it — “God’s Satan.”

Those who reject the sovereignty of God will either ignore clear verses on God’s sovereignty over our suffering (like Job 1:212:1042:11) or assign it (as Rowley does) to the possibly mistaken view of the human characters. Nevertheless, when referring to the “evil” that came upon Job, it is clear “that the Lord had brought [it] upon him” (Job 42:11). This is clear throughout the book and it is written for our instruction.

Evil for Our Ultimate Good

It is of great pastoral importance that we grasp what the Bible teaches about the causality of disaster when it comes to believers. There are two common mistakes. On the one hand, we may neglect Satan altogether and just assume that God rules the world in a simple and direct way. This is, I am told, close to the view of Islam. Some Christians tacitly assume this, but it is not the teaching of the Bible. On the other hand, we may think of Satan as a second, independent, autonomous power of evil, in which case the universe becomes a terrifyingly uncertain place, since we may never be sure whether God or Satan will win any particular round of their contest.

“Satan strikes Job out of malice. The Lord strikes Job out of a loving concern for his glory.”

The Bible, however, teaches that God has chosen to exercise his absolute, direct, and intentional sovereign government of the world through the agency of his chosen council or cabinet of intermediate powers (the “sons of God” or “angels”), some of whom are evil. These powers have no autonomy whatsoever. And yet, in the purposes of God, they are significant and do exert influence, as God has chosen that they will.

To grasp this deep truth about the government of the universe will give Christian believers great confidence — for the sovereignty of God is unchallenged — and yet also great realism, for we will take seriously the role of supernatural evil in the infinite wisdom of God, who is himself utterly untouched by evil, and yet who chooses to weave evil into his purposes of ultimate good.

Christopher Ash is Writer-in-Residence at Tyndale House in Cambridge, England. He is married to Carolyn. Christopher has written a number of books, including the commentary Job: The Wisdom of the Cross.

The False Gospel of “You Be You”

CLARK FOBES

“You do you.” It’s a phrase that has gained popularity in recent years, especially among Generation Z (children born after 1999). One New York Times article explains it as a contemporary version of the encouragement, “Just be yourself.” However, unlike “Just be yourself,” “You do you” is not just a phrase a parent uses to encourage her child on the first day of school. “You do you” has become the slogan for a generation that prides itself on individual expression. It’s a statement of one’s individual right to judge what’s best for himself, regardless of what others say or think.

From the sexual revolution to gender identity to everyday life decisions, “You do you” is the message teenagers are sending to the world today in order to declare that no one can tell them what to do or who they should be.

The Good and the Bad
As narcissistic as the “You do you” phrase may sound, it has sometimes been put to good use, which reminds us that God’s common grace permeates various aspects of culture.[1] The “You do you” ideology has given this generation of youth greater confidence to stand up for what they believe in; it has been used to speak up against injustice; it has encouraged them not to sit by passively watching the world. With the rise of social media and cyber-bullying, some students seem to be standing up for one another and guarding the rights of others. This is a good thing. I’m grateful for the students at my church who are taking a greater interest in what goes on in the world and who are standing up for the rights of others. However, I also worry that this generation has made individual expression an untouchable law.

Youth today may be more atheistic than ever before, but you will also find studies showing they are more open to religion than their Millennial and Gen X predecessors. They are seeking more of life’s answers in religion over science. They are thinking deeply about life, social issues, and the spiritual realm. Such openness poses great opportunities for the church to reach young people today. However, if you threaten their desire for individual expression, then be prepared for some backlash. Even among Christian teens, guarding one’s self-expression—whether it be sexual orientation, gender orientation, life paths, or what clothes to wear and music to listen to—is a non-negotiable. The “You do you” mentality has become their Savior: if only more people believed in themselves, expressed themselves, and did what they thought was best, then our world would be a better place.

Self at the Center
In light of this generation’s idolatry of self-expression, the church ought to point Gen Z towards the true gospel of Christ by teaching them why the gospel of self-expression is not the way to salvation, let alone happiness. At the heart of today’s message is the desire for freedom to be yourself, to be true and authentic to who you really are. Self-expression, self-love, and self-glory are the answers to freedom in life. Teenagers are told to think about themselves more, love themselves more, and express their own individuality.

The problem with furthering our self-glory is that, as we look within, we will only find more brokenness, which then pushes us to justify that brokenness in order to find “freedom” for one’s true self. (This may be one of the reasons our culture is beginning to justify sexual practices that were once forbidden by previous generations). Self-consumption only results in further self-absorption. The answer to the internal struggle in life is not to look further within, where brokenness and sin abound, but to look outward. Instead of being more captivated by ourselves, we must be more captivated by Another, by One Who is far greater and more glorious than we are.

When we are consumed not with our own fading glory, but the infinite glory of God, we will begin to understand what Paul meant when he said, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).

Paul’s greatest self-expression was not found by being more true to himself or by declaring “You do you” to his disciples, but rather in submitting himself to Christ Who “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death” (Philippians 2:8). Paul was willing to suffer “the loss of all things” in order to “gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). The truly free person is not the one who is adamant about self-expression; the truly free person is the one who willingly submits to self-denial for the sake of gaining Christ. Of course, we can agree with our culture when it affirms the worth of each individual. However, self-expression is not the true path to freedom. The gospel points us to true freedom, and this freedom is found when we are consumed with worshipping God, not when we are so consumed with worshipping ourselves.

True Fulfillment
Although it sounds strange to the world, fulfillment is not found when we fully express who we are naturally according to our worldly, sinful, broken selves. Fulfillment comes when we realize that no amount of self-expression can cover up our brokenness and that this brokenness and sin is covered in Christ. Self-expression is most fulfilling, not when we live out our human freedoms in the world, but when we live out our heavenly freedoms in Christ (Philippians 3:20).

We may feel that we are not presently who we ought to be, but we know that upon our Savior’s return we will fully become who we ought to be (1 John 3:2). We will be changed in a moment’s notice (1 Corinthians 15:52) and obtain the full glory of who God intends us to be (Romans 8:18–19, 29–30).

[1]Bruce Ashford, Theology and Practice of Mission (Nashville: Broadman &Holman, 2011), 111-12: “human culture [both as a work of human hands and a world in which humans live] is part of the physical and material world, which is part of God’s creation and therefore is not inherently bad.”

CLARK FOBES

Clark Fobes is the Youth Pastor at Sunset Church in San Francisco, CA, and has been serving in youth ministry in the Asian-American context since 2009. He is also part of the steering committee for Rooted, a ministry dedicated to advancing grace-driven youth ministry by equipping youth leaders.

Originally posted on:  http://radical.net/articles/the-false-gospel-of-you-be-you/

A Personal Disciple-Making Plan

DAVID PLATT

As we follow Christ, he transforms our minds, our desires, our wills, our relationships, and our ultimate reason for living. Every disciple of Jesus exists to make disciples of Jesus, here and among every people group on the planet. There are no spectators. We are all born to reproduce the life of Christ in others. So how are you going to reproduce?

The purpose in asking this question is to spur you on to consider how the life of Christ in you might be multiplied through you in the world. That’s what this Personal Disciple-Making Plan below is all about. (See the link at the bottom for a free download of this Personal Disciple-Making Plan, which includes space to answer the questions under each of the six main headings above.) Don’t feel like you need to come up with new and creative things to do in response to each of the questions. It is helpful with many questions simply to identify normal patterns of Christian obedience that may already be present in your life. In the end, these questions are not exhaustive, but they are essential. Our hope and prayer is that they will serve us as we consider what it means to be disciples of Jesus and make disciples of Jesus.

1. How Will I Fill My Mind with Truth?

The life of the disciple is the life of a learner. We constantly attune our ears to the words of our Master. As He teaches us through His Word, He transforms us in the world. Consider a plan for reading, memorizing, and learning God’s Word, but don’t forget that disciples do these things not merely for information, but for transformation. Our goal as disciples is never just to believe God’s Word; our goal is to obey God’s Word. So as you plan to fill your mind with truth, purpose to follow the One Who is Truth.

  • How will I read God’s Word?
  • How will I memorize God’s Word?
  • How will I learn God’s Word from others?

2. How Will I Fuel My Affections for God?

There is a dangerous tendency for discipline in the disciple’s life to become mechanical and monotonous. Our aim is not simply to know God; our aim is to love God, and the more we read His Word, the more we delight in His glory. Our aim in other spiritual disciplines is similar. As we worship, pray, fast, and give, we fuel affection for God. It is impossible to separate true faith in Christ from profound feelings for Christ. So as disciples of Jesus, we intentionally worship, pray, fast, and give in order to fuel affection for God.

  • How will I worship?
  • How will I pray?
  • How will I fast?
  • How will I give?

3. How Will I Share God’s Love as a Witness in the World?

God’s will in the world and for our lives is to spread His gospel, grace, and glory to all peoples. Instead of asking what God’s will is for our lives, disciples of Jesus ask, “How can my life align with His will for me to be His witness in the world?” Every person that God has graciously put around you is a sinner eternally in need of a Savior. You were once that person, yet someone intentionally sought you out to share the gospel with you. And now this is the purpose for which God has graciously created, saved, and blessed you. So with the Word of God in your mouth and the Spirit of God in your heart, end your quest to find God’s will by deciding today to follow it.

  • Who?
  • How?
  • When?

4. How Will I Show God’s Love as a Member of a Church?

The Bible flies in the face of American individualism and church consumerism, prompting followers of Christ to ask the question, “Am I committed to a local church where I am sharing life with other followers of Christ in mutual accountability under biblical leadership for the glory of God?” To follow Christ is to love His church. It is biblically, spiritually, and practically impossible to be a disciple of Christ (much less make disciples of Christ) apart from total devotion to a family of Christians.

  • Who?
  • What?

5. How Will I Spread God’s Glory among All Peoples?

The eternal purpose of God is to save people through Christ. The clear commission of Christ for every single disciple is to make disciples not just generally, but of all nations. So regardless of where you live, how is your life going to impact every nation, tribe, tongue, and people in the world? This is not a question for extraordinary missionaries; this is a question for ordinary disciples. God wants His will to be accomplished through us more than we do. And as we follow Him, He will lead us to the people, places, and positions where we can most effectively make disciples of all nations for the glory of His name.

  • How will I pray for the nations?
  • How will I give to the nations?
  • How will I go to the nations?

6. How Will I Make Disciple-Makers among a Few People?

Jesus spent his life investing in a few people. His strategy for reaching all peoples was clear: make disciple-makers among a few people. God will lead us to live in all kinds of different places in the world. Yet regardless of where we live, the task we have is the same. No Christian is excused from the command to make disciples, and no Christian would want to escape this command. So every one of us looks around and asks, “How will I make disciple-makers among a few people?”

  • How will I bring them in?
  • How will I teach them to obey?
  • How will I model obedience?
  • How will I send them out?

No child of God is intended by God to be sidelined as a spectator in the Great Commission. Every child of God has been invited by God to be on the front lines of the supreme mission in all of history. Every disciple of Jesus has been called, loved, created, and saved to make disciples of Jesus who make disciples of Jesus who make disciples of Jesus until the grace of God is enjoyed and the glory of God is exalted among every people group on the planet. Making a personal plan for how we are going to join God in His mission is a huge step in joyfully experiencing the fullness of His grace in our lives as we join Him in His mission for the world.

* See below for the free download of this Personal Disciple-Making Plan.

____

David Platt is the president of the International Mission Board (IMB) and founder of Radical. He is the author of several books, including Radical, Follow Me, and Counter Culture.

DAVID PLATT

David Platt is the president of the International Mission Board (IMB), Teaching Pastor at McLean Bible Church in Washington D.C., and founder of Radical. He is the author of several books, including Radical, Follow Me, and Counter Culture.

Mourning Over Your Sin

From Grace to You ministries

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Matt. 5:4).

When your sins are forgiven, you are a happy person!

Human sorrow is mourning over some tragic or disappointing turn of events. At such times believers are assured of God's sustaining and comforting grace (2 Cor. 1:3-4). But when Jesus said, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Matt. 5:4), He was referring to godly sorrow, which is mourning over your sin.

"Mourn" in Matthew 5:4 translates the strongest Greek word used in the New Testament to express grief. It is often used of the passionate lament expressed over the loss of a loved one (e.g., Mark 16:10). David was expressing that kind of sorrow over his sin when he wrote, "When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer" (Ps. 32:3-4). His grief and despair made him physically ill.

At that point David wasn't a happy person, but the blessing godly sorrow brings isn't found in the sorrow itself, but in God's response to it. As Paul said to the Corinthians, "I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God. . . . For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation; but the sorrow of the world produces death" (2 Cor. 7:9-10, emphasis added). Godly sorrow is the path to repentance and forgiveness.

After David confessed his sin he proclaimed with great joy, "How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit!" (vv. 1-2). When you understand that your sins are forgiven, you are a happy person!

How do you deal with your sins? Do you deny and try to hide them, or do you mourn over them and confess them (cf. Prov. 28:13)?

Suggestions for Prayer

If you have allowed some sin to rob you of your happiness, don't let it continue a moment longer. Like David, confess your sin and know the joy of forgiveness.

For Further Study

Read Luke 15:11-24. How did the prodigal son deal with his sin?

Originally posted on:  https://www.gty.org/library/devotionals

My Confession: Toward A More Balanced Gospel

By Paul David Tripp

I am writing today, on the day following the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., because I have a humbling confession to make.

For all of my passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ, which has been accurate and faithful to the best of my ability, the gospel that I have held so dear has been, in reality, a truncated and incomplete gospel.

If you know me, you know that I have invested my life and ministry in teaching, preaching, and writing about the gospel. I have taught that the gospel not only addresses our past forgiveness and our future hope, but also everything we face today. I have talked and written again and again about the “nowism” of the gospel – that is, the right here, right now benefits of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

I have endeavored to hold the gospel as the lens through which we see and understand everything we are dealing with between the “already” of our conversion and the “not yet” of our homegoing. And I have worked to help people see how the gospel sets the everyday agenda for how they see themselves, how they view and relate to others, how they make decisions, and how they live in the place where God has put them.

But as I have taken time to examine the cross of Jesus Christ once again, I have been confronted with a very significant area of personal blindness. I am grieved that it took me so long to see this, while being filled with joy that my patient and faithful Savior did not give up on me, but kept working to open my eyes, soften my heart, and give balance to my gospel voice.

You may be thinking right now, “Paul, I understand your words so far, but I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about!”

Let me explain, by giving you the last chapter first and then unpacking what it means.

THE GOSPEL OF JUSTICE

By God’s grace, I have become deeply persuaded that we cannot celebrate the gospel of God’s grace without being a committed ambassador of the gospel of his justice as well.

From the moment of his very first breath, Jesus marched towards the cross because God is unwilling to compromise his justice in order to deliver his forgiveness. On the cross of forgiveness, even speaking words of forgiveness as he hung in torture, God would not close his eyes to humanity’s incalculable violations of his just requirements in order to extend to us his forgiving and accepting grace.

Jesus never said to the Father, “You know I have lived with these people - they mean well, but they just don’t understand who you are, who they are, and what life is all about. Why don’t we just close our eyes to all of their rebellion, selfishness, pride, idolatry, and inhumanity, act like everything is okay, and welcome them into our family?”

Of course, God would have never have participated in such a negotiation, because he is a perfectly holy God! And if he had, there would have been no need for the penalty-bearing, forgiveness-granting, and acceptance-resulting sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

Think with me for a moment. Grace is never permissive. Grace never calls wrong right. If wrong were not wrong, there would be no need for grace. Forgiveness always assumes some offense against moral law.

You don’t need to forgive a child for being immature, because immaturity is a normal part of development and not a sin. You don’t have to forgive and elderly person for forgetting, because forgetfulness is a condition of old age and not a sin. You don’t need to seek forgiveness for being for being weak, because weakness is not a sin but an indication of your humanity.

But when someone comes to you to confess wrong against you, you should not say, “It’s okay, don’t worry about it.” Sin is never okay. The person needs to hear you say, “I forgive you,” because communicating forgiveness doesn’t compromise God’s just standard and will help to bring relief to their troubled conscience.

If there is no breaking of God’s just requirements, there is no need for forgiveness. It is vital to recognize and remember that the cross not only extends God’s forgiveness, but it also upholds his justice. On the cross of Jesus Christ, grace and justice kiss. That means we cannot celebrate and proclaim the message of God’s grace while we do what God would never do - close our eyes to the injustice around us. We cannot be comfortable with exegeting his mercy for all people without being an advocate for his justice for all people.

BALANCING THE GOSPEL

By God’s patient grace, I am now convinced that I cannot be a voice for one without being a voice for the other. Sadly, I have preached grace and been silent in the face of injustice. The cross forbids me to close my eyes to any form of injustice, whether personal, corporate, governmental, ecclesiastical, or systemic.

There should be no community that is a more present, active, and vocal advocate for justice than the community that preaches the gospel of the cross of Jesus Christ. But how can we advocate for those with whom we have no functional relationship? How can we stand together when we have let skin color, subculture, or leadership and worship styles separate us? How can we stand for justice when we have let prejudice separate us? How can we understand the travail of others who we are never with, never see, and never hear? How can we stand for justice when, because of prejudice, there are those we will minister to, but whose leadership we wouldn’t serve under, for no other apparent reason than race? How can we advocate for the family when we are a broken and divided spiritual family?

You see, forgiveness is costly, but so is justice. It’s right to say God’s forgiveness drove Jesus to the cross, but we must also say God’s justice drove him there as well. It’s vital that this costly pair be held together and never be allowed to be separate in our hearts or in our daily living. Forgiveness without God’s holy justice makes no sense, and is therefore, cheap, unbiblical forgiveness. And justice that is not dyed with forgiveness will soon degenerate into crushing legalism, functional hatred, and various forms of vengeance.

Let me give you a little context about how God has opened my eyes and convicted my heart. About five years ago, Luella and I began attending Epiphany Fellowship Church in Philadelphia. Epiphany is a multi-cultural, but largely African-American, congregation. We have been blessed to sit under the ministry of Dr. Eric Mason and the young black men he has discipled. Every Sunday, we get the gospel of Jesus Christ up one side and down the other.

But there is something else for which we are grateful. As we have gotten to know and love our black brothers and sisters, we have had our eyes opened and our hearts broken by the things they regularly have to deal with that we will never have to deal with just because of the color of our skin. I have had a dear young brother confess that he was afraid of me because he had grown up afraid of all older white men. I have heard numerous stories of bias in education and the workplace, along with heart-rending stories of excessive, abusive, and demeaning encounters with the police.

I hold no office at Epiphany, nor do I exercise any authority. We are there to soak in the gospel and to serve however we can, but we are so very thankful that God, in patient grace, led us to Epiphany to open our eyes, to convict and enrich our hearts, and to motivate us to live out the gospel in ways that we had not given ourselves to before.

In the last week I have been motivated to write this confession because I am sure that I am not alone. It’s not just that our neighborhoods and schools are racially segregated; our churches are as well. It’s not just that we have failed to speak and to act, but we have failed to speak and act because we have failed to love one another with the same kind of sacrificial love that God has showered down on us. We have been silent as others have been treated in ways we would not want to be treated and have endured what we would never want to endure. We have been comfortable with talking about Christ’s sacrifice for us while being unwilling to make crucial sacrifices for those different than us.

There will be a day when God’s perfect justice will finally roll down and every form of injustice will be piled on the ash heap of his mercy. But that day is not here yet. So, until that day, we have been chosen to be his ambassadors, not only of his forgiveness, but equally of the justice that he was unwilling to compromise in order to deliver his grace to us.

Here is God’s plan for his ambassador children: Between the “already” and the “not yet” God makes his invisible justice visible by sending people of justice to advocate for justice to people who need justice, just as he makes his invisible grace visible, by sending people of grace to give grace to people who need grace.

I am grieved that I have been a vocal and active ambassador of one but not the other. Yet, I am thankful for the insight-giving and convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit, and grateful for God’s forgiving grace as I have begun to make life choices to position myself to do better.

What about you? How balanced has your gospel been? Have you been an advocate for grace, but silent in the face of injustice? Have you been comfortable with the segregation of the Christian community or with subtle personal prejudice? Where is God calling you to confession, repentance, and brand new ways of living?

It is so wonderful and freeing to know that we don’t have to hang our heads in shame or be paralyzed by regret, because Jesus bore our shame and carried our penalty. And the one who forgives us is right now with us to empower us to live in a new way. He is not so uncaring and unkind as to ever call us to a task without going with us and supplying to us every thing we need.

My prayer is that God would grant us the desire and the ability to speak and act as faithfully for this holy justice as we have for his forgiving grace, until that day when the final enemy is under the foot of our Savior and our advocacy and action is no longer needed.

Originally posted at: https://www.paultripp.com/articles/posts/my-confession-toward-a-more-balanced-gospel

The Doctrine Of Creation

By Paul David Tripp

Your Bible begins with four carefully selected words, four words that I would argue are perhaps the most important words in all of Scripture.

"In the beginning, God..."

With these words, everything in your life - including sex - is given its shape, purpose and meaning.

Genesis 1:1 tells you that your life is not about you; it's about the Creator. It's vital to know that you were born into a universe that by its very nature is a celebration of him.

What this means practically for your sexuality is that everything exists for God's pleasure and God's glory ... and not for your sexual pleasure and glory.

You and I must approach sex in a way that gives God the glory that belongs to him. So when we're thinking and acting sexually, we should be conscious at that moment that our body and our desires belong to the Lord.

Let's be honest - it's counterinutive to think and act this way! It's natural, on the other hand, to be propelled by momentary and personal sexual desire, forgetting that there is One who owns every aspect of our sexuality.

We have to remember this: human beings were designed to be resident managers of the created world that God owns. God made and owned the beautiful garden of Eden, placed Adam and Eve in it, and then commissioned them to live in and care for the garden he made and owned.

Adam and Eve didn't own what they'd been given. They didn't make the rules. They didn't get a vote when it came to the purpose for their own lives and for everything else. They were there to recognize God's ownership by fulfilling his purpose.

All of that still applies to you and to me and to our sexuality today.

When you put yourself and your particular definition of pleasure at the center of your world, not only are you rejecting God's wisdom and rebelling against his authority, but you're also questing for his position.

Sound familiar? We need only to recall the shocking and sad story of the disobedience in the garden to tell us where rebellion against God's position of authority leads.

You see, our problem with sex doesn't begin with lust, with bad choices, or with sexual misbehavior. Our problem with sex begins when we forget that God must be at the center of this part of our lives as he must be with any other.

Are you struggling to submit your sexuality to God's authority? There is hope! First, the Lord zealously holds on to his position at the center of all things. He will not forsake his position of authority or give his control to another.

And second, when we quest for his position of authority, he convicts us when we're wrong and restores us with his forgiveness. He fights daily on our behalf, causing us to love wisdom and to hate foolishness and inviting us to love his kingdom more than our own.

After each stumble, he invites you to run to him and not from him. And someday, he'll take us to a place where the struggle is no more.

God bless

Paul David Tripp

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  1. How have you tended to put yourself in the center of your world of sexuality?
  2. What does it look like for you to be a "resident manager" in your sex life? Be specific.
  3. How does a self-centered lifestyle breed misery rather than joy? Look to your own life for examples, as well as examples in the outside world.

Originally posted at:  https://www.paultripp.com/wednesdays-word/posts/the-doctrine-of-creation-ww

The Dead End of Sexual Sin

Article by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield

Unbelievers don’t “struggle” with same-sex attraction. I didn’t. My love for women came with nary a struggle at all.

I had not always been a lesbian, but in my late twenties, I met my first lesbian lover. I was hooked and believed that I had found my real self. Sex with women was part of my life and identity, but it was not the only part — and not always the biggest part.

I simply preferred everything about women: their company, their conversation, their companionship, and the contours of their/our body. I favored the nesting, the setting up of house and home, and the building of lesbian community.

As an unbelieving professor of English, an advocate of postmodernism and poststructuralism, and an opponent of all totalizing metanarratives (like Christianity, I would have added back in the day), I found peace and purpose in my life as a lesbian and the queer community I helped to create.

Conversion and Confusion

It was only after I met my risen Lord that I ever felt shame in my sin, with my sexual attractions, and with my sexual history.

Conversion brought with it a train wreck of contradictory feelings, ranging from liberty to shame. Conversion also left me confused. While it was clear that God forbade sex outside of biblical marriage, it was not clear to me what I should do with the complex matrix of desires and attractions, sensibilities and senses of self that churned within and still defined me.

What is the sin of sexual transgression? The sex? The identity? How deep was repentance to go?

Meeting John Owen

In these newfound struggles, a friend recommended that I read an old, seventeenth-century theologian named John Owen, in a trio of his books (now brought together under the title Overcoming Sin and Temptation).

At first, I was offended to realize that what I called “who I am,” John Owen called “indwelling sin.” But I hung in there with him. Owen taught me that sin in the life of a believer manifests itself in three ways: distortion by original sin, distraction of actual day-to-day sin, and discouragement by the daily residence of indwelling sin.

“How should we think about sin that has become a daily part of our identity?”

Eventually, the concept of indwelling sin provided a window to see how God intended to replace my shame with hope. Indeed, John Owen’s understanding of indwelling sin is the missing link in our current cultural confusion about what sexual sin is — and what to do about it.

As believers, we lament with the apostle Paul, “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me” (Romans 7:19–20). But after we lament, what should we do? How should we think about sin that has become a daily part of our identity?

Owen explained with four responses.

1. Starve It

Indwelling sin is a parasite, and it eats what you do. God’s word is poison to sin when embraced by a heart made new by the Holy Spirit. You starve indwelling sin by feeding yourself deeply on his word. Sin cannot abide in his word. So, fill your hearts and minds with Scripture.

One way that I do that is singing the Psalms. Psalm-singing, for me, is a powerful devotional practice as it helps me to melt my will into God’s and memorize his word in the process. We starve our indwelling sin by reading Scripture comprehensively, in big chunks, and by whole books at a time. This enables us to see God’s providence at work in big-picture ways.

2. Call Sin What It Is

Now that it is in the house, don’t buy it a collar and a leash and give it a sweet name. Don’t “admit” sin as a harmless (but un-housebroken) pet. Instead, confess it as an evil offense and put it out! Even if you love it! You can’t domesticate sin by welcoming it into your home.

“God’s word is poison to sin when embraced by a heart made new by the Holy Spirit.”

 

Don’t make a false peace. Don’t make excuses. Don’t get sentimental about sin. Don’t play the victim. Don’t live by excuse-righteousness. If you bring the baby tiger into your house and name it Fluffy, don’t be surprised if you wake up one day and Fluffy is eating you alive. That is how sin works, and Fluffy knows her job. Sometimes sin lurks and festers for decades, deceiving the sinner that he really has it all under control, until it unleashes itself on everything you built, cherished, and loved.

Be wise about your choice sins and don’t coddle them. And remember that sin is not ever “who you are” if you are in Christ. In Christ, you are a son or daughter of the King; you are royalty. You do battle with sin because it distorts your real identity; you do not define yourself by these sins that are original with your consciousness and daily present in your life.

3. Extinguish Indwelling Sin by Killing It

 

Sin is not only an enemy, says Owen. Sin is at enmity with God. Enemies can be reconciled, but there is no hope for reconciliation for anything at enmity with God. Anything at enmity with God must be put to death. Our battles with sin draw us closer in union with Christ. Repentance is a new doorway into God’s presence and joy.

Indeed, our identity comes from being crucified and resurrected with Christ:

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. (Romans 6:4–6)

Satan will use our indwelling sin as blackmail, declaring that we cannot be in Christ and sin in heart or body like this. In those moments, we remind him that he is right about one thing only: our sin is indeed sin. It is indeed transgression against God and nothing else.

But Satan is dead wrong about the most important matter. In repentance, we stand in the risen Christ. And the sin that we have committed (and will commit) is covered by his righteousness. But fight we must. To leave sin alone, says Owen, is to let sin grow: “not to conquer it is to be conquered by it.”

4. Daily Cultivate Your New Life in Christ

 

God does not leave us alone to fight the battle in shame and isolation. Instead, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the soul of each believer is “vivified.” “To vivify” means to animate, or to give life to. Vivification complements mortification (to put to death), and by so doing, it enables us to see the wide angle of sanctification, which includes two aspects:

“Sin is not ever ‘who you are’ if you are in Christ.”

 

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1) Deliverance from the desire of those choice sins, experienced when the grace of obedience gives us the “expulsive power of a new affection” (to quote Thomas Chalmers).

2) Humility over the fact that we daily need God’s constant flow of grace from heaven, and that no matter how sin tries to delude us, hiding our sin is never the answer. Indeed, the desire to be strong enough in ourselves, so that we can live independently of God, is the first sin, the essence of sin, and the mother of all sin.

Owen’s missing link is for believers only. He says, “Unless a man be regenerate (born again), unless he be a believer, all attempts that he can make for mortification [of sin] . . . are to no purpose. In vain he shall use many remedies, [but] he shall not be healed.”

What then should an unbeliever do? Cry out to God for the Holy Spirit to give him a new heart and convert his soul: “mortification [of sin] is not the present business of unregenerate men. God calls them not to it as yet; conversion is their work — the conversion of the whole soul — not the mortification of this or that particular lust.”

Freed for Joy

In the writings of John Owen, I was shown how and why the promises of sexual fulfillment on my own terms were the antithesis of what I had once fervently believed. Instead of liberty, my sexual sin was enslavement. This seventeenth-century Puritan revealed to me how my lesbian desires and sensibilities were dead-end joy killers.

Today, I now stand in a long line of godly women — the Mary Magdalene line. The gospel came with grace, but demanded irreconcilable war. Somewhere on this bloody battlefield, God gave me an uncanny desire to become a godly woman, covered by God, hedged in by his word and his will. This desire bled into another one: to become, if the Lord willed, the godly wife of a godly husband.

And then I noticed it.

Union with the risen Christ meant that everything else was nailed to the cross. I couldn’t get my former life back if I wanted it. At first, this was terrifying, but when I peered deep into the abyss of my terror, I found peace.

With peace, I found that the gospel is always ahead of you. Home is forward. Today, by God’s amazing grace alone, I am a chosen part of God’s family, where God cares about the details of my day, the math lessons and the spilled macaroni and cheese, and most of all, for the people, the image-bearers of his precious grace, the man who calls me beloved, and the children who call me mother.

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield is a former tenured professor of English at Syracuse University. After her conversion to Christianity in 1999, she developed a ministry to college students. She has taught and ministered at Geneva College, is a full-time mother and pastor’s wife, and is author of Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert (2012) and Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ (2015).

Originally posted at:  https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-dead-end-of-sexual-sin

What Does Your Prayer Life Say About God?

From Brad Hambrick's website:  http://bradhambrick.com/what-does-your-prayer-life-say-about-god/

We usually think of our prayer life as saying things “to” God (praising God, making requests, or having conversation) rather than saying something “about” God (evaluation of His character, power, or involvement). But prayer does both, and what our prayer life says “about” God often determines when, if, how, and about what we pray.

Think about it as if you were about to have a conversation with the President of a major company. What you said “to” that person would largely be shaped by what you thought “about” them. Were you a fan of their product? Did their product harm you? Did you want their financial support for a cause? Are they your spouse, parent, or sibling?

The same is true in our prayer life. In this blog post, we will look at five things our lack of prayer can say about God. These are not the only five things, but are meant to help you evaluate your own prayer life; not merely as a discipline but as the expression of a relationship.

  • God is powerless. Often we do not pray because we do not believe God can do anything about our struggle. We view our struggle as “outside God’s jurisdiction.” We view God as constrained by the situational variables involved like Superman is constrained by kryptonite.
  • God is uncaring. Other times we do not pray because we do not believe God will do anything about our struggle. We might believe we are too insignificant for His attention. We may believe we have sinned in way that removes His willingness to intervene for us. We may believe that God is just the Creator and doesn’t care about our prayer, because He just doesn’t care. Sometimes we view God as uncaring and hesitate to pray because we have reduced “caring” to “giving me what I want most” and we fear being told “no” too much to ask.
  • God is irrelevant. Prayer may believe that we have limited God to addressing “spiritual problems” and reduced spiritual problems to church, worship, and evangelism. We might not pray because we believe our daily concerns are not on God’s job description. In this case we don’t pray for the same reason we don’t talk to a plumber about our computer problems.
  • God intrudes on my independence. If we are honest, there are times when we don’t pray because we do not want to know what God might say. We are like the child who wants to “do it all by myself.” Praying would require acknowledging a level of dependence that our pride does not want to see.
  • God is a set of wisdom principles. Sometimes we confuse prayer with contemplation. We might think, “I already spend time trying to ‘figure out’ my struggle, isn’t that the same thing as prayer?” This misconception can often be reinforced when we ask for prayer and immediately get met with suggestions. Another form of this misconception would be, “If God has already given me the Bible, what more could He have to say?” This would be the equivalent of a teenager thinking his/her parents didn’t want to talk about peer pressure, because they had already told him/her to resist it. There is power in a good, conversational relationship that enables us to live out the principles.

The big point is this, if we do not pray, it likely reveals a wrong view of God. “Trying harder” will probably not change the belief(s) that impedes our prayer. If we want to become people of prayer, we need to examine our beliefs and get to know God for who He really is. Hopefully these reflections equip you for the self-examination.