FreeTruth

So in Psalm 37:4 we are told to "delight in God and He will give us the desires of our heart." As mentioned yesterday this is a way of saying that when evildoers seemingly have the upper hand (which is the case in Psalm 37 and today), believers must gaze at God with affection and delight rather than at their surrounding circumstances or the powers that be.

In so doing their fear, fretting, and fuming will dissipate, and their desires (for more of God and grace and joy) will increase. The spiritual formula is really quite simple, even if not always easy to apply. Here it is: In hard times, delight in God. When times grow dark gaze at the Light. When times are tough, turn to the bright, pleasing, satisfying Wonder, whose name is God.

When you do, fear will be expelled and desires satisfied.

One reason why so many Christians today are all hot and bothered to the point of spiritual distraction is because they are spending far more time gazing at problems than at the God above those problems. Time doesn't permit me to expound at length about how to remedy this, but can I suggest a simple piece of advice (which I know you're all smart enough to figure out how to apply)?

For every ten minutes you spend watching the news, evaluating economic and political theory, critiquing politicians, reading the lastest alarms from conservative watchdog groups, or keeping current on the latest scandal in Washington or on Main Street, spend an hour delighting in God.

I'm not exaggerating or kidding. Ten minutes watching the news should be preceded or followed by an hour in the Word of God or prayer or fellowship with believers or reading a book extolling the attributes or gospel or grace or glory or sovereignty of God.

Delight in God and he will give you the desires of your heart. Wallow in the gutter of political thuggery and theory or cultural decay and you will only get mad and afraid.

I heard yesterday (in a conversation) about a local civic leader apparently taken down in an FBI investigation. Guess what: in a total of five minutes of conversation and follow up reading I knew all I needed to know about it. If I spend any more time on it, I lose joy, fuel anger, get weak, start sinning.

I can get all the news I really need daily in a very few minutes of headline reading. More than that and I'm headed for the gutter. Instead I choose to spend my time beholding the One whose glory fills the earth and whose hand rules the nations.

Delighting in God, I get more of God and all the joy he gives, even when the world is upside down with corruption.

Today's thought.

Labels: christian life, Culture War, Faith, Joy in Trials, Persecution, Social Action, Trust

The resurrection of Christ is not a mere claim made by Christians to bolster faith. It is a claim rooted in history. We say not only, "He is risen" but "He is risen indeed;" in actual fact and truth (Luke 24:34).

Luke 24:13-35 presents some of the many compelling proofs of the resurrection:

1. He walked with many and talked with them after his death (Luke 24:13-35).
2. He let them touch His actual body (Luke 24:38, 39).
3. He ate meals with them (Luke 24:40-43).
4. He reminded them that His resurrection and glory had been foretold in prophecies (Luke 24:44-49).

If interested in finding out more of the proofs read books like: The Case for Christ, by Lee Strobel, or Evidence that Demands a Verdict, by Josh Mcdowell.

What matters my friends is that you know beyond all doubt that Jesus is risen indeed. Mere wishing or hoping Him alive does not mean He is. Does the evidence prove it? Does the evidence give you reason to believe, reason sufficient to support making a decision to follow Him with all your heart for all of life?

Many who profess to be Christians fail to live lives that evidence that they really believe that Jesus is alive. If he's alive, then He is Lord, and everything about us should be convincing testimony that we know it.

You must know that He lives. Then you must live a life that proves that you know it.
Another way of getting at that is this: Would people looking at the character and priorities of your life be convinced that you really believe that Jesus is alive? Something to think about as we echo the words: "He is risen indeed."

Labels: christian life, Lent, resurrection of Christ. Guest Post

I'm presenting the reasons for my faith in the Bible as God's Word with the conviction that the stronger the foundations for one's faith are, the stronger one's faith will be. And the stronger one's faith is, the more sanctified for and satisfied in God that one will be. My aim is our greater holiness and gladness in God. May God grant me my heart's desire!

The fifth reason I believe the Bible is the Word of God is because the teachings of the Bible work for all of life. Consider with me that the validity of a truth claim is based in part on the workability, liveability, and real-world feasibility of that claim. Does that claim fit into and work in the real world?

Ravi Zacharias loves to sound this note in his defense of the faith, noting how in contrast to pantheism (which is the basic philosophy behind Hinduism, Buddhism, and their various New Age offspring), Christianity (embodied in the teachings and truth claims of the Bible) actually can be lived; it works in the real world.

Part of what pantheism teaches is that the material world really does not exist; that none of what we think we see and touch is real. Everything is illusion. My senses are deceiving me into thinking that there is a real key board in front of me at which my fingers are pecking away. Actually, even my senses are not real. What we think we see and feel and smell and taste is not really there. And the thought that we actually do see and feel and smell and taste is an illusion as well.

The point that Mr. Zacharias so ably articulates is that pantheism cannot possibly be true simply because it cannot possibly be lived in the real world. No pantheist can be a consistent pantheist. It just won't work.

How does Mr. Zacaharias prove this? To paraphrase, he reminds us that every pantheist knows, as he approaches an intersection on his bicycle at the same time as a tractor trailer, that he'd better stop. He knows that, contrary to his faith that that truck is not really there, it really is. And if he should be so fooled as to think it's not really there he will soon find himself to be really dead.

This means that the claims of pantheism/Hinduism, however esoteric and appealing they may be at one level, just don't work at the real life level. Unless a New Ager chooses to let tractor trailers hit him, he simply cannot live what he believes. And if he does so choose, all that results is human road kill.

Folks, it's all well and good to claim that something is true, but if it cannot be lived, and if it simply does not work, it cannot possibly be true.

I would argue that the Bible works. It can be lived consistently (with the help of God), and when it is lived consistently, it works. Its teachings, laws, and various work, health, relationship, and lifestyle paradigms all interface with real life in the real world and lead to real benefits and positive consequences for those who do them.

Those who live by God's precepts in God's Word usually live better and often live longer (Ephesians 6:1-3), simply because they are made wiser by them (Psalm 19:7-11; 119:98-104). Generally speaking, unless God has occasional reasons to make it otherwise, bodies stay healthier, hearts become happier, marriages grow stronger and last longer, pleasures become purer and sweeter, relationships bond deeper, any and all work becomes more satisfying and productive, material needs are more consistently provided, and even deep trials and extreme suffering are more purposeful and peace-filled, when the Bible is learned and practiced in life.

What this suggests strongly is that the Bible has all the marks of being a Creator’s Manual for doing life on planet earth. Whoever wrote this Book gets it. He knows the real world and how to live in it. And even when He tells us things that are counter-intuitive (such as "if you would save your life, lose it"), the advice proves both do-able and true.

So here's another reason for my faith in the Bible. It's a reliable and effective guidebook for life on God's earth. It's an infallible Manual that points to an omniscient Manufacturer.

God has not only made our planet; He's told us how to live on it. And what He has said works.

Labels: Apologetics, christian life, The Word of God

I have just a few thoughts as we embark on another new year. I have come to value this holiday increasingly as the years have passed. As a child it meant no more than I got to stay up past midnight on New Year's eve. Today it means that I have a chance to pause, to think, to evaluate, to set goals, to take stock of life.

Gayline asked me last evening if I'd be willing to take some time this evening to talk over our personal and family goals for 2010. It was a great idea (she's got lots of them!), so that's part of what we're going to do.

I suspect that this is going to lead us toward a few goals like these:
1. Make sure that we're both going hard and happy after God in 2010.
2. Make sure that we're going hard and happy after personal character and faith in 2010 by mortifying specific sins of which we're aware and bringing to life the fruit of the Spirit.
3. Make sure that we're going hard and happy after Truth in 2010, through daily reading of the Word and extensive reading of the Truth-gold that others have written.
4. Make sure that we're both going hard and happy after each other in 2010.
5. Make sure we're both going hard and happy after our children and grand-children in 2010.
6. Make sure that we're both going hard and happy after our spiritual family in the church in 2010.
7. Make sure that we're going hard and happy after good nutrition and exercise in 2010 that we might seize whatever years we have left with as much energy and good health as it's in our power to develop.
8. Make sure that we're going hard and happy after joy--in all God is, and all God does--in 2010.

Now if we are enabled to apply specifics to all of this, all in the strength which God supplies, it will prove to be a God-filled year.

What are your goals?

Have a blessed new year.

Labels: christian life, Spiritual disciplines

A curious thing, isn’t it, that when, in Matthew 2:13-18, the child Jesus was threatened by the ruthless King Herod, God left it to that humble dreamer, Joseph, to protect his Son. There may have been any number of other means to the same end. God had already done amazing, miraculous acts in the early stages of the Incarnation story--the pregnancy of old Elizabeth, the conception in the womb of the virgin, the appearance of the star leading the Magi to Bethlehem, all the dreams and angelic appearances. The story of Jesus’ birth and early life was “littered” with the supernatural. And yet...

Yet it pleased God to entrust the safety of his eternal Son to a very ordinary (may we say, pedestrian?) method. “Joseph, get up--now!--and take Jesus and Mary, and run for your life!” Amazingly, Joseph, again demonstrating his obedient spirit, does just that. He collects whatever belongings he and Mary can carry (remember, they’re probably carrying the Christ child as well), and goes--without even waiting for daybreak. It's hard to believe that the Christ Child was born on the run in this fashion. What is also surprising is that on this occasion, it can be truly said that Joseph “saved” the Savior.

The flight to Egypt was both the fulfillment of Hosea’s prophecy (“Out of Egypt I called my son.”) and the surest way of escaping Herod’s jurisdiction. For Joseph, it meant a 90 mile trip, possibly on foot (no beasts of burden are mentioned in either Matthew or Luke), constantly looking over his shoulder to see if the soldiers were coming. It meant trusting that God would direct his steps, providing safe passage through an area where robbers and highwaymen were a constant threat. It meant fleeing political persecution, becoming refugees, aliens in a strange land. The little family of three would have presented an easy target, for criminals, or for those who may have harbored hatred against “foreigners.”

Such a relocation, under the best of circumstances, would have posed enormous challenges. What about language barriers? Where would they live? Egypt is a big place, after all. At least, the issue of how their needs would be met had already been addressed. They had treasures--gold, frankincense, myrrh. God, who had provided these valuables, would certainly provide the answers to the other questions. But it must have tested the faith of the family.

We serve a God who uses means to accomplish his purposes. In this case, the means included a dream, an obedient man, a devoted mother, and gifts given by some unexpected visitors from a distant land. What are the means he is using in your life? How might you be the means he would use in the life of another?

Tim Bowditch

Labels: Advent, christian life, Christmas, Guest Post

Well I'm back after several days in which I could not blog and others very ably filled in for me. Life is full and as I sit here early Tuesday morning I'm aware that several good blogs have been posted about which I've not commented at all. So I think I will take this post to thank these guys, and to post about what I've read from you guys:
1) Bruce has called us to both a life of vigilance and a life of prayer. The constant danger that our souls are in in this fallen world requires that our souls be in constant prayer and communion with God.

The world will devour us if we are not consumed with God. Hunger for God or you will be stuffed with the trivial and the terrible of this world. Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. We simply cannot be guarded enough, for let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he falls. Thank you Bruce; such counsel never, ever, ever grows dated.

2) Peter has called us to a life of earnest witness--citing C.T. Studd in urging us to set up a rescue shop one yard away from hell if need be. Friends, people--image-bearers of the eternal God--are perishing right next door to our lives and we hardly raise a sound of concern. I believe that to have hearts like our Lord's that weep over our Jerusalems today, we need to think more often and more deeply about hell; we have to pray for hearts made tender and grieving; we have to care nothing for self, and about nothing but God's glory and sinners' good.

3) Tim B. has invited husbands winsomely to be instruments of beautifying grace in their wives' lives by being men of character and grace and humility and love. O to be such a man for my bride of 31 years. I want to be a better man and a better husband everyday, that she might become a better and more beautiful wife every day. i agree with Tim fully that my wife's beauty of soul, and even of body is largely the fruit of whether her husband helps her maintain and deepen it by the quality of his life and care.

Guys thank you for the timely and needed words
It sure is good to be partners with others who share a passion for what is good.
We're all debtors, and the better for it.

Labels: christian life

Some helpful practical guidance from Donald Whitney to assist us in prayer (and most of us need all the assistance we can get):

One of the most common struggles in the practice of spirituality is maintaining mental focus in prayer. When I try to pray, I often find myself thinking about my to-do list or daydreaming instead of talking to God. But walking as I pray—either in a large place indoors (such as a church building), or more frequently, outdoors—usually keeps my mind from wandering as easily. In addition, I typically bring a small Bible to prompt my prayer periodically during the walk.

The walking and the weather invigorate my sluggish soul. Looking up into the blue or out to the horizon refreshes my sense of the greatness of God. The sights, smells, and sounds of my Father’s world surround me with reminders of His presence. The cadence of my pace, or occasionally stopping to stare into the distance, often enables me to concentrate in prayer more easily than when I’m still and my eyes are closed.

Abraham’s son, Isaac, is an example from Scripture of walking while thinking on the things of God. Genesis 24:63 reports, “And Isaac went out to meditate in the field.” Four hundred years ago, an English Puritan named Joseph Hall wrote in his influential book, The Art of Divine Meditation, "All our teachers of meditation have commended various positions of the body, according to their own disposition and practice... But of all others, I think that Isaac’s choice was best, who meditated walking."

Perhaps no one in church history is more closely associated with a life of meditative prayer than George Müller. He lived in Bristol, England during the nineteenth century where he founded an orphanage and a literature distribution ministry. Müller recorded more than fifty thousand specific answers to prayer, thirty thousand of which he said were answered the same day he prayed. Notice that his normal mode of prayer was a meditative prayer walk:

"I find it very beneficial to my health to walk thus for meditation before breakfast, and... generally take out a New Testament... and I find that I can profitably spend my time in the open air.

I used to consider the time spent in walking a loss, but now I find it very profitable, not only to my body, but also to my soul... For... I speak to my Father... about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word."

Simplify the struggle of staying focused in prayer, and refresh both body and soul with a leisurely walk in conversation with God from His Word" (Simplify Your Spiritual Life, by Donald S. Whitney, NavPress, 2003).

I am also reminded of Jonathan Edwards in this regard, who expressed that he was "often walking alone in the woods, and solitary places, for meditation, soliloquy, and prayer, and converse with God." I have personally found this recommendation to pray while walking to be most helpful in my own experience, particularly while walking in the woods or along the ocean. Perhaps you will too.

Labels: christian life, Guest Post, Prayer

The truth is I am always in a helpless position before God. The problem is, I don't always seem to realize it. I frequently forget, or act like I forget, that I am always in a position of desperate need of God and His enabling for anything I do--indeed for life and breath and everything. Because I am so helpless, prayer is so critical. Prayer is the means by which a helpless sinner reaches out in dependence upon the all sufficient God. I have recently been reading about prayer in an excellent, very practical new book titled, A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World, by Paul E. Miller. Here is a brief excerpt--I offer it as an encouragement that it may serve to help us (myself, first of all) pursue helplessness before God, and from that posture of helplessness pursue in prayer the One who is our sufficiency, our all:

Throughout the book of John we see people coming to Jesus because of their helplessness. The Samaritan woman has no water (see John 4). Later in that same chapter, the official's son has no health. The crippled man by the pool of Bethesda has no help to get into the water (see John 5). The crowd has no bread (see John 6). The blind man has no sight (see John 9). And finally, Lazarus has no life (see John 11).

We received Jesus because we were weak, and that's how we follow him. Paul told the Colossians, "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him" (2:6). We forget that helplessness is how the Christian life works.

Paul was reminded of this when he prayed three times for God to remove his thorn in the flesh. It didn't happen. Instead, God reminded Paul of how the gospel works. "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

The gospel, God's free gift of grace in Jesus, only works when we realize we don't have it all together. The same is true for prayer. The very thing we are allergic to--our helplessness--is what makes prayer work. It works because we are helpless. We can't do life on our own.

Prayer mirrors the gospel. In the gospel, the Father takes us as we are because of Jesus and gives us his gift of salvation. In prayer, the Father receives us as we are because of Jesus and gives us his gift of help. We look at the inadequacy of our praying and give up, thinking something is wrong with us. God looks at the adequacy of his Son and delights in our sloppy, meandering prayers (pg. 55).

Labels: christian life, Guest Post, Prayer

"There are only two classes of persons who can be called reasonable: those who serve God with all their hearts because they know him and those who seek him with all their hearts because they do not know him." (Blaise Pascal)

Sunday morning's preaching-- along with the opening video from John Piper, were strong reminders that unless I, like St. Paul, consider all that seems worthy in my life no more valuable than one big pile of stinking waste (next to knowing Jesus Christ), I cannot hope to live this life in a meaningful and rational way. My profession of faith, and my life, will not match.

I am forced to confront myself again with the question: "Do I know Jesus Christ, or do I only know about him? Do I cling to him as my only worthy possession? Or, are there still a number of "Christ substitutes" in my life that diminish my view of HIM. Do my words and actions indicate that he is supremely important in my life?

Thank you Tim, for putting the question before me again: Why do I still live for the moment, when eternity is before me? Why do I cave in to the crazy and insane ways of this world?

I need to get down to business and decide: will I live rationally, or will I continue making unreasonable and irrational compromises?

Do I know Christ (as St. Paul knew him), or do I know about him only? On the day of judgment many who thought they knew Jesus Christ will say: "But I know you Jesus!" And he will reply: "Depart from me, I never knew you."

Brothers and sisters, we'd best take yesterday's preaching seriously... the consequences of missing the point can be eternal.

Labels: christian life, Guest Post, Loving God

Here are a few final thoughts on how to increase your joy:
1. See and celebrate the evidences of God's grace in yourself and in others (Acts 11:21-24). Barnabas rejoiced because he saw grace in others. Let's sharpen our vision to see the same, and then open our mouths to celebrate it. Never hold back your praise of God and gratitude to others for the evidence of God's saving and sanctifying grace in life. This will simply make you burst with joy.
2. Contemplate the promises of God. Be a promise-believer, and be filled with joy.
3. Anticipate the life to come. There is joy unspeakable in being a Christian whose eye is on the sky, and what lies beyond.
4. Gaze at God. When God wanted to comfort His people, relieve their sadness, and restore their joy in Isaiah 40:1, 2, He called them to "behold their God" (Isaiah 40:9). Nothing so fills the soul with joy as a steady gazing at God.

This by the way is the joy of heaven over which angels sing and saints dance. In Bible theology we speak of the beatific vision (the happy, joyful, blessed vision) of God in heaven. Seeing God in heaven will be what makes heaven heaven. Seeing God by faith here and now makes heaven touch down on planet earth, and gives us joy today.

I close this series with words from Jonathan Edwards:

The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean (Works, II, 244).

May grace, peace, and joy abound in us all, in the knowledge of God. Amen.

Labels: Affections, christian life, Joy, Religious Affections

One of the major themes of Acts is the building and advancing of the kingdom through the conversion of souls. I've counted at least 23 church growth texts in the 24 chapters of Acts. I think Luke wants us to get it and feel it.

The early church was filled with joy because it was part of the expanding kingdom of God. People were getting saved, getting changed, getting transformed, leaving Satan's realm and entering God's (Acts 26:16-18). No wonder the church was alive with joy!

I have often said that in a local church's life there may well be no joy greater than a baptism. Baptisms represent the ongoing life-transforming, kingdom-expanding work of God's grace in the gospel. And believers can never tire of being a part of such spreading grace.

If you want joy to increase, think about your conversion in a fresh way, engage in evangelism to lead others to grace, actively reflect with wonder over every new believer that comes through the doors of your church, and do your best never to miss a baptism. These are fuel for the fires of your joy.

Be very, very happy, just as heaven is, every time a sinner repents.

Labels: Affections, christian life, Joy, Religious Affections

Read through Acts and notice all the references to the resurrection, and the fact that the early believers had witnessed that event and/or felt the power and hope of it. No wonder they were full of joy.

I've often thought that C.J. Mahaney's book, Living the Cross Centered Life, needs a companion, Living the Resurrection Centered Life. The early church was a fellowship of the cross and of the empty tomb! Remember that Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 that part of the main thing--that which is of first importance--which we need always to keep in focus is the resurrection of Christ.

The cross of Christ gives us peace; the peace of forgiveness. The resurrection of Christ gives us hope; the hope of power over sin, over death, over all! We would do well to fill our days with reflections on both, and to do so until they move our affections and fill us up with joy.

Have you meditated on the empty tomb, the triumph of the Crucified, and the death of death in the death and resurrection of Christ recently? "Christ the Lord is risen today; Hallelujah!"

Try thinking over this great triumph and all it means without at least having a moment when you're tempted to pump your fist in the air with a thrust of victorious joy and hope. That's one temptation I doubt you can avoid or resist.

Labels: Affections, christian life, Joy, Religious Affections

Reconnecting to the book of Acts where we started in this series on joy, I note that the early believers sang while in prison (Acts 16:25) and rejoiced when they suffered (Acts 5:41). I've wondered why.

I'd guess that it's due in large part to what we read in Acts 4:24-28. The early believers had a strong confidence in the absolute sovereignty of God. They knew Who reigned, Who ruled and Who over-ruled in all the affairs of men. They had no reason to fear and every reason to rejoice, even in the hardest of times because they knew God was fully in control and working out all things for their good (Romans 8:28).

I heard a pastor say one time that God's-sovereignty-believing Christians are those who can walk around with a holy smirk on their faces--not in arrogance toward people, but in confidence toward circumstances. It's a smirk that says to all things that happen: "You cannot touch me, cannot harm me, cannot ruin me, cannot get to my soul. In fact you o trial, o suffering, o persecutor, o affliction are nothing more than a means of grace in the hands of God for the growth and gladness of my soul!"

Friends--hold firmly and deeply and unflinchingly to the reality that God is on the throne ruling over all, and over-ruling all, and you will be out of the reach of all harm and in the reach of all joy.

Take it from a man who's been through some very deep waters and tasted joy in it all.

Labels: Affections, christian life, Joy, Religious Affections

As I wind down this series over the next 4-5 days, I want to suggest ways to increase joy in our lives, joy that will spill over into our worship, our fellowship, our ministry. I'm going to offer six or seven joy-increasing tips for our reflection.

First, I'd suggest that a growing awareness of forgiving grace will increase our joy. Jesus said of the woman who had been forgiven much that it was that very awareness of her great forgiveness that made her affections (love and certainly joy, too) great (Luke 7:47). She loved much because she was forgiven much. Surely she also rejoiced much because she was forgiven much.

Cultivate an awareness of sin and the ruin and sorrow it deserves, and then an even greater awareness of the atoning work of Christ which has purchased not only your forgiveness but also "all things" good (Romans 8:31, 32), and you will feel joy unspeakable and full of glory!

In recent years many of us have become familiar with a phrase--"I'm doing better than I deserve" which has impacted our daily awareness of grace. I have been heard often to say: "If I smile even once today, it is better than I deserve!" That is absolutely and humblingly and joy-givingly true.

And do you know what? It's 11:00AM as I type, and I've already experienced at least 50 smiles today. Tell me that isn't grace. Considering that all I deserve is never- ending tears, one smile is mercy. Considering that I'll experience 1000s of smiles in coming days is astonishing mercy--mercy worth singing and shouting and celebrating.

Think long and deep over forgiveness and all the new-every-morning-mercies of God, and you will be full of joy; have no doubt about it.

Labels: Affections, christian life, Joy, Religious Affections, Worship

In view of Tim's recent posts dealing with joy, it seemed that a dose of medicine from "the Doctor"-----Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd Jones that is------- may be beneficial, and serve to reinforce the importance of joy in the Christian life that Tim has been pressing upon us. From the classic book that helps to bring joy by addressing the opposite of joy, "Spiritual Depression: It's Causes and Cure", we find these words from "the Doctor":

In a sense a depressed Christian is a contradiction in terms, and he is a very poor recommendation for the gospel. We are living in a pragmatic age. People today are not primarily interested in Truth but they are interested in results. The one question they ask is: Does it work? They are frantically seeking and searching for something that can help them. Now we believe that God extends His Kingdom partly through His people, and we know that He has oftentimes done some of the most notable things in the history of the Church through the simple Christian living of some quite ordinary people. Nothing is more important, therefore, than that we should be delivered from a condition which gives other people, looking at us, the impression that to be a Christian means to be unhappy, to be sad, to be morbid, and that the Christian is one who 'scorns delights and lives laborious days'. There are many indeed who give this as a reason for not being Christian, and for giving up all interest they may ever have had in the Christian faith. They say: look at Christian people, look at the impression they give! And they are very fond of contrasting us with people out in the world, people who seem to be so thrilled by the things they believe in, whatever they may be. They shout at their football matches, they talk about the films they have seen, they are full of excitement and want everybody to know it; but Christian people too often seem to be perpetually in the doldrums and too often give this appearance of unhappiness and of lack of freedom and of absence of joy. There is no question at all but that this the main reason why large numbers of people have ceased to be interested in Christianity. And, let us be quite frank and admit it, there is a sense in which there is some justification for their attitude, and we have to confess that their criticism is a fair one. It behooves us, therefore, not only for or own sakes, but also for the sake of the Kingdom of God and the glory of the Christ in Whom we believe, to represent Him and His cause, His message and His power in such a way that men and women, far from being antagonized, will be drawn and attracted as they observe us, whatever our circumstances or condition. We must so live that they will be compelled to say: Would to God I could be like that, would to God I could live in this world and go through this world as that person does (pgs. 11-12).

I wonder what impression is being given to those who observe my life? Is it implying "that to be a Christian means to be unhappy, to be sad, to be morbid, and that the Christian is one who 'scorns delights and lives laborious days'"? Or, is it as described in 1 Peter 1:8 - "Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy inexpressible and filled with glory"? I hope it is increasingly the latter.

Labels: christian life, Guest Post, Joy

I know I said yesterday that I'd not have a post today to give you time to process all the info offered in my last post, but I want to add just a short testimony by way of further reflection, and hopefully inspiration.

A short time ago someone said to me that he has noticed a distinct increase in my joy in recent months, and he feels it has been used of God to increase the joy of the flock I pastor. My example of joy--he suggested--has led others into joy. This was a great blessing and a humbling moment for me. I was overjoyed and grateful!!

Later as I reflected on this brother's observation it hit me that it suggested something very interesting. I have long been a very happy and joyful man in Christ. By grace I have been able to experience joy--real and pronounced--even in the deepest trials of life, and burdens of ministry. Despite much sorrow, I have had very very few days (don't get me wrong: there have been some) in the past 25-30 years when I have not felt a real and deep joy in the Lord, in people, and in ministry.

Despite moments and occasional days of sorrow and burden, I have been a happy man and pastor for a very long time. Now, I will grant that as God has taught me the priority of joy in Him, I have grown in this even more, and I'm thankful to say that my joy has increased. But here would be my read on things: while my joy has increased it is my expressiveness of joy that has increased even more. I have seen the need more and more to express the joy that's within: in song, in tears, in verbalized praise for what God is doing in others and in the church, in clapping, in smiles, in greetings of people expressing my sheer gratitude for their presence and God's grace in their life, in lifting hands, and more.

I believe that what has impacted people,and led them into greater joy is the increase of my joy expressed, at least as much as the increase of my joy. It always confused me when people used to tell me that I was a melancholic, when inwardly I was rejoicing greatly in God and in what He was doing in people's lives. Now I have a better sense of what was going on: I was failing to show what I was tasting within. Inwardly i was singing and smiling, but outwardly I was serious and staid and subdued in emotion.

The more I have let out what is within, the more others have felt it and gained some of it themselves. All this is to say that expressiveness in joy is not only good for my soul; it is good for others'.

A bit more to think about.

Labels: Affections, christian life, Joy, Religious Affections, Worship

As I proceed to some imperatives regarding expressiveness of joy (and other spiritual affections) in worship, I do so mindful of three concerns:

1. Please take a close look at yesterday's 10-comment conversation on this blog; it is loaded with significant interaction. I'm concerned that no one move ahead in this thinking without seeing those matters clearly.

2. I'm concerned that our discussion about joy make no one sad! There's a danger in considering the matter of joy, that those not experiencing or expressing it may feel even less joy, either out of guilt or fear (either of man or of excess), or envy or confusion or despair. I don't want to make the melancholic even more so! Please hear my heart in all this: it is to encourage joy, not quench it. I do not wish to rebuke anyone who is not getting fully what I'm discussing.

I have no desire to imply that if you are not experiencing the fulness of joy to which I've been calling attention, that you are experiencing no joy at all. You may well be rejoicing daily in God--and maybe more than me! Besides, remember the gospel: if there is any way in which you are not experiencing the joy of the Lord in full measure that is no reason to feel condemned, for Christ died even for our failures to rejoice in Him!

3. I am also concerned that as we move to imperatives, there be a spirit of Christian obedience as we do. One thing that has burdened me a bit through the years as I discuss these types of things (as well as commands like: "earnestly desire the spiritual gifts") is that people can be convinced theoretically that they should have more joy or that the Bible commands expressiveness of that joy (or that spiritual gifts are promised for today), but because such do not come easily to them or because they are afraid of excesses, they never actually get around to obeying the command of Scripture to pursue them. Their fears or temperamental struggles regarding such things keep them from actual obedience.

I remember when I first saw the repeated Bible imperatives re expressiveness in worship that my conscience would not let me go, even though temperamentally, culturally, and even theologically, I had been trained and entrenched in an entirely different way. So I had to force my hands up or my hands together or my knees to bend. Obedience required a "beating of my body into submission" to the will of my God.

I say this, not to burden the struggling, but to remind us all that whenever the Bible calls on us to do anything--no matter how hard, no matter how different, no matter how counter-intuitive or cultural, we must yield and do, even if by taking one baby step at a time. My first times lifting hands in worship amounted to a mere action of the wrists. I bent them upward around my waist, lifting my hands at waste height, until I could muster courage and faith to raise them higher!

Obedience starts somewhere, and keeps going from there.

Now that said, it may remain for me to convince that expressiveness is a matter of obedience, rather than temperament or style or culture. To do that let me simply garner a series of texts and stats for you (I'm going to have the following be my post for today and tomorrow, since it includes a lot and many texts you may want to check; I'll pick up on the question of how to grwo in joy next week):

1. Key texts include: Psalms 95, 149, 150 (for that matter, the Psalms are full of commands to worship and to do it with all manner of expressiveness. Being the inspired manual for worship that it is--and one we are commanded to make a part of NT worship in such passages as Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16--I think we can quite safely conclude that the themes, forms, and postures for worship that it commands and commends are ours to follow, unless the NT clearly says they are to cease).

2. Kneeling/Bowing: Genesis 24:52; 1 Kings 8:54; 1 Kings 18:4; 2 Chronicles 6:1; 29:29,30; Ezra 9:1; Nehemiah 8:6; Psalm 95; Isaiah 45:23; Daniel 6:10; Luke 22:41; Acts 7:60; 9:40; 20:36; 21:5; Ephesians 3:14; Philippians 2:10; Revelation 5:8,14; 11: 16.

3. Shouting/Joyful Noise (sometimes translated “sing”): Psalm 5:11; 32:11; 33:1-3; 35:27; 47:5; 65:13; 66:1ff; 95:1ff; 98:4(1-9); 100:1; 132:9,16; Ezra 3:11-13; Job 38:7; 2 Samuel 5/2 Chronicles 15.

4. Clapping: Psalm 47:1; 98:8; Isaiah 55:12.

5. Lifting Hands: 1 Timothy 2:8; Genesis 14:22; Leviticus 9:22; Exodus 9:29,33; 2 Chronicles 6:12, 13, 29; Ezra 9:5; Nehemiah 8:6; Psalm 28:2; 63:4; 88:9; 119:48; 134:2; 141:2.

6. Dance: 1 Samuel 6:14,16; 1 Chronicles 15; Exodus 15; Judges 11:34; 1 Samuel 18:6, 21:11; 29:5; Jeremiah 31:4,13; Psalm 30:11; 149:3; 150:4

7. Texts with multiple physical activities in worship: 1 Chronicles 16: 1-42 with 2 Samuel 6 and 2 Chronicles 15.

If one puts all of the Biblical references to standing, kneeling, bowing, clapping, dancing, shouting and enthusiastic singing accompanied by instruments together, one will compile an impressive list indeed. The length of the list should convince any student of the Bible that physical activity and expression in worship is considered natural, normal and praiseworthy by God.

Lord, help us to know and to feel both the majesty of Your being and the magnitude of Your love. So much may we feel these, dear Lord, that we will soon join Ezra on his face and David in the dance!

Labels: Affections, christian life, Joy, Religious Affections, Worship

I hope you won't mind if I delay the how to gain more joy posts for another day or two so I can connect us first to a few more thoughts regarding joy; thoughts touching on how joy is expressed in God's house in heaven, and in God's house on earth.

One thing I have learned is that joy needs to be expressed, and that often with exuberance, both in order for it to be biblical, and in order for it to be maximized. I think it was C.S. Lewis who observed that joy is not complete until it is expressed. We see this in our irresistable human urge--whenever we experience something happy or joyful--to tell someone about it. Joy is maximized and completed when it is released into the ears and hearts of others. This is worth pondering.

What is even more worth pondering is that biblical joy is consistently visible, outwardly manifested, and talked and sung and danced about. This is true even in God's eternal house, heaven itself. We know that joyful singing is the sound of heaven, joined in by all present, even by God, with a loud voice (Zephaniah 3:17; Hebrews 2:11, 12).

I think a pretty good case can be made that the joyful singing of heaven is attended with dance as well. I would base this case first on the general biblical encouragements we have to include dance in worship (e.g.-David's model in 2 Samuel 6:14, plus Psalm 149:3 and 30:11), and second on two descriptions we have of heaven's joy.

The first is in Luke 15 where in the story of the prodigal son returned home, we see the young man's father (who represents God, the One who welcomes repentant sinners home) throwing a huge party complete with music and dancing. Since Jesus' point in this and the preceding stories of Luke 15, is to show the joy of God and of heaven when sinners repent (see Luke 15:7, 10), there is at least good reason to conclude that every time a sinner comes to Christ, heaven breaks into celebration! The joy of heaven is loud, celebratory and effusive.

This is further supported by another text in Revelation 15:2-4 where we read that the inhabitants of heaven will sing Moses' song. What's instructive about this is that Moses' song which followed the deliverance of Israel from Egypt (found in Exodus 15:1-21) is in fact the Old Testament's most well known dance song (Exodus 15:20, 21)! That's one of the songs chosen for heaven.

If the Israelites could not help but sing and dance when delivered from Egypt into the promised land, how much more will heaven's throngs not help but sing and dance when delivered from hell into God's eternal home! So at the very least the Bible seems to connect joyful singing and dancing to heaven at least these two times.

So I conclude that for joy to be complete it must be expressed, and for joy to be heavenly and heaven-like it must be expressed exuberantly and effusively. We will see that this conclusion matches up with actual imperatives as we move forward tomorrow.

Of course we would be going too far to say that joy must always be effusive, but we would not be going nearly far enough if our joy is never or not very often effusive. Part of God's will that we are to pray is done on earth even as it is in heaven, is that our joy be so strong, so real, and so free, that it gets released in loud singing and celebration on earth, even as heaven's joy is.

And folks, take it from me (a guy who was as conservative and restrained as anyone--I was actually trained and taught not to be expressive because emotion was seen as dangerous and unspiritual): all of us can gain such a level of joy in God that we can learn to sing loud, and do at least a little leaping and dancing for joy.

Are we all ready to aim that high?

Labels: Affections, christian life, Heaven, Joy, Religious Affections

I've often said that when I'm asked how I'm doing, the answer depends on what aspect of life and ministry one wants me to talk about. This is because there is always much to rejoice in and always much to weep over. In fact, I do not think it's an exaggeration to say that if you were to engage me in deep conversation in either direction, I would probably be weeping within five minutes; weeping for sorrow or weeping for joy; quite possibly for both in the same situations.

As we consider the matter of Christian joy we need to nuance the conversation a bit by pausing to think about the call to Christian sorrow. A call to Christian sorrow?! Surely I'm overstating it. No; not at all. Part of godliness is weeping.

Jesus wept (as the Bible's shortest verse, John 11:35--as well as other texts--tells us). Jesus told us that mourning is blessed (Matthew 5:4). Jesus makes the call to weeping vs. laughing even more stark in Luke 6:21-25. God grieves over our sins (Ephesians 4:30). We are commanded to "weep with those who weep" (Romans 12:15). Paul experienced "great sorrow and unceasing anguish" over the lost condition of his fellow man (Romans 9:2). In fact Paul, while always rejoicing, was sorrowful (2 Corinthians 6:10). James turns the call to mourning into a stark Old Testament-prophet-like thundering plea (James 4:8-10).

What are we to make of this? We are to make of it that as Christians we must never forget that while we are drinking deeply of the joys of God and the blessings of the age to come, we are still here in a fallen world with remaining sin within and without. We are to weep over our own sins, and we are to grieve the sins of others. We are to mourn over human loss and grief, and we are to grieve the state of a fallen world in which "evil men go from bad to worse" (2 Timothy 3:13). We may rightly grieve bad illness and the terrible enemy called death (Philippians 2:27; Acts 8:2).

There is the now which is a perpetual mix of sorrow and joy, and there is the not yet, the reality that the fulness of our joy is reserved for a time to come when all tears will be wiped away. If a Christian can live in this world without ever crying, indeed, without crying often over the sins and sorrows of a broken world, he is simply either a hard-hearted man, or Pollyanna, a naive child who imagines that everything is happy when it's not.

Christians are called to weep. No believer can be truly a God- and people- and holiness-loving man or woman whose heart never breaks with sorrow. Weeping frequently for sorrow does not make us a melancholic; it may simply mean we are holy.

But this in no way negates my previous calls to joy. It only makes them more mysterious and might I say it, more profound. Ours is not a grief without hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13), therefore it is a grief with joy! Paul was perplexed, confused, sorrowful, and cast down--but never in despair, and always rejoicing! We are to rejoice in the Lord always and again--I will say it with Paul--rejoice (2 Corinthians 6:10; 4:7-11; Philippians 4:4). We know in experience what the song-writer calls "pleasing grief and mournful joy"; a mystery and a profound paradox to be sure, but true nonetheless.

The joys of having tasted of God and grace and the powers and joys of the age to come need to be so strong in us that every tear of sorrow is mixed with tears of hope, and joy and sheer exhilaration in the glories of our God. This is clearly the experience of the apostle, and of the Savior who went before him.

Will it be ours?

I will write tomorrow of how we may gain more of such joy, even through the tears.

Labels: Affections, christian life, Joy, Religious Affections, Sorrow

In the recent preaching series at church on the Christian life and the pursuit of holiness, one of the recommended resources that Tim encouraged us to get hold of and read is the classic study of this central Biblical theme entitled simply, Holiness, by J.C. Ryle. This book is indeed one of the most powerful and helpful treatments of this vital subject available. It is Biblically faithful and piercing to the heart, and in the midst of a lot of confusing ideas about sanctification floating around the Christian world these days (and past days for that matter), listening to Ryle teach the Bible (and of course applying to ourselves the truth of God he so effectively explains) will help keep us pressing on along the road to the Celestial City, growing ever more like our Lord along the way.

I find it interesting and significant that he begins this study of holiness with the entire first chapter focusing on the doctrine of sin. How often have we heard the complaints whenever sin is taught or preached, that this is a dreary subject (and I suppose it is) that makes us feel bad. Stop beating us up and making us feel bad--we want to feel good about ourselves, or so it goes. And while, for the follower of Christ, I would be quick to add that for every time we look upon our sin we should look ten times upon the sinless Savior and his righteousness imputed to us in the gospel (now that is a matter for great joy I might add!), nevertheless we will not be faithful to Biblical revelation, and we will not grow spiritually as God intends, if we ignore or avoid the foundational importance for our lives of the doctrine of sin. Certainly Ryle would seem to agree--here's how he starts off:

He who wishes to attain right views about Christian holiness must begin by examining the vast and solemn subject of sin. He must dig down very low if he would build high. A mistake here is most mischievous. Wrong views about holiness are generally traceable to wrong views about human corruption. I make no apology for beginning this volume of messages about holiness by making some plain statements about sin.

The plain truth is that a right understanding of sin lies at the root of all saving Christianity. Without it such doctrines as justification, conversion, sanctification, are "words and names" which convey no meaning to the mind. The first thing, therefore, that God does when He makes anyone a new creature in Christ is to send light into his heart and show him that he is a guilty sinner. The material creation in Genesis began with "light," and so also does the spiritual creation. God "shines into our hearts" by the work of the Holy Spirit and then spiritual life begins (2 Cor. 4:6). Dim or indistinct views of sin are the origin of most of the errors, heresies and false doctrines of the present day. If a man does not realize the dangerous nature of his soul’s disease, you cannot wonder if he is content with false or imperfect remedies. I believe that one of the chief wants of the contemporary church has been, and is, clearer, fuller teaching about sin. (Holiness, by J.C. Ryle, Fleming H. Revell, pg.1)

One wonders, if what Ryle describes as "one of the chief wants of the contemporary church.... is, clearer, fuller teaching about sin", concerning the 19th century period in which he lived, what would he think of the state of affairs in the contemporary church in our day?

More importantly, what does God think? And how clear is our understanding of this foundational truth? Might I suggest, paradoxically, that the fullness of our joy depends on it.

Labels: christian life, Doctrine of Sin, Guest Post

I think we need to pause and try to get our minds around the idea of joy: just what is it? This is no easy task (as is the case when trying to define any of the emotions/affections of the heart; what is love, or anger, or peace?). But it's a worthy exercise to try to wrap our minds around the very nature of joy--though I'm not sure how well I'll do.

Dictionaries say things like: "Joy is an ecstatic or exultant happiness" or "Joy is great pleasure", "the emotion due to well-being, success, good fortune, or possessing what we desire." Often joy is defined simply by synonyms, which helps but doesn't get us all the way there, it seems.

It occurs to me that maybe a look at the roots of various Hebrew/Greek Bible words for joy might point us in a good direction. One Bible word for joy has its roots in the idea of brightness; that which shines. Joy connects to a shining experience of the soul, and often look on the face. Another Bible word finds its roots in the word for leaping and springing. Joy is that which makes the heart leap, dance, bounce. It creates a lightness on the feet of the soul.

Another word is rooted in the idea of exultation--triumph and success and the thrill of victory. The idea of desire is connected to another word. Joy is the experience of and satisfying of desire (this connects to C.S. Lewis' take that joy is "the intense longing of the heart for God" that will only be fully satisfied in "another world.")

A primary Greek word for joy is closely related to the Greek word for grace--which refers to a gift freely given, undeserved. I've often defined grace as a "free gift that brings joy". Joy is connected to receiving, in this case to receiving what we cannot otherwise obtain, receiving what we long for but do not deserve, receiving a free, unmerited favor.

Still another word for joy--normally translated blessed, connects to the idea of fullness and wholeness. It speaks of that emotion that arises from an experience of being full, having all, receiving much, being satisfied and satiated.

I'm not sure I can really define joy but I'd say that biblically joy is that inward state of well-being and fullness of soul--that despite circumstances and sorrows to the contrary, and because of relationship with God in Christ--feels good, feels content, feels exultant, feels on the undeserved receiving end of fullness and wholeness and the heart's truest desires.

Having paused in my blogging to take a three mile walk with the dog, I'd like now to revise the previous definition a bit (walks do that for me). Joy is the shining of the soul and leaping of the spirit that flow out of tasting freely of the fullness of God.

Joy is when, despite encroaching darkness, the soul shines, and despite sorrowful burdens, the spirit leaps, because one has tasted freely and undeservedly of the fullness of God's glory and grace and goodness. Joy in the heart is that which feels and perhaps says the familiar words: "it is well with my soul" and "I'm doing better than I deserve"--because I have tasted the free goodness of God.

This is not the final word to be sure; it may not even be a very clear word at all. But it's been a good exercise for my soul to ponder it. I wonder how you'd define it. Give it a shot, and let us know what you come up with. I am very anxious to see what God gives you.

Labels: Affections, christian life, Joy, Religious Affections

1000.

That's about how many times joy is either commanded or commended in Scripture.

Perhaps surprisingly, this means that joy is commanded or commended four times more often than reverence (yes I've tabulated both). Don't misunderstand: I'm not pitting these two against each other as if one is better than the other. Indeed Christians are to be always marked by both. Theirs is to be a reverent joy and an exuberant fear--similar to the frollicking reverence that Susan and Lucy tasted with the recently risen and suddenly roaring Aslan (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)

The point I'm making is that while reverence is to be constant and while (as long as we live in a sin and sorrow cursed world) tears will be ever present, joy is to prevail. We are to be reverent and sorrowful, yet always rejoicing (2 Corinthians 6:10; Philippians 4:4).

And might I suggest that one reason why this joy is to be so pronounced in us is because it is so present in God? I've counted up 90+ biblical references to the joy, the pleasure, the delight, and the blessedness of God! More than 90! Luke's two-volume history mentions God's happiness on several occasions: Luke 3:22; Luke 10:21 (see footnote); Luke 12:32; Luke 15:7, 10, 22-32 (where Jesus chooses a feasting, singing and dancing party image as a metaphor for the joy of heaven's God when sinners repent).

God is the happy God, blessed and pleased in all He is and does, and sharing that joy with us (for any wanting to look deep into the happiness of God, I recommend heartily John Piper's The Pleasures of God, and Sam Storms', The Singing God). God is so content in Himself and so sure of the outcome of all things that He is "blessed (i.e.-happy) forever" (Romans 9:5; 1 Timothy 6:15).

Neither space nor time permit further development of this soul-awakening reality. I leave it to you to flesh it out in reflection and study. But here's one implication for life: since the Bible clearly teaches that we become what we behold, might I suggest that one of the surest ways to become full of joy is to behold with steady gaze the One Who is so filled? We can do few things more transforming than to gaze at the happiness of God and all that makes Him happy, if we would be happy ourselves.

While God grieves sin and weeps over the Jerusalems of this world, His tears are the tears of pure sorrow and compassion, not of fear or helplessness or defeat or weakness or despair. His are the tears of One Who is fully assured of full and final victory in all things, and of great good even in and through the grief. Joy triumphs over sorrow in God every time.

That's why He sings and breaks out the tamborines whenever a sinner repents and one more part of His perfect plan falls into place. And that's why He wants us to do likewise, even when life hurts. Weep? Yes. But always rejoice. Why? Because God does.

Labels: Affections, christian life, Joy, Religious Affections

Forty-five references to joy in 52 total chapters; that's Luke's Luke/Acts emphasis. Pretty impressive I'd say.

And one of the more stupendous statements about joy is found in Acts 2:25-28. This is a Messianic prediction about the resurrected and ascended Jesus. Notice the words: "my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced" (Jesus' joy was both felt and expressed; what his heart felt his tongue sang). Also the risen Messiah is "full of gladness with the Father's presence"! Not somewhat happy or mildly pleased, but completely and thoroughly joyful!

But isn't Jesus the "Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief"? He was, but I don't think He is. As touching His first coming, which was a coming to die, He knew much sorrow; indeed a seemingly disproportionate part of each gospel is taken up with His passion and griefs. But this was but for a time, that time, the time appointed for death. He came to cry and die in behalf of sinners.

But that said we must make two observations:
1. That He was a Man of Sorrows does not mean that He was joyless. It is hard to imagine a sinner-befriending, wine-drinking, food-enjoying, child-hugging Savior being joy and and humorless. If He was, He'd be about the only human ever who could make people feel comfortable with a constant sad and serious look on His face. It seems apparent that he was full of joy; otherwise nobody would have wanted to hang with him the way they all did. So it seems that all those observations I used to hear in childhood, that Jesus is never recorded to have smiled (by implication, He was a very serious and sad man, and we should be like that, too) were both wrong and sadly mistaken.

2. We should also note that if Jesus was not full of glad-hearted and often expressive joy while on earth the first time, He failed to obey hundreds of Old Testament commands, and therefore was not a perfect Savior! If He never sang and danced and clapped His hands and celebrated the goodness and grandeur and glory and sheer kindness of God while on earth, He disobeyed countless OT commands to do so. That would mean he sinned, and that, my friends, would be the end of the gospel.

All that said, let's be sure to conclude with this: though a Man of Sorrows Jesus was full of joy while on earth the first time, and now--as the risen Lord--He is not a Man of Sorrows at all; He's the King of Joy!

We should take a cue from this: no matter how many may be our sorrows we should be full of joy. And on this side of the cross and the empty tomb we should reflect our Savior by having hearts permeated with joy and tongues that sing and tell and shout it everywhere! We should be pervasively and persuasively happy people. After all, we're called to be like Jesus.

Labels: Affections, christian life, Joy, Religious Affections

As promised a few days back, I am beginning a series of posts on the topic of joy. Joy is a distinct mark of biblical faith in relationship with the living God. I heard it said recently that "a joyless pastor seriously misrepresents God." It is true. It's also true that a joyless Christian does the same.

Someone has said that judging from the faces and lives of many Christians, one could get the distinct impression that they were baptized in lemon juice. This simply ought not to be--and if I have my way about it the reflections of the next few days will help us be full of joy in our God who is Himself full of joy!

I'm going to confine myself mainly to the writings of Luke in this series since that is where my devotional times have been of late and since joy seems to be a major theme of the historian. The fact is that if we looked at all the Bible we'd see that there are many hundreds of joy texts, maybe even a thousand or two. I'm not at all hesitant to say that joy is one of the most prominent themes in the whole Bible. It simply is everywhere!

This may surprise some of you since your take on faith may be more austere and melancholic. But let me say it: Lemon juice faith is simply unbiblical. A faith that is not genuinely, visibly and, yes, expressively joyful is simply deficient faith at least as the Bible defines and describes it. It is biblically safe to say that if our joy is not noticeable and pronounced, then we simply do not have enough of it.

I've found it interesting, convicting, and transforming, that Luke--as he aims to recount for us the history of the coming of Jesus and the birth of the church in Luke/Acts (Luke 1:1-4; Acts 1:1-3) reveals that joy was prominent in the hearts of those connected to these great events. By implication, he intends for us--who remain connected to those great events, by faith--to experience that same joy. I count up at least 45 joy texts in Luke's two-volume set.

One reference that is somewhat defining for the early church is Acts 2:46. Others include Acts 8:6-8 and 13:48. As I begin can I ask of each of us--and of the churches we represent: "Would observers of our lives say of us what observers of the NT churches said: 'They have glad hearts and they have much joy?'" Is joy a distinctive mark, a defining characteristic of our life as the church?

If this cannot be accurately said of us, then we have some soul-searching to do. Will you join me in the exercise? And if you're inclined why not ask a few friends who don't normally read the blog to follow along as we pursue joy together?

Labels: Affections, christian life, Joy, Religious Affections

The gospel is not only for the unbeliever; it is for the believer as well, even as we press on to live for the Savior in this fallen world. In this battle-royale that is the Christian life we must preach the gospel to ourselves each and every day----we never escape our need for it.

Some thoughts, then, to encourage us in the battle and to help us preach the gospel to ourselves, from one of my mentors in the faith:

Let us say now that I have been living in the light of what God has been giving us for the present life. As a born-again child of God, I have been practicing the reality of true spirituality, as Christ has purchased it for us. As such, I have been walking according to the biblical commands. And then sin reenters. For some reason my moment-by-moment belief in God falters; a fondness for some specific sin has caused me at that point not to draw in faith upon the fact of a restored relationship with the Trinity. The reality of the practice of true spirituality suddenly slips from me. I look up some morning, some afternoon, some night--and something is gone, something I have known; my quietness and my peace are gone. It is not that I am lost again, because justification is once for all. But as far as man can see, or even I myself, at this point there is no exhibition of the victory of Christ upon the cross. Looking at me at this point, men would see no demonstration that God’s creation of moral, rational creatures is not a complete failure, or even that God exists. Because God still holds me fast I do not have the separation of lostness, but I do have the separation from my Father in the parent-child relationship. And I remember what I had.

At this point a question must arise: is there a way back? Or is it like a fine Bavarian porcelain cup, dropped to a tile floor so that it is smashed beyond repair?

Thank God, the gospel includes this. The Bible is always realistic: it is not romantic, but deals with realism--with what I am. There is a way back, and the basis of the way back is nothing new to us. The basis is again the blood of Christ, the finished work of the Lamb of God: the once-for-all, completed work of Christ upon the cross, in space, time, and history....

I picture my conscience as a big black dog with enormous paws which leaps upon me, threatening to cover me with mud and devour me. But as this conscience of mine jumps upon me, after a specific sin has been dealt with on the basis of Christ’s finished work, then I should turn to my conscience and say, in effect, “Down! Be still!” I am to believe God and be quiet, in my practice and experience. My fellowship with God has been supernaturally restored. I am cleansed, ready again to resume the spiritual life, ready again to be used by the Spirit for warfare in the external world. I cannot be ready until I am cleansed; but when I am cleansed, then I am ready. And I may come back for cleansing as many times as I need, on this basis.

This is for many Christians the point of reality in their Christian lives. All of us battle with this problem of reality. Men go to strange extremes to touch reality, but here is the point of it: “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.” So naturally the call is not to sin. “And if any man sin, we (including John himself, who puts himself in this category) have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).

This is the point of reality for me personally. If I lay hold upon the blood of Christ in faith, reality rests here--not in trying to live as though the Bible teaches perfectionism. That is no basis for reality; that is only a basis either for subterfuge or despair. But there is a reality here: the reality of sins forgiven; the reality of a certainty that when a specific sin is brought under the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is forgiven. This is the reality of restored relationship. Reality is not meant to be only creedal, though the creeds are important. Reality is to be experienced on the basis of a restored relationship with God through that finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. (The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, Crossway Books, 1982, pg. 291, 297-298)

Labels: christian life, Finished Work of Christ, Guest Post, Reality

"Rejoice O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment." (Ecclesiastes 11:9)

You know what I'm learning as a father? Sanctification cannot be legislated into the life of my children. It's been difficult for Theresa and I to watch our oldest son take the inevitable steps toward independence. When Peter John was little, he was happy batting wiffle balls with an oversized bat, or falling asleep before a Beatrix Potter video, or watching planes come into Chicago's O'Hare Airport in daddy's arms. A promised ride to McDonalds for lunch (along with jumping in those colored balls) was something to look forward to the entire previous day!

Things have changed.

This summer (besides work), it was the beach, Applebee's, and a Fried Chicken Wing Joint down in Beach Haven that was all the rage.

As a man very close to 50, I find myself more suspicious than ever of a world I feel I know less and less. Too often I transfer that suspicion to my son, who seems to enjoy being out and about, engaged in "things of the world." When I let these fears and suspicions (which aren't rational) lay hold on me, I'm always proven wrong. PJ returns home on time, cheerful, and, (I know him well enough to say this), innocent. I then reproach myself for my untrusting heart, feeling foolish that I was very nearly ready to yank the car keys out of his hand, and reprimand him for his sin and guilt.

My son is not "seeking the Lord" with all his heart. He's the first to acknowledge it. The sports, the friends, and the sunny beach-- followed by a bowl of spicy wings afterward-- this has his attention now. And aside from a very short devotional time in the morning, I am not likely to find him meditating on scripture in his room, or praying.

The verse from Ecclesiasties has always intrigued me. "Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes." It seems to encourage a carefree, honest, "grab for the gusto" kind of existence. The kind of life my teenage son is living now. One thing I find in this verse is a healthy safeguard against hypocrisy. Enjoy yourself, young man, and do what you like! Don't pretent to be something you're not! But there is a caveat. The last phrase (which seems to support the meaning I have inferred above), is a warning. "But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment."

I suppose I understand why our 18 year old son prefers frivolous dinner table banter with his friends, and being at the beach more than pondering a portion of holy scripture. He doesn't seem to realize that we live in a fallen world. He hardly notices the suffering all around him.

But God knows how to deepen young men, and we leave it to Him. I suspect difficult circumstances, and assorted sorrows will drive him eventually to seek the Lord more than he does at present. In less than a week he will leave his comfort zone. We're dropping him off at a school near Pittsburgh, in unfamiliar surroundings with 640 other college freshmen, and leaving him there. This begins a new chapter, filled with joys, and hopefully a sufficient dose of sorrow too. In the end, whatever it takes, he must come to know the Lord, and to see all else as child's play.

Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit... and only God can do the work of God.

Labels: Change and Growth, christian life, Guest Post, Sanctification

One final selection from Edward's on this theme of the importance of the mind in the Christian life I think is worthwhile. Once again I draw from his sermon "Christian Knowledge", in the book "Jonathan Edwards On Knowing Christ". In this quote Edwards speaks concerning the Biblical role of teachers, the Biblical role of learners, and the relationship between the two. Listen and drink in his holy logic:

"It may be argued hence, that God hath appointed an order of men for this end, to assist persons in gaining knowledge in these things. He hath appointed them to be teachers, 1 Cor. 12:28, and God hath set some in the church; first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers: Eph. 4:11-12. 'He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.' If God hath set them to be teachers, making that their business, then he hath made it their business to impart knowledge. But what kind of knowledge? Not the knowledge of philosophy, or of human laws, or of mechanical arts, but of divinity.

If God have made it the business of some to be teachers, it will follow, that he hath made it the business of others to be learners; for teachers and learners are correlates, one of which was never intended to be without the other. God hath never made it the duty of some to take pains to teach those who are not obliged to take pains to learn. He hath not commanded ministers to spend themselves, in order to impart knowledge to those who are not obliged to apply themselves to receive it.

The name by which Christians are commonly called in the New Testament is disciples, the signification of which word is scholars or learners. All Christians are put into the school of Christ, where their business is to learn, or receive knowledge from Christ, their common master and teacher, and from those inferior teachers appointed by him to instruct in his name."

O my---what application can be drawn from these thoughts!

Let me just say that the observation concerning teachers and their God given role within the church, indeed as gifts to the church for its strengthening (yes, even in their fallibility), at the very least should keep us from the all too popular notion among Christians in our era that all we need to grow and to learn and to guide us is the Bible and ourselves. This is not the historic, classic and Reformation truth of Sola Scriptura (i.e. the Bible alone is our sole ultimate and infallible authority for what we are to believe about God and how we are to live before Him, with various offices under Scripture having God ordained authority in our lives), but rather a contemporary distortion that can be more properly called Solo Scriptura or Nuda Scriptura (i.e. the Bible all by itself is our only authority, with the practical result that each Christian is an authority unto him or herself; pastors, teachers, creeds, confessions, church have no real authority). The Reformers would have rejected this second view outright, by the way, and so should we-----it is not Biblical and it is not the historic view of the Christian church.

Besides the vital role of teachers in the church, our role as students in Christ's school is something that it seems to me we really need to see as applying to each one of us, whatever our level of intellectual capacity may be. And we need to really take it seriously---it is a calling for each one who belongs to Christ, not just for certain "elite brainy Christians". Listen to Edward's once again: "The name by which Christians are commonly called in the New Testament is disciples, the signification of which word is scholars or learners. All Christians are put into the school of Christ, where their business is to learn, or receive knowledge from Christ, their common master and teacher, and from those inferior teachers appointed by him to instruct in his name".

We must realize that being students in the school of Christ never ends-----there is no graduation in this school. Yet, there is a "degree" conferred for faithfulness in the Savior's school at the end of this life---- it comes with these words: "Well done, good and faithful servant........Enter into the joy of your Master" (Matt. 25:21,23).

Yes, part of being a faithful student in this school involves each and every one of us loving God with all of our minds, to the best of our own individual God given capacity. The Savior expects nothing less.

Labels: christian life, Guest Post, Loving God, the Mind, Theology

One of the woeful effects of the evolutionary theory that Peter wrote about yesterday (isn't it good to hear that the peddlers of folly are at least squirming a bit under the weight of having no proof?!) is that it has given a pseudo-intellectual credibility to the age-old philosophy of materialism. It has made the idea that all there is and all that matters is matter. The realm of the spirit and the supernatural has been denied even more openly and brazenly than ever.

One effect of this has been an emergence of crass hedonistic materialism. We're told to love money and what money can buy, because after all there is nothing but the body and the present to live for. Even though our world's woeful condition of unhappiness (I saw a report just this morning that 27 million stuff-stuffed Americans are on anti-depressants!) would surely imply that stuff doesn't bring happiness, and life disconnected from the Living God and connected only to matter, is bankrupt, the blind still don't know they're blind.

A few weeks back I told you I wanted to do a 30 day experiment in joyful austerity; a commitment for one month to live as close to a need only existence as I can get. It has begun. For one month I'm going to eat, drink, shower, spend, relax, and simply live with need rather than mere pleasure or habit in mind. I started on Saturday. Three days in I'm learning some things about what we really need and what we don't. I'll try to keep you posted.

BTW this really isn't inteneded to be something like a fast; it's not really a profound spiritual plan so much as an intentional learning experience. I want to learn a bit more what God sees as my needs, what others have and don't have, and just how happy and contented I can be without all the stuff that money buys.

As one stuff-stuffed American to others, I'm hoping to learn some things that'll change my life.

Labels: christian life, Fasting, Materialism, Spiritual disciplines

Following up my post of a couple of weeks ago on the vital importance of the mind in the Christian life, I thought it beneficial to share some thoughts I enjoyed in my reading expressed by my friend Jonathan Edwards relating to this foundational issue. These comments are found in his sermon “Christian Knowledge” (you can find it, along with a number of other sermons by Edwards, in the Banner of Truth publication--“Jonathan Edwards On Knowing Christ”). The sermon is based on Hebrews 5:12, where the admonishment is given that “though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food."

Edwards says:

...The heart cannot be set upon an object of which there is no idea in the understanding. The reasons which induce the soul to love, must first be understood, before they can have a reasonable influence on the heart.

God hath given us the Bible, which is a book of instructions. But this book can be of no manner of profit to us, any otherwise than as it conveys some knowledge to the mind: it can profit us no more than if it were written in the Chinese or Tartarian language, of which we know not one word... Such is the nature of man, that no object can come at the heart but through the door of the understanding: and there can be no spiritual knowledge of that of which there is not first a rational knowledge. It is impossible that any one should see the truth or excellency of any doctrine of the gospel, who knows not what that doctrine is. A man cannot see the wonderful excellency and love of Christ in doing such and such things for sinners, unless his understanding be first informed how those things were done. He cannot have a taste of the sweetness and excellency of divine truth, unless he first have a notion that there is such a thing.

God hath given to man some things in common with the brutes, as his outward senses, his bodily appetites, a capacity of bodily pleasure and pain, and other animal faculties: and some things he hath given him superior to the brutes, the chief of which is the faculty of understanding and reason. Now God never gave man these faculties to be subject to those which he hath in common with the brutes. This would be great confusion, and equivalent to making man to be a servant of the beasts. On the contrary, he has given those inferior powers to be employed in subserviency to man’s understanding; and therefore it must be a great part of man’s principal business to improve his understanding by acquiring knowledge. If so, then it will follow, that it should be a main part of his business to improve his understanding in acquiring divine knowledge, or the knowledge of the things of divinity: for the knowledge of these things is the principal end of this faculty. God gave man the faculty of understanding, chiefly, that he might understand divine things.

There seems to be no question that our mind matters greatly to God. Perhaps the question that can be raised is what we are intentionally and consciously doing, unlike animals, to discipline and strengthen our minds, so that we are using them chiefly for the purpose God intended--to grow in our understanding of the things of God, tasting of the sweetness and excellency of divine truth, and then to live coram Deo--before the holy gaze of God, under His authority, and for His glory.

Labels: christian life, Guest Post, Loving God, the Mind, Theology

Questioning Questions

There is no one way to do fellowship. The Bible presents many approaches to personal care for each other’s souls. One very effective method relies heavily on the use of questions. Now you may find yourself questioning the use of questions: “Is there a biblical precedent for this? How is this helpful? Will this feel oppressive and intrusive for the one being questioned?”

“Where Are You” Adam?
In the first ever personal ministry and counseling time (Genesis 3:9-13), we find God searching for Adam following Adam’s act of disobedience. As God approaches this hiding sinner (which describes all of us to some extent), He approaches him with questions, questions the answers for which God already knew.

God asks Adam a series of questions in order to give Adam an opportunity to come out of hiding and to see issues of his heart in ways more helpful than if God had simply come to Adam with a series of corrections or pieces of advice.

The use of questions to help people see the needs and issues of their hearts is a common biblical approach to personal care and correction.* It is not the only valid approach but it is an extremely effective one. One of its advantages (in contrast to a more informational and advice-giving approach) is that it allows people to hear their own thoughts and attitudes without having to be told them by others. In this way, under the blessing of the Holy Spirit, the process of conviction goes on more personally and directly.**

If you obtain my full booklet on this topic (Live Together or Die Alone: a Call to Radical Fellowship), you will see an example from my own life of when I was led into seeing my own heart through a brother’s effective use of questions. In that situation, I do not think I would have seen my heart as clearly if I had been approached by someone loaded with observations and words of wisdom or correction to bring to my attention. The use of gentle questions was effective in opening my heart to see my own issues without proud defensiveness or argument.

Here is a list of questions that can be useful for our conversations/fellowship together:
1. What evidences of grace are you experiencing these days (i.e.-clear signs of growth in Christ and joy in the gospel)?
2. What is one specific truth you gained from that sermon or study or book?
3. What is one specific application of it that you plan to make in your life?
4. What are you struggling with these days?
5. What are biblical terms for this struggle?
6. Why do you think you are struggling with it?
7. How might your view of God affect this struggle?
8. How does the gospel affect you in this battle?


* For a sampling of other examples see God’s questioning of Cain in Genesis 4:6, 9, 10 and of Job in Job 38-41; Samuel’s probing of Saul in 1 Samuel 15:14; Jesus’ use of questions in John 6:5, 6; Luke 24:17, 19; apostolic deployment of questions in James 4:1f; 1 Corinthians 4:7.

** Another fruit of the practiced use of specific questions is an ability to self-assess and self-counsel. Individuals can ask themselves questions which aid in their awareness of the issues and state of their own hearts, so that even when others are not present, the work of sanctification can proceed at full speed.

Labels: christian life, Church, Fellowship, Spiritual disciplines

Hebrews: A Model of Gospel Centered Correction

As stated earlier, the book of Hebrews is both a call to warning and exhorting fellowship, and an example of it. It calls us to warn each other and it is itself an extended warning. So it models what it commands.

If space allowed we could unpack various aspects of such ministry that the author utilizes in this letter.* We would see that he uses a variety of tools in his exhortation appeal to his readers: fear, hope, the love of God our Father, promises, historical examples of what happens to people who do not persevere in faith, and then examples of what God does for those who do.

More than anything, the author proclaims the surpassing worth of Christ (Hebrews 1-4) and the surpassing work of Christ (Hebrews 5-10) as the chief means to inspire his readers to keep on keeping on in the faith of Christ. This is another reminder that all ministry—even warning and exhortation ministry—must always remain gospel ministry. All one anothering in the body of Christ must always be thoroughly Christ and cross centered, or it will not be effective ministry at all.

This is truth for life. I’m reminded of 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 where the ongoing process of being saved (i.e.-the process of perseverance in faith) is maintained through a never ending commitment to the gospel of a crucified and risen Savior. Hebrews models this wonderfully.

All ministry, all fellowship, all correction and wounding grace must be lived out in an atmosphere saturated with an everyday focus on the Person and Work of Christ. Never correct anyone without giving them Christ. Never receive correction without receiving Christ in a fresh way along with that correction.

Correction, the harder work of fellowship, will do only harm unless it is accompanied by reminders of the free justifying, adopting, preserving, and forgiving promises of the gospel—all guaranteed for us through the redeeming work of the Savior.

The writer of Hebrews knew that; so should we.



* For a more complete understanding of the Hebrews’ call to radical fellowship you may obtain a spring, 2008 series of messages presented by TFC, entitled, Live Together or Die Alone. Visit our website to order or download this series.

** For more on cross centered living see our Cardiphonia entitled, Gospel Centered Living from A-Z as well as C.J. Mahaney’s Living the Cross Centered Life and Jerry Bridges’ The Gospel for Real Life.

Labels: christian life, Church, Fellowship, Spiritual disciplines

There is much about fellowship, that could be said, but I can’t draw this series out for too long so I’m going to have to zero in here on a few matters that I think need focus because they are areas of weakness in contemporary fellowship.

Where We Are Not So Strong

As we encounter the one another commands of Scripture we are not given the luxury of selective obedience; we have to pursue faithfulness in all that fellowship involves. With this in view we realize that there are aspects of fellowship in which most Christians are not so strong. Particularly I would identify the aspects of biblical correction, warning and admonition. We’ve yet to fully embrace the Bible’s teaching that we are to seek out and offer a ministry of mutual accountability and warning care, such as is encouraged in Proverbs 27:5, 6, 17:

Better is open rebuke than hidden love.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

Proverbs isn’t calling us to a ministry of criticism or to a witch-hunt in the church. Rather God is challenging us to notice when brothers and sisters in Christ are caught up in patterns and habits of sin, and to do what we need to, to lead them into the forgiving and transforming grace of God.

Fellowship’s Harder Work

This is what I would call fellowship’s harder work. I say it’s harder, because, well, other things are easier. If anyone finds this work easy, I’d suggest a heart transplant. Frankly, anyone who enjoys wounding a friend is disturbed. People who love find no immediate pleasure in speaking correction or rebuke into the lives of those they love. Parents will know well the experience of disciplining their kids, and being compelled to say to them in the process; “This hurts me at least as much as it hurts you.” Why? Because it does.

Hebrews: A Mandate for Wounding Fellowship

The New Testament letter called Hebrews serves at least two functions. It is both a wounding and warning letter, and it is also a call to wounding and warning fellowship. In this letter the Holy Spirit warns us to stop sinning against, and wandering from Christ,* and He also commands us to warn one another, lest any of us should so wander. Here are three key texts commanding the latter:

“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…”

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

“Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal” (Hebrews 3:12, 13; 10:24, 25; 12:12-16).

Hebrews makes it clear that we are our brothers’ (and sisters’) keeper. What matters to you should matter to me, and nothing matters more than that you (and I) keep on keeping on in the way of Christ.

Next time we'll look at what's at stake in all this.


* See Hebrews 2:1-3; 3:12; 4:5-13; 10:26-39; 12:18-29; 13:22. In Hebrews 13:22, the author calls his whole letter an exhortation/warning: “I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.”

Labels: christian life, Church, Fellowship, Spiritual disciplines

I’ll be away on vacation for a few days, but in my absence I’ve prepared a few posts that are excerpted from my booklet: Live Together or Die Alone: A Call to Radical Fellowship. I hope you are stimulated to love and good works by them.

Introduction

The Greek words for fellowship appear twenty-seven times in the New Testament, and speak of something shared or held in common or partnered in. Fellowship, a shared life of faith and love, is an essential dynamic of the Christian life. It is essential in that it is part of the essence of life in Christ: we cannot be in Christ without sharing the life of His body (1 Corinthians 12:12, 13).* And it is essential in that none of us can get along without it.** Literally it is true: we live together or we die alone.

Going Beyond “How Are You?”

It’s been observed often that we Christians know well how to dilute the idea of fellowship. We reduce it to little more than chit-chat, being masters of the superficial, engaging in the equivalent of a social dance with a stranger, synchronizing our conversational steps so as to move slightly in each other’s direction without stepping on each other’s toes or getting too close.

We ask each other “How are you?” but then don’t wait around for anything resembling a real answer. If anyone answers with anything but a smiling-faced “I’m fine!” we don’t know how to respond and we’re quite sure we don’t want to. We know that we’re supposed to go beyond how are you, but we seldom seem to get there.

I wish these last two paragraphs exaggerated churches’ fellowship deficiencies, but as I re-read them, I’m startled by how precisely they describe much of my own flawed interaction with others. I’m guilty of the sin of shallow fellowship.

May I encourage you to feel bold enough in God’s forgiving grace in Christ to look hard at yourself to see if you have been guilty of fellowship neglect as well? Let’s realize that grace covers even our failures to love one another in the church as we ought, and with that knowledge let’s stare sin in the face so we can see where we need to grow.


* “All believers share a common life in Christ, whether or not we recognize it. We are in fellowship with literally thousands of believers from every nation of the world. Although we have never met most of them, yet we are in fellowship with them. We disagree with many of them over various issues of faith and practice, yet we are still members of the same Body. Even though we struggle to like some of them, that does not alter the fact that we share together a common life in Christ. Neither our attitudes nor our actions affect this objective sense of koinonia (fellowship). We are in fellowship with all other believers, whether we like it or not--or even recognize the fact. This objective truth of koinonia is meant to provide the foundation for the experiential aspects of fellowship. The realization that we do in fact share a common life with other believers should stimulate within us a desire to share experientially with one another. This is the whole thrust of New Testament teaching on koinonia" (Jerry Bridges).

** "We should not...think of our fellowship with other Christians as a spiritual luxury, an optional addition to the exercises of private devotion. We should recognize rather that such fellowship is a spiritual necessity; for God has made us in such a way that our fellowship with himself is fed by our fellowship with fellow-Christians, and requires to be so fed constantly for its own deepening and enrichment” (J.I. Packer).

Labels: christian life, Church, Fellowship, Spiritual disciplines