Three Ways to Live

"People tend to think there are two ways to relate to God-to follow him and do his will or to reject him and do your own thing-but there are also two ways to reject God as Savior. One is the way already mentioned: by rejecting God's law and living as you see fit. The other, however, is by obeying God's law, by being really righteous and really moral, so as to earn your own salvation. It is not enough to simply think there are two ways to relate to God. There are three; religion, irreligion, and the gospel. In 'religion', people may look to God as their helper, teacher, and example, but their moral performance is serving as their savior. Both religious and irreligious people are avoiding God as Savior and Lord. Both are seeking to control their own lives by looking to something other than God as their salvation. Religious legalism/moralism and secular/irreligious relativism are just different strategies of 'self-salvation'. Christians may have had both religious phases and irreligious phases in their lives, but through the gospel they have come to see that the reason for both their irreligion and their religion was essentially the same, and essentially wrong. Christians have come to see that their sins as well as their best deeds have equally been ways of avoiding Jesus as Savior."

Tim Keller, Gospel in Life

Thoughts from Jonah/Part 6

As Jonah 3 unfolds, we are told that God spoke to Jonah "a second time". We should be reminded that we are not owed a second chance; that's the remarkable thing about God's grace and mercy! At this point, Jonah is obedient, at least outwardly, to the call and instruction of the Lord. God is determined to place the message of repentance before the Ninevites. And He is equally determined to use Jonah in this process. Jonah went into the city preaching to the people of Nineveh, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" We are told that upon hearing the message, the Ninevites believed God. The message, coming from the mouth of Jonah, was accepted as having its origin with God. A revival came to Nineveh, ushered in by a sweeping wave of repentance. All the people turned to the Lord, "from the greatest of them to the least of them." From this we see the marriage of divine intervention and human responsibility. According to Jesus in John 6:44, God draws people to Himself. Yet He has ordained the means by which this occurs. This is best illustrated by Luke in Acts 16:14: "One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul." We, like Paul, have been given the responsibility to preach the gospel; as Christians, we cannot ignore this calling. Yet we cannot in human arrogance think for a moment that we can bring about the supernatural by way of our words and deeds. As God opened Lydia's heart, He opened the hearts of the multitude in Nineveh. Yes, we preach with passion! Yes, we labor for the cause of the gospel with tears and pleading. But the glory of success belongs to the Lord! Jonah was the means, but God was the cause. And ultimately, God reigns over both.

We Can't Withdraw!

This story, courtesy of Al Mohler from his contribution to the book Preaching the Cross, reinforces some considerations lifted from Jeremiah 29. See yesterday's entry for more information on this passage. This one always makes me laugh...

"...and we might also look at examples such as the Old Order Amish or the Mennonites, who live apart from culture. Of course, the problem with this is that it does not work. You cannot withdraw, at least not totally...Even the Amish and the Mennonites cannot withdraw entirely. A story is told of the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, who was visiting one of the Old Order Amish communities that abound in upstate New York. As the senator was talking with the Amish people, one man indicated he was having some trouble with one of his daughters. "My daughter," the man said, "is being influenced by Catholicism." Telling the story later, Moynihan, himself a Catholic, said, "I knew we were good, but I didn't know we were this good." Nonetheless, he asked the father, "Just how is this showing up in your daughter?" The Amish father answered, "Well, I heard her talking to some of her friends, and she's been talking about Madonna." The Amish father's problem is a lot deeper than he knows!"

Engaging Our Neighbors...Normally!

Last evening at our church we began working through Tim Keller's Gospel in Life series. The first session dealt with our relationship to the city, the present world where we live. The biblical text was taken from Jeremiah 29. In this passage we find God presenting instructions to the exiles as to how they should live in Babylon. He tells them to live normal lives among their new neighbors while maintaining their unique spiritual identity. Keller makes the point that the exiles are torn between assimilating into the Babylonian culture and listening to the false prophets, men who decree that the exiles would be best served by preserving their spiritual identity through withdrawal from the city. Yet God tells them to live among the Babylonians, praying for them and serving them, all the while keeping their distinctions intact while living a normal life. They were not told to surrender their identity to the opposing cultural. And they were not told to withdraw from the people of Babylon. They were told to live out their faith where God had planted them. And I can find no exception for us today. Let's love our cities and the people in them. Let's serve them and pray for them, knowing that in doing so we are bringing honor and glory to our King.

God's Peace

"In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

John 16:33


"Too often the peace of God is thought of as if it were essentially a feeling of inner tranquility, happy and carefree, springing from knowledge that God will shield one from life's hardest knocks. But this is a misrepresentation...The peace of God is first and foremost peace with God. It is the state of affairs in which God, instead of being against us, is for us. God's peace is pardon and acceptance into covenant-that is, adoption into God's family."

J.I. Packer, Knowing God

More from Owen

This is another short teaching from Puritan author John Owen. Here he reminds us about the importance of faith. I am grateful for this reminder; hope it helps you as well:

"The only way of receiving supplies of spiritual strength and grace from Jesus Christ, on our part, is by faith. Hereby we come to him, are implanted in him, abide with him, so as to bring forth fruit. He dwells in our hearts by faith, and he acts in us by faith, and we live by faith in or on the Son of God. This, I suppose, will be granted, that if we receive anything from Christ, it must be by faith, it must be in exercise of it, or in a way of believing; nor is there any one word in the Scripture that gives the least encouragement to expect either grace or mercy from him in any other way, or by any other means."

John Owen, The Glory of Christ, 1684

Thinking...Hard!

The following excerpt is from Puritan author John Owen's 1684 book The Glory of Christ. See the 8/7 entry for Dave Harvey's comments on the Puritans. Here Owen is addressing the development of the believer's mind. Take your time; this is tedious material. My head hurts just trying to think about it:

"Labor that your minds may continually be fitted and prepared for such heavenly contemplations. If they are carnal or sensual, or filled with earthly things, a due sense of this love of Christ and its glory will not abide in them. Virtue and vice, in their highest degrees, are not more diametrically opposite and inconsistent in the same mind, than are an habitual course of sensual, worldly thoughts and a due contemplation of the glory of the love of Christ, yea an earnestness of spirit, pregnant with a multitude of thoughts about the lawful occasions of life, is obstructive of all due communion with the Lord Jesus Christ in this. Few there are whose minds are prepared in a due matter for this duty. The actions and communications of the most evidence what is the inward frame of their souls. They rove up and down in their thoughts, which are continually led by their affections to the far corners of the earth. It is in vain to call such persons to contemplations of the glory of Christ in his love. A holy composure of mind, by virtue of spiritual principles, an inclination to seek after refreshment in heavenly things, and to bathe the soul in the fountain of them, with constant apprehensions of the excellency of this divine glory, are required to this."

John Owen, The Glory of Christ

Thinking!

In the course of my preaching, I often remind people that God gave them a brain that He intends for them to use. Thinking is not in conflict with faith. This quote, used by Ravi Zacharias in his book The Real Face of Atheism, has a great element of truth to it:

"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you: but if you really make them think, they'll hate you."

Don Marquis

Bear in mind Paul's instruction to every Christian, lifted from Romans 12:2: "Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God." Let's think for the glory of Jesus!

Thoughts from Jonah/Part 5

Jonah 2 contains the prayer of a truly helpless man; we must remember that we are as helpless as Jonah, a people completely dependent on God's loving provision. One commentator, writing about this scene, recalled a child's Bible storybook that he read as a young boy. The illustrator of the book portrayed Jonah calmly seated at a table while drinking coffee and reading a newspaper, all while inside the fish. This commentator observed that even as a young child he knew this probably wasn't quite accurate. Make no mistake; God certainly has Jonah's attention! He is cramped in the belly of the great fish, uncertain as to which breath might be his last. The gastric juices from the fish are bleaching his skin. The stench of digesting food is unavoidable. And the temperature is approximately 100-110 degrees F. All of this for three days and nights. From these circumstances, Jonah prays. He pours out his heart to God. But prayer isn't a one-sided conversation. God also speaks to Jonah, and in this frame of time Jonah's heart is touched by the grace of God. The climax of the prayer is found in Jonah 2:9: "Salvation is of the Lord!" Jonah recognized what we often miss: only God can save. Therefore our reliance is not on self, religion, or any other of the countless makeshift plans, schemes, and systems devised by the human heart. Our hope is only in the Lord. Jonah came to this realization in the belly of the fish. As we will see later, he didn't grasp the implications of such a declaration. But at this point, he is willing to go to Nineveh. So, at God's command, the fish safely vomits Jonah onto dry land. Next stop: Nineveh! But maybe a shower first...

A Great Read from Dave Harvey

If you haven't yet read Dave Harvey's Rescuing Ambition, don't hesitate to purchase a copy. Dave skillfully addresses the delicate subject of ambition, leading the reader to a God-centered application of what most Christians would consider a dirty word. The Tuesday, August 17, 2010 entry is from Harvey's writing. Here is another small excerpt from his book:

"If church history were a dojo, the English Puritans would all be black belts. Seriously, they had some staggering insights into the Christian life. But when you read them, you have to wonder: did these guys get paid by the word? Long words, long sentences, long paragraphs, long books. Even the abridgements to their books are long. But in combing through all that Puritan writing, you'll inevitably stumble on a statement that's crisp, clear, and short enough to make you think for a long time: 'If we have not what we desire, we have more than we deserve.' In this brief sentence from his classic book The Art of Divine Contentment, Thomas Watson sketches the portrait of a saint at peace. On its face, contentment seems at odds with ambition, doesn't it? But for us to be rescued from selfish ambition, the warm colors of godly contentment must be mixed with the bright colors of godly ambition...When we don't have what we desire, it's important to acknowledge that. We would be foolish to ignore it. If what we lack becomes our primary focus, ambition becomes contaminated with self. If you want an ambition that screens out self and shrinks discontentment, mull over this idea: we already possess far more than we deserve."

Dave Harvey, Rescuing Ambition

Thoughts from Jonah/Part 4

This has been VBS week at our church. Each evening features a Bible story brought alive on stage by volunteer actors from our congregation. Wednesday's drama centered on Jonah, complete with boat, a big fish, and great sound effects. While it was more Monty Python than Cecile B. Demille, the kids enjoyed the skit and learned some important lessons. Although this story plays well to a young audience, we must remember that it is actually very adult in its content. Divine commandments. Human rebellion. Displays of God's sovereignty. Anguished prayers. Preaching and repentance. The darkness of the sinner's heart. The light of the Gospel. It's all there, packed neatly into four short OT chapters. Let's be careful not to reduce Jonah to only a juvenile influence; God intends for readers of all ages to learn from its pages.