truth, eclipses, and the long haul

Here's a message to 20-somethings from Randy Alcorn:

only hope

What do you hope for?

What do you hope in?

Which hopes define you, so that you know you would find fulfillment if they were realized, and bitter disappointment if they weren't?

HOPE is a huge concept in a small word.

Hope is the mindset of faith (Heb. 11:13-16), the theme song of creation (Rom. 8:18-30), the antidote to depression (Ps. 42:11), a trademark of Christian character (Rom. 5:1-5), the source of Christian boldness (2 Cor. 3).

Christ is our hope. His sacrifice is our hope of salvation, and His righteousness is our hope of righteousness.

But is He our only hope?

So often I place my hope in something less than the promises of Christ. Make my own plans and let my happiness rise or fall on them. Trust my own "righteousness" to gain me favor in the eyes of God. Hope in heaven, rest, release from problems on the earth -- instead of hoping in Christ.

These things I do in blindness -- blindness to the truth that there is no hope apart from the hope of Christ. The fulfillment of all my lesser "hopes" would still be death and damnation apart from the hope of Christ.

Is He your only hope?

What if we prayed for each other like this?

A few days ago I was reading the first part of Ephesians (1:15-23) and ran into Paul's prayer outline for the Ephesian church. It's beautiful!

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints,

• I do not cease to give thanks for you,
  
• remembering you in my prayers,
  
• that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened,that you may know
  
• - what is the hope to which he has called you,
  
• - what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and
• - what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe,

• according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

What would happen if we really prayed for each other this way? Would we be as inclined to treat each other rudely, unkindly, to gossip or backstab? To be just plain lazy or careless or disinterested in our Christian friendships?

And what about God's answers? Wouldn't it be amazing to see Him work out these things in each other's lives?

Thrilled

I am currently reading Knowing God, by J.I. Packer. I've been blessed and challenged by Packer's thoughts as He reminds me that knowing God is more than just knowing about God but involves: "First, listening to God's Word and receiving it as the Holy Spirit interprets it, in application to oneself; second, noting God's nature and character, as his Word and works reveal it; third, accepting his invitations and doing what he commands; fourth, recognizing and rejoicing in the love that he has shown in thus approaching you and drawing you into this divine fellowship." (37)

I pray that we would all grow in our knowledge of God. Not just that we would know more things about Him and the Bible, but that we would know Him through experience. That we would be familiar with the work of the Holy Spirit as He applies His Word to our hearts. That we would be moved to joyful action by His invitations and commands. That we would be full of joy as we see Him conforming us more to the image of His son by pouring His grace out on us.

May we all discover just how right Packer was when he said, "Knowing God is a relationship calculated to thrill a person's heart." (36)

Does knowing God thrill your heart?

I pray knowing God will thrill you today.

when "go" means "go"

This from John Piper. Click the link to read more:

Answers to Objections to Going into Missions

When I spoke at Missions in the Main Hall Sunday night, I tried to give a biblical response to possible obstacles that are in the way for some people that may keep them from moving forward toward missions. My prayer is that God would use these responses to call more of you to go. Here are eight objections and a biblical response.

judge not the Lord by feeble sense

When I am in a season of sadness or of spiritual heaviness, I sometimes think about William Cowper.

Cowper was plagued all his life by long bouts of deep, deep depression. And it never got all that much better. Like John Piper said in his biography of Cowper (definitely listen to it if you can!), "No happy ending."

But the product of Cowper's life is an amazing legacy of hymns and poetry that are, ironically, infused with a hope he never seemed fully to grasp. Every time we sing "There Is A Fountain" and the words "Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die!" we are singing something out of Cowper's heart.

The truth of God was stronger than Cowper's depression. And the power and sovereignty of God equipped Him to sing more glory to God through that depression than he would've been able to without it.

This comforts me. God's purpose isn't always that His children be happy, as the world defines it. Often the times it seems like He's abandoned us are the times that He is calling us closer into fellowship with Himself.

And there we find the truest happiness there is.

Maybe Cowper said it best:

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs,
And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

William Cowper, "God Moves In A Mysterious Way"

being the Devil's bellows

[Wednesday's post is late this week . . .]

“Don’t be the Devil’s bellows any longer to blow up the fires of strife. Leave off setting people by the ears. If you do not cut off a bit of your tongues, at least season them with the salt of grace. Praise God more and blame neighbors less. Any goose can cackle; any fly can find out a sore place; any empty barrel can give forth sound; any brier can tear a man’s flesh. No flies will go down your throat if you keep your mouth shut and no evil speaking will come up. Think much, but say little; be quick at work and slow at talk; and above all, ask the great Lord to set a watch over your lips.”

—Charles Spurgeon

Gossip is poison.

The Bible is bursting with admonitions to watch the tongue, shut the lips, stop the mouth. But, despite the warnings, in the church we often treat gossip as a "small" or inconsequential sin. Sometimes we use even church gatherings as an opportunity to spread gossip.

Gossip has been defined as "idle talk or rumor, esp. about the personal or private affairs of others."

Reading through Titus 2 it's apparent that self-control and tongue-control are pretty big priorities.

Sober, reverent, temperate, loving, patient men who are sound in faith don't have room in their lives for idle talk or rumors.

Neither do women who are reverent, temperate, not slanderers, and teachers of good things.

Or women who are loving, discreet, chaste, minding their own homes, and practicing goodness and obedience.

Or young men who are sober-minded, doing good works, full of doctrinal integrity, reverent, incorruptible, and sound speech.

It just doesn't work that way.

While all of these characteristics are important for all Christians to practice, Paul didn't address specific characteristics to specific groups on accident. Girls, how hard is it to live out love even when you don't feel like it? To honor our future husbands with the way we live out our relationships now? To be discreet in our speech, our dress, our conduct? To help out in your own house without grumbling? To be good (what a huge concept in such a small word!)? To be obedient to the leaders God has placed in our lives?

This is real, practical advice that hits home.

Guys, I'm sure the correlaries are the same. This is practical advice because it's real -- it challenges us right where we are. And points us to where we know we ought to be.

Let's encourage each other as we head in that direction.

another puritan guest blogger

This post is brought to you by Thomas Brooks, a puritan preacher who lived in the 17th century. I found these twenty "short" sayings from Brooks on the web.

They may not all be short by our standards, but they're certainly worth the read.

1. Let those be thy choicest companions who have made Christ their chief companion.
   
2. The lives of ministers oftentimes convince more strongly than their words; their tongues may persuade, but their lives command.
   
3. Christ choosing solitude for private prayer, doth not only hint to us the danger of distraction and deviation of thoughts in prayer, but how necessary it is for us to choose the most convenient places we can for private prayer. Our own fickleness and Satan's restlessness call upon us to get into such places where we may freely pour out our soul into the bosom of God [Mark 1.35].
   
4. Suffering times are sealing times. The primitive Christians found them so, and the suffering saints in Mary's days found them so. When the furnace is seven times hotter than ordinary, the Spirit of the Lord comes and seals up a man's pardon in his bosom, his peace with God, and his title to heaven. Blessed Bradford looked upon his sufferings as an evidence to him that he was on the right way to heaven.
   
5. It is better to have a sore than a seared conscience.
   
6. God sees us in secret, therefore, let, us seek his face in secret. Though heaven be God's palace, yet it is not his prison.
   
7. God's hearing of our prayers doth not depend upon sanctification, but upon Christ's intercession; not upon what we are in ourselves, but what we are in the Lord Jesus; both our persons and our prayers are acceptable in the beloved [Eph 1.6].
   
8. Christ is the sun, and all the watches of our lives should be set by the dial of his motion.
   
9. An idle life and a holy heart is a contradiction.
   
10. Repentance is a grace, and must have its daily operation, as well as other graces. A true penitent must go on from faith to faith, from strength to strength; he must never stand still or turn back. True repentance is a continued spring, where the waters of godly sorrow are always flowing. 'My sin is ever before me'.
    
11. It was a choice saying of Augustine, 'Every saint is God's temple, and he who carries his temple about him, may go to prayer when he pleaseth'.
    
12. Prayer is nothing but the breathing that out before the Lord, that was first breathed into us by the Spirit of the Lord.
    
13. Those years, months, weeks, days, and hours, that are not filled up with God, with Christ, with grace, and with duty, will certainly be filled up with vanity and folly. The neglect of one day, of one duty, of one hour, would undo us, if we had not an Advocate with the Father.
    
14. You had better be a poor man and a rich Christian, than a rich man and a poor Christian. You had better do anything, bear anything, and be anything rather than be a dwarf in grace.
    
15. Much faith will yield unto us here our heaven, but any faith, if true, will yield us heaven hereafter.
    
16. A man's most glorious actions will at last be found to be but glorious sins, if he hath made himself, and not the glory of God, the end of those actions.
    
17. The two poles could sooner meet, than the love of Christ and the love of the world.
    
18. My sin is ever before me' [Psalm 51.3]. A humble soul sees that he can stay no more from sin, than the heart can from panting, and the pulse from beating. He sees his heart and life to be fuller of sin, than the firmament is of stars; and this keeps him low. He sees that sin is so bred in the bone, that till his bones, as Joseph's, be carried out of the Egypt of this world, it will not out. Though sin and grace were never born together, and though they shall not die together, yet while the believer lives, these two must live together; and this keeps him humble.
    
19. The only way to avoid cannon-shot is to fall down. No such way to be freed from temptation as to keep low.
    
20. The best and sweetest flowers of Paradise God gives to his people when they are upon their knees. Prayer is the gate of heaven, a key to let us in to Paradise.

C/C Camping Trip

Anyone putting those last minute items in their bags for Bass Lake might want to check out this weather forecast. Looks like we might get a chance to meditate on Psalm 29 together.

If you have any questions, call me at the church or on my cell. See you all at the ministry fair tonight, and then again at 4:00am.

-nate

Proverbs 18 and the healthy body

Do we NEED friends?

Has God built us in a way where, if we are not in fellowship with others, we miss out not only on the blessings of human companionship, but somehow shortchange our potential for growth in Him?

When I spend time with my brothers and sisters in the family of Christ, am I looking for a good time? For something for myself? Or am I looking, in some way, to grow together towards Him?

Are my Christian friendships the kind of places where I practice kindness, gentleness, self-control, longsuffering, and forgiveness? Or do I cling to my pride and a false picture of my self-sufficiency and [fool myself into thinking I can] hide my imperfections from others?

Am I more worried about keeping my human "relationships" in tact than about obeying God's direction in His Word?

In the middle of mulling all of these questions, I remembered Proverbs 18:1, "A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; he rages against all wise judgment." That seemed to answer my "do we need friends?" question. But when I looked up this chapter, I saw that it is all -- from start to finish -- a primer on getting along with others.

As always, it's best to read the entire chapter in context, but here are some examples of its wisdom:

v. 2 - A fool has no delight in understanding,
But in expressing his own heart.

v. 8 - The words of a talebearer are like tasty trifles,
And they go down into the inmost body.

v. 19 - A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city,
And contentions are like the bars of a castle.

v. 20 - A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth;
From the produce of his lips he shall be filled.

v. 21 - Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit.

v. 24 - A man who has friends must himself be friendly,
But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Fruitful friendships don't happen by accident. They take work, humility, patience, and love. But how worth it will it be if we can help each other to know Christ more fully and spur each other to accomplish His kingdom work on this earth!

joy: the real thing

This morning I was thinking about part of Psalm 30:5, "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning."

I have always associated this verse with weeping over someone's sickness, and associated the joy that comes in the morning with a restoration of health. So in my mind a paraphrase would've been something like "you may cry over God's seeming silence for a season, but in the next season He will surely bring you what you ask and make sure you have everything you want to be happy."

But this morning my little paraphrase just wasn't ringing true.

Maybe it had something to do with James 1:2-4:

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Or with Romans 5:1-5:

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

We are not guaranteed the fulfillment of our requests in prayer.

We are guaranteed suffering.

But we are also guaranteed joy.

This means that the fulfillment of our requests and joy must be two separate things. Joy must be something that can exist side-by-side with suffering. Joy WILL come in the morning. But what will it look like?

The first answer that cropped up in my mind was from Psalm 16:11, "in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

He alone is our guarantee of joy. I can watch my loved one's sickness go from bad to worse, and still see joy in the morning -- if I am in His presence.

What a weighty miracle this is.

John Piper describes it one way in Desiring God:

In conversion we find the hidden Treasure of the kingdom of God. We venture all on it. And year after year in the struggles of life, we prove the value of the treasure again and again, and we discover depths of riches we had never known. And so the joy of faith grows. When Christ calls us to a new act of obedience that will cost us some temporal pleasure, we call to mind the surpassing value of following Him, and by faith in His proven worth, we forsake the worldly pleasure. The result? More joy! More faith! Deeper than before. And so we go on from joy to joy and faith to faith.

(Multnomah: 2003, p. 74)

hey Jude

[warning: this post was written by someone who draws applications from unusual sources]

The other day I was listening to Beatles: One and got "Hey Jude" stuck in my head. (The internet is replete with theories on what that song means, but really I guess it doesn't matter right now since this post is about something else.)

Thinking over the line "well you know that it's a fool / who plays it cool / by making his world a little colder," I started to think about the importance of being passionate about things that are passion-worthy and not "playing it cool" with things that matter.

Maybe that's ambiguous.

Here are some ingredients in my mental marinade:

• The stories of the early Christians in Acts, giving their alls for Christ seemingly without a second thought (the consequences of acting on second thoughts it pretty dramatically illustrated by the story of Ananias and Sapphira). It was all or nothing in the Acts church. Is it that they didn't have the luxury (maybe more of curse?) we have of so easily blending into our surrounding culture? Or that, even though they could've, they were so passionate they chose not to?
• This challenge from John Piper. How do I act when I am really excited about something? How do people who are "in love" act and talk? Is my "passion for Christ" something that I write about on paper, or something that is apparent in my actions and in the words I speak?
• The powerful devotion of adherents to radical Islam (and the incredible growth of Islam all over the world). Wrong? Yeah. Devoted? Yeah, that too. Christ isn't calling us to the death of a suicide bomber when he says "come and die," but that somehow doesn't keep us from coming up with excuses to follow.
• The total inanity of the church as perceived by Western culture. Some of us were having a conversation recently about the meaning and usage of the word "lame." Well, the church is perceived as lame in the literal sense that it's a cripple, and lame in the vernacular sense that it's dumb and boring. And that's because cultural Christianity isn't about passion for Christ at all.

I'm convinced that our generation has a dramatic choice to make between all-out crazy boundless uninhibited devotion to Christ or living in active rebellion to His call. I don't think that, given the cultural threats to the Western church, we'll have the option of having "regular" American-dream-9-5-job-lives where we can go to church on Sundays and try to be a good witness in the workplace and go to Bible study on Wednesday nights and call it good. We need to GO to carry the Gospel to new places, or to have such an attitude of GO in our lives at home that we are committed to make no compromises, to lose all respect in the eyes of others, and to stand unabashedly for the truth of His Word in words and deeds.

That's what it will take to show those around us that the God we serve really is worth living -- and dying -- for.

A lesser god wouldn't be worthy of our worship, devotion, or service in the first place.

perspective on the Scrolls

I was just poking around technorati.com to check out the blogosphere's response to San Diego's Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit and stumbled upon this very helpful review from Pastor Walter Price in Beaumont.

If you were there a few months back for the Thursday night study on the preservation and reliability of Scripture, you will probably recognize some of Dr. Archer's examples.

stars and stripes [aren't] forever

Studying colonial American history, I was always intrigued by the names given to some of the pilgrims' children. One name that stood out especially was "Peregrine," which literally means "foreign, alien; wandering, traveling." It's not an accident that the same people who left everything they had known and established for a chance at freedom would christen a child this way.

Looking back on our nation's history, with all the benefits of that 20/20 hindsight thing, we forget the uncertainty and doubt that must've loomed heavy on the minds of all who led the way at each critical juncture. Happily as it may have turned out for us, the decisions made by pilgrim families was not easy. They made the choice to be strangers in search of a better country. And they were painfully aware of the difficulties and risks that their choice brought.

Not too long after elementary school and all of those lessons about the Mayflower, the first Thanksgiving, and Squanto and the corn-growing, I began to cultivate a new interest in pilgrims and wanderers, based on a passage from Hebrews 11. After relating the faith of some of the earliest followers of Yahweh, the author says,

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

This is not an isolated recounting of this theme in Scripture. One exciting thing about studying the Old Testament in Sunday School has been watching this pilgrim theme unfold again. God's people are frequently wanderers in a foreign land, living in a way that declares that they seek a homeland. From Genesis to Revelation, His people are strangers and pilgrims, ambassadors for the King of that heavenly country.

So as we celebrate patriotism today on the Fourth of July, let's take a bit to reflect on how our experience here is just a faint reflection of our love for the better country we so desire.

Would my life be worthy of a name like "Peregrine"? Do I declare plainly that I am not at home here? Do I sing the Lord's song in this foreign land?

Do I think of heaven the same way that the psalmist remembered his home country in Psalm 137?

By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
we hung up our lyres.
For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
"Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"

How shall we sing the LORD's song
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget its skill!
Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy!

Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites
the day of Jerusalem,
how they said, "Lay it bare, lay it bare,
down to its foundations!"
O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who repays you
with what you have done to us!
Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock!

whom then shall I fear?

It is not a new thing to be afraid. The Bible doesn't hide from us the fact that people are naturally afraid -- even people who at times walk very closely with God.

As I sit here typing, several stories of those who were afraid (and those warned not to be afraid) come to mind, stories of people like [no order here . . .] Moses, Joshua, David, Gideon, the apostles -- people we see listed as "heroes" of the faith.

Humans are a fearful lot.

People in our times are afraid of a multitude of things: getting old, becoming unattractive, getting sick, losing a "significant other," ridicule, poverty, death, not having a good retirement, crime, boredom, and the list goes on.

There's only one fear that is consistently missing: the fear of God. It's not really even in our fear vocabulary. We don't fear Him in our entertainment choices. We don't fear Him in our lifestyle choices. We don't fear Him in our vocabulary choices.

We -- at least culturally -- just don't really think He's that big of a deal.

While the Bible is replete with commands NOT to fear, it is also clear that there is one type of fear that is non-optional.

Psalm 34 vividly presents the contrast:

1 I will bless the LORD at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul shall make its boast in the LORD;
The humble shall hear of it and be glad.
3 Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
And let us exalt His name together.

4 I sought the LORD, and He heard me,
And delivered me from all my fears.
5 They looked to Him and were radiant,
And their faces were not ashamed.
6 This poor man cried out, and the LORD heard him,
And saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him,
And delivers them.

8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
9 Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints!
There is no want to those who fear Him.
10 The young lions lack and suffer hunger;
But those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.

11 Come, you children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12 Who is the man who desires life,
And loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil,
And your lips from speaking deceit.
14 Depart from evil and do good;
Seek peace and pursue it.

15 The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous,
And His ears are open to their cry.
16 The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears,
And delivers them out of all their troubles.

18 The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the LORD delivers him out of them all.
20 He guards all his bones;
Not one of them is broken.
21 Evil shall slay the wicked,
And those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.
22 The LORD redeems the soul of His servants,
And none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.

I won't pretend to understand fully what the "fear of the LORD" means, but I think that it has something to do with an acknowledgment of His holiness and hatred for sin, and the wrath that we all deserve for rebelling against Him.

It has something to do with His glory as the Creator of the universe and the One Who holds it all together -- the One in Whom all created things live and move and have their being.

It has something to do with His steadfast love that extends mercy to a people who have been nothing but covenant breakers for thousands of years -- love great enough to make the biggest sacrifice the universe could ever know.

The paradox is that only by living out this fear do we escape all of the other fears that plague us. If the fearful, awesome, all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-faithful God of the universe is with me, who can be against me?

How can I fear the winds and waves while I sit at the feet of the One Who can stop them with His word?

tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow

Today's guest blogger is . . . Jonathan Edwards.

Click here to read Edwards's sermon "Procrastination, or the Sin of Depending on Future Time."

Most of the time we don't treat procrastination as a sin, but Edwards shows how procrastination stems from misplaced trust and dulls our hunger for God and our effectiveness for Kingdom work.

In my own struggle with procrastination, I have noticed it playing out not only in smaller things (e.g., I will wash my car tomorrow, or eat less tomorrow, or write that paper tomorrow), but in the way I look at my life as a whole.

Being relatively young, I assume that I have decades still to live and to work on this earth.

Or, worse yet, looking out at my life I define it by things I will do "someday," ignoring that today is all I have been given. I may never arrive at that season of my life where I am a wife and mom, or when I have the job I'm working toward, or when the door of that opportunity I've always wanted finally swings open.

Is the life I'm living "in the meantime" (knowing that there is no "meantime"!) worthy of the calling of my Heavenly Father?

The Bible: Not Your Convenient Book of Quotes

What is the Bible?

What do you expect when you sit down to read God’s Word?

I am convinced that the way we think about Scripture is crucial to our full experience of it. How many times have you opened your Bible, wanting, longing, even panting for some extraordinary word spoken to the heart of the your struggles only to be disappointed to read words that seem to offer no relevant help?

Our disappointment, and hesitancy to turn back to Scripture, is a symptom of expecting Scripture to be something far less than what it really is. When we come to Scripture looking for a good quote to share with our friends, we make nothing more than a tool with which we prove our ideas. When we look to Scripture demanding it answer the immediate questions on our minds, we treat the Message of the Living God as if it were a magic eight ball bought at the local toy store.

The miracle of Scripture is that it is God’s special revelation of Himself. In it we see what He is like. Reading it we find out how and why He does things. Knowing the Bible is our only way of knowing its Author. No time spent in it is wasted time. Some days you will find a verse that powerfully speaks to one of your deepest questions. Some days you will read and will come away from a quiet moment with no special verse that “really spoke to you,” but you will have interacted with the revelation of God to man, and there is the value of reading and knowing Scripture. In it we see the beauty of our king in broad strokes and in minute detail.

Stay in the Word! Don’t just read the sections your comfortable with. Don’t just read or search for verses that will speak to your most immediate need. Honor it by reading it fully, completely, and at length. Read it for what it is and you’ll see that over time your mind will be transformed.

for still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe

Satan doesn't like our church, our college/career group, or our individual pursuits of Christ.

But he does consider them an opportunity.

He thrives on planting discord and disunity, encouraging grumbling and complaining, and advertising the allure of gossip and backstabbing.

To quote Martin Luther,

Groß’ Macht und viel List
Sein’ grausam’ Rüstung ist,
Auf Erd’ ist nicht seins Gleichen.

Er . . . or, loosely translated . . .

His craft and power are great,
And, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

At the same time that we thank God for the blessings of fellowship that He has granted us, let's pray for unity, and examine the way that we are working towards unity as church members, Christian family members, and Christian friends.

Today I was reading some of what Paul had to say about Christian unity, and noticed that he -- not suprisingly -- premised His discussion on the ultimate sacrifice of personal desires that we find in Christ, and concluded it with a call to join together in glorifying God:

We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.” For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
-- Romans 15:1-6

Prayer Meeting

Don't forget to come to the prayer meeting on Friday!

When: Friday, 5/25, 7PM
Where: church sanctuary

summer reading

Proverbs 13:20 says, "He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed." This verse has reinforced for me the importance of reading biographies of those "who so walk," so that we may have them for a pattern. To this end, the short biographies and sermons at Desiring God have been a great encouragement.

So one of my summer projects is to read Christian biographies. What is the rest of the C&C planning for summer reading? Does anyone have recommendations? (Yes, this is an invitation for comments, but I think it may actually work this time . . . help me out . . . please.)