August 5th, 2008 Jeff
Brent has a great post, "Personal Preference and Churches ." An excerpt:
If you’ve been involved in “church life” for any extended period of time, you surely know that people are not casual about their preferences. We’ve all heard the horror stories of churches splitting over the color of carpet. Some of you may have actually lived through that. Yet most of us are willing to overlook matters like the color of the carpet, but don’t you dare sing too many “contemporary” songs, or “traditional hymns,” depending on which side of the argument you come from.
One of the things that breaks my heart in this discussion is that, for a good many people, the more theologically informed we become, the more picky we become, when I’ve come to believe it should be exactly the opposite. For many people, the more theology they understand and become convicted of, and as they begin to formulate positions, many of those positions become boundary markers of what their idea of church should be when in reality, there are godly men and women on the other side of that theological conviction who just as strongly believe otherwise. In other words, many of our theological convictions are simply strongly held personal preferences, just (hopefully), with Scriptural backing.
Makes me think.
I have a handful of convictions I’m willing to die for, but many silly preferences that muddy the water making it look like those are more important.
Let’s not make good things into ultimate things. Christ is the one supreme treasure in all the universe.
Is HE my preference?
—
Brent and his family recently planted a church in the Phoenix area.
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July 28th, 2008 Jeff
Humility.
“Take every word as spoken to yourselves. When the word thunders against sin, think thus: ‘God means my sins;’ when it presseth any duty, ‘God intends me in this.’ Many put off Scripture from themselves, as if it only concerned those who lived in the time when it was written; but if you intend to profit by the word, bring it home to yourselves: a medicine will do no good, unless it be applied.” (From a sermon by Thomas Watson entitled “How We May Read the Scriptures with Most Spiritual Profit”)
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July 26th, 2008 Jeff
"Let me never forget that the heinousness of sin lies not so much in the nature of the sin committed, as in the greatness of the Person sinned against."
– Prayer entitled "Humiliation" in The Valley of Vision , ed. Arthur Bennet (Banner of Truth, 2002 edition). Quoted by Jonathan Leeman in "Individualism’s Not the Problem–Community’s Not the Solution ," Modern Reformation , July/Aug 2008.
An excellent essay !
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July 9th, 2008 Jeff
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory,
for the sake of Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness!
Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Our God is in the heavens;
He does all that He pleases.
– Psalm 115:1-3
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June 10th, 2008 Jeff
Keep in mind:
most people we come into contact with each day are having a worse day that we are
Let’s show others grace, for everyone is carrying burdens. Also keep in perspective that we all are having a better day than we deserve.
Let’s take the time to listen to other’s stories.
(Ideas formed today during our communication skills for ministry class)
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June 8th, 2008 Jeff
“Transcendent living is Christ-centered living. Living for Christ is the only way you will ever be liberated from your bondage to the overwhelming tendency to shrink the size of your life to the size of your life. The only way to spin free of the narrow confines of your little cubicle kingdom is to live in the big sky country of Christ-centered living. You will never win the battle with yourself simply by saying ‘no’ to yourself. The battle only begins to be won when you say ‘yes’ to the call of your King, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
- Paul David Tripp, A Quest for More (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2007), 99.
“Only love for Christ has the power to incapacitate the sturdy love for self that is the bane of every sinner, and only the grace of Christ has the power to produce that love.” (p. 105)
Ripped straight from Of First Importance . I highly recommend having their RSS feed , daily email or heading to their site each day for quotes like this.
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May 28th, 2008 Jeff
I’ve recently come to see how un-humble I am (read: prideful), and am desperately in need of the Gospel, and being specifically humble before my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
Humility is a reoccurring theme, and truly the answer for all my problems in this two-second earthly life. A right assessment of self (humility), and a proper view of circumstances, as in contentment (see here ).
On this theme, there seems to be a strange paradox at work in my life. Why is it that sometimes I am more authentic with people I know are not Christian than with fellow believers and leaders in the church. Not overall as a huge difference in character on display, but in spots and situations. Why is that? Why do I ‘edit my story’ and try to come across as competent and gifted and a good leader? Anyone else struggle with this? (It is sin, and we must repent of it, and flee it .. but how?)
An incisive quote by Tim Keller addresses part (or at least the center) of my dilemma in his book The Reason for God . He writes:
"Sin is the despairing refusal to find your deepest identity in your relationship and service to God. Sin is seeking to become oneself, to get an identity, apart from him…Sin is not just the doing of bad things, but the making of good things into ultimate things. It is seeking to establish a sense of self by making something else more central to your significance, purpose, and happiness than your relationship to God" (p. 162).
(Thanks to Jake Belder for the reminder .)
That is my problem — making good (not at all sinful things) into the ultimate things. I suffer with this self-idolatry, being a task-oriented, generally productive and competent (with a Type-A personality fueling it all). By default I find significance in what I do , which is a perversion of identity and life purpose before God. Rather, my significance is found in Christ, my life hidden with Him in God — in fact, Jeff is dead (Col. 3:3). That’s the reordering of life under the Gospel.
Unless we are diligent in seeking humility (since we cannot simply "do" it) we will not be progressing on the trajectory towards Christ-likeness. To long to fulfill what Andrew Murray defines humility as: "simply the sense of entire nothingness, which comes when we see how truly God is all, and in which we make way for God to be all " [Andrew Murray, Humility , p. 12].
A passage that keeps coming to mind is 1 Corinthians 8:1-3:
Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.
It probably took about three hours wrestling with those verses to scratch the surface of what they mean for my identity, seeking knowledge and loving God in all things. (Still wresting with it.) Knowledge is not bad, nor is seeking knowledge a vain pursuit. The issue is with motives, issues of the heart and mind. Why am I seeking knowledge? For God’s glory and my joy? Is my learning a loving act towards God and others? Loving God is the chief goal (display His infinite worth and glory, by enjoying Him through love). And all knowledge should serve to help us know, love and enjoy God above all else. But of course none of this can be done in a vacuum, to the exclusion of others. We do not live to ourselves, and even in living to God we affect (and should) others greatly. If we wish to help others see Christ as beautify and glorious as He is, then we must be actively loving others. That is how the world will know Christ is in us, that He knows us (John 13:35). And that is what I am learning. Humbled, learning contentment. Happily.
I guess that if you are a Christian reading this then I’m being authentic with you after all…
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May 3rd, 2008 Jeff
"Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal of every condition."
- Jeremiah Burroughs , The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment (listen to a discussion of the book here , highly recommended)
"…I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me."
- The Apostle Paul, Philippians 4:11-13
This hits home to the details of everyday life. Who doesn’t need to learn better how to be content?
Contentment is a heart issue. And it is a hard reality to cultivate. Our affections must be illuminated to see past our circumstances and surroundings to see the transcendent God who brings beauty, joy and contentment to any and all things.
Labor to be content in God. We are working through frustrations and disappointments to see Christ Himself as the sum of our joy and contentment in this life, as He is the source of life and the reason for our existence.
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April 16th, 2008 Jeff
"Humility is the most essential thing in true religion . . . the great Christian duty is self-denial. This duty consists of two things: first, in denying worldly inclinations and its enjoyments and second, in denying self-exaltation and renouncing one’s self-significance by being empty of self. . . . The humble Christian is more apt to find fault with his own pride than with that of other men. . . . A truly humble person who has a low view of his own righteousness and holiness is poor in spirit and modest in speech. . . . He is apt to put the best construction on others’ words and behavior and to think that none is as proud as he is. But the proud hypocrite is pricked to discern the mote in his brother’s eye. He never sees the beam in his own. He’s often crying out about someone else’s pride, finding fault with that person’s appearance and way for living. Yet he never sees the filthiness of his own heart."
- Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections (reprinted, Portland, Oregon: Multnomah Press, 1984), 132-137.
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April 12th, 2008 Jeff
“God created both soul and body, and the resurrection of Jesus shows that he is going to redeem both the spiritual and the material. Therefore God is concerned not only for the salvation of souls but also for the relief of poverty, hunger, and injustice.
The gospel opens our eyes to the fact that all our wealth (even wealth for which we worked hard) is ultimately an unmerited gift from God. Therefore the person who does not generously give away his or her wealth to others is not merely lacking in compassion, but is unjust.
Christ wins our salvation through losing, achieves power through weakness and service, and comes to wealth through giving all away. Those who receive his salvation are not the strong and accomplished but those who admit they are weak and lost. We cannot look at the poor and the oppressed and callously call them to pull themselves out of their own difficulty. Jesus did not treat us that way.”
- The Gospel Coalition’s “Theological Vision for Ministry” (2007), Section 5e
[HT: Of First Importance ]
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