A compelling interview
September 6th, 2008 JeffHere is a real picture of a man who considers himself a real sinner, who’s identity is found in Jesus, and who has relied upon Him for decades.
Stay and drink of God or turn aside and find our own water?
August 17th, 2008 Jeff9 “Therefore I still contend with you,
declares the Lord,
and with your children’s children I will contend.
10 For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see,
or send to Kedar and examine with care;
see if there has been such a thing.
11 Has a nation changed its gods,
even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory
for that which does not profit.
12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
be shocked, be utterly desolate,
declares the Lord,
13 for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water ."
(Jeremiah 2:9-13)
Did you catch that? Verses 11 and 13 reveal the true sin of God’s people here. It was not primarily that they had done great wicked deeds (they had), but rather the root of the matter was that those bad things were born out of wandering hearts. Their minds and hearts were in love with someone or something other than God. They have forsaken God, and gone after other lesser, non-gods, which cannot satisfy, nor are meant to be worshiped. God uses the metaphor of water, in wells, cisterns and a fountain. Perhaps that is because water is the basic building block of life, the most essential thing our bodies need (and indeed are made of). Without water we die. Water is the best thing for us. So it follows that God is the best Person for us, and chief object of all things and the one from whom we gain our identity, worth and satisfaction.
In the desert, as they were, without the hope of water there is no hope at all. Here is God, the oasis in the desert who satisfies every need, and they want to turn aside and dig their own worthless wells. The metaphors depicts how the people of God in Jeremiah’s day began (continued) to hope in objects and false gods that couple not deliver. Their hopes and faith lay in "broken cisterns that can hold no water" (v. 13). In fact these broken holding tanks were created with their own hands. Oh what poor substitutes. What a shame. These cisterns make empty promises and cannot deliver. And so it is so often in our lives — we become enamored with things that so small and worthless, but somehow eclipse God in our lives. I can relate. Can you relate?
Do you ever take good things and make them into ultimate things? He is not primarily talking about overtly wicked behaviors here. Those follow the true state of the heart, which often prefers a thousand things that are not the true and living Creator God. Thus, they are not aimed on satisfying, nor can they. Only He can satisfy! Do we worship things and positions and opinions like they are God? What do we think about all the time? What are we consumed with? God and Christ and His perfections? We must battle every day to find our joy in God. Not just in the things He gives us, but IN HIM! The affections of our hearts play themselves out in our behavior, and we become like the gods we worship. Not talking about wood and metal statues here. Our gods are in our minds, those things and people we truly value more than life itself. Have we made good things into ultimate things, eclipsing God?
These people had preferred other things to God, exchanging Him and His worth for worthless idols (see v. 11). You see how this is a bit different definition of sin than most. In our day the idea of sin is not en vogue; many say it is does not exhaust and is just a religious and social construct. Yes, sin is a matter of right and wrong (the what and how of life’s daily affairs). But it is also, more deeply, a matter of the heart and mind (the why ). We sin because we want to. And we want to because deep in ourselves we prefer others things to God. Sin is what we do when we are not satisfied with God. Therefore we leave Him all the time. Speaking of sin like this is downplayed since after all doesn’t God want us to be happy. He does! Happy and satisfied in Him! Overjoyed with the replenishing waters of His infinite beauty and worth. Christ came to reveal this glory, God’s worth, and has made it possible for us to drink of this Living Water and not search again (see John 4).
Their two primary sins in this passage where first that they do not seek God as the chief of their whole lives and love, and two that they turned aside and in fact dug their own wells. In the place God was to be they placed their own works and found their identity in cheap substitutes. May we stop and repent of our low views of God, our cheap substitutes for Him, and ask Him to work in us a delight and joy in Him.
Overpower us with Your love, O God! Make us prefer you to anything else in all the world.
A couple reminders on the Lord’s Day
August 10th, 2008 JeffAs every day is His, these will work at all times too…
Tozer on looking outside ourselves:
“While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves - blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ, the very thing he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him .”
- A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, Inc., 1993), 85.
[HT: Of First Importance ]
Wesley on singing in church:
"Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature . In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he comes in the clouds of heaven."
- John Wesley, from Select hymns with Tunes Annext: Designed chiefly for the Use of the People Called Methodists
[HT: Sojourn Music ]
I pray this happens again this morning as I preach:
And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord. ( 1 Samuel 3:21 )
Let me never forget
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 !
Young, Restless, Reformed
July 13th, 2008 Jeff
Just finished reading a fascinating book, Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists by Collin Hansen (Crossway Books, 2008). Hansen is editor-at-large for Christianity Today magazine, and a phenomenal writer and story teller, in my humble opinion.
His new book is an expansion and more detailed research project of his September 2006 article in Christianity Today magazine . During that time and afterward he traveled all around the country (for nearly two years) chronicling the diverse movement, from the Passion conferences to Southern Seminary, to Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis (home of John Piper, pastor for preaching and vision), to Sovereign Grace Churches, to visit with dozens of churches and pastors and professors across the country, to Yale and Princeton (Jonathan Edward’s roots) and all the way to Seattle (home of Mars Hill Church and Mark Driscoll, preaching pastor, and the Acts29 church planting network). It is truly amazing how much info, interviews, reflections and candor he Hansen was able to pack into 156 pages.
Having read and followed most of the "key players" among the resurgence in and towards the doctrines of grace for a few years, I was delighted to better understand their interwoven story. I recommend this quick read for those not familiar with the God-centered theology, or with an caricature/skewed view of it as it relates to biblical doctrine. Others have reviewed and responded to the book in other places (see links below).
Hansen’s book reads like a string of captivating articles, and he does more than give facts as he reflects, summarizes and connects the doctrines of grace, people of grace, the centrality of Christ and some of the various issues facing the American church with journalistic creativity. I especially appreciated the tone found throughout of an others-directed, servant-like humility and the need for evangelism, mission (and missions), and serving the local church and community. To be God-centered, Bible-saturated and Gospel-driven means to give our lives away sacrificially.
Spurgeon is quoted on page 114 noting how the doctrine of election is not aimed at dividing saints, but rather "Israel from Egypt" (as in the OT). He goes on:
“A man may be evidently of God’s chosen family, and yet though elected, may not believe in the doctrine of election. I hold there are many savingly called, who do not believe in effectual calling, and that there are a great many who persevere to the end, who do not believe in the doctrine of final perseverance. We do hope that the hearts of many are a great deal better than their heads. We do not set their fallacies down to any willful opposition to the trust as it is in Jesus, but simply to an error in their judgments, which we pray God to correct. We hope that if they think us mistaken too, they will reciprocate the same Christian courtesy; and when we meet around the cross, we hope that when we meet around the cross, we hope that we shall ever feel that we are one in Christ Jesus.”[1]
Let all remember:
“What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” ( 1 Cor. 4:7 )
- Read Hansen’s original Young, Restless, Reformed article in the Sept. 2006 edition Christianity Today magazine
- Read the prologue and chapter one of the book
- Timmy Brister’s personal interview with Collin Hansen - part 1 | 2 | 3
- Audio/video of discussion with Hansen and Dr. Doug Sweeney recorded at the Henry Center at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
- Kirk Wellum’s review & response (originally on Wellum’s blog )
- Tim Challies’ book review
(Brister and Challies are both mentioned in the book.)
‘Tis not that I did choose Thee
July 9th, 2008 Jeff
" ‘Tis not that I did choose Thee,
For Lord, that could not be;
This heart would still refuse Three,
Hadst Thou not chosen me …My heart owns none before Thee,
For Thy rich grace I thirst;
This knowing, if I love Thee,
Thou must have loved me first."
– Josiah Conder, 1836
Found in the front matter of the Jesus Storybook Bible we bought Dutch. Wow, that’s the type of Christ-exalting humility and truth I hope our young son to grasp. We hope to swim with him in the deep end of God’s perfections and grace (even from this young age).
"We love becaus e he first loved us ." [ 1 John 4:19 ]
Not to us
July 9th, 2008 JeffNot 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
Enjoying + using
July 8th, 2008 JeffGod is to be enjoyed for His own sake and all other things are to be used as means to the end of enjoying God.
The precious privilege of adopted sons and daughters before our “Abba, Father”
July 6th, 2008 JeffC.J. Mahaney preaches:
Christ-centered living versus the tendency to shrink our lives
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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