Total Dependence on God’s Word

Again, from our friend at JC Ryle Quotes:

There must be a real heartfelt belief that God’s promises are sure and to be depended on – a real belief that what God says in the Bible is all true and that every doctrine contrary to this is false, whatever anyone may say. There must be a real belief that all God’s words are to be received, however hard and disagreeable to flesh and blood, and that His way is right and all others wrong. This there must be, or you will never come out from the world, take up the cross, follow Christ and be saved.

~ J.C. Ryle

2010
04/24
CATEGORY
Quotes
Write comment

The Sweet Grace of Deuteronomy 8 and Purpose

A life without divine purpose is dull. You can always tell if the life you are living, that you would diagnose as purposeful, has a divine source or not. Persecution, trials and the sort test what kind of purpose you have. Do not assume you have divine purpose by the mere schedule you partake in. Your calendar can say, “Sunday: Church, Monday: Bible Study, Thursday: Community Outreach, Everyday: Devotional”. Divine purpose always outflows from a tender heart towards God. Is your heart in that state? Is it indifferent towards tenderness? Ignorant of what a tender heart towards God is? Angry at the thought of tenderness towards God?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, I plead with you to read Deuteronomy 8. Here are verses 11-20:

11 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions mand thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.

In the passage, you will see a grace calling out to all people to honor God and the blessing that comes with that. In it you will also see the curse that comes with not honoring God. Romans 1:21 comes to mind:

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Here, God is laying out two paths for man. One leads to a tender heart, the other towards a a hard heart. There is no indifferent heart as a third path. No middle of the road heart. An indifferent heart is a hard heart. It is insensitive to “the things of the Spirit”. So how does this tie in with having divine purpose instead of a worldly purpose?

Remember, the life of worldly purpose can have the same exact schedule as the life of divine purpose. Check your heart within the activities, habits, patterns and relationships of your life. If your heart is indifferent towards God and hardened towards Him, you will eventually get exhausted and there will be no energy outside of your schedule to love on people. You know how we can only have a spiritual energy in planned spiritual activities, but no overflowing joy that comes from Christ alone, whatsoever, when we are outside of our church bubble? That’s a possible litmus test as well.

May God be honored by our tender hearts and sweet affections for the crucified Christ Jesus.

2010
04/23
CATEGORY
Exegesis
Write comment

Ain’t No Grave

Ain’t no grave gonna hold my body down. Thank God.

2010
04/22
CATEGORY
Music
Write comment

The Great Secret of Loving Christ

From our friend at J.C. Ryle Quotes:

What, after all, is the great secret of loving Christ? It is an inward sense of having received from Him pardon and forgiveness of sins. Those love much who feel much forgiven. He who has come to Christ with his sins, and tasted the blessedness of free and full absolution, he is the man whose heart will be full of love towards his Savior. The more we realize that Christ has suffered for us, and paid our debt to God, and that we are washed and justified through His blood, the more we shall love Him for having loved us, and given Himself for us. Our knowledge of doctrines may be defective. Our ability to defend our views in argument may be small. But we cannot be prevented feeling. And our feeling will be like that of the Apostle Peter – “You, Lord, who know all things, You know my heart; and You know that I love You.”

~ J.C. Ryle

2010
04/21
CATEGORY
Quotes
Write comment

The Holy Spirit is Our Helper

One thing that the Lord has been graciously chiseling me on is self-feeding via the Holy Spirit instead of being fed primarily from men. I have struggled in the past with making the Scriptures primary in my life as the main source for feeding my soul. Sadly, God’s spoken Word has just been supplemental to sermons, blogs, and books. The following verse struck me:

John 14:16-17
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and gwill be in you.

Jesus is saying, I am going to ask the Father. Do you believe that he has asked FOR us?

Jesus then says, the Father WILL give you another Helper, aka the Holy Spirit. If you know the Father, do you believe that the Father has given you the Spirit?

John 16:13
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

“The Spirit of truth will guide us into all the truth”. Let us sit humbly at the feet of the Spirit of truth to guide us into all truth. This is an act of submission and a great place to render a tender heart unto God.

2010
04/20
CATEGORY
Exegesis
Faith
Write comment

Using God’s Name as a Comma

Ever feel nervous during public prayer? Someone asks you to pray or you are taking turns praying and you get this thing inside of you that says, “Whew, ok. What to say, what to say. Ok, what hasn’t been said. Oh no, that guy said what I was going to say. I have to come up with something new now cause my idea was taken. What are these people going to think?”

I encourage you to read this list called, “Using God’s Name as a Comma”. Here is point number 3 of 10 on the list. If you do not read the rest of the points, this point can be ripped out of the context of the writer’s intent and appear legalistic.

3. Use God’s name carefully
Many Christians, especially older Christians, find it painful to hear “Lord” or “Father God” used as the capital letter, comma, semi-colon, and full stop of every sentence in a prayer. It is something young Christians and young pastors are prone to default to, unthinkingly, as they understandably struggle for words in public prayer. Some years ago, a kind older Christian pointed out my own tendency to do this. As soon as it was pointed out to me, I was horrified at the careless and thoughtless way I was using God’s name. I was most certainly breaking the third commandment. Once I started to slow down and pause more, I did this much less.

I believe that this list to check yourself against is an indicator of one’s approach to God. Our view on public prayer parallels our private prayer and communion with the Triune God. Let our prayers in both public and private environments be real, raw, honest and transparent. Tune out the cares of the world (Mark 4:19) so that the Word can flow out of you through prayer.

db

2010
04/19
CATEGORY
Faith
Worship
Write comment

The Idol of Information


Great insight from Josh Patterson’s blog over at The Village Church:

[...] Our propensity for gossip certainly doesn’t stop with celebrities; it permeates our lives as well. Religious people share personal information about another as a prayer request with no consideration of whose information it is to share. Sometimes we simply fill the void of our conversations with information about other people rather than walking in the vulnerability of sharing our own lives. The social network scene of Facebook and Twitter only serve as instant vehicles for us to get information, share information and continue to feed the idol of information that so many of us bow down to.

Check your heart here. Why do you share what you share? Is it yours to share? Why do you feel a need to share it or listen to it? What is lacking in your own life that you have to fill it up with the news about another? Here’s an idea: shhhhh. Listen to your heart and find out why you crave to be in the know. Listen for why you have to be the first to share something. Do you feel more powerful? Why do you need to feel this way? What’s broken and lacking in you? Maybe you lack the courage to tell someone to stop sharing something you know you don’t need to be privy to. Maybe you lack the courage to share your own heart…about yourself.

It would do us some good to consider our words. They are powerful to bless and curse. They can build or destroy. They are viral and hard to get back, so listen more than you talk and feel empowered to not share what is not yours.

2010
04/18
CATEGORY
Relationships
Work
Write comment

Human Approval

A post by Ray Ortlund:

Human Approval

1. Human approval is divided. Some like you, others dislike you. A split vote. Who can you believe?

2. Human approval is shallow. None of them know your deepest heart. What if they did?

3. Human approval is distorted. Your friends overlook — hopefully — some failings. Your enemies are blind to your merits. How do you sort it all out?

4. Human approval is unsatisfying. The need of your heart for belovedness goes far beyond anything another sinner can say or do.

5. Human approval is a blessing. The loving favor of true friends is a gift from God. Receive it cheerfully, with thanks to Him. And be sure to give it out to others in generous supplies every day.

“I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.” Philemon 7

2010
04/17
CATEGORY
Encouragement
Write comment

Theology Matters

I really appreciate this video. It is a reminder to myself that all the bible study, sermons, conversations with friends, books, and blogs I have read should point to my heart being transformed into something tender and God-honoring. This is something I cognitively know quite often, but the question remains when I stop and examine myself; is my heart softer to the things of God?

2010
04/16
CATEGORY
Doctrine
Write comment

Marriage and Friendships Make You Happy

The NYT has an article about research that proves that marriage, it’s associated benefits, and other personal relationships have been shown to be more important than money or career success in producing happiness. The whole article is worth a read, but here is an extract:

The daily activities most associated with happiness are sex, socializing after work and having dinner with others. The daily activity most injurious to happiness is commuting. According to one study, joining a group that meets even just once a month produces the same happiness gain as doubling your income. According to another, being married produces a psychic gain equivalent to more than $100,000 a year.

If you want to find a good place to live, just ask people if they trust their neighbors. Levels of social trust vary enormously, but countries with high social trust have happier people, better health, more efficient government, more economic growth, and less fear of crime (regardless of whether actual crime rates are increasing or decreasing).

via Op-Ed Columnist – The Sandra Bullock Trade – NYTimes.com. (HT Mark Driscoll)

2010
04/15
CATEGORY
Relationships
Write comment

Email Subscription

Subscribe to Doctrine & Love by Email

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.