Idolatry, Slavery and Freedom
Keller says something along these lines:
- Everybody lives for something (acceptance, success, work, morality, family, etc.). A couple questions to help people identify what they live for are: 1. If you lost this one thing, it wouldn’t just hurt you, but rather it would crush you. 2. If you are about to die, what is your greatest fear?
- Whatever you live for, you are a slave to that thing. An example would be, if you live for your work, your identity is inextricably tied to how work is going. Even if it’s going very well, because your identity is synonymous with your career, you will see your family life deteriorate because work is significantly elevated over one’s loved ones. On the flip side, if your family is your everything then when one of them dies or a relationship doesn’t go as planned, life is screwed.
- Being a slave to Jesus is the only thing that truly brings freedom. He is the only master who will forgive you when you fail Him. He will bring perfect order to the chaos in our lives. Work, family, and everything else will be aligned correctly when God is made number 1 as He should be.
Book Recommendations
I highly recommend the following three books for their clear and beautiful articulations of the gospel:
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The Prodigal God by Tim Keller
(short – can read in 2-3 hours. unbelievably clear. helpful for self-righteous people like myself )
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The Furious Love of God by Brennan Manning
(also short – can read in 2-3 hours. Manning’s life is a beautiful picture of sinner/saint. Moving stories of God’s ridiculous grace to sinners like you and me.)
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The Cross of Christ by John Stott
(about 250 pgs. Discusses the theological implications/realities of the cross. My favorite book on the cross. See excerpt on this blog – go to search box and type ‘cross of Christ.’)
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If you have other helpful recommendations that paint pictures of God’s grace to us in Jesus, please comment.
Before the Throne of God
Hymn written by Charitie Lees Bancroft; music by Vikki Cook
Before the throne of God above I have a strong and perfect plea, A great High Priest whose name is Love, Who ever lives and pleads for me. My name is graven on His hands, My name is written on His heart; I know that while in heav’n He stands no tongue can bid me thence depart, No tongue can bid me thence depart.
When satan tempts me to despair, and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see Him there Who made an end to all my sin. Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free; For God, the Just, is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me, to look on Him and pardon me.
Behold Him there! the risen Lamb, my perfect spotless Righteousness, the great unchangable “I Am,” the King of glory and of grace! One with Himself I cannot die, My soul is purchased by His blood: My life is hid with Christ on high, with Christ, my Savior and my God, with Christ my savior and my God.
We Have Had Enough Religion
The following post is from DashHouse blog. For what it’s worth, it’s my favorite blog.
From Time Magazine, circa 1947 (via)
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The message of Calvinism to modern man is that he must repent from his idolatry, which is his greatest and root sin. His idolatry, in that he has made a God of himself and made a problem of the living God of the Scriptures…
We have had enough religion, religious philosophy and religious psychology. It is time we again found the living God and began to build the theological temple. . . .
Let theology be theology! We have made everything of it except just that… Somehow modern theology will have to find the road back to the God of the Scriptures.
Soren Kierkegard’s Definition of Sin
Per Tim Keller’s interview with the Washington Post (2008)
“Sin is building your identity on anything besides God.”
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What are you relying on to feel okay? Is it being a good husband, wife, father, mother, son or daughter? Or are you relying on academic achievements, financial success, athletic ability, or even the amount of impact you are having on other people? The evil one is subtle and persistent in his efforts to sell us on relying on anything besides (or in addition to Jesus).
We need to rely exclusively on what Jesus did for us @ Calvary, period. We need to be found in Him alone. We bring nothing to the table; rather, He has accomplished all things and our life is found in Him and Him alone.
2 Religions in the World
Romans 3:21-22
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it-the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”
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The following quote was found in Christless Christianity by Michael Horton:
“Salvation, from start to finish, is his work for us, not a matter of saving ourselves or even of cooperating with him. It is a divine rescue operation Even our sanctification is grounded in God’s act of justifying us and uniting us, by his Spirit, to Christ’s death and life. So there are really only two religions in the world: a religion of human striving to ascend to God through pious works, feelings, attitudes, and experiences and the Good News of God’s merciful descent to us in his Son. The religions, philosophies, ideologies, and spirituality’s of the world only differ on the details. Whether we are talking about the Dalai Lama or Dr. Phil, Islam or Oprah, liberals or conservatives, the most intuitive conviction is that we are good people who need good advice, not helpless sinners who need the Good News.”
The Hospital
Quote from Michael Horton’s Christless Christianity (p. 118-9):
“The more we talk about Christ as the Bible’s unfolding mystery and less about our own transformation, the more likely we are actually to be transformed rather than either self-righteous or despairing. As much as it goes against our grain, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for justification and sanctification. The fruit of faith is real; it’s just not the same as the fruit of works-righteousness.
Yes, there is hypocrisy, and because Christians will always be simultaneously saint and sinner, there will always be hypocrisy in every Christian and in every church. The good news is that Christ saves us from hypocrisy too. But hypocrisy is especially generated when the church points to itself and to our own”changed lives” in the promotional materials. Maybe non-Christians would have less relish in pointing out our failures if we testified in word and deed to our need and God’s gift for sinners like us. If we identified the visibility of the church with the scene of sinners gathered by grace to confess their sins and their faith in Christ, receiving him with open hands, instead of without busy efforts to be the gospel, we would at least beat non-Christian critics to the punch. We know that we are sinners. We know that we fall short of God’s glory. That’s exactly why we need Christ.”
It’s Better Than We Think!
Jonathan Edwards quote from Josh Moody’s The God-Centered Life:
Also, this can be found in Edwards’ book Some Thoughts Concerning the Revival (part1, section 5).
This quote is in reference to his wife and beautifully depicts the power and joy of the gospel. There are moments in our lives where we get a taste of the infinite beauty of Jesus and we are blown away. These experiences sing of something beyond and are appetizers of the heavenly feast that we can scarcely comprehend. I encourage you (as I was encouraged by T. Keller in a sermon) to ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to the beauty and glory of Jesus and His finished work!
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“More than once continuing for five or six hours together, without any interruption, in that clear and lively view or sense of the infinite beauty and amiableness of Christ’s person, and the heavenly sweetness of his excellent and transcendent love; so that (to use the person’s own expressions) the soul remained in a kind of heavenly Elysium, and did as it were swim in the rays of Christ’s love, like a little mote swimming in the beams of the sun, or streams of his light that came in at his window… extraordinary views of divine things, and religious affections, being frequently attended with very great effects on the body, nature often sinking under the weight of divine discoveries, the strength of the body was taken away, so as to deprive of all ability to stand or speak; sometimes the hands clinched, and the flesh cold, but senses still remaining; animal nature often in a great emotion and agitation, and the soul very often, of late, so overcome with great admiration, and a kind of omnipotent joy, as to cause the person (wholly unavoidably) to leap with all the might, with joy and mighty exultation of soul…”
Like a River Glorious
Hymn by Frances Havergal (words) and James Mountain (music) – 1876
Like a river glorious, is God’s perfect peace,
Over all victorious, in its bright increase;
Perfect, yet it floweth, fuller every day,
Perfect, yet it groweth, deeper all the way.
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.
Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand,
Never foe can follow, never traitor stand;
Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care,
Not a blast of hurry touch the spirit there.
Every joy or trial falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial by the Sun of Love;
We may trust Him fully all for us to do.
They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true.
Nothing to Prove
Great quote by Jack Miller @ Justin Buzzard’s blog:
“You don’t have anything to prove to us or the world. The work is finished at Calvary, and that work has unlimited meaning and value. Keep your focus there.”
HT: Dash
