Spiritually Depressed?
HT: Justin Taylor
…..
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression, p. 35:
Would you like to be rid of this spiritual depression?
The first thing you have to do is to say farewell now once and forever to your past.
Realize that it has been covered and blotted out in Christ.
Never look back at your sins again.
Say: ‘It is finished, it is covered by the Blood of Christ’.
That is your first step.
Take that and finish with yourself and all this talk about goodness, and look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is only then that true happiness and joy are possible for you.
What you need is not to make resolutions to live a better life, to start fasting and sweating and praying.
No! You just begin to say:
I rest my faith on Him alone
Who died for my transgressions to atone.
(HT: David Mathis)
Here’s the “one thing” Paul wanted to do: “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14).
Also remember this rule from Robert Murray M’Cheyne:
For one look at yourself,
take ten looks at Christ!
The Forgiveness of Sins Covers It All
HT: Ray Ortlund
“It is the supreme art of the devil that he can make the law out of the gospel. If I can hold on to the distinction between law and gospel, I can say to him any and every time that he should kiss my backside. Even if I sinned I would say, ‘Should I deny the gospel on this account?’ . . . Once I debate about what I have done and left undone, I am finished. But if I reply on the basis of the gospel, ‘The forgiveness of sins covers it all,’ I have won.”
Martin Luther, quoted in Reinhard Slenczka, “Luther’s Care of Souls for Our Times,”Concordia Theological Quarterly 67 (2003): 42.
He Rescued Me Because He Delighted In Me
The following was an email sent to me (and to our Young Life area) from Brady Wright, a Wheaton College student and volunteer Young Life leader. It is a wonderful reminder and was such a timely word for me personally. Hope its the same for you.
…..
I was reading 2 Samuel 22 (which is also Psalm 18) and I came across this part, which I think all of us can truly say about ourselves: “(17)He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. (18) He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. (19) They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support. (20)He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.” That last part is really the part I wanted to focus on. I don’t think we recognize enough that God delights in us. I would guess a lot of us say God is disappointed in us frequently, but few of us daily recognize the delight and pleasure that God finds in us, since we are in his Son. Hear the Good News – God views us as He views his Son! And no doubt the Father delights in his Son. Therefore (a little algebra equation) God delights in us. That’s good news. Anyway, hope this serves as a good reminder. I know I need to be reminded everyday. Keep on keepin’ on! Love you guys.
HOME SWEET HOME!!!!
Per The Prodigal God by Tim Keller (p. 101-2):
During his ministry he wandered, settling nowhere, and said: “Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matt. 8:20). He remained completely outside the social networks of political and economic power. He did not even seek academic or religious credentials. Finally, at the end of his life, he was crucified outside the gate of the city, a powerful symbol of rejection by the community, of exile. And as he died he said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46), a tremendous cry of spiritual dereliction and homelessness.
What had happened? Jesus had not come to simply deliver one nation from political oppression, but to save all of us from sin, evil, and death itself. He came to bring the human race Home. Therefore he did not come in strength but in weakness. He came and experienced the exile that we deserved. He was expelled from the presence of the Father, he was thrust into the darkness, the uttermost despair of spiritual alienation – in our place. He took upon himself the full curse of human rebellion, cosmic homelessness, so that we could be welcomed into our true home.
He Has Given All That He Has
There are many factors that determine if a gift is a ‘good gift.’ Here are 3:
1. What did it cost the person who gave it to you?
2. How much did you want this particular gift?
3. Who is the person that gave it to you?
Reflecting on gifts that I’ve received over the years, one that stands out is when my dad brought home a Nintendo for me when I was 6 years old, stuck at home with chicken pox. He couldn’t be near me for the week because he had never had chicken pox as a kid and had other health problems that could have been aggravated if he had contracted the pox, but I’ll never forget when he walked in and gave me the big wrapped box that began an instant friendship with two guys named Mario and Luigi. Evaluating the gift in light of the criteria mentioned above, the Nintendo did quite well. It cost my dad a lot, I wanted it real bad and it was my dad that gave it to me.
Yet, that very good gift isn’t very good anymore. The cord broke off the back and its been sitting in my basement for the past 15 years, not to mention that even when it was only a couple years old, I had to blow inside all the video games and inside the console in order for games to work 
Most of us will probably be getting some good gifts in a couple weeks, but they are all sure to disappoint eventually. December 26th happens every year and its inevitable that we’ll all be bummed at least a little bit. (same principle applies the day following the birthday). If you don’t experience the let down, let me know.
Genesis 24:36 says, “And Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master when she was old, and to him he has given all that he has.” Abraham gave his son, Isaac, all that he had. Upon reading this the other day, it struck me that God the Father has also given me everything that he had, his son Jesus. Let me say it again, God has given us everything that he has! In light of the 3 criteria, let’s see how the gift of his son stacks up:
1. It cost the Father his one and only boy; his buddy; his son that he dearly loved
2. We actually don’t want this gift naturally, but it is the gift that we need above all other needs and therefore we should want it with every morsel of our beings.
3. The person that has given us this gift is far superior to our earthly dads; this is our true daddy who’s love makes us.
….
This gift, Jesus, is the only gift that doesn’t disappoint. Instead of deteriorating, this gift keeps on getting better and it will take all of eternity to express our praise, adoration, worship and awe.
He Will Save His People From Their Sins
HT: Ray Ortlund
“Who are his people? We are eager to know who they are, and we are glad to find that his people need to be saved, and will be saved, for it is written, ‘He will save his people.’ It is not said, ‘He will reward his people for their righteousness,’ nor is it promised that he will ’save them from becoming sinners,’ but ‘He will save his people from their sins.’ . . .
If you are righteous in yourself, you are not one of his people. If you were never sick in soul, you are none of the folk that the Great Physician has come to heal. If you were never guilty of sin, you are none of those whom he has come to deliver from sin. Jesus comes on no needless errand and undertakes no unnecessary work. If you feel yourselves to need saving, then cast yourselves upon him, for such as you are he came to save.”
C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of the New Testament, I:4-5, on Matthew 1:21.
What Do You Boast In?
The following was written by my wife, Meghan, in our December prayer letter to our Young Life supporters. I read it and was encouraged and thought you would be too. I believe that she speaks to the explosiveness of the gospel, reminding us that Christ alone is our righteousness, hope, joy, sanctification, glory!!!!!!
…..
Yesterday I was sitting in church and found myself vacillating between grief and rejoicing. This verse stood out: Galatians 6:14 “But far be it from me to boast in anything except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.” This is the beautiful truth of Christianity. My boast is in the finished work of Christ. My boast is not or should not be in my flesh or in anything that I do or don’t do. My grieving is in the reality of how often I move into the world looking for acceptance and praise from man; even though I have been crucified to the world, I keep going back to the darkness looking for purpose. My rejoicing is in the eternal truth, the freedom, and the promise that I have been adopted by God, and that he is deeply satisfied with me; my purpose, worth, and identity are all richly granted in Him.
Sweat Equity Salvation is of the Devil
The following post comes from Jared Wilson. The link to this specific post can be found here and the link to another blog of his can be found here. I highly recommend him. He preaches Jesus plus nothing as our hope, foundation, motivation, strength, etc. - again and again.
…..
Sweat Equity Salvation is of the Devil
Tuesday, November 24, 2009, 8:17 AM
Jared C. Wilson
A few months ago on my own blog I wrote about something I write often about: how the good news is that Christ’s finished work actually means the work of salvation is finished, so that even our feeble participation in sanctification is both covered by Jesus and empowered by him through the Spirit. A somewhat prominent blogger then brought up the idea of our own “sweat equity” contributing to our sanctification. I couldn’t think of a more abhorrent idea at the time, an idea more antithetical to the gospel, which suddenly becomes no gospel, because it means Christ made a down payment and now I’m on the installment plan.
I saw the idea again yesterday, as someone linked to the May 2008 edition of The Gospel Coalition’s Themelios journal, in an article titled “How a Mega-Church is Rediscovering the Gospel”. An excerpt, from the pastor of that church:
I met with a man who had been attending our church for four years. He said he needed to ask me a theological question before he could join our church. I never like those kinds of conversations since the question is usually about a distinctive rather than about something central. We met for breakfast, and his question was the best theological question I had ever been asked. He simply asked me how people grow. He said that he knew people were saved by grace, but he wanted to know if I thought people were sanctified through their own sweat equity. I thought for a moment and then told him that the only thing that ever really changed me was love. Ever since the mission trip, I had been feeling that it was more important for me to understand how much Jesus loved me than it was for me to figure out how to love Him. I watched in amazement as relief spread across my friend’s face. He said he had tried for twenty years to be sanctified through his own effort; it had ground him to powder, and he would not go back.
I know this myself personally. Talking about how the gospel and the law relate to sanctification is no mere intellectual exercise for me. It’s not just one more idea for the blog. It made the difference between the crushing weight of my own sinful failure and the freedom that comes from tasting and seeing that the Lord is good. This is a real freedom, a freedom that makes “good works” a celebratory dance, not a day-laborers’ accumulation of sanctifying sweat equity. That way leads to burn out and bitterness. “Do not again return to a yoke of slavery,” Paul practically yells at us.
And I don’t care if this offends you (because it needs to): If you don’t get this, you do not have the joy of gospel wakefulness.
Pastor Joe Coffey continues:
Gospel-driven transformation is both liberating and terrifying.
There are some in our church who have not yet rediscovered the Gospel this way. There are others who hear the terrifying part but not the liberating part, and they sit on pins and needles. Many of them will leave soon, I think. But there are many others who have felt the shackles start to fall off, and, like me, they are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.
It is counterintuitive, but wakefulness to the reality that the work is done makes us work more and harder. The gospel creates what the Law requires. And when we approach the notion of sanctification from the angle of “How much reminding of the spiritual homework can we do?” we miss the point entirely. It is often because we do not trust the proclamation to be effectual, and we do not really believe that the gospel is power in itself, that it bears fruit of itself.
[C]ontinue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. — Philippians 2:12b-13
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. — Ephesians 2:10
“We must re-evangelize the church.” — John Armstrong
