A Good Wound
The following quote hit me hard. I’ve had an experience of gospel grace, but pride remains. It needs to die.
Per Jonathan Edwards, Thoughts on the Revival (1742)
Spiritual pride is the main door by which the devil comes into the hearts of those who are zealous for the advancement of Christianity. It is the chief inlet of smoke from the bottomless pit, to darken the mind and mislead the judgment. It is the main source of all the mischief the devil introduces, to clog and hinder a work of God.
Spiritual pride tends to speak of other persons’ sins with bitterness or with laughter and levity and an air of contempt. But pure Christian humility tends either to be silent about these problems or to speak of them with grief and pity. Spiritual pride is very apt to suspect others, but a humble Christian is most guarded about himself. He is as suspicious of nothing in the world as he is of his own heart. The proud person is apt to find fault with other believers, that they are low in grace, and to be much in observing how cold and dead they are and to be quick to note their deficiencies. But the humble Christian has so much to do at home and sees so much evil in his own heart and is so concerned about it that he is not apt to be very busy with other hearts. He is apt to esteem others better than himself.
Some who have pride mixed in with a heightened awareness of God’s glory and intense experiences of spiritual joy are apt to rebuke other Christians around them for being so cold and lifeless. But the humble, in their joys, are also wounded with a sense of their own vileness. When they have high visions of God’s glory, they also see their own sinfulness. And though they speak to others earnestly, it is in confession of their own sins. And if they exhort other Christians, they do so in a charitable manner. Pure Christian humility disposes a person to take notice of everything that is good in others and to make the best of it and to diminish their failings.
Like this:
All Is Grace
Brennan Manning’s Ragamuffin Gospel profoundly impacted me when I was in college. Manning’s honesty was refreshing and his emphasis on grace was life-changing. In almost every Brennan Manning book I’ve read over the years, his message is the same: ”God loves you unconditionally, as you are and not as you should be, because nobody is as they should be.”
I came across a review of his most recent book – All Is Grace – last night, and wanted to share an excerpt from that review. I’m very excited to read this book and be surprised again at just how great the grace of God really is.
Regarding Manning… Per Mark Yaconelli
An abusive mother, an alcoholic father, a friendless childhood, a life-long addiction to alcohol—all help to hollow out Brennan’s soul with a gaping yearning to be loved, to be liked, to be known and accepted. This primal ache drives him into the military, the Catholic priesthood, communities of prayer and poverty, marriage, and life as a celebrated speaker and author, yet none of these settings answers the deep ache to be known. It’s only what Brennan calls the “vulgar” grace of God that from time to time relieves him of his endless hunger for approval.
The book is sparse and at times dark. This seems to have caused great discomfort and anxiety for the publishers who felt compelled to stuff the opening and ending pages with testimonies from friends and appreciative Christian celebrities, asserting Brennan’s gift as a spiritual leader. I’m not sure why the publishers felt it necessary to collect and print these letters. Was it to extend the book’s page count? Was it to counter Brennan’s confessions of sin? For me, these testimonials read like a kind of cover-up that only detracts from the central message of the book, which Brennan states as, “God loves you unconditionally, as you are and not as you should be, because nobody is as they should be.”
52 Paid Vacation Days!
HT: Ray Ortlund (Tuesday Night Men’s Group @ Immanuel)
Exodus 20:8-11
8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
If someone told you there was a way to glorify and enjoy God, slow down your jam-packed, over-committed pace of life, renew your family and friendships, engage in random acts of kindness, take a deep breath, think about the most worthy and exciting things in the universe, stop and smell the roses, take an afternoon nap – all at absolutely no charge, not counting against the number of annual vacation days at work, you’d want to know more about it. Well, here it is. Not the Sabbath, but The Lord’s Day.
If we remember to make Jesus a priority in our schedules for one whole year, one day per week, then by one year from today we will have enjoyed 52 days, seven and a half weeks, of paid vacation with Jesus and his people! You kiddin’me?!?
The Gospel is Distinct from Our Response to It
The following comes from Graeme Goldsworthy’s According to Plan (p. 81-83). I found these quotes to be particularly helpful as it reminds us that the gospel is not our response to the gospel. I think that we often confuse the gospel (what Christ did for us and who he is for us) with a proper response to the gospel (belief, faith, confession, etc.). May we lift up Christ repeatedly, showing to one another and the world his beauty. As we increasingly see him, we will fall more and more in love with him and act accordingly.
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The main message of the Bible about Jesus Christ can easily become mixed with all sorts of things that are related to it. We see this in the way people define the gospel or preach it. But it is important to keep the gospel itself clearly distinct from our response to it or from the results of it in our lives and in the world. If our proper response to the gospel message is faith, then we should not make faith part of the gospel itself. It would be absurd to call people to have faith in faith! While the new birth bears a close relationship to faith in Christ, it is a mistake to speak of the new birth as if it were itself the gospel. Faith in the new birth as such will not save us…
Related to the gospel event are other important aspects of God’s work which are not themselves the gospel. If we believe the gospel we will probably also believe these, but they are not the focus of our trust the way that the saving work of Jesus is. We do not preach them as the heart of our message to unbelievers….
We note that what you or I do in response to the gospel is not itself the gospel. You cannot say that repentance and faith are the gospel. They are what the Holy Spirit enables us to do about the gospel. If you tell unbelievers that they should trust Christ, believe the good news, or confess their sin, these things are undoubtedly true, but they are not the gospel. We must tell them what it is about Christ that they should trust, what the good news is so that they can believe it and why sins should be confessed.
Grace Comes First
HT: Tim Wilcoxsen
“…if anyone makes the assistance of grace depend on the humility or obedience of man and does not agree that it is a gift of grace itself that we are obedient and humble, he contradicts the Apostle who says, “What have you that you did not receive?” (1 Cor. 4:7), and, “But by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10). (Council of Orange: Canon 6)
My Soul Rejoiced With Joy Unspeakable
The following comes from The Life and Diary of David Brainerd by Jonathan Edwards (p. 69-70):
I had been thus endeavoring to pray, though as I thought, very stupid and senseless, for near half an hour; then, as I was walking in a dark thick grove, unspeakable glory seemed to open to the view and apprehension of my soul. I do not mean any external brightness, for I saw no such thing. Nor do I intend any imagination of a body of light somewhere in the third heavens, or anything of that nature; but it was a new inward apprehension or view that I had of God, such as I never had before nor anything which had the least resemblance of it.
I stood still, wondered, and admired! I knew that I never had seen before anything comparable to it for excellency and beauty; it was widely different from all the conceptions that ever I had of God, or things divine. I had no particular apprehension of any one Person in the Trinity, either the Father, the Son, or the Holy Ghost; but it appeared to be divine glory. My soul rejoiced with joy unspeakable to see such a God, such a glorious Divine Being; and I was inwardly pleased and satisfied that He should be God over all for ever and ever. My soul was so captivated and delighted with the excellency, loveliness, greatness, and other perfections of God, that I was even swallowed up in Him. At least to that degree that I had no thought (as I remember) at first, about my own salvation, and scarce reflected there was such a creature as I. Thus God, I trust, brought me to a hearty disposition to exalt Him and set Him on the throne, and principally and ultimately to aim at His honor and glory, as King of the universe. I continued in this state of inward joy, peace, and astonishment, till near dark, without any sensible abatement; and then began to think and examine what I had seen; and felt sweetly composed in my mind all the evening following. I felt myself in a new world, and everything about me appeared with a different aspect from what it was wont to do.
At this time, the way of salvation opened to me with such infinite wisdom, suitableness, and excellency, that I wondered I should ever think of any other way of salvation; was amazed that I had not dropped my own contrivances, and complied with this lovely, blessed, and excellent way before. If I could have been saved by my own duties, or any other way that I had formerly contrived, my whole soul would now have refused it. I wondered that all the world did not see and comply with this way of salvation, entirely by the righteousness of Christ.
There Is Only One Good Guy
My little guy Isaac loves playing good guys vs. bad guys. The game usually ends up with him tackling Lily, his little sister. For whatever reason, he talks about good guys and bad guys all the time. Here’s a gospel truth that I share with him that you’ll hopefully be encouraged by:
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- We’re all bad guys.
- There was only one truly good guy that has ever lived.
- That one good guy has declared that his bad guys are now good, and he’s now on a mission to make them good like himself.
The Garden of Gethsemane
(This picture and many more can be found here)
Matthew 26:36-46
Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”
In this garden, Jesus prayed. In this garden, Jesus was suffered alone. In this garden, Jesus saw the infinite suffering that was in front of him, and he said, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”
He said yes to the suffering so that the Father could say yes to you.
I Am Selfish
The following post comes from my beautiful bride, Meghan.
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I am selfish. It is a reality that I ignore, am afraid of, live in every day, hurt myself with, and hurt those around me with. It is a reality that pushes me away from God and away from those that I love the most. Most days the deepest reality of my selfishness doesn’t even touch the surface. I am drowning in my selfish ways.
There are so many excuses that I use to hide the reality of my selfishness. It’s amazing how easy it is for my mind to justify all the things that I do and say only to serve myself. I am tired. I am busy. I just got done serving others. I spend just about all my time doing things for other people. This is good for me. This is what I deserve. This is what I need. I need to take care of myself. This is just the way that I am. It’s ok to not call people back. It’s ok to avoid taking on other people’s pain; I have enough of my own pain to deal with. This time is mine. This money is mine. This house is mine. This life is mine. These kids are mine. This husband is mine. These gifts are mine. These successes are mine. These failures are mine. The list goes on and on.
One of the ways that I know that I have been living especially entrenched in selfish ways, is that I am flooded by insecurities. I feel weak and afraid. I feel lonely and desperate. Part of selfish living is that it all depends on me and it is all about me. When I live that way, everything is balancing on my shoulders and I quickly become self-conscious and afraid. Selfishness is a turning inward. It refuses to acknowledge my helplessness. It refuses to acknowledge my sinfulness. It is a black hole; empty, deep, forceful, and pulling everything inside it.
I have recently been faced with my selfishness in the specific terms of success and failure. It’s a way that I hadn’t before thought of being selfish. And, yet it is a very destructive way to live. When I hold onto the successes in my life as my own it is sure to come crashing down upon me. Of course it feels good in the moment, and even for a few moments afterwards, but it soon comes to an abrupt halt. When I have success in an area of my life (mothering, relationships, cooking, art, writing, friendship, discipleship, etc.) I am quick to claim it as my own. I want to hold onto it as tightly as possible and drink up every little drop. I want to revel in that moment and relive it and wrap it around me like a warm blanket that will protect me from all the more disappointing times in my life. I want to stake my worth and value on those moments.
The problem with this is two-fold. First, when success happens it is usually just a moment. It is not eternal. It captures me and holds me in that moment. It does not allow me to live free in the present. It forces me to live as a captive to that specific time in the past. It grabs me and looks me in the face and asks me, can you do it again? Can you ever get back there? Can you ever do better? And I feel the shiver of fear and insecurity. Second, I am a thief to claim that the success was mine. It is only by God’s grace, his gifting, his mercy, and his redemption that I have any success at all. To claim it as mine to miss out on the real experience of success; and that is rejoicing in the Glory of God manifest in my little life. When I make it about me, and I use it to feel good about myself, I am actually imprisoning myself. When I see that it was a gift from God, I can humbly thank my creator, I can praise him, rejoice with him, and continue on in freedom, living in the fullness of my redeemer.
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” Colossians 1:15-20
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5
This sickness or selfishness happens not only in times of success, but also in times of failure. Just as I can be selfish with my successes, I can be selfish with my failures. We are so often selfish with our failures and we don’t even realize what we are doing. When things go wrong in my life, my first inclination is to think about how this will affect me. If I was the one to make the mistake, I am likely to go down the road of guilt, self-doubt, frustration, anger, and disbelief. My vision becomes blurred. How can I make things right again? How can I dig myself out of this hole? How can I win back respect? How can I somehow find worth for myself in this mess? It feels as if all my focus and strength and clarity and righteousness have been drained. And again I am in a place of fear and insecurity. If the failure I am currently experiencing resulted due to someone else’s actions I am likely to feel many of the same emotions and also include blame, bitterness, and victimization.
All of this is actually selfishness. Just as my successes are not my own, my failures are not my own. “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2-4. We have a perfect heavenly father that is working everything in our life for good. To live unselfishly in my failures is to surrender them to God and to recognize and rejoice in his glory manifest in my life, even in times of failure, ESPECIALLY in times of failure. What great freedom, beauty, and balance that this offers to life. When I recognize this truth I am able to release my failures and walk away from them in fullness. My worth and my value are not depending on a spotless record. My failures do not define me.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Christ Jesus, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-5
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:31-32
