Spiritual Disciplines and the Gospel

"Spiritual disciplines must be accompanied by a deep saturation in the gospel. The gospel changes the desires and cravings of the heart. The whole purpose of the disciplines, in fact, is to give you opportunity to think about, and meditate on, and move within the gospel. Spiritual disciplines are like wires that connect us to the power of the gospel. They have no power in themselves, but they connect us to the place from which the power flows. They are gateways to the gospel, but not the gospel itself."

-- J.D. Greear,  "Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary" (p. 196). B&H Publishing Group.

Honoring one another

from Ray Ortlund, Jr.:  

"Outdo one another in showing honor."  Romans 12:10

I wonder if Romans 12:10 is one of the most under-obeyed commands in Scripture.  I wonder if we have lowered our standard to “Do no harm to one another,” which is passive, and if we are not destroying each other we must be doing okay.  But the gospel is all about the glory of God coming down on sinners (2 Thessalonians 2:14).  Honor to one another is an obvious next step.  But how many churches have you observed that made you say, “How they honor one another!”

What might keep us from pressing further in this way?

One, we might fear that honoring one another could appear to be mere flattery, even manipulation.  And yes, we should carefully watch our hearts against insincerity.  But do we ever obey perfectly in any respect?  Obeying imperfectly is better than disobeying for fear of imperfection.

Two, we might think, Who am I to confer honor on anyone?  What is my opinion worth?  Good thought.  Humble thought.  But it isn’t us conferring the honor.  It is God.  Our part is to celebrate the honor and glory God is giving.

Three, we might not know how to show honor.  Some of us grew up in homes where put-downs were how we were managed as children.  But the gospel is all we need to begin a new tradition in every life, every home, every church.  As we reach for nobler things, the God of peace will be with us to help us (Philippians 4:8-9).

Four, we might not see things in other believers worthy of honor.  Well, maybe we need to look more closely.  “As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight” (Psalm 16:3).  Every saint has some excellence.  But an outlook of negative scrutiny will impute dark things to admirable people.  Maybe we need to repent of an ungenerous spirit toward truly godly people.

As Paul Tournier wrote in Guilt and Grace, pages 15-16, “In everyday life we are continually soaked in this unhealthy atmosphere of mutual criticism, so much so that we are not always aware of it and we find ourselves drawn unwittingly into an implacable vicious circle: every reproach evokes a feeling of guilt in the critic as much as in the one criticized, and each one gains relief from his guilt in any way he can, by criticizing other people and in self-justification.”  This is the spirit of worldliness.

We gospel-centered people are under the command of God to create alternative cultures of honor, called churches, where people are lifted up, their accomplishments celebrated, their strengths admired, their weaknesses forgiven.  This new relational environment has high standards, in keeping with the glory of the gospel.

Believing in the love and power of God

It is easy to believe in the love and power of God when you are seeing it manifested in your circumstances. Believing in God’s love is harder, however, when He’s not answering a prayer the way you think He should. For years, atheists have advanced an argument against God based on the presence of evil in the world. It goes something like this: If there were a God who is infinite in love, He would want to stop pain. If He is infinite in power, He could stop pain. Therefore, since pain exists, God must not. Perhaps you’ve asked a similar question, even as a believer:

God, why won’t You bless my ministry?

Why aren’t I married yet?

God, why isn’t my business prospering? I’d use the profits to bless others!

God, why won’t You heal me?

God, don’t You see?

Why won’t You help? Don’t You care? Do You not love me?

I can’t answer all the “why” questions, but I do know this: We must not reinterpret how God feels about us based on our circumstances. The cross settles forever how God feels about us, and the resurrection shows us how much power He is using to bring about His good plan for our lives.

-- J.D. Greear,  "Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary" (pp. 184-185). B&H Publishing Group

"Because we are in Christ..."

"Preaching the gospel to ourselves every day gives us hope, joy, and courage. The good news that our sins are forgiven because of Christ’s death fills our hearts with joy, gives us courage to face the day, and offers us hope that God’s favor will rest upon us, not because we are good, but because we are in Christ."

— Jerry Bridges

The Discipline of Grace: God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness

(Colorado Springs, Co.: NavPress, 1994), 26

Suffering from Eternity Amnesia

"...Why are our expectations less than realistic? Because in our eternity amnesia we are asking this present world to be what it simply never will be. We want the here and now to behave as if it is our final destination, when actually all that we are experiencing in the here and now prepares us for the destination that is to come.... Human beings were created to live big-picture, long-view lives. We were made to live with something bigger in view than this present moment’s comfort, pleasure, and happiness. Eternity confronts us with the fact that we are not in charge, that we do not live in the center of the universe, and that life moves by the will and purpose of Another. The instantaneous, self-serving, me obsession of our culture never results in inner peace and contentment. Eternity confronts me with the realities that transcend my momentary wants, feelings, and needs."

-- Paul DavidTripp, "Forever: Why You Can't Live Without It"  Zondervan

What does God want for us?

‎"I'm not sure that God particularly wants us to be happy. I think he wants us to be able to love and be loved. He wants us to grow up. We think our childish toys bring us all the happiness there is and our nursery is the whole wide world - but something must drive us out of the nursery to the world of others and that something is suffering."
- C.S. Lewis

What does it mean to live in hope?

"If you are God’s child, you have hope because God is hope, and you have a hope that will last forever because he has defeated the one thing that stands between you and forever: death.

"Sadly, many of us who by God’s grace have been given hope don’t live as if we have it. We look for hope where hope can’t be found. We place our hope in things that can never deliver. We live hopelessly because we fail to live with forever in view. We live for the next vacation, the next thrilling experience, the next stunning achievement. We put our hope in the hands of flawed and finite people, burdening our relationships with expectations that they can never deliver. We ask inanimate objects to give us a reason to get up in the morning, but they never can.

"Sure, the things in which we put our hope give us a temporary buzz and a temporary rest, but reality always hits. These things all disappoint us in the end. No matter how wonderful the situations in our life are, no matter how beautiful our possessions are, no matter how exciting our experiences are, no matter how fulfilling our accomplishments are, and no matter how loving the people in our lives are, they will only satisfy us temporarily. They simply cannot carry our hope. How different would your life and mine be if we remembered that everything that exists in the created world is meant to be a finger pointing us to the only place where hope can be found?"

-- Paul David Tripp,  "Forever: Why You Can't Live Without It"  Zondervan.

Why we have hope...

"If you are God’s child, you can have hope in the middle of all the tough things you face because in all those moments God is with you, but also because the cross of Jesus guarantees you that all that is broken will be made new forever. You can live today knowing that you have a future that is beyond the boundaries of your wildest imagination. If you are God’s child, you have hope because God is hope, and you have a hope that will last forever because he has defeated the one thing that stands between you and forever: death."

— Paul David Tripp

Forever: Why You Can't Live Without It

(Grand Rapids, Mi.: Zondervan, 2011), 101-102

"The most important thing..."

Here is Ray Ortlund's moving tribute to his father (Ray Ortlund, Sr., whose "Haven of Rest" broadcasts really ministered to me early in my Christian life):  

"I think about my dad a lot.  I miss him so much it aches sometimes.  But the most important thing he taught me was this.  There is only one way to live: all-out, go-for-broke, risk-taking enthusiasm for Christ.

"Halfway Christianity is the most miserable existence of all.  Halfhearted Christians know enough about their sin to feel guilty about themselves, but they haven’t given themselves enough to the Savior to become happy in him. Wholehearted Christianity is happy.

"How could my dad get there and stay there?  He really, really knew that God loved him and had completely forgiven all his sins at the cross of Jesus.  He did not wring his hands, wondering what God thought of him.  He believed the good news, his spirit soared and he could never do too much for Jesus.

"I am thankful for what I saw in my dad.  It’s the most valuable thing anyone has ever given me.  I want everyone to have this treasure."

How we share in His righteousness...

John Calvin:

"Therefore, that joining together of Head and members, that indwelling of Christ in our hearts—in short, that mystical union—are accorded by us the highest degree of importance, so that Christ, having been made ours, makes us sharers with him in the gifts with which he has been endowed.

"We do not, therefore, contemplate him outside ourselves from afar in order that his righteousness may be imputed to us but because we put on Christ and are engrafted into his body—in short, because he deigns to make us one with him. For this reason, we glory that we have fellowship of righteousness with him."

-- Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol. 1, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, 3.XI.10 (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960), p. 737).

"People do not drift toward holiness..."

‎"People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated." - D.A. Carson

Sin Forgiven and Overcome

"A legal mode of thinking gives indwelling sin an advantage, because nothing so cuts the nerve of the desire to pursue holiness as much as a sense of guilt.  On the contrary, nothing so motivates us to deal with sin in our lives as does the understanding and the application of the two truths that our sins are forgiven and the dominion of sin is broken becuase of our union with Christ.

"Robert Haldane in his commentary of Romans...said, 'No sin can be crucified in  heart of life, unless it is first pardoned in conscience...  If it be not mortified [put to death] in its guilt, it cannot be subdued in its power.'"

-- Jerry Bridges, "The Discipline of Grace"

The more we see of the love of God....

John Owen--

So much as we see of the love of God, so much shall we delight in him, and no more.

Every other discovery of God, without this, will but make the soul fly from him; but if the heart be once much taken up with this the eminency of the Father’s love, it cannot choose but be overpowered, conquered, and endeared unto him. This, if anything, will work upon us to make our abode with him. If the love of a father will not make a child delight in him, what will?

Put, then, this to the venture: exercise your thoughts upon this very thing, the eternal, free, and fruitful love of the Father, and see if your hearts be not wrought upon to delight in him. I dare boldly say: believers will find it as thriving a course as ever they pitched on in their lives. Sit down a little at the fountain, and you will quickly have a further discovery of the sweetness of the streams. You who have run from him, will not be able, after a while, to keep at a distance for a moment.

--John Owen, Communion with the Triune God (ed. K. Kapic and J. Taylor; Crossway, 2007), 128

HT: Don Jones; Dane Ortlund

"Blessed are the uncool...."

Lessons (for evangelical Christians) from a Mormon ad campaign...

Perspectives on Halloween

Some newer thoughts about how to think about Halloween.