Mistaking 'peace'...

“However, faith has its trials, as well as its answers.  It is not to be imagined that the man of faith, having pushed out from the shore of circumstances, finds it all smooth and easy sailing.  By no means.  Again and again, he is called to encounter rough sea and stormy skies; but it is all graciously designed to lead him into deeper and more matured experience of what God is to the heart that confides in Him.  Were the sky always without a cloud and the ocean without a ripple, the believer would not know so well that God with Whom he has to do; for alas, we know how prone that heart is to mistake the peace of circumstances for the peace of God.  When everything is going on smoothly and pleasantly—out property safe, our business prosperous, our children carrying themselves agreeably, our residence comfortable, our health excellent—everything in short, just to our mind, how apt we are to mistake the peace which reposes upon such circumstances for that peace which flows from the realized presence of Christ.”
C.H. Mackintosh

HT:  Graced Again

Gospel Living: in the season of covetousness

Sunday's sermon outline ...

HT:  an idea from John Piper

God is the Gospel

What is the ultimate gift of the Gospel? Read this fundamental insight from John Piper.  
"All the saving events and all the saving blessings of the gospel are means of getting obstacles out of the way so that we might know and enjoy God most fully. Propitiation, redemption, forgiveness, imputation, sanctification, liberation, healing, heaven — none of these is good news except for one reason: they bring us to God for our everlasting enjoyment of him. If we believe all these things have happened to us, but do not embrace them for the sake of getting to God, they have not happened to us.
"Christ did not die to forgive sinners who go on treasuring anything above seeing and savouring God. And people who would be happy in heaven if Christ were not there, will not be there. The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God. It’s a way of overcoming every obstacle to everlasting joy in God. If we don’t want God above all things, we have not been converted by the gospel."
John Piper, 'God is the Gospel' (IVP, Leicester, UK, 2005), 47HT: OFI (24 August 2011)

Pastoral Leadership: preparing others for glory

In his profoundly insightful book on leadership, 'Leading with a Limp', Dan Allender states that one of the core  purposes of pastoral leadership and ministry is (naturally) to help others to grow in Christlikeness;  but such heart transformation occurs when and to the the degree that we are "captured by gratitude and awe".  That is, Christlike character formation occurs as we respond in 'spirit-and-truth' worship and Christ-glorifying obedience to the wonder of and beauty of God’s glory and grace as revealed to hearts and minds by the Spirit through his Word.
Of gratitude – our response to grace, he writes:  “growth in character occurs to the degree that we accept being forgiven as a greater gift than life itself.  If the greatest gift is not what I see but how I am seen by the living God, then my gratitude knows no limits.  It can grow immeasurably as I suffer through the loss of illusions, the death of dreams and the shatterings of success.  Suffering grafts our heart to grace.” 
And awe – our response to glory:  “awe is the capacity to bow in the presence of something or someone more glorious than ourselves.” (p. 147)  He continues, and this is so Lewis-like:  “Each syllable of awe is meant to prepare us for the day we will stand face to face with utter glory, the very presence of God.  To ride in front of a roller coaster or to [listen to] a violin virtuoso perform a miracle on strings is a form of purgatory:  it purges us of mediocrity and arouses us to desire something beyond ourselves.”  

As leaders encourage others to grow in character by deepening this sense of gratitude and awe, ‘leadership’ will thus involve “being committed to all in life that leads to gratitude and awe rather than to things that birth prescription and control.” (149)  

Grace and the 'Protestant work ethic'

"Calvin’s expansive view of God’s sovereignty, combined with the depth of his security in God’s grace, produced an astounding drive to productivity in both himself and those he influenced. Many have called it “the Protestant work ethic.” It may be counterintuitive at first. The natural mind thinks that motivating great exertions of effort requires withholding the reward. Work first for God, then get acceptance from him later.
But the Christian gospel does precisely the opposite. By faith the Christian is connected to Jesus first and foremost, fully accepted by God, before being required to do anything (only to believe, which is itself a divine gift, Eph. 2:8; Phil. 1:29). Amazingly, such radical grace transforms, and thus frees the Christian to exert great intensity and zeal in the cause of gospel good. Such transforming and freeing grace produces a man like Calvin so energized for doing good that as he lay dying in bed for weeks, he continued to dictate substance and letters of encouragement to others until only eight hours before his passing, as his voice finally gave out."

David Mathis: 'Divine Glory and the Daily Grind' in "With Calvin in the Theater (sic) of God", p. 23.

Soul Diagnosis: "What do you think of Jesus?"

"Unto you therefore who believe He is precious." 1 Peter 2: 7.

"A felt conviction of the preciousness of the Saviour has ever been regarded by enlightened ministers of the gospel as constituting a scriptural and unmistakable evidence of the existence of divine life in the soul; and in moments when neither time nor circumstance would admit of the close scrutiny of a theological creed, or a nice analysis of spiritual feelings and emotions, the one and simple inquiry upon which the whole matter is made to hinge has been- "What is your experience of the worth of the Saviour? Is Christ precious to your heart?" And the answer to this question has been to the examiner, the test and the measure of the soul's spiritual and vital change. And how proper that it should be so. In proportion as the Holy Spirit imparts a real, intelligent sense of personal sinfulness, there will be the heart's appreciation of the value, sufficiency, and preciousness of the Lord Jesus. An enlightened and thorough conviction of the nature and aggravation of the disease, will enable a physician to form a just conception of the remedial process by which it may be arrested and cured. We estimate the force of a motive power by the strength of the body it propels. Thus, as the conviction of our lost and undone condition deepens, as sin's "exceeding sinfulness " unveils, as the purity and extent of God's law opens, as the utter helplessness and impotence of self is forced upon the mind, the glory, the worth, the suitableness, and the preciousness of Jesus will, through the teaching of the Spirit, present itself vividly to the mind and heart, as constituting the one only foundation and hope of the soul! "

Octavius Winslow:  'The Preciousness of Christ'

The autonomy of the God-usurping human heart

"For God knows that when you eat of the fruit ... you will be like God, knowing [ie: 'determining'] good and evil"  Genesis 3: 5

HT:  Bill Watterson Calvin and Hobbes

Gospel Delight

This quotation from Puritan John Flavel is simply heart-stirringly wonderful.  If our 'faith' does not create within us a desire for the reality of the presence of Christ in our lives, in our churches and in our worship, then the reality of our 'faith' must be questioned.  It more fully explains what I mean when I speak of 'displaying the glory of God's grace as we deepen our delight in Him'.

“Ecstasy and delight are essential to the believer’s soul and they promote sanctification. We were not meant to live without spiritual exhilaration, and the Christian who goes for a long time without the experience of heart-warming will soon find himself tempted to have his emotions satisfied from earthly things and not, as he ought, from the Spirit of God. The soul is so constituted that it craves fulfillment from things outside itself and will embrace earthly joys for satisfaction when it cannot reach spiritual ones. The believer is in spiritual danger if he allows himself to go for any length of time without tasting the love of Christ and savouring the felt comforts of a Saviour’s presence. When Christ ceases to fill the heart with satisfaction, our souls will go in silent search of other lovers. By the enjoyment of the love of Christ in the heart of a believer, we mean an experience of the “love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us” (Rom. 5:5). Because the Lord has made himself accessible to us in the means of grace, it is our duty and privilege to seek this experience from Him in these means till we are made the joyful partakers of it.”
HT:  Scotty Smith here.

Edwards on our our need as pastors ...

"Ministers, in order to be burning and shining lights, should walk closely with God, and keep near to Christ; that they may ever be enlightened and enkindled by him. And they should be much in seeking God, and conversing with him by prayer, who is the fountain of light and love."

From Matt Perman

The power of His voice

Reading Psalm 29 today.  Part of David's focus is upon the majestic and  powerfully active 'voice of the Lord' - thundering over the waters, breaking the cedar trees, striking with lightning flashes, and stripping the forests bare!  Wow!  It reminded me of the Getty and Townend lines: 

All creation holds together by the power of your voice:
Let the skies declare your glory, let the land and seas rejoice!
(from You're the Word of God the Father) 

As we consider God's authoritative "voice" in creation, our hearts cannot but cry out in worship, "Glory!" (v1-2, 9)


Now, as preachers and believers together, we believe that God speaks through his Word to change people's lives, so that his glory is both proclaimed by lip and demonstrated by a transformed God-centred life.  But do we believe, or indeed do we pray that the power of God's voice, his Word, his Gospel of the glory of the Cross of Christ, will be seen to "demolish strongholds and arguments and pretensions [of hearts and minds] that set themselves up against knowing God"?  Do we pray and preach believing that as Christ is exalted in his people he can "take captive every thought to make them obedient to himself" and his grace'?  Do I pray and preach that the Gospel I proclaim and am supposed to make visible in my life would, in God's renewing and reviving purposes, impact others' lives "with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction", and all to his glory?  In fact, am I prepared to truly listen to this powerful voice and respond as a rejoicing, believing repenter should?
Let Spurgeon encourage us to listen to the wonder of the power of the Gospel, and as we preach this Gospel to ourselves, may God use us to share it with others:

Oh, the power, the melting, conquering, transforming power of the dear Cross of Christ. My brothers, we have but to constantly tell ourselves the matchless story, and we may expect to see the most remarkable results. We need not despair of our hearts now that Christ has died for this sinner. 

With such a hammer as the doctrine of the Cross, this most flinty heart will be broken and such a fire as the sweet love of Christ will melt this most mighty iceberg. I need never to despair of my inability or my bad habits if I can but find occasion to bring the doctrine of Christ crucified into contact with my nature. It will yet change me and Christ will be my King.

By faith alone in Christ alone

John 6: 28-29  Then they asked him, What must we do to do the works God requires?  Jesus answered, The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.
Romans 4: 4-5  "Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation.  However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness."

“We are justified freely, for Christ’s sake, by faith, without the exertion of our own strength, gaining of merit, or doing of works.  To the age-old question, ‘What shall I do to be saved?’ the confessional answer is shocking: ‘Nothing!  Just be still; shut up and listen for once in your life to what God the Almighty, creator and redeemer, is saying to his world and to you in the death and resurrection of his Son!  Listen and believe!’”

Gerhard O. Forde, Justification by Faith (Philadelphia, 1983)

HT: Ray Ortlund

Considering some of life's big questions ...

HT: Charles Schulz

Some answers found here ...

Giving thanks ...

I'm sure the Lord understands ...

HT:  Kevin DeYoung (among many, many others)