It was good for me to be afflicted...

George Grant’s blog entry for today was very timely for me as I’ve had several weeks of forced inactivity due to swelling in my knee.  Here’s an excerpt:

Sin is pleasant--but unprofitable. 
Affliction is unpleasant--but profitable. By affliction, the Lord separates the sin that He hates--from the soul that He loves. He sends affliction--to take the dirt of the world out of the hearts of His children! "Before I was afflicted I went astray--but now I keep Your word!" Psalm 119:67

There have been many profitable lessons in these several weeks, and great blessings as family, church family, and friends have served us in so many ways.  Humbling, but tremendously heartening.

True Hope

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

"The Lord is my portion," says my soul,

"therefore I will hope in Him."

~ Lamentations 3:22-24

Who Shall Deliver Me?

God strengthen me to bear myself;
That heaviest weight of all to bear,
Inalienable weight of care.

All others are outside myself;
I lock my door and bar them out
The turmoil, tedium, gad-about.

I lock my door upon myself,
And bar them out; but who shall wall
Self from myself, most loathed of all?

If I could once lay down myself,
And start self-purged upon the race
That all must run ! Death runs apace.

If I could set aside myself,
And start with lightened heart upon
The road by all men overgone!

God harden me against myself,
This coward with pathetic voice
Who craves for ease and rest and joys

Myself, arch-traitor to myself ;
My hollowest friend, my deadliest foe,
My clog whatever road I go.

Yet One there is can curb myself,
Can roll the strangling load from me
Break off the yoke and set me free

~Christina Rossetti

A Book of Comfort, by Elizabeth Goudge

My friend Linda Dean introduced me to the novels and writings of Elizabeth Goudge years ago. Yesterday I pulled this anthology of poetry and prose from my shelf to peruse again.  I love this quote this from her preface, describing the comfort which books give us…

"…What are the sources of comfort to which we turn in what Saint Augustine…calls "our mortal weariness"?  The answer is that our existence is as light with comfort as it is weighted with weariness.  The sources of our comfort are legion, and cannot be counted, but if we attempted the impossible and tried to make a list most of us would place books very high indeed, perhaps second only to faith, for reading is not only a pleasure in itself, with its concomitants of stillness, quietness and forgetfulness of self, but in what we read many of our other comforts are present with us like reflections seen in a mirror.  If the light of our faith flickers we can make it steady again by reading of the faith of the saints, and hearing poetry sing to us the songs of the lovers of God.  In the absence of children we can read about them, and in the cold and darkness of midwinter, look in the mirror of our book and see flowers and butterflies, and spring passing into the glow and warmth of summer…"

I also like her "categories" of comforting things (from the table of contents):

We Are Comforted When We Consider the Glory and Wisdom of Creation… The Comfort We Have in Delighting in Each Other… The Comfort of Faith… The Comfort We Have in Living in the World of Imagination

Elizabeth Goudge (1900-1984) was the daughter of a clergyman of the Church of England. You can read more about her here, and see the extensive bibliography of her works.  A couple of my favorites are The Dean's Watch;  a trilogy about the fictional Eliot family: The Bird in the Tree, The Herb of Grace (also published under the title The Pilgrim's Inn), and The Heart of the Family; and her children's fairy tale, Linnets and Valerians, which I read for the first time last week, and which I thoroughly enjoyed!

Stop Tinkering

“Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God, we do not see ourselves--blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One.”
... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948]

I need this relief. Badly.

Light Enough to See My Darkness

from the Valley of Vision, Mortification:

...I have light enough to see my darkness,
sensibility enough to feel the hardness of my heart,
spirituality enough to mourn my want of a heavenly mind...

True words...true of this heart and life. When I look at myself and realize the truth of these words, and the struggle Paul portrays of my life in Romans 7, I am tempted to despair. But...

"Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!...There is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus." ~ Romans 7:25a, 8:1

All the more reason to look to Christ instead of myself, and what I can do in my frail flesh.

Good news. Gospel. Christians need it...every day!

A deep grasp of the sovereign grace of God…

And, finally for tonight…I think you’ll find John Piper’s excellent “Challenge to Women” from the archives of Desiring God to be very thought-provoking, if not terribly politically correct. You can find all fifteen challenge points here.

The one that resonated with me is Number 6:

That you be women who have a deep grasp of the sovereign grace of God undergirding all these spiritual processes, that you be deep thinkers about the doctrines of grace, and even deeper lovers and believers of these things.

I know I believe and assent to God’s sovereign grace, but a “deep grasp”? I read, and try to think deeply about the doctrines of grace, but I’m aftraid I’m a lot like the great philosopher Winnie-the-Pooh…”I try to remember, then, when I remember, I forget…”

To the best of my understanding, thinking deeply about the doctrines of grace is what “Semper Reformanda” (Always Reforming) is all about!

And I am sure, that the deeper grasp and the deeper thinking will lead to the deeper love and belief.

Lord, help me to…

…deeply grasp your sovereign grace…

…deeply think about your doctrines of grace…

…deeply love and believe those truths…and live like it!

A little lesson from Pilgrim's Progress

This morning we read in Pilgrim’s Progress about Pilgrim’s conversation at the Palace Beautiful with Prudence. The little bit below really impressed me, especially with the current scandal raging around Ted Haggard and his confession. Tim Challies, in his thought-provoking piece on the scandal, made the point that all Christians should be saddened and horrified, because, knowing our true Adamic nature, we should know that “there but for the grace of God go I.” Yes, there is much more to consider here for such a public figure with such questionable theology, but Tim's reminder definitely caught my attention. Shouldn't our understanding of our total depravity make us all the more anxious to "watch our life and doctrine" carefully? I think that is what Bunyan was getting at in the part we read this morning.

Here’s my little retelling (all my Classical Writing readers will know what I mean :)

Prudence asks Christian whether he does not till think some about his former home, the City of Destruction. Christian acknowledges that he does, indeed, to his shame, remember his life there, but that his desire now is for a better city (Hebrews 11:15-16).

Next Prudence inquires if Christian still thinks of some of the things he left behind in the City of Destruction. Sadly, Christian agrees that he does sometimes think about those things that formerly delighted him and his companions in that doomed city. Now, however, these thoughts bring him grief, and he wishes that he would never think on them. He echoes St. Paul (Romans 7:15, 21) “For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.”

So Prudence asks him if he can remember what it is that makes those loathsome thoughts disappear at times. Christian knows exactly what they are:

~ “when I think what I saw at the cross, that will do it”

~ “when I look upon my broidered coat, that will do it”

~ “when I look into the roll that I carry in my bosom, that will do it”

~ “when my thoughts wax warm about whither I am going, that will do it”

These are the thoughts that will deliver me from the futile and vain imaginations and desires that assail me daily (hourly!): Christ’s death to take the penalty, the curse, of the law for me; Christ’s clothing me with His righteousness instead of the old filthy rags of my sin; the Word of God which always points to Christ; and the hope I have of a heavenly Mt. Zion, where:

“I hope to see Him alive that did hang dead on the cross; and there I hope to be rid of all those things that to this day are in me an annoyance to me: there they say there is no death (Isaiah 25:8; Revelation 21:4) and there I shall dwell with such company as I like best. For, to tell you the truth, I love Him because I was by Him eased of my burden; and I am weary of my inward sickness. I would fain be where I shall die no more, and with the company that shall continually cry, Holy, holy, holy.”

My prayer today for myself, and for all who find this Pilgrim’s Way difficult:

Almighty God, You alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners. Grant Your people grace to love what you command and desire what You promise: that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found: through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
(Book of Common Prayer, ~ Collect for the Fifth Sunday after Lent)

Beating the gospel into our heads...

According the Martin Luther, we "leak" the gospel, and it needs to be beat into our heads. Every day. Over and over. My pastor has been teaching throught Galatians, and has quoted Luther on justification (which IS the gospel) and our need to understand it, hear it, and preach it to ourselves constantly.

Justin Taylor over at Between Two Worlds had a link to this article by Jerry Bridges, which says the same thing...

So I learned that Christians need to hear the gospel all of their lives because it is the gospel that continues to remind us that our day-to-day acceptance with the Father is not based on what we do for God but upon what Christ did for us in his sinless life and sin-bearing death. I began to see that we stand before God today as righteous as we ever will be, even in heaven, because he has clothed us with the righteousness of his Son. Therefore, I don't have to perform to be accepted by God. Now I am free to obey him and serve him because I am already accepted in Christ (see Rom. 8:1). My driving motivation now is not guilt but gratitude.

Yet even when we understand that our acceptance with God is based on Christ's work, we still naturally tend to drift back into a performance mindset. Consequently, we must continually return to the gospel. To use an expression of the late Jack Miller, we must "preach the gospel to ourselves every day." For me that means I keep going back to Scriptures such as Isaiah 53:6, Galatians 2:20, and Romans 8:1. It means I frequently repeat the words from an old hymn, "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness."

I urge you to read Bridges' article in its entirety...I was recently talking to a friend, trying to explain why this Galatians series has been so liberating, and found myself totally unable to articulate what I meant. I think this article says what I was fumbling to say.

If God be for us, who can indeed be against us?

Read this extremely encouraging tidbit from my pastor’s (Charles Biggs) exposition on Romans. You can read the whole thing here; scroll down to Favorites/Special Editions. It is the one titled "The Christ of Romans".

Paul wants us to understand the story of our lives from the perspective of being in Christ even when we suffer and find circumstances difficult to bear- -when we most feel like quitting and giving up in the Christian life! Paul says that the tribulation has purpose (Rom. 5:3-5), and it has meaning in Christ, because we suffer in Christ as God’s children in this world of sin and misery.

So don’t be moved by difficult circumstances, but look to Christ the exalted Lord! As God did not leave Jesus in the tomb, so he will not leave us or forsake us! Rather, he will raise our bodies and we will physically be resurrected to take part in a glorious body like Christ’s (Rom. 8:22-25; 1 Cor. 40-58).

What a grand and gracious story that has meaning and makes sense of our lives! Whatever comes our way, however we groan with the creation in this present age (Rom. 8:22), we know that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus! Nothing spiritual or material, holy or demonic, can ever take away God’s love and purpose for us “in Christ”.

If God be for us, who can indeed be against us?

I have been using Charles' teaching (you can find his audio sermons on Romans here) and outline as a guide as my kids and I read through Romans, and we are currently memorizing Romans 8:31-39. I told my kids that if they remember nothing else specifically of what we study in Romans, this is the thing I want indelibly etched on their brains.

If God be for us, who can indeed be against us?

Three Quotes from Schaff

This from the series that Joshua & I are reading for our Church History class. I love the way this man uses words...

“For the Holy Spirit does not supersede the gifts and peculiarities of nature, which are ordained by God; He sanctifies them to the service of His kingdom.” (p. 514)

“John’s spirit and style may be compared to a calm, clear mountain-lake which reflects the image of the sun, moon, and stars, while Paul resembles the mountain-torrent that rushes over precipices and carries everything before it; yet there are trumpets of war in John, and anthems of peace in Paul.” (p. 550)

“Plain fishermen of Galilee could not have drawn such a portrait of Jesus if He had not sat for it. It would take more than a Jesus to invent Jesus. They did not create the divine original, but they faithfully preserved and reproduced it.” (p. 581)

~History of the Christian Church, Volume I, by Philip Schaff, 1858

Always be ready...

Two posts in one day...don't fall out of your seats!

This is a great website refuting the outrageous claims and false information in Dan Brown's DaVinci Code. Get a cup of tea, and spend a bit of time there.

The Truth About DaVinci

Of course, the heresies presented in DaVinci are nothing new. I see this as a great opportunity to share the truth of the gospel! I want to "always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks (me) to give an account fort he hope that is in (me), yet with gentleness and reverence." (II Peter 3:15)

Many of Brown's lies seem plausible to us because we are so ignorant about church history, and just history in general...I know I am! So, here's another link for you...Joshua and I have signed up for this class for next fall. Care to join us?

Schola Tutorial's Church History class

"But false prohets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who brought them here, bringing swift destruction upon themselves..." (II Peter 2: 1)

Father, give us such a love and holy jealousy for Your word that we immerse ourselves in it daily, and equip us to refute false teaching wherever we find it! Keep Your church...Your "called out ones"... pure and spotless. Amen.

Consider Jesus...

...the High Priest and Apostle of our calling… ~ Hebrews 3:1

Matthew Henry’s commentary on this passage is challenging and thought provoking.

Consider…

…what He is in himself

…what He is to us

…what He will be to us hereafter and for ever

Consider Him, fix your thoughts upon him with the greatest attention, and act towards Him accordingly…

My thoughts and my heart wander…and this is reflected in my everyday actions towards Him and towards others.

Matthew Henry goes on to give us four mandates based on our need to consider Jesus as commanded in this verse:

1. Many that profess faith in Christ have not a due consideration for Him; He is not so much thought of as He deserves to be, and desires to be, by those that expect salvation from Him.

He both deserves and desires to be considered and thought of with great, high, and constant thoughts. But my thoughts are constantly drawn to things of no importance at all. How much time do I waste every day in consideration of things that don’t deserve it at all?

2. Close and serious consideration of Christ would be of great advantage to us to increase our acquaintance with Him, and to engage our love and our obedience to Him, and reliance on Him.

I do want to know Him and love Him more, I want to obey and rely on Him. So, here is the prescription…intentionally, and seriously thinking about Christ and His attributes daily.

3. Even those that are holy brethren, and partakers of the heavenly calling, have need to stir up one another to think more of Christ than they do, to have Him more in their minds; the best of His people think too seldom and too slightly of Him.

Do I stir up others to think great thoughts of Christ? And…do my Christian friends stir me up to think more of Christ? I must evaluate all my fellowship and relationship with other Christians in light of these two questions.

4. We must consider Christ as He is described to us in the scriptures, and form our apprehensions of him thence, not from any vain conceptions and fancies of our own.

Amen! “The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.” (Westminster Shorter Catchism) This is how I can really know and understand who Christ is…not by my own ideas of what He should be or do.

New Year's Resolutions

I was inspired by "New Year's Ambitions" at Holy Experience (scroll down to 12/30). Anne's verse for the year is "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and to attend to your own business and work with your hands." (I Thess. 4:11) Her thoughts on that are very insightful and challenging to me.

This morning I read this from Spurgeon's Morning and Evening:

"Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." "Grow in grace"-not in one grace only, but in all grace. Grow in that root-grace, faith. Believe the promises more firmly than you have done. Let faith increase in fulness, constancy, simplicity. Grow also in love. Ask that your love may become extended, more intense, more practical, influencing every thought, word, and deed. Grow likewise in humility. Seek to lie very low, and know more of your own nothingness. As you grow downward in humility, seek also to grow upward -having nearer approaches to God in prayer and more intimate fellowship with Jesus. May God the Holy Spirit enable you to "grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour." He who grows not in the knowledge of Jesus, refuses to be blessed. To know him is "life eternal," and to advance in the knowledge of him is to increase in happiness.

In order to lead that quiet life of faith Paul describes, I need more of grace, and more knowledge of Jesus this year. This verse is preceded by Paul's exhortation about diligence in pursuing holiness, and warnings to guard against doctrinal error. But he is not just advocating growth in knowledge (knowledge puffs up), but growth in grace AND knowledge. Grace preceding knowledge...exactly where I so often get it backwards. Knowledge I know how to pursue, but grace?? Can't muster it on my own. So Father, I ask that You will grant me grace, and firm and ever-increasing belief in Your promises.

If I am growing in grace and knowledge of Jesus, I will also grow in love to Him. I want to make it my goal each day to love fall more deeply in love with the Lord (wise advice from my dear friend Margaret Ashmore). I will become more satisfied in Him, and He will be more glorified in me, both now and forever.

Father, this year, let me grow in grace, and in the knowledge of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To You be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

Contentment

I am reading a priceless book called The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. It is written by an old Puritan writer, Jeremiah Burroughs, who lived from 1599-1646. I just love the Puritans. They were so insightful and on the mark, and their writings are so relevant for Christians today. Although my version has very small print for my aging eyes, it is worth the strain!

In his opening pages, he describes contentment and then goes on to show his readers their great need of this virtue. He goes to great pains to point out that contentment is an inward virtue, and is only really present when we are not only able to "hold our tongues, but also to have a quiet soul." Ouch! I still have trouble with the first part, and am nowhere near the second.

"Contentment is an inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit...It is a grace that spreads itself through the whole soul."

He talks of how we must first be "satisfied in our judgment and understanding"...in other words, we see God's hand in all of our circumstances, and acknowledge His providence in our lives. We say to ourselves, "This is the hand of God...it is best for me, even though I don't see the reason, yet I am satisfied in my judgement.

But even when we understand God's providence and sovereignty in all of our circumstances,
"...you may still have much to do with your heart afterwards. There is such unruliness in our thoughts and affections that our judgements are not always able to rule our thoughts and affections."

This is ME he is talking about. How can someone who lived so long ago know my heart so well??