Deny Yourself Daily

Burdened

2011-09-09T11:12:00.006-04:00

So this is kind of random...but not really. But there is a subject matter that, due to my experiences and time spent in the woman's basktball world, I really feel led to write on. It's a very cotroversial matter and definitely one that a lot of Christians don't know how to deal with and aren't properly equipped enough to address in their day to day lives. And yet, it's widespread and it's only getting wider in our society by the second. Please please, if you think of it, pray that the Lord would force me to sit and really pen down my thoughts on this. I feel a great burden to share what the Lord has taught me in His word and worked out in my day to day experience the last, say, 5 years. Were it not for the grace of God, I wouldn't even be able to breathe, let alone know His truth, so glory to Him alone. It is incredible but also there is a heaviness to it. But He definitely has called me to take a stand on this matter and I just simply don't know where to start. But duh, the only way to do it is to actually take the time to be still and write and start putting it together cohesively. Sounds easy. But it hasn't been for me. Pray for clarity of thought and for obedience to His word and not to my experience alone. His word trumps my experience everytime. There is also a great deal of study that must go into this, as I need to dig below the surface and the Lord needs to further equip me so I do not become a loose cannon. It is quite daunting when I think about it, but again, I am burdened. May the Lord have His way. I know a lot of people caught up in this sin and I know some people who know people who are caught in this sin and have asked me to please write some of my dealings down so they may be edified and equipped.

Oh Nostalgia...

2011-07-30T00:14:00.014-04:00

So tonight, I find myself sitting alone at a Starbucks next to my apartment. Just me, my computer, some Spurgeon books, and a drink. I can't help but enjoy and bask in the extreme sense of nostalgia that is consuming me right now. This...THIS is how this all started in the first place. This is how this blog came about. Sitting here right now represents my humble beginnings of being a college student in 2008...sitting out for a season from basketball due to the transfer rules. I had just moved to the University of Florida and away from my comfortable circles full of professing christians and FCA events to boast my piety. There I was, radically changed and transformed, from my wicked heart within, into a new creature that the Lord had awakened out of pride and self-righteousness and unto His perfect, imputed righteousness. There I was, no basketball to lean on (I practiced but couldn't compete or travel with the team). My nights were simple: grab your notebook Sue...here's a pen and a Bible and your A.W. Pink book. Go. And I would be at Starbucks until they shut it down at 12am (oh the beauty of a college town ha) 4 or 5 nights out of the week. Why not? My team was out of town most of the time, and when they weren't my teammates (also my roommates) just lovingly shook their heads when I would come home at such late hours with my backpack of theological goods glued to my back. The Lord had me so wrapped up in His word and Himself I couldn't fathom doing anything else with my time.

I would write for hours. Then come home and translate some of it into a blog post. I didn't know it at the time, but wow, I would have cherished that time a lot more had I known it wouldn't last forever. Who hasn't longed for the joy of their salvation to return and to be so in tuned with what the Lord was teaching them that they were deemed an absolute bore by the world? ha. Seriously though. The memories are like a sweet taste on my tongue. They are like a lingering aroma of something delicious being cooked in the Kitchen. Oh may they never ever fade away. My words are failing me at this point because I don't have the right ones to accurately describe these dear times that the Lord used to mold and shape me. But the beauty is, I don't have to. Any brother or sister of mine reading this right now knows exactly what I am describing, because we have all been there. Some still are. Some will be there again soon. The paradoxical time of being in darkness yet light. Wrestling with weakness and sin, yet glorying in repentance and newness of life. Oh what a gift it is from the Lord.

It's crazy because looking back I know that had I been doing anything else with my time, I would have been disobeying the Lord. Man, His draw was so strong. And thinking about what all He prepared me for as a result of this time, is quite incredible. I was experiencing a couple of situations of extreme sanctification in which the Lord had turned up the fires on my comfort levels and my idolatry of certain things (basketball was one) and also just my dependence on my family and other people. So there I was...just me and the Lord. Such a time of uncertainty for me should have been frightening, but I found myself basking in the presence of Him. Every night I would rush out of the apartment so I could take that ice cold glass of water to my dry, thirsty throat.

This went on for a while. But it didn't go on forever. The pace picked up. The schedule got busy. The callings changed. The distractions ran its course (Praise the Lord for the gift of repentance). So it has always been a struggle of mine: this longing for the times of when my life consisted of that backpack and that pen and raggedy notebook and Jeff Noblit sermon on my ipod. Where did they go? Am I less of a Christian because they have faded?

It is times like these that I am so grateful for the preaching that has come into my life, especially the last few years, that has shifted my sometimes southern baptist moralistic traditions to the scriptures. They have pointed me OUTSIDE of myself and my emotions, actions, and devotions, and instead upward to the Lord. God is not served by human hands. May my subjectivity not be the basis of how I feel, for my stance with the Lord remains objective: I am His. If I was saved by grace, what makes me think it is anything other than grace that keeps me? May I find joy and rest in the promises God has made and the gifts He has given me: the church family and the believing husband-to-be and the sacraments of the Word, Communion, and Baptism which are all PROMISES of God's faithfulness to me, not another opportunity for me to prove my commitment to Him. (I contrast this rest with the "what are you doing for Jesus" rat race).

It is not my intent to say in any way that we should not be committed to spending time with the Lord. Never. I am more stressing the different seasons the Lord brings us through and our proper responses to them. The chief end of mankind is to glorify the Lord and enjoy Him forever. The ways in which we bring Him glory will not always look the same, but they WILL always involve obedience to Him and what He is calling.

You see...had He not called me here, to this lonely table (only 2,500 miles east) 3 years ago with my pen and my Bible, I wouldn't have been prepared for when the busy schedule came and the new callings emerged. It filled me up and gave me the foundation to stand on when the circumstances changed and there I was standing on the battlefield and my teammates were asking me tough questions about homosexuality and the chains of sin.

Praise be to God.

So while I started off this post with the intent to just ramble and reminisce, I think there are some conclusions to be drawn. The Lord brings seasons of different things in and out of our lives. We all can relate. The times when we are pouring with delight in the Lord and His word. The times when we are crawling through the Spiritual desert and begging the Lord to show His face again. Or the times, perhaps most frightening, when we are just nonchalant and distant. The time in which the Lord takes me away from everything and draws me unto Himself, I am certain, will always be the most coveted times for me. They seem to come at times like these (Lane is out of town for the next 8 days) when my time is freed up from my normal routine. I pray that the Lord would continue to draw me in during these times and that I wouldn't waste them on silly distractions which I am SO guilty of doing.

I used to laugh at the ladies that said: "Single ladies, cherish your time of being single, you can never get it back! Take advantage of the preparation time you have, for there is a lot you can do while single that you cannot do as a married woman." I thought, surely that is just something someone would say who WASN'T experiencing the periodic frustrations of being without the love of a man. But haha, I am laughing a little bit right now because I am finding a lot of truth in their statement. Even though I am not married yet, I am in a serious relationship in which marriage is right around the corner. I already barely have any alone time as it is and I don't even share my house with anyone yet! But you see, if we do not take advantage of the time in which the Lord has set apart for just Himself, will we be properly equipped for what is to come? I can only imagine what the joyous and exciting next phase of my life will bring, but I know it will be different. Glorifying the Lord as a wife and a mother looks a lot different than as a basketball player or as a single woman in general. No matter what season I am in, may I never stop spending time with the Lord so he may teach me and mold me and prepare me for these things. May I take heed to my own nostalgic ramblings. Otherwise, I will certainly crash and burn. For it is written: “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)

I Need the Gospel

2011-07-12T11:33:00.000-04:00

There is nothing more terrifying in all of my imagination than being left to my flesh, to my natural self. The thought of the Lord turning me over to the sin that so deeply burns within me is the most disgusting, most disturbing thought I ever can imagine. And yet the Lord has every right to. He has no reason to save me from the depths of depravity that is called Susan Yenser. None. I deserve to be left in my sin to die and be punished eternally for my wicked heart that is set in enmity towards God and towards my neighbor. I fail so miserably in fulfilling the law. I don’t love God with all my heart, soul, and mind, and I don’t love my neighbor as myself. The only time I remotely show progress in doing so, it is Christ doing it through me. Not very often does the Lord show us the true depths of our own sin. But woe be to the one whom He does. Every ounce of my being is tainted with the fall and with the inclination to dishonor my Lord. The reality of Romans 7 has me turning the very same direction that it had Paul and that is to cry out WHO CAN SAVE ME FROM THIS? Who can I turn to that will take me out of this miserable state of flailing around in sin and lawlessness even when the spirit in me does not want to? Thanks be to Jesus Christ, my Lord, who can deliver me from this body of death! The moments when all of Christ’s love and grace and mercy seem to have been removed from you so that you can sit and burn a little in the sting of your own sin, to a Christian, is it not the most terrifying of states? To see sin and to know that you cannot fight it on your own strength, is there any more frustrating of a position? It certainly doesn’t feel like it. It certainly feels like the most hopeless of all situations. To be left to myself in my sins, oh Lord, I can think of nothing worse.

My words only fail me at this point. They don’t do this topic justice. I must turn outside of myself. I, like Paul, do not cry out to myself for the remedy. I must cry out to the only, perfect, redeeming Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fulfilled the Law. He has done it for me. If it wasn’t for His righteousness I would be the savage that my heart was enslaved to be. Even when the Lord lets me feel those chains of slavery that were mine, may it not let me lose heart. Though it may for the moment, may it never keep me so down that I forget to look back up to the righteousness of my Lord that has saved me from myself and from Himself and His wrath.

Don’t give me your bankrupt preaching. Don’t give me a gospel that points me to myself. Don’t even give me a gospel that points me somewhat to myself and somewhat to Christ. It makes me want to vomit right now just thinking about it. Yes, the taste of sin in my mouth and the thought of being preached a watered down message that is pseudo-orthodox mixed in with the latest celebrity pastor’s own thoughts and reason literally makes my stomach turn with nausea. The thought that you would even try to give me more law on top of sincere disgust for the sin within myself, makes me feel hopeless. Don’t give me the Rick Warren message that “God smiles when you be you.” In this state of hatred for the burning of the sin that seems to be hijacking my body and ruining my soul, DO NOT tell me that God is giving me a mulligan to re-do my life. A second chance. Don’t you see??? With this sin that is festering…I will only make it worse the second time around! I need a Savior! I need someone who did it FOR ME in my place while I sit here hopeless and unable to even move right or left without a sinful thought or deed. I need a message that will make me fall down on my face. One that will make me fight like hell. One that rages war on this sin within me and conquers it, not because of my actions, but because of the actions of Another.

I am a Christian and I need the Gospel. So much so that right now it seems so desperate as if I could not breathe another breath without it.

Most Assuredly.

2011-02-27T20:19:00.010-05:00

Listen. I can work really hard

to try and pretend,

that my flesh and my skin

don't want to depend

on worldly definitions

to define and defend

the most coveted of all:

my reputation before men.

But then,

I'd be lying and deceiving myself.

Denying a disease while it eats at your health,

is like a poor man pretending he is of great wealth.

All the while, the truth is not stealth.

Hold that veneer up to the fire

and see how long 'til it melts.

You see, as a Christian the truth must prevail,

no matter how hazy or masquerading the veil.

My fate is not floating around in the air.

My Father has bought me.

No room for despair.

So then why do I feel confusion of sorts?

Searching among men bound to a nature of torts

to find something only found in my Father's courts?

My soul longs for comfort. My mind longs for rest.

For a time void of trivial talking and jest.

Maybe I've just been distracted to death?

Or at least the time being, and now all thats left

is a longing for His grace to give me new breath.

Most assuredly, breath that I do not deserve.

The kind that was given to the dry bones in His word.

But it's so easy to give into the notion

that I deserve more, after all this devotion.

Devotion?

My child please take time to reflect

on Christ Jesus our Lord

who for the sake of the elect,

endured the wrath of His Father

and took on a gross death.

All the while, He sinned not.

Let me say that again:

While Jesus walked on this earth,

He did so without sin.

The Lord sent His son because WE cannot do it.

We cannot satisfy God's wrath for our sin

and that is all there is to it.

So why do I think I have something to offer?

Like I have to run around this earth pretending to be the potter?

'Til that one day

I realize I'm the clay.

The Lord takes that luster

and strips it away.

I'm left standing there,

dirty and gray.

Nothing to say.

Hand over my mouth as my facade fades away.

Oh but it hurts down to my inner most being.

Pruning the vine. Faith without seeing.

Unrest and regret turns into pleading.

That I may hold fast to the scripture I'm reading.

Sanctification: what a wonderful word.

Its fires are hot, but be not deterred:

It's a promise you'll see all that which you've heard.

Sovereignty is not just something we preach.

As though when trials come, our doctrine retreats.

Instead dig down deep,

though in sorrow you weep,

into the Promises our Father, most assuredly, keeps.

Maintenance

2010-07-18T15:30:00.001-04:00

Doing some site maintenance. As you all could probably tell, the blog needed a makeover. Will probably be changing a few times in the next week until I nail down a good look.

Earthquake

2010-07-13T02:47:00.004-04:00

Wow, it has been forever since I've actually written on this thing. I'm semi-embarrassed :/ but I realize that this blog got its start during the year that I was sitting out of bball due to NCAA transfer rules. No basketball games and lots of blog writing had a direct correlation sooooo maybe now that my career is officially finished I will write more? We shall see.

A quick update, I have moved to Southern California this past month and actually started my {new life} out here. It's a lot at once for sure: my identity as a college athlete has come to an end, my super long distance relationship with Lane has come to an end (not the relationship just the long distance part haha), and I am thousands of miles from my family and friends. But the Lord is so gracious, and His orchestrating of all the details has been glorious. I am so blessed to have a job out here which I started today. I am a 'National Trainee' for Sears Holdings Co. so I am training as a retail manager there. I interned with them last summer during summer bball conditioning at school and the Lord blessed me with a job offer from that. And they were able to place me out here on the west coast, so like I said, the Lord orchestrated all of that according to His will. I can't believe that I actually get to eat lunch with Lane and hang out whenever we want to, and it doesn't involve flying across the country to see each other. It has been more than amazing so far.

The reformed fellowship out here is incredible. It actually blows me away. Lane and I are attending Christ Reformed Church which is pastored by Kim Riddlebarger from the White Horse Inn radio show. To have listened to that for years and now be sitting under Kim's teachings is such a huge blessing. Also, a best friend of mine THAT I MET FROM THIS BLOG (yea we started off as cyber weirdo friends lol) lives an hour south of me. Getting to fellowship with her and her husband more has been longgg awaited. I have met so many great people already out here that it's so exciting to think about what all the Lord is doing. Now that my job has started and I'm working full time, time-management is going to be crucial for me again. But its amazing that I go to work every morning and I feel relieved that my manager can't make me get on the line and run sprints til I die. Haha. I know that sounds ridiculous, but its a huge burden off my shoulders. Crazy. I wonder how long that feeling will last.

I pray that the Lord would use me for His glory in this next phase of my life. I don't know what that looks like, really. For so long, my calling was so clear. And as hard as it was to be a vessel broken by the Lord in the midst of the ungodliness of women's college basketball, it became something that was familiar to me. The opportunities the Lord provided for me became something like a rhythm, and although I of course failed miserably at times, the Lord always brought something encouraging to me, like a soul eager to learn more about Christ that I could invest in and mourn with and rejoice with along that path. I knew I would get persecuted, but it was almost like I was familiar with it- even knowing what types of persecution to expect and how to deal with it (sometimes. It still hurt though). This....this is all just so new to me. Sharing Christ in the workplace is harder because I don't live with these people. They don't know much about me except for what they see from 9-5. They don't live in the next room and they don't eat 3 meals a day with me and go on road trips with me. I pray the Lord will guide me, teach me and continue to mold me and transform me into the image of His son. That's the only way anything can get done, anyways. I bring nothing to the table. Which reminds me:

I love pastor Riddlebarger's illustration of communion. All of us, Oliver Twist-like, come to the table with nothing in our bowls...nothing to offer, just dirty and hungry and eager to be fed and filled by the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen to that.

And with that, I can't really find much more to say. What an amazing image.

(Except for...the title of this post has nothing to do with anything in this post. Hope it didn't disappoint anyone too badly. It's just that I couldn't think of anything to call it...and I experienced my first earthquake out here a few days ago. So I mean, I just thought I would write my first blog post as a Southern Cal resident and name it earthquake in honor of my first one.) ha. Ok goodnighttt, I need to get some sleep.

In Christ Alone

2010-03-09T20:34:00.001-05:00

I don't play the piano...but I had a couple days off from basketball to spend at home....sooo I decided to pick up this new hobby yesterday :) This is my favorite hymn. Its still rough around the edges, but its for God's glory nonetheless.

Another Poem

2009-10-14T13:23:00.000-04:00

Mixed up. What a mess covered in a glossy coat
Back and forth. Back and forth on this sea-sickened boat.
Its been a while. Way too long for sanity’s sake.
If you knew how long you would probably call me fake.
Am I awake?
Maybe I fell asleep with my eyes wide open.
Knowingly or not, the Verdict has still spoken.
But am I broken?
I’m kind of nauseous. Actually, I’m very nauseous.
The outside has taken over with a series of blotches.
I can barely stomach to watch this.
Please, someone turn on the faucets.
Apparently I’m incapable of doing so myself.
So for my own benefit, for my Spiritual and physical health
Turn me somewhere besides inside myself.
Do you empty the trash when it’s piling up?
Do you sift through the junk, do you clean up the muck?
Or do you sit idly by and just wait for the truck?
After all, doesn’t it come by to pick it all up?
What a shame. Helpless to even will my way through
This freedom concept doesn’t feel very true.
Good thing feelings are subjective and don’t hold much weight
Good thing from the beginning I presented nothing on my plate.
Nothing of my own, no credit to my name
I came empty handed and I come now the same.
So take this shame.
I’m tempted to just fall in line with the world
Who doesn’t stay up late and wrestle with the Lord
But the word of God is sharper than a double-edged sword.
So staying up late is about all I can afford.
Its cuts through the mire, it splits my intentions.
It even puts my rest and my sleep on suspensions
Nothing is out of reach, no measure too great to be taken
No idol or affection can be hidden or mistaken
When the Light shines down, the darkness must run
Even if its been a while since it last saw the sun.
I’m undone.
You desire truth in my inner most part.
Please grant this, my Lord. Purify this heart.
Cuz at my best I’m a wretch, but my standing’s objective.
Righteous by the blood of the Lamb resurrected.

Dark Nights of the Soul (Brokenness and Sanctification) with Doug Eaton

2009-08-28T11:36:00.006-04:00

A wonderful video from one of my good friends and brother in Christ, Doug Eaton. This video talks about how the Lord can bring His children down to some of the lowest times so that we will come to see our sinfulness. The best way I have ever heard this being described is "the valley of vision." I've had this happen to me a couple of times in my life, and one time being recently. It feels as if the Lord has withdrawn Himself from us, so that we may see His judgment of sin in the realeast way and so we may see the deception of the sins we have been ignoring or giving into. And yet, the result of this time, for the beleiver, is ALWAYS restoration and repentance unto LIFE and true sanctification. Affliction really is the way in which the Lord gets our attention. I seriously feel like Doug took the words right out of my mouth in this video, but expresses it better than I could so no sense in saying anything else. May the Lord use this video to encourage people out there that are finding themselves in the 'valley of vision' where sometimes it feels too painful to even function. This too shall pass, and remember James 1:2-4 as you endure. Take heart, my brother or sister, it is the Lord dealing with you as one of His CHILDREN, not enemies.

The Dark Side...

2009-08-22T12:01:00.004-04:00

OHHH NOOOO. Oh Yes. I joined twitter- the very thing I said I would never do haha. Lane wore me down and I finally gave :) Going to use it for the glory of God! Feel free to follow me if you would like:

http://twitter.com/SusanYenser

Spurgeon Devotion

2009-07-10T13:48:00.000-04:00

“Forget not all His benefits.”
- Psalms 103:2

It is a delightful and profitable occupation to mark the hand of God in the lives of ancient saints, and to observe his goodness in delivering them, his mercy in pardoning them, and his faithfulness in keeping his covenant with them. But would it not be even more interesting and profitable for us to remark the hand of God in our own lives? Ought we not to look upon our own history as being at least as full of God, as full of his goodness and of his truth, as much a proof of his faithfulness and veracity, as the lives of any of the saints who have gone before? We do our Lord an injustice when we suppose that he wrought all his mighty acts, and showed himself strong for those in the early time, but doth not perform wonders or lay bare his arm for the saints who are now upon the earth. Let us review our own lives. Surely in these we may discover some happy incidents, refreshing to ourselves and glorifying to our God. Have you had no deliverances? Have you passed through no rivers, supported by the divine presence? Have you walked through no fires unharmed? Have you had no manifestations? Have you had no choice favours? The God who gave Solomon the desire of his heart, hath he never listened to you and answered your requests? That God of lavish bounty of whom David sang, “Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things,” hath he never satiated you with fatness? Have you never been made to lie down in green pastures? Have you never been led by the still waters? Surely the goodness of God has been the same to us as to the saints of old. Let us, then, weave his mercies into a song. Let us take the pure gold of thankfulness, and the jewels of praise and make them into another crown for the head of Jesus. Let our souls give forth music as sweet and as exhilarating as came from David’s harp, while we praise the Lord whose mercy endureth for ever.

Baptism Video

2009-07-08T01:33:00.003-04:00

Here is a video put together of my baptism that took place this past weekend. My sister in Christ, Mati, and I made a public proclamation of our faith on the beach in St. Augustine alongside a handful of people from our local church. Mati was saved this past February. My testimomy, as you have probably heard before, is a bit more complicated in that I don't know *exactly* when the Lord saved me. But I do know that a regeneration of my heart took place three years ago when I was convicted of my sin and saw the offense I was to a Holy God...and looked unto Christ in repentance for forgiveness of my sin. I had been baptized before at the age of 5 or 6after making a profession of faith (sinner's prayer). Needless to say, it took about three years after the Lord saved me to realize that I had not been baptized as a believer, but better late than never I suppose :) We put this together for our loved ones who were not able to be there, but I hope it blesses you and reminds you of how we serve a God who sets us free from our sins and gives us true life hidden in Him.

Jeff Noblit- Human Reasoning Vs. The Word of God

2009-07-03T10:08:00.006-04:00

This is one of many sermons in a series from Jeff Noblit called Solving Problems and Healing Hurts. I pray that this encourages you like it did for me. Let this be a good time to test whether or not you are living your life based on the word of God or on human reason and psychology. On the surface, as Christians we would definitely say...THE WORD...but I pray this teaching would really cause you to dig deep and examine if this is true. I know it was able to stop me in my tracks and repent. Only God can change anything, so you can look within yourself all you want but ultimately you will find nothing. There's nothing in there that you can trust. The world tells you to look at yourself, to explore your past, to look at your experiences, to look at your fears, to look at your suffereings. And while all of that may seem like a good idea to us, ultimately we must trust Jeremiah when he says that our own hearts are deceitful. So then where can we turn if we are this capable of deceiving ourselves? We must turn to God and His word and faithful promises. It is the only reliable answer we have. If one has a foundation that this is true no matter what emotions and human reason are saying, then and only then can you go on with your life, trusting in God and His sovereignty. Much easier said than done, as I am daily finding out. Actually, it is an impossible task; only the Lord can grant it. This is so hard and goes completely against all of my flesh which is agonizing, but the Lord is so gracious to even put this kind of teaching in my path so that through His Spirit He may crush my flesh.

Just remember that the Holy Spirit will never guide you to look within yourself. Not for answers at least. Think about salvation. It is a work of God. It is done by the convicting power and drawing of the Holy Spirit. It is not anything of yourself, only the Spirit. So why, when we find ourselves in situations that cause us affliction or hurt, would we run to the world's wisdom? I cannot even act ignorant of that question even though I want to, because I do it all the time. I know I do it because it is a tempation to just appease the flesh, and I give in.

"Are we going to start by the power of the Holy Spirit yet finish with the arm of the flesh? Start with the Spirit and end with humanity and man's wisdom? No we're diciples of Jesus Christ; we're people according to a new Way" -Jeff Noblit

Galatians 3:2-5

"Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain--if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith"

I must say that even writing these words right now are hard for me. In the midst of a time when I am battling every second to not rely on the arm of the flesh (and feeling as if I'm failing most of the time), this post is difficult to even publish. Mostly because I feel like a hypocrite. It is not as if I can "feel" the Lord really rescuing me from human reason and from my emotions, because honestly I don't. Not all the time, at least. But I know He is bringing me through all of this for a reason, and I praise Him for even bringing me to a point where I know that even though I don't feel all fuzzy inside, He is still working. And for some reason the Lord is revealing this stuff to me so that I myself would believe it, and even though I am struggling to do so, I cannot keep but writing it in hopes that someone else would read it and be encouraged. I pray that is what happens.

Solving Problems, Healing Hurts: The Foundation p2a -

This series is quite an amazing one. There are many, however, and as tempting as it is to post all of them on here at once, I figured I would start with just this one first. There's enough to chew on here for a lifetime. But, if you want to check out the whole series I got it off the anchoredintruth.org podcast.

I Cry Out Day and Night Before You

2009-06-24T09:36:00.002-04:00

Praise God for the Psalms.

PSALM 88

O LORD, God of my salvation;
I cry out day and night before you.
Let my prayer come before you;
incline your ear to my cry!
For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol.
I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am a man who has no strength,
like one set loose among the dead,
like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom you remember no more,
for they are cut off from your hand.
You have put me in the depths of the pit,
in the regions dark and deep.
Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
and you overwhelm me with all your waves.
Selah

You have caused my companions to shun me;
you have made me a horror to them.
I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
my eye grows dim through sorrow.
Every day I call upon you, O LORD;
I spread out my hands to you.
Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do the departed rise up to praise you?
Selah

Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
Are your wonders known in the darkness,
or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

But I, O LORD, cry to you;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?
Why do you hide your face from me?
Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,
I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
Your wrath has swept over me;
your dreadful assaults destroy me.
They surround me like a flood all day long;
they close in on me together.
You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;
my companions have become darkness.

Amazing Hymns

2009-06-21T22:40:00.003-04:00

Here are two hymns that we sang today in church. Wow God has a way with timing, huh? May they encourage you as they have encouraged me today.

DAY BY DAY

Day by day, and with each passing moment,
Strength I find to meet my trials here;
Trusting in my Father's wise bestowment,
I've no cause for worry or for fear.
He, whose heart is kind beyond all measure,
Gives unto each day what He deems best,
Lovingly its part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and rest.

Every day the Lord Himself is near me,
With a special mercy for each hour;
All my cares He fain would bear and cheer me,
He whose name is Counsellor and Pow'r.
The protection of His child and treasure
Is a charge that on Himself He laid;
"As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure,"
This the pledge to me He made.

Help me then, in every tribulation,
So to trust Thy promises, O Lord,
That I lose not faith's sweet consolation,
Offered me within Thy holy Word.
Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting,
E'er to take, as from a father's hand,
One by one, the days, the moments fleeting,
Till with Christ the Lord I stand.

HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW

Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

Refrain

I sing because I’m happy,
I sing because I’m free,
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.

“Let not your heart be troubled,” His tender word I hear,
And resting on His goodness, I lose my doubts and fears;
Though by the path He leadeth, but one step I may see;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

Refrain

Whenever I am tempted, whenever clouds arise,
When songs give place to sighing, when hope within me dies,
I draw the closer to Him, from care He sets me free;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

Sweating Drops of Blood

2009-06-21T00:27:00.005-04:00

Luke 22:44

"And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground."

I'm definitely writing this post tonight...broken hearted and confused. And yet, with a peace that surpasses any type of understanding that my mind tries to wrap itself around. My post tonight is going to be really simple, and hopefully God will use it to clear a lot of things up for some people...especially myself. My focus really shifted tonight towards thoughts of our great Redeemer- the One who through whom and by whom and for whom ALL things were created. Our great Mediator...our Advocate before the Father. Jesus Christ who sits at the right hand of the Father and is seated upon His throne. The Lord graciously led me to this verse that I posted above, Luke 22:44. This verse describes our Savior, my friends! This isn't describing a mere man walking upon the earth and enduring hardships. This is the perfect Son of God who, upon recalling his upcoming crucifixion and bearing of the wrath of God towards sin, was struggling so intensely! Praise God that we have a High Priest who has experienced the very hardships and emotions that we endure as human beings!

I also want to point out something that may be really obvious, but is really permeating my soul right now. It is the truth that God uses things that are so intense and painful to sanctify us and to bring good out of it all, for His glory. This is a verse of Jesus praying in agony so much so that He is sweating blood. Jesus knew He was about to go through the darkest time in human history- enduring the wrath of His Father. He knew this, and He was in pain over it. But yet, He remained sinless, and kept His focus upon the perfect plan of His Father. He knew that by enduring this horrible horrible crucifixion, so much good was on the other side, and the Lord's name was going to be ultimately lifted up.

O that we would learn from our Savior. O that we would humble ourselves enough to submit to the Lord's will in our lives no matter how much blood it causes us to sweat (figuratively speaking). If our Lord had to endure such agony while here on this earth, what makes us think that we can skip through life unscathed. As a Christian, one thing is for sure...deep, heart-wrenching afflictions should not come as a surprise. Why would our path be any different than our Lord's? Jesus Christ's death on the cross is proof that God uses those things which are of the utmost pain to bring the most good and the most glory to His name.

One could possibly object here, and say "but Susan, Jesus had perfect knowledge that even though He knew it was going to be grueling, everything in the end was going to work out for the better. In my life- in situation x- there's no guarantee that everything isn't going to fall apart on me...and cause me to hurt for the rest of my life."

Maybe I just quoted myself. hmm.

So here comes the scripture to rebuke me....as usual.

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified."

Romans 8:28-30

How much more reassurance could we possibly ask for? First of all...all things work together FOR THE GOOD for those who are called according to his purpose. Wow. Seriously? Even this pain? Yes. Not to mention the verses that follow that basically should have every Christian jumping up and down praising the Most High for the work that is promised to take place in them. Its incredible. It's also incredible of how quickly I can let this eternal perspective go down the drain. Lord, please forgive me and grant me the grace to endure affliction like my Savior did: with Your perfect will in mind.

Read Luke 22:44 again. Jesus wasn't naive. He didn't put on a happy face and prance through the garden. His agony was felt in the depths of His soul. Being a Christian doesn't mean you hang up the phone after that gut wrenching phone call and put on a smile and act like you are ok when clearly your world has just been shaken to the core. It means that you deal honestly with the situation, and you are real about the pain that it is causing. So real in fact that it makes you sprint to your Savior to comfort you...and to remind you of His word...and His promises. Praise God for them. Being a Christian means that these fires of sanctification cause you to shelter yourself with prayer....just like Jesus did that night. "He prayed more earnestly." WOW. I pray that the Lord would draw me unto Himself through all of this. That I would run to Him, and do what my Savior did: pray more earnestly. These afflictions bring up the need to examine myself and hold myself up to the mirror of scripture, yet again. Praise God that He is faithful and worthy of our trust. Praise God for His perfect will and how all things are done according to His good pleasure and for the glory of His name. Please Lord...Please grant me this perspective...and continue to sanctify me. Please do the same for my brothers and sisters, Father. Thank you for the gift of repentance and salvation. May our hearts be filled with grattitude tonight, as we fix our eyes on Jesus Christ the Author and Finisher of our faith.

Been Around the World....

2009-06-07T00:03:00.005-04:00

Ok, So maybe I haven't quite been around the world...but it sure does feel like it! Since finals finished up the last week of April (and I was [temporarily] loosened from the reigns of college basketball) I have traveled to: Belize for a week on a mission trip, California for two weeks to see the boyfriend :), while I was out there we drove to Phoenix for a few days to visit with James White and his daughter Summer, went back home to Georgia for a week, and I am now in Kentucky visiting my extended family.

It's been an awesome month, but it is coming to a close, unfortunately. I will be returning back to Florida at the end of this week to get back to team training and also an internship at Sears. (It's my first real job ever lol). Balancing work and workouts could get interesting but at least it is only for 8 weeks :)

Anywho. The Lord has used this month to really really refresh me. It was probably the most long awaited month of my life, considering I finally got to see Lane after not seeing him for 5 whole months. Long distance relationships are quite tortuous. I have never relied so much on the grace of God in all of my life....which is probably the purpose of it then, huh?

Here is just a little taste of my time out in Cali. Lane and I took the video camera with us one night and after dinner we filmed a quick video promoting A.W. Pink's book "The Sovereignty of God." This book really did change my life, so I want to recommend it again to anyone who has never read it.

Here is a link to read it online for free: http://www.reformed.org/books/pink/

John Piper on the 'Bad Eye' in Matthew 6:23

2009-04-21T19:29:00.003-04:00

(This is the passage by John Piper that I alluded to in my previous post. This is what the Lord used to wake me up during the season. It really convicted me of just how bad my eye had become in regards to my perspective on what was going on around me.)

What is the 'Bad Eye' in Matthew 6:23?
By: John Piper

A verse in Matthew is somewhat difficult to understand. It seems to dangle in the Sermon on the Mount with little connection to what goes before and after: "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!" (Matthew 6:22-23).

Before it: the familiar saying about not laying up treasures on earth: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:19-21).

After it: the equally familiar saying about not serving God and money: "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money" (Matthew 6:24).

Therefore, the sayings before and after Matthew 6:22-23 deal with treasure or money. In fact, the first would flow really well into the second if we simply left out the intervening verses 22-23. The gist would be "Treasure God in heaven, not money on earth . . . because you can't serve two masters, God and money." So why does Jesus link these two sayings about money and God with a saying about the good eye and the bad eye?

The key is found in Matthew 20:15. Jesus had just told the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Some of them had agreed to work from 6 am to 6 pm for a denarius. Some the master hired at 9 am. Others at noon. Finally some he hired at 5 pm. When the day was done at 6 pm he paid all the workers the same thing--a denarius. In other words, he was lavishly generous to those who worked only one hour, and he paid the agreed amount to those who worked twelve hours.

Those who worked all day "grumbled at the master of the house" (Matthew 20:11). They were angry that those who worked so little were paid so much. Then the master used a phrase about "the bad eye" which is just like the one back in Matthew 6:23. He said, "Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?" (Matthew 20:15).
Unfortunately that last clause is a total paraphrase, not a translation. "Or do you begrudge my generosity" is a very loose paraphrase of "Or is your eye bad because I am good (? ho ophthalmos sou pon?ros estin hoti eg? agathos eimi?)" The "bad eye" here parallels the "bad eye" in Matthew 6:23.

What does the bad eye refer to in Matthew 20:15? It refers to an eye that cannot see the beauty of grace. It cannot see the brightness of generosity. It cannot see unexpected blessing to others as a precious treasure. It is an eye that is blind to what is truly beautiful and bright and precious and God-like. It is a worldly eye. It sees money and material reward as more to be desired than a beautiful display of free, gracious, God-like generosity.

That is exactly what the bad eye means in chapter six of the Sermon on the Mount. And that meaning gives verses 22-23 a perfect fitness between a saying on true treasure (vv. 19-21) and the necessity of choosing between the mastery of God and the mastery of money (vv. 24).

So the flow of thought would go like this: Don't lay up treasures on earth, but lay up treasures in heaven. Show that your heart is fixed on the value that God is for you in Christ. Make sure that your eye is good not bad. That is, make sure that you see heavenly treasure as infinitely more precious than earthly material treasure. When your eye sees things this way, you are full of light. And if you don't see things this way, even the light you think you see (the glitz and flash and skin and muscle of this world) is all darkness. You are sleepwalking through life. You are serving money as a slave without even knowing it, because it has lulled you to sleep. Far better is to be swayed by the truth--the infinite value of God.

So if you are emotionally drawn more by material things than by Christ, pray that God would give you a good eye and awaken you from the blindness of "the bad eye."

It's Been a While...

2009-03-16T23:35:00.006-04:00

Wow I can't believe I haven't written anything since January. I apologize for that, and I really do hope that with the season winding down now I will have more time to contribute to this. I realize so much now the providence of having to sit out of basketball last year because of my transfer. It was right after the Lord had awakened me out of cultural Christianity, and He divinely placed me in a situation where I could dedicate time and energy to the ministry and really study His word and also share my thoughts through the means of this blog. Now that I am almost finished with this season I now see how much of my LIFE it takes up. I mean it is my fourth year of college basketball so it wasn't a surprise, but taking the year off and then coming back really put it in perspective. I just am really praising God that He brought me back to the game of basketball this year with a completely different perspective on things. I went from basically worshipping the game (and really myself) to submitting my ways to the Lord even though that is really hard to do in such a secular (and prideful) environment. It hasn't been easy by any means. The Lord has had to walk with me hand in hand and also be there to correct me when I would lose sight of what really matters. I think the most amazing thing that I have learned this year is this: what is great in the eyes of the world is not always great in the eyes of God.

Ok, that sounds really really simple and elementary, but please listen to me when I say that the Lord has taught me this in the most personal and outright way that He could. It is one thing to profess that you believe that God's idea of great isn't always going to be great to your flesh or to the rest of the world, but it is a completely different thing for God to take it and penetrate your soul and let it transform your life. This is deep stuff; that is what I am learning right now. I don't know about you, but anytime the Lord is teaching me something, I can feel it. I don't mean that in the sense of 'oh I get the fuzzy wuzzies'...I mean I can feel something stirring on the inside of me. It's almost a restless feeling I get deep within me, as if I can feel the Lord transforming me from the inside out. I don't mean to freak you out with that, but most of the time I really do feel that way. I think it is whenever the Lord is taking something that I have believed on the surface level for so long and then starts renewing my mind and transforming my life with it- just like He promises He will do in His Word. Wow, just thinking about this process right now is overwhelming me. You see, this year has been a tough one for me (and by year I think more in terms of basketball seasons so really I am referring to the last 9 months or so- sorry its just how my brain operates). Not in the sense of "whoa is me" because it has still been a great year, but just in the sense of I have struggled a lot and I have failed a lot and I have felt far from God a lot. All of that being my fault and a result of not taking the opportunity to truly spend time with the Lord and make sure that I was lining myself up with Him and His word. Examining yourself takes time and effort...and I found that it is something that you can easily put on the backburner if you aren't careful. On the flipside there has been great things happen as well- and there were times when I had amazing time spent with the Lord. I guess it was just a testing time for me.

So I sat down tonight and I put my fingers to this keyboard and I had NO IDEA what I was going to write ahead of time. All this just starting coming out. And let me say that these past few moments have been so refreshing. Just recalling the faithfulness of my Lord is blowing me away, and I am sad to say that I have missed writing because it is a way that the Lord really brings into perspective just how much He is teaching me and transforming me. But no doubt His timing is sovereign. God taught me a lot last year through the triumphant times of sharing truth with others and being blessed enough to watch seeds of the Gospel take root and transform people's lives right before my eyes. And then in contrast, He has taken this year of more dry and desert-like times to teach me just as much. And bless me just as much. I guess this is where the whole "great to you doesn't always look great to God" thing comes in...

I know I sound like a broken record, but playing college basketball is grueling. It is a mental and physical drainer that can really drag you through the mud if you let it run your life. The emotional ups and downs could put someone in the crazy house. haha. But seriously. I don't say that for your sympathy. I chose to play it and in return it has been one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me. I am saying that just so you can get the setting of what I am going to share. You give up hours and hours of your day to go through workouts that make you want to cry. To get treated sometimes like you aren't a human being. To be put on a huge stage for the world to see, and wondering again why you would take on something with so much pressure when you could just be like an ordinary college kid. Then something comes along that makes it so worthwhile that it's enough to get you through it. It's a business. Sometimes you feel so helpless and you don't know where or who to turn to because you will just be reminded with the cold reality that it's a business just like everything else.

So when I started to face all of this again this year, I found myself feeling, again, so helpless. Thoughts of "man if I could just get my chance" or "why am I doing all of this if it's never getting noticed." I began to become very uneasy and antsy about my position on the team. I would play a lot, then I wouldn't. I would play a lot, then I wouldn't. And no matter what I realized that I wasn't really in control at all. And as a basketball player it is difficult to not get caught up in the appearance of things. For the many games I started this year I was excited that people would see me and see that I started for Florida and be impressed. Then for the many games that I just sat there on the bench and played very little I was worried what people would think about me then. While that seems natural for a human being, it is sin at its finest. But you see how this up and down teeter-totter could drive you insane. It is the very definition of living in a fish bowl. But like I said, none of this happened in vain. The Lord was up to something....something huge.

While acknowledging that appearance in the eyes of the world meant nothing, I still was struggling. Similar to how I had mentally assented to the truths of the gospel for a long time, it took God’s work in me to make it truly come alive and transform me. No doubt the Lord had done a mighty work in me over the past two years where he really ripped the idol of basketball out of my life. Sitting out gave me the correct perspective on it; I really didn't live for basketball anymore. This I can say with a clear conscience because it definitely didn't control my every thought like it used to. I had released it in the sense of I didn't derive my happiness from it and I really could not play it anymore and move on with my life. But then there was another step that the Lord wanted to take it. With all that said, I was still struggling with this "hey this isn't fair" attitude, and I was also (as I just mentioned) still sinfully worried about the outward appearance of things. I kept asking the Lord why I kept finding myself in the same position over and over again. Why was I continually feeling shortchanged and frustrated? Why do I see all these other people, who don't fear God at all, get things handed to them. Why are they getting the opportunity to reap the success? Ah, yes that's right. Success as defined by who? Man, the Lord had nailed me.

At the same time I was questioning why I was even playing the dang sport. I mean if it no longer defines me, and I could walk away from the game without it destroying me, then what was I waiting around for? But the Lord is faithful and always goes above and beyond anything I could ever fathom with my human mind. He took this opportunity to really put things in perspective of how selfish I truly was being. I mean who said I was playing basketball so that I could do amazing things ON the court. What about the countless opportunities that I get to be a witness for Him simply because I am on the team. I had been looking at things so wrong. I was thinking of it all in terms of how it affected me when really it wasn't about that at all. But God was still gracious enough to change me in the process. He used a series of things that really reminded me of the simple truth that HE defines success, not this world. Man!

1 Corinthians 3:19-23
"For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness," and again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile." So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future--all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's."

1Corinthians 1:20-21
"Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe."

Those are just a few verses that remind us that indeed, we don't define what is good and what is right. God does. (I will share with you at a later date more details on what the Lord used from His word to wake me up.) And as foolish as it might 'look' to the world for me to sit there on the bench it might be JUST what the Lord is using to bring glory to his name. Um, what a lesson to learn. Especially for an athlete. Talk about dying to self. And folks, let me tell you, it took an act of God. It took a miracle for Him to open up my eyes to this truth. Because if left up to me I would have remained in my sinful covetous, grumbling, unsatisfied state. I could write for days and days on the importance of theology and why mine was the reason why I was ever able to see these amazing truths about the God that we serve. He is indeed sovereign, and He is indeed the one who orchestrates, plans, wills and brings to pass EVERYTHING that takes place- and all for His glory. Not even a sparrow falls without His permission. Praise God for that. I never once had to worry whether or not His will was being accomplished through my suffering. I simply had to turn my eyes up to Him and be reminded again that He was in control and that I was an instrument to display HIS glory. Not my own. Not the fleshly desires of Susan Yenser. Man, what a deep truth that was starting to penetrate the depths of me. I could actually feel the Lord changing my mind, renewing it. Making it think completely different because it was so channeled to think like the world. I mean how could it not. Everything around me is telling me to care what the world thinks. Thankfully my God is Almighty and can overpower the principalities of this world. The Lord is doing a work in me that cannot be explained. It is beyond me. It is IN SPITE of me. And it is still taking place. This all happened pretty recently...in fact the season is still going on. We are headed to the first round of the NCAA tournament this weekend...yay :) The Lord has blessed me so much.

So there you have it. I guess I sat down tonight to get all of that off my chest. To share with you guys the faithfulness of the Lord. To encourage you that the Lord is sovereign and in control of ALL things. Please pray that the Lord continues this work that He has started in me. It is farrrr from complete. I still struggle with this, but each time I am reminded of the freedom that is found in the yoke of the Lord. Imagine that. Oh and I can't WAIT to share with you guys the passages/studies that the Lord put in my path to wake me up to these truths. I know I wrote sooo much in this post. I didn't plan to at all. I just couldn't stop. And I didn't even get to the details of the studies, but I will do that in my next couple posts FOR SURE. But I must get to bed. Please check back so I can show you the John Piper lesson that really smacked me in the face with my sin of coveting the things of this world over the precious treasure that is found in Heaven. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. He has saved me from the bondage of sin! Soli Deo Gloria!

ps- I would like to thank the "anonymous" person for posting a comment recently on my last post to remind me to post more often. No doubt God used that comment to spur me on to write this post after having gone so long. God used you, my friend. Thank you.

Matthew 11:25-30

"I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

A blessing in the form of a Dvd!

2009-01-04T15:20:00.005-05:00

Well, I guess one of the good things about being on the basketball team is you are stuck on campus over Christmas break with nooooothing to do. haha. Well its not always a good thing, but I did have a lot of time to read and study up on some things, which was very refreshing. My boyfriend gave me this documentary for Christmas, and although I had already seen parts of it, watching it in whole has been SUCH a blessing to me. It helped me clear some things up and also confirm even moreso my belief in the doctrines of grace that have radically changed my life forever. So I just wanted to take the time to direct you to it and suggest it as something worth every penny of the investment. Its only 13 bucks, and its hours and hours of thorough discussion on the history of Calvinism and explanation of its theology. Packed full of Scriptures, it clears up all the misconceptions and straw men that us 'dirty Calvinists' are stuck refuting over and over again, haha. But anyways, click the pic and you will be directed to the site of the Apologetics Group, who produces all kinds of wonderful documentaries such as this one. So, check it out. Oh and I hope to be back to blogging in the near future. Its just so hard being in the middle of the season and traveling so much. I miss it though, that is for sure. God Bless everyone, hope you had a wonderful Christmas break. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith. Amen.

"Persecution or a Great Awakening?" - Paul Washer

2008-10-28T17:21:00.002-04:00

Dogs, Crumbs, and Faith to Emulate (Jeff Noblit)

2008-10-11T11:09:00.004-04:00

A wonderful sermon that I pray blesses you as much as it blessed me:

Frustration- The Slippery Slope of Distraction.

2008-10-06T19:57:00.012-04:00

"Having come to the light of the knowledge of the glory of Christ from Scripture or by the preaching of the gospel, let us regard it as our duty to meditate frequently on his glory. It is the neglect of meditation that keeps so many Christians in a feeble state, regardless of their privileges. They hear of these things and assent to the truth of them or at least they do not question them. But they never solemnly meditate on them. They think that meditation is above their capabilities, or they are totally ignorant of how to go about it, or they are not too concerned about it, or they treat it as fanaticism. Many cannot meditate because their minds are so cluttered up with earthly things. The mind must be spiritual and holy, freed from all earthly clutter. It must be raised above things here below if we wish to meditate on the glory of Christ. So many are strangers to this duty because they do not mortify their earthly desires and concerns."

-John Owen from his book "The Glory of Christ"

So what is it in this life that actually matters and why do I find it so hard to stay focused on it? Well, the answer to the first question is glorifying Jesus Christ and His work on the glorious cross for my once wicked soul. And I'm still trying to figure out how to pinpoint the answer to the second one. All I can say is, what in the world? How is it that two years ago the Lord could completely come in and intervene in my life, draw me unto Himself, convict me of my sin, grant me repentance, and completely captivate my life as a whole....and yet, now, I'm left just wondering where it all went. Don't get me wrong, this is not a post about me questioning my salvation. It's nothing of the sort. The writing of this post, as crazy as it seems, is evidence in itself that I am saved, because the Lord is bringing to light many things that need to change in my life. Chastisement- a very good sign that you are a child of God.

So the quote that I put up at the top of this post really woke me up yesterday when I read it on the plane. John Owen did a really good job of awakening me with his descriptions of the glory of Christ...and then followed it up with a slap in the face with his calling out of the lazy people who are finding it hard to stay focused on it. I'm not being too hard on myself either (even though a lot of Christians would identify with the same convictions of not being focused enough on it either) but I'm seriously tired of letting myself off the hook. This is getting ridiculous. How does Christianity become so 'cultural' and 'watered down' anyways? Because people compare themselves to people who profess Christ, who then compare themselves to other people who profess Christ (instead of comparing themselves to the Bible), and the cycle gets more and more vicious until everyone just walks around thinking they are off the hook because they don't look any different from Johnny down the street who grew up in church and has a WWJD bumper sticker on his car. Excuse my tangent, but I mean isn't it true? And isn't that the very thing I am guilty of right now as I watch my walk with the Lord go down the tube on account of MY laziness and unwillingness to remove unnecessary worldly clutter from my life? Well, since most of you don't know me or my life...the answer to that question is YES. YES that is exactly what is happening to me right now, and I am confessing it.

What amazes me is how I could have let it get so out of control. I mean I got so lazy. It started out with the small things a few months back and just kind of built itself up, until a huge wall formed and I found myself surrounded, once again, by my selfishness and worldliness. I HATE worldliness, and yet I'm afraid right now that if you took a snapshot of my life you would see a whole lot of it. Whatever happened to the gospel being on my lips continuously? Why am I not taking advantage of witnessing opportunities like I used to? Where has the reign on my tongue gone? Where is my boldness that I used to have? Why am I finding myself enslaved to so much sin? These questions are driving me nuts because I'm finding myself completely helpless in changing a thing about the situation. I'm finding myself completely without the strength to simply 'pull myself up by the bootstraps' and start performing better. So this isn't the point in the post where I guilt trip myself into doing a better job and start turning inward to make myself change this. No way, my theology teaches me better than that- and so does the word of God.

I am seriously not resting in Christ. I am not denying myself. I am not mortifying my flesh. I'm not setting my mind on the things above. And it is all because I am being seriously lazy and not spending enough time TRULY taking in His word. I am making no true effort to mortify sin or remove worldly clutter. It is not my job to change myself. But it is my job to meditate on Christ and His glory! It is my job fight like crazy against the powers and principalities of this world, and most of all, my own sinful nature. I have corruption in my heart- I SERIOUSLY cannot fall asleep on this fact. And if I do, the result is a life that starts spinning out of control, even for a believer. The fact of inevitable indwelling sin does not mean I excuse it; no, in fact as a child of God, I hate it. And I must not fall asleep on it or it will take over and surely enslave me. I'm afraid that is exactly what I have let happen and I am now reaping the consequences.

One night getting ready for bed, just last week, this feeling was so strong and I felt so dirty that I was trying so hard to externally remove it. This is so sad, but it's true. I took a shower, I washed my face and hands, I scrubbed my teeth with extra toothpaste, I tried to get all my ducks in a line so that MAYBE I would find peace and comfort for a moment. Just maybe I wouldn't feel so dirty. WOW. How incredibly sad to even recall that about myself. I wasn't aware that was the reason why I was doing it at the time...but shortly after it dawned on me. You see, for a short time I lost sight of the glory of Christ. I wasn't making a serious effort to keep thoughts about the Lord and His glory in the forefront of my mind and look what came about. My life started to slowly spin out of control. To think that you can struggle with this and it not affect everything is completely absurd. To think that you can 'compartamentalize' in your life the gospel of Jesus Christ, which alone brings life, is completely absurd. My relationships were getting sloppy; I started to get lazy even with the people I love the most- namely my long distance relationship with my boyfriend out in California. A godly relationship with him even started to lose its fervor all because I was too busy being cluttered with the world. What a shame. But as shameful as that sounds, how much more shameful is it to lose fervor for your Lord, the one who reached down and saved you from the muck and mire of your sins? Only the blood of Christ can wash me clean of my iniquities, but not taking the time to retreat to the foot of the cross in humility is just pathetic. I am so thankful that the Lord brings these things to our attention so that we may awake out of this deranged state. I am so grateful for repentance and the healing that it brings.

All of this can be described as deception at its finest. And mix deception in with distraction and you have a deadly combination. Please listen to me...you cannot fight deception OR distraction on your own. Are you kidding me? You will just continue to fall in deeper and you will wonder why you can't seem to turn things around. You can't turn things around because you CAN'T turn things around. God is the one who TURNED things around for you in the first place when He saved you from your walk down an extremely wide path to Hell and placed you on the straight and narrow. And if He is the one who was in charge of doing that from the beginning, then why would it be any different now? Don't chase worldly things when they are the root of the problem. AND DO NOT put your affection on worldly things either because it will just leave you deceived and distracted. You will be left wondering how you got so off track in such a short period of time. Please do not keep turning to yourself; I promise you, you are mostly the problem. So what should we do then? We should turn to Christ. Quit putting it off. I don't care if you just sinned and you are ashamed. RUN to Christ. He is always always way more willing to forgive us than we are capable of sinning. Run to Christ, even when your deceived heart is not inclined to do so. If you are not spending time in prayer and in the word then you cannot expect to be able to fight temptation when it presents itself. The Bible says that the Lord never leaves you to a temptation without providing a way to escape it. Don't be too lazy to find the escape.

It seriously is a vicious cycle, my friends. If you are not making the effort to meditate on the glories of Christ and His word, then you are bound to lose your passion and zeal and desire for the things of God. And if you lose your desire, you will stop spending time in prayer and in the word. And if you stop that, it just leads to more worldly clutter and less thoughts of Christ...thus starting the cycle over again. Do you see now how even the strongest of believers can find themselves on the slippery slope? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Do not take your sin lightly even for the slightest moment or you will learn the hard way. I am so grateful that the Lord has revealed this to me and even provided the desire to put in out in writing. I know I needed to hear it.

"For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."
Romans 12:3

Enjoy this wonderful sermon by Charles Spurgeon on Indwelling sin:

Have You Ever Read Romans 9? (James White)

2008-09-20T01:27:00.001-04:00

Here's a great exegesis of Romans 9 by Dr. James White. Enjoy.

Are Your Thoughts of God Too Human??

2008-08-23T21:10:00.008-04:00

The following passage by A.W. Pink is probably one of the greatest passages that I can point to as a reason why one should go to such great lengths to preserve the truths of God and His character as it is described in the Bible, even amongst those that say we are 'divisive' or just being too nit-picky. No way. I was having that very conversation with someone a few weeks ago....we were discussing Calvinists and this person didn't understand why they were so 'hard headed' about election and their doctrines of grace. After all, there is so much common ground right? As I began to go into how it is just SO frustrating to see God being portrayed with characteristics that just simply ARE not Him, I tried to explain why it is not just a simple difference that should be overlooked. Erroneous depictions of God are DISHONORING to Him. I was trying to point out that a God that is not in sovereign control of everything is not a God that is worthy of being glorified. If God did not decree everything that happens, then why should we give Him glory for it? A God that simply knows all things but didn't decree it is not worthy of our admiration. Anyways, it was during that very conversation that I happened to have Pink's The Nature of God book sitting by me, and by the grace of God I flipped to this passage and read it out loud. Let's just say, it ended all discussion up to that point and led to me and the person sitting there in awe of the Lord and His glory. This passage may be a bit lengthy, but I promise it is WELL WORTH the read. Enjoy.

In one of his letters to Erasmus, Luther said, "Your thoughts of God are too human." Probably that renowned scholar resented such a rebuke, the more so, since it proceeded from a miner's son. Nevertheless, it was thoroughly deserved. We, too, prefer the same charge against the vast majority of the preachers of our day and against those who, instead of searching the Scriptures for themselves, lazily accept their teachings. The most dishonoring conceptions of the rule and reign of the Almighty are now held almost everywhere. To countless thousands, even professing Christians, the God of Scriptures is quite unknown.

Of old, God complained to an apostate Israel, "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such as one as thyself" (Psalm 50:21). Such must now be His indictment against apostate Christendom. Men imagine the Most High is moved by sentiment, rather than by principle. They suppose His omnipotency is such an idle fiction that Satan can thwart His designs on every side. They think that if He has formed any plan or purpose at all, then it must be like theirs, constantly subject to change. They openly declare that whatever power He possesses must be restricted, lest He invade the citadel of man's free will and reduce him to a machine. They lower all-efficacious atonement, which redeems everyone for whom it was made, to a mere remedy, which sin-sick souls may use if they feels so disposed. They lessen the strength of the invincible work of the Holy Spirit to an offer of the Gospel which sinners may accept or reject as they please.

The god of this century no more resembles the Sovereign of Holy Writ than does the dim flickering of a candle the glory of the midday sun. The god who is talked about in the average pulpit, spoken of in the ordinary Sunday school, mentioned in much of the religious literature of the day, and preached in most of the so-called Bible conferences, is a figment of human imagination, an invention of maudlin sentimentality. The heathen outside the pale of Christendom form gods of wood and stone, while millions of heathen inside Christendom maufacture a god out of their carnal minds. In reality, they are but atheists, for there is no other possible alternative between an absolutely supreme God and no God at all. A god whose will is resisted, whose designs are frustrated, whose purpose is checkmated, possesses no title to deity and, far from being a fit object of worship, merits nothing but contempt.

The supremacy of the true and living God might well be argued from the infinite distance which separates the mightiest creatures from the Creator. He is the Potter; they are but the clay in His hands, to be molded into vessels of honor or to be dashed into pieces (Psalm 2:9) as He pleases. Were all the denizens of heaven and all the inhabitants of earth to combine in open revolt against Him, it would cause Him no uneasiness. It would have less effect upon His eternal, unassailable throne than the spray of the Mediterranean's waves has upon the towering rocks of Gibraltar. So puerile and powerless is the creature to affect the Most High, Scripture tells us that when the Gentile heads unite with apostate Israel to defy Jehovah and His Christ, "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh" (Psalm 2:4).

The absolute and universal supremacy of God is plainly affirmed in many Scriptures. "Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heaven and the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all...And thou reignest over all" (1 Chronicles 29:11-12). Norw "reignest" now, not "will do so in the Millennium." "O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none [not even the devil himself] is able to withstand thee?" (2 Chronicles 20:6). Before Him presidents and popes, kings and emperors, are less than grasshoppers.

"But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth" (Job 23:13). My reader, the God of Scripture is no make-believe monarch, no imaginary sovereign, but Kind of kings, and Lord of lords. "I know that thou cantst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee" (Job 42:2; or another translator, "no purpose of thine can be thwarted" (RSV). All that He has designed, He does. All that He has decreed, He perfects. All that he has promised, He performs. "But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased" (Psalm 115:3). Why has He? Because "there is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord" (Proverbs 21:30).

God's supremacy over the works of His hands is vividly depicted in Scripture. Inanimate matter, irrational creatures, all perform their Maker's bidding. At His pleasure, the Red Sea divided and its waters stood up as walls (Exodus 14); the earth opened her mouth, and guilty rebels went down alive into the pit (Numbers 16). When He so ordered, the sun stood still (Joshua 10:1-13); and on another occasion it went backward ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz (2 Kings 20:1-11). To exemplify His supremacy, God made ravens carry food to Elijah (1 Kings 17); iron to float on the waters (2 Kings 6:1-7); lions to be tame when Daniel was cast into their den (Daniel 6); fire to burn not when three Hebrews were flung into its flames (Daniel 3). Thus, "Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places" (Psalm 135:6).

God's supremacy is also demonstrated in His perfect rule over the wills of men. Ponder carefully Exodus 34. Three times in the year all the males of Israel were required to leave their homes and go up to Jerusalem. They lived in the midst of hostile people, who hated them for having appropriated their lands. What, then was to hinder the Canaanites from seizing the opportunity, during the absence of the men, to enslave the women and children and take possession of their farms? If the hand of the Almighty was not upon the wills even of wicked men, how could He make this promise beforehand, that none should so much as "desire" their lands (v.24)? "The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will" (Proverbs 21:1)/

But, some may object, do we not read again and again in Scripture how men defied God, resisted His will, broke His commandments, disregarded His warnings, and turned a deaf ear to all His exhortations? Certainly we do. Does this nullify all we have said? If so, then plainly the Bible contradicts itself. But that cannot be. What the objector refers to is simply the wickedness of men against the external word of God. We have mentioned what God has purposed in Himself. The rule of conduct He has given us to walk by is perfectly fulfilled by none of us. His own eternal counsels are accomplished to their minutest details.

The absolute and universal supremacy of God is affirmed with equal positiveness in the New Testament. We are told that God "worketh all things after the counsel of his own will" (Ephesians 1:11)-- the Greek for the "worketh" means "to work effectually." For this reason we read, "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen." (Romans 11:36). Men may boast they are free agents, with a will of their own, and are at liberty to do as they please. But Scripture says to those who boast, "We will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, " that they ought to say, "If the Lord will" (James 4:13,15).

Here then is a sure resting place for the heart. Our lives are neither the product of blind fate nor the result of capricious chance. Every detail of them was ordained from all eternity and is now ordered by the living reigning God. Not a hair of our heads can be touched without His permission. "A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps" (Proverbs 16:9). What assurance, what strength, what comfort this should give the real Christian! "My times are in they hand" (Psalm 31:15). Then let me "rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him" (37:7).

-A.W. Pink

Oh How Easily We Forget....

2008-08-11T03:58:00.004-04:00

Oh how easily we forget the muck and mire we were in,
The times when we went without faith, the times as slaves to sin.
Oh how easily we forget the dreaded days when our eyes were blind,
When my thoughts were only selfish, and when true depravity was mine.
Oh how sick and sad to see, how we forget so easily
About the former days of empty praise we sang with worldly ease.

I for one, come before you Lord, so broken and contrite
So much so, my flesh and bones will get no rest tonight.
For quite a bit of time has passed, before I’ve now come to see,
That I have been living in great sin and running away from Thee.
O Lord, how easily I have forgotten, my former days of carnal lust
And instead of staying alert and awake and giving You my trust,
I have given way to earthly treasures which have rotted and collected dust.

But a child of God cannot go on deceived by its youthful lusts,
The Lord will stretch and pull and pry and chastise when He must.
Because it is so clear how fast we steer from the straight and narrow path
I know personally, for a season now I have lost all sight of His holy wrath.
And what a frightening time indeed, when you have lost that holy fear
Of the Lord and His righteousness; instead you put on the deceptively fake veneer.
Oh hypocrite, your lips may sing but your heart is far from Me
Father, I beg you now, draw me back in so I’m near to Thee.

Oh how easily I have forgotten the times of those dreaded days
When my heart was only selfish, so depraved in all my ways.
For just as easily as I’ve forgotten, just as easily I have seen
That same person I once left behind has come back in a nightmarish dream.
But I am grateful that tonight, Lord, You’ve given me eyes to see
That I’ve been blinded once again, and its time to come running back to Thee.
So I pace and pace, and pray and pray until wee hours of the night
Reading psalm after psalm, no rest or peace, not until I'm reconciled in Your sight.

What is this Lord, can’t I come back to fellowship with Thee?
Seems not until I’m stripped and still, knowing I’ve sinned in thought and deed.
I acknowledge it Lord, I’ve sinned against You! Be merciful to me indeed.
Deal with me not in your anger, I beg, and my confessions I do concede.
So for now, I know one thing, I will sit and wait upon your gracious gift,
The gift of repentance, Lord, so this great burden may finally lift.
I exalt you Lord, so abase me now, so I remember again those days
When I was so dependent on your grace, that it guided me in all my ways.
Because it seems that I’ve forgotten and now my heart has become so hard
Only to come to grips with my sin, feeling trapped and chained and barred.

But oh how merciful you are to the righteous, even though I don’t feel I qualify
I know I’ve been washed and cleansed by your blood, I pray the flesh now I mortify.
For sin leads to death, to destruction, to despair, and I’ve tasted that tonight
But gracious you have been to me, Lord, though I’ve been anything but upright.
You’ve heard my cry and delivered me, and your faithfulness is clear
You will have nothing to do with a prideful heart, but the humble you’ll draw near.
Why do I insist on forgetting this, like I haven’t learned it before in my past?
Transform me by the renewal of my mind, so this spiritual growth with last.

Oh how easily, Lord, I had forgotten my former days of bondage to sin.
So use it now to remind me how if I don’t have your grace I’ll be there again.

My Testimony

2008-07-22T07:42:00.008-04:00

By the grace of God, I gave my testimony this past February at a FCA meeting here on campus (University of Florida). The audio was posted on the internet and one of my good friends put it to a video for me- the same friend who I mention in my testimony.

I know I made a short video of my testimony a while back, but here it is in audio form. I pray that it will be a testiment to the Lord's saving grace and His ability to rescue the deceived from the bondage of their self-righteousness and sins. Soli Deo Gloria!

And yes, that's a picture of me with James White!

Something the Carnal Heart Will NEVER Understand

2008-07-19T17:14:00.005-04:00

Here is just a quick excerpt from Jeremiah Burroughs' book The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. I'm posting this because of a conversation my friend and I just had over dinner. We were talking about our lives and past experiences and how both of us have gone/are going through VERY similar situations. What happened to me a year and a half ago has been happening to her (freakishly similar) in the past 5 or so months, and it has been SUCH a blessing to see this verse right here really take place in my life:

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them who are in any trouble, by the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God.

We are both athletes in which the Lord used our sports as a means to completely break us down and remove the pride out of our lives. The very same comfort that the Lord gave me during that time is the same comfort I was able to offer her through the grace of God while she was going through it. But we talked about how alllllll of that hard stuff that we went through was amazing now that we look back on it, because had we not gone through it we wouldn't have been broken in our sins and seen the work of Christ for the precious jewel that it is. We would still be serving the idols of our fleshly desires. It reminded me of the passage that I had read in this book and immediately after dinner we went back to my apartment to read through this. It is very biblical for those that the Lord calls His to be afflicted greatly here on earth. In fact, it is promised- but all our afflictions represent blessings in disguise.

The carnal mind will NEVER grasp or understand this concept, but thank the Lord that He gives us the understanding and the spiritual eyes to see the purpose of our afflictions. I know that it has been the great trials and sufferings in my life that have yielded the greatest amount of growth. I know I write about this a lot, and it almost seems to be the subject of all my posts, but honestly, it is the issue that I find myself in practically all the time. Whenever one trial ends, it seems another one begins, and we all need to keep it in perspective. The perspective that God is in control and if we are His then we can rest assuredly- knowing that it is all for the furthering of our sanctification and preparing us for that Great Day when we join our King for eternity. I write about it a lot because I am tempted to forget this truth on a DAILY basis. Also, I know a few people in my life who are being broken by the Lord and are having trouble seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I have been there, and I pray that this passage brings them encouragment. And for those of you have experienced those tmes of being completely broken before an almighty God, rejoice for those moments of pure desperation that they brought, knowing that they helped refine your faith. I pray we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds with these truths, because it is an ongoing process that will be with us for as long as we are on this earth:

USUALLY WHEN GOD INTENDS THE GREATEST MERCY TO ANY OF HIS PEOPLE HE BRINGS THEM INTO THE LOWEST CONDITION.

God seems to go quite across and work in a contrary way: when he intends the greatest mercies to his people he first usually brings them into a very low conditions. If it is a bodily mercy, an outward mercy that he intends to bestow, he brings them physically low, and outwardly low; if it is a mercy in their possessions that he intends to bestow, he brings them low in that and then raises them; and in their reputations, he brings them low there, and then raises them; and in their spirits God ordinarily brings their spirits low and then raises their spirits. Usually the people of God, before the greatest comforts, have the greatest afflictions and sorrows. Now those who understand God's ways think that when God brings his people into sad conditions, he is leaving and forsaking them, and that God does not intend any great good to them. But a child of God, who is instructed in this way of God, is not troubled; 'My condition is very low,' he says, 'but this is God's way when he intends the greatest mercy, to bring men under the greatest afflictions.' When he intended to raise Joseph to be second in the kingdom, God cast him into a dungeon a little before. So when God intended to raise David and set him upon the throne, he made him to be hunted as a partridge in the mountains (

1 Samuel 26:29). God dealt this way with his Son: Christ himself went into glory by suffering (Hebrews 2:10); and if God so deals with his own Son, much more with his people.

A little before daybreak you will observe it is darker than it was any time before, so God will make our conditions a little darker before the mercy comes. When God bestowed the last great mercy at Naseby* we were in a very low condition; God knew what he had to do beforehand, he knew that his time was coming for great mercies: it is the way of God to do so. [*In 1645, the parliamentary army won a decisive victory against the Royalists at Naseby, Northamptonshire. The messages which comprise this book were preached by Burroughs in that year.] Be instructed aright in this course and way that God is accustomed to walk in and that will greatly help us to contentment.

IT IS THE WAY OF GOD TO WORK BY CONTRARIES, TO TURN THE GREATEST EVIL INTO THE GREATEST GOOD.

To grant great good after great evil is one thing, and to turn great evil into the greatest good is another, and yet that is God's way: the greatest good that God intends for his people, he many times works out of the greatest evil, the greatest light is brought out of the greatest darkness. I remember, Luther has a striking expression for this: he says, 'It is the way of God: he humbles that he might exalt, he kills that he might make alive, he confounds that he might glorify.' This is the way of God, he says, but every one does not understand it. This is the art of arts, and the science of sciences, the knowledge of knowledges, to understand this, that God when he will bring life, brings it out of death, he brings joy out of sorrow, and he brings prosperity out of adversity, yea and many times brings grace out of sin, that is, makes use of sin to work furtherance of grace. it is the way of God to bring all good out of evil, not only to overcome the evil, but to make the evil work toward the good. Now when the soul comes to understand this, it will take away our murmuring and bring contentment into spirits. But I fear there are but few who understand it aright; perhaps they read of such things, and hear such things in a sermon, but they are not instructed in this by Jesus Christ, that this is the way of God, to bring the greatest good out of the greatest evil.

Silent Thanks (Charles Spurgeon)

2008-07-09T10:53:00.005-04:00

Ok, first of all I want to apologize for seemingly abandoning this blog for a small time...eeeek. As of a few weeks ago, I'm now back in Florida after about a month and a half of a break spent back home in Marietta, Ga. It's great to be back to my normal routine, but that also means that summer classes and summer basketball team workouts have started too! SO my schedule has been so hectic, and frankly I'm so tired when I get back to my room after a packed full day that I find myself resting or just flat out going to sleep :). (Not being able to operate at late hours of the night is hindering my blogging since that's usually when I'm at my best haha.) So anyway, I apologize for not keeping up. Hopefully after this week my body will be adjusted to the workouts and I won't be as worn out. But for now, I wanted to let you guys know that I haven't gone anywhere and also I wanted to quote this quick passage from the book I'm reading by Spurgeon: "The Power in Praising God."

Silent Thanks

"We may sometimes thank God not only by feeling thankful, living thankfully, and speaking our thanks, but by silently blessing Him. This consists of suffering patiently and accepting the bad as well as the good from Jehovah's hand; it is often better thanksgiving than the noblest psalm that the tongue could express. When you bow down before Him and say, "Not My will, but Yours, be done" (Luke 22:42), you show Him honor equal to the "Hallelujahs" of the angels. To feel not only submitted, but willing to be anything or nothing as the Lord wills it-- this is, in truth, to sing a song to our Well Beloved."

I think we all can relate to this feeling of silently enduring what the Lord is willing us to go through....and not just enduring it, but being thankful for it. What a task it is! One that can only be done with the strength given to us from our Lord Himself.

Have a great day today in the Lord and be blessed my brothers and sisters!

Sanctification at all costs?

2008-05-29T00:32:00.014-04:00

Lately, I have found myself talking about the idea of being "sanctified at all costs." It is a phrase that I throw out there to try and describe and take hold of the intense anguish that sanctification brings our way sometimes. I mean, if you truly belong to the Lord, and you are His, well, then you are promised to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ via....sanctification. We are promised that. Wow, what a privilege. And I don't think that either one of us can truly grasp that concept...I mean TRULY grasp the concept that we are gradually being conformed to the IMAGE OF CHRIST. That is so drastic. It is the reason that the Lord must use such drastic measures to get us to that point. Sometimes it is subtle and sweet and sometimes it's DEFINITELY not. And sometimes the Lord will use those things that are closest to our hearts to wake us up and make us realize that we are in this life of ours for ONE SOLE REASON: TO GLORIFY THE NAME OF THE LORD. TO LIFT UP HIS NAME IN ALL THAT WE DO, SAY, THINK, BREATH, EAT, DRINK, EVERYTHING! So enduring sanctification is a lot easier-despite the cost-when you put it all into perspective like that.

But then I got to thinking. Sanctification at all costs? Maybe I am looking at this all wrong. I mean, if the price of sanctification is compared to the reward that is on the other side...can I even call it a cost at all? I'm beginning to think that I might need to change my phrase. Even in my marketing class I learned that the value of something is equal to the price divided by its benefits. The benefits of the heavenly reward outweigh the price we pay on this earth so much that I don't even think it can be said that there is a cost involved. So then I found some verses in Hebrews from a Piper sermon that I really think drives it home that the eternal reward that is awaiting us is a free gift that I gladly will endure all things on this earth to inherit. And not only endure them...but realize that it cannot even be compared to the glory that is on the other side. Of course, the reward should not be my main focus-that should be on bringing glory to the all-encompassing name of my Heavenly Father-but the reward is real and it should no doubt encourage us in our earthly affairs. It definitely was one of the driving forces behind the courage of the saints that came before us....take a look at some of these verses regarding this subject:

Hebrews 10:32-35

But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great fight with afflictions; Partly, while you were made a public display both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, while you became companions of them that were so used. For you had compassion on me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring possession. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great recompense of reward.

Hebrews 11:6
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Hebrews 11:24
By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a time; Esteeming the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he looked for the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

Hebrews 11:35-40
Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

Hebrews 12:2
Looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 13:12
Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate.

So in these verses we see the theme of both suffering and enduring affliction but doing it all [with joy] to inherit an incorruptible reward. You see, no amount of earthly affairs, no matter how tragic or how disastrous they are, can separate you from the promise of God to grant you the ultimate reward: to live forever IN Christ- no longer separated from your Creator by your sins. Wow, I mean can you really imagine this?? I thank God for the moments, and sometimes the milliseconds that he gives me the eyes to see just how glorious this will be! Those milliseconds are enough to keep me going for the rest of my life here on earth!!

So if we take God at His word, which thankfully we can do because He is faithful and never changes, then we can take comfort in the fact that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). I mean think about what that verse TRULY means. It means that if you belong to the Lord then NOTHING that happens to you is outside of God's will which is nothing but for your own good. Now, lets stop right there and define the word good in this context. It doesn't mean earthly good like many would try to twist and make it out to be. It means good in the TRUEST sense...which is good in the eternal perspective. It means that NOTHING happens to you that isn't used to bring you closer to God. Nothing happens that does not work towards the ultimate goal of conforming you to the image of Christ.

If you really get a hold of the sovereignty of God and you believe that HE is the one who is indeed in control of all things (like the Bible tells us He is) then you can rest assure that what you go through on this earth is not hopeless and purposeless. Go back to the verses posted above. Does it look like that God's people went through those sufferings with no purpose or redeeming outcome in mind? No. It's the opposite. They endured their affliction KNOWING that they had something better in store, and that it was all just part of their sanctification that would bring them to their Savior, Jesus Christ. And we can even look at Jesus' life and see the same thing. He endured the afflictions knowing that He would also be seated at the right hand of God AND ALSO knowing that He was doing the will of His Father so that ALL THOSE BELIEVING on Him would be sanctified through His blood and be brought unto Him for all eternity. What a self-less sacrifice. And let's take a look at what the Lord continues to say after Romans 8:28 in verse 29 and 30: For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

Sounds like a promise to me. There isn't any room for doubt in those verses. What God says He will do, it is a promise set it stone never to be gone back on. He has predestined His followers before the foundation of the world to be conformed to the image of His Son and to be justified in His eyes and to be glorified. AMEN. And you can be sure that no earthly circumstance can separate you from that promise, if you are indeed His (which is what Paul goes on to describe in verses 31-39). All this being said, I am not downplaying the hurt and pain that we no doubt experience in this world. It is not something to be taken lightly BY ANY MEANS. It is our duty to be comforters to those who are in need and who are experiencing great anguish due to circumstances of this world. But we are to do so with the hope and the promise that has been given us. And when it comes to our own lives we are to approach our sanctification with the same confidence-that is mindful of the greater reward-that Moses had and that every other saint (of whom the world was not worthy of) had. O that that very phrase could be said about me! It would be only by the grace of God. For it is Him who wills and works in me to transform me and my mind so that I think in this heavenly perspective that this world does not even recognize.

So is it really sanctification at all costs? Yes, sometimes it may feel that way, but I think I am going to start rewording that. It is my privilege and honor to endure sanctification that will lead me to the greatest gift that anyone could ever imagine. It is sanctification at no cost at all....it is sanctification with only a reward. When you look at it in this perspective, you will lose focus on all the earthly things you feel you are missing out on, and instead you will be motivated by the incorruptible crown that is incomparable with anything in this life. It seems simple, but I believe it is a misconception that our natural, fleshly mind still wants to lean towards. Like "look at everything I am giving up for the Lord." NO...it should be "look at all the things He is GIVING me that I don't deserve!" And even with that, though the Lord gives and takes away, you can tell by those verses that He does so because of His lovingkindness to lead us into greater fellowship with Him. He does so that we may keep the heavenly reward in priority at all times. What an awesome God.

My prayer is that this will not just be words on a page for me, or for any of my brothers and sisters. I pray that the doctrine of sanctification and what all it encompasses and what purpose it serves will not just be head knowledge, but instead that it will invade every aspect of our lives. This is a way of thinking that I pray never leaves us, just like it never left the saints of the Bible when they faced the most difficult of decisions and circumstances. It is my prayer that next time you are faced with a circumstance or a choice that forces you to endure a denial of yourself and your creature comforts, that you will keep in mind that you are doing it so that you may obtain a better resurrection and because you are knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring possession looking for the recompense of the reward. If it helps you, then remember that it isn't sanctification at all costs, but instead, by God's grace, it is sanctification for a reward.

Here is a great song that goes along perfectly with this topic:

Psalm 4- Encouragement, Endurance, Patience- James White

2008-05-27T14:00:00.004-04:00

I've been very blessed to get to know Dr. James White of Alpha Omega Ministries a little bit over in his chat channel (#prosapologian) for the past 3 months or so. I cannot even put into words my appreciation for his defense of the entire gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The stand that he takes despite the consequences in a post-modern world is beyond encouraging to me. When he made these two videos yesterday, well, my jaw nearly hit the ground. The timing of these videos was impeccable. To say that I can personally relate to what he says here is the understatement of the year, and I could go on and on about it, but I won't because they pretty much speak for themselves. So to my brothers and sisters out there that feel the Lord tugging (and more than likely RIPPING) you away from a world that is telling you to keep busy and to stay carnal in all that you do and say...to the ones out there that want to fight it, but are facing deep difficulties...be encouraged and take heed to this message and remember this verse:

"But I know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the Lord will hear when I call unto him."

*Psalm 4 was the Psalm that the Lord showed me early on last year...and continued to bring me back to throughout all my struggles this past year. It was incredible. Then to hear Doc use it in the video blew me away. When I found myself, night after night, desiring so badly to just sit upon my bed and examine my heart in the presence of Almighty God, I began to be discouraged because, turns out, most people (including professing Christians) think that is crazy...or at least crazy to do it more than once a month or once a year or so. But no, God was calling me to do this night after night until my soul was resting in Him and Him alone. Oh what a process! Oh what a work the Lord was doing in my life and continues to build on today....a work that would have been impossible if I would have gotten distracted or found something else to do with that time! Then one night when I had withdrawn to the coffee shop that I go to in order to get away and get into God's word...there it was....there was the verse that God showed me for the first time (I probably had read it before, but didn't ever take it in):

"Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still." Psalm 4:4

Wow, considering that was word for word describing the state that I was finding myself in- literally upon my bed- BLEW ME AWAY. And from that night on it became the verse, and the entire chapter really, that the Lord would bring me back to whenever I got discouraged, or whenever I found myself wanting to do God's will but was finding huge amounts of struggle against it, either from within my own heart, or from the people and influences around me.

I know that James is known for his tough, apologetic, no-nonsense stance....but this is a great example that just because you are out there taking what the world calls a "judgmental" stand on objective truth doesn't mean that you are tough and unloving. No, in fact it is the opposite. It just means that you care enough about people to tell them the truth in love and don't waver on God's word. I don't expect the world to recognize this true love though, because it is not of the world. If it wasn't for the moments and hours and days and even years like James describes in the video, there is no way one can even have the strength and courage to stand up for Christ and His truth in a world that will toss you to the waste-side for doing so. That strength can only come from the grace of God. But I know that if it wasn't for those times of God bringing me through the valley I would not be where I am today. You really do learn to, not necessarily look forward to those times, but you definitely realize that those times reap a spiritual growth that cannot even be described, so you really do look forward to the fruits that come as a result of the intense struggle.

Most Christians can relate to the feelings that James talks about. But most won't admit it. I know that until about a year ago I didn't admit it. In fact I spent most of my time fighting these types of feelings because it is what the world told me to do. But I noticed that when you start being open about this stuff and start to actually be guided by the Holy Spirit and not the world and you share what the Lord is REALLY doing in your life...well, people start to treat you different. And not usually in a good way. But hey, God tells us ahead of time about this, so we shouldn't be surprised...in fact we should rejoice. After all, you realize who your true brothers and sisters in Christ are. I know I did. And I wouldn't trade it for anything. So if you feel the Lord calling you out from among them and drawing you unto Himself...please please please don't fight it. Set your affections on the things above and commune with your own heart alone with the Lord. And be encouraged by these moments of being stripped of all earthly comforts...it is just the Lord getting you to trust solely in Him. I pray that the Lord will continue to draw His children in so that we may grow in holiness and be sanctified and conformed to the image of His son. Amen.

The Truth War...

2008-05-17T12:20:00.002-04:00

I thank Ingrid Schlueter from sliceoflaodicea.com for posting this quote from C.H. Spurgeon. I saw it and had to post it as well:

“The Church of Christ is continually represented under the figure of an army; yet its Captain is the Prince of Peace; its object is the establishment of peace, and its soldiers are men of a peaceful disposition. The spirit of war is at the extremely opposite point to the spirit of the gospel. Yet nevertheless, the church on earth has, and until the second advent must be, the church militant, the church armed, the church warring, the church conquering. And how is this? It is the very order of things that so it must be. Truth could not be truth in this world if it were not a warring thing, and we should at once suspect that it were not true if error were friends with it. The spotless purity of truth must always be at war with the blackness of heresy and lies.”

–Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Let Us Not Fear Men...

2008-05-15T00:43:00.003-04:00

An Entry from Charles Spurgeon's Check Book of Faith:

MAY 10

"So that we may boldly say, The Lord is
my helper, and I will not fear what man
shall do unto me."
Hebrews 13:6.

"Because God will never leave nor forsake us
we may well be content with
such things as we have. Since the Lord
is ours, we cannot be left without a friend,
a treasure, and a dwelling-place. This
assurance may make us feel quite independent of
men. Under such high patronage we do not
feel tempted to cringe before our fellowmen,
and ask of them permission to call our lives
our own ; but what we say we boldly say, and
defy contradiction.

He who fears God has nothing else to fear.
We should stand in such awe of the living
Lord that all the threats that can be used by
the proudest persecutor should have no more
effect upon us than the whistling of the wind.
Man in these days cannot do so much against
us as he could when the apostle wrote the
verse at the head of this page. Racks and
stakes are out of fashion. Giant Pope cannot
burn the pilgrims now. If the followers of
false teachers try mockery and scorn, we do
not wonder at it, for the men of this world
cannot love the heavenly seed. What then?
We must bear the world s scorn. It breaks
no bones. God helping us, let us be bold, and
when the world rages let it rage, but let us
not fear it."

Wretched, and Miserable, and Poor, and Blind, and Naked....

2008-05-10T01:22:00.004-04:00

2 Corinthians 7:9-11

Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance: for you were made sorry after a godly manner, that you might suffer loss by us in nothing. For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation not to be regretted: but the sorrow of the world works death. For behold this same thing, that you sorrowed after a godly sort, what earnestness it worked in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what full punishment! In all things you have proved yourselves to be pure in this matter.

Sorrow of this world works death. I need those words to sink in with me right now. The Lord is in the middle of stretching me right now this very second...words cannot even describe it. Though what a blessing it is to be under affliction and endure it for our Lord Jesus Christ. I feel like I have a few things being thrown at me all at once right now that are trying to throw me so off track and get me so focused on worldly sorrow that I lose sight of what really matters in this life: and that is to live to glorify the Lord in all that I do and say and think. Wow. Brothers and sisters, just know that when you possess the truth you are GOING TO SUFFER because of it. It is a promise. And here is something amazing that I have learned recently, and talking with one of my friends last week confirmed it for me....when the Bible says that those who are the Lord's WILL SUFFER for His sake, it is not just referring to the times when you are treated badly for sharing Christ. Yes that is a huge part of the suffering, but it also includes the trials and sufferings that come up in your life that force you to deny yourself and all the fleshly, carnal things that come natural to you. Take that in. That means that whenever you find yourself crying out to the Lord for Him to show mercy on you during a time of intense affliction, you are enduring suffering for His sake. It is not just when someone throws a rock at you for sharing the gospel. This is a huge encouragement to me. This means that all the times that I am face down on my bedroom floor agonizing over the circumstances in my life and presenting the burden of my sin to the Lord and it causes great anguish amongst the deepest parts of me because I long to see righteousness take its root in me....that is suffering. It is the Lord's promise to me that this will take place in my life, therefore I should rejoice when it happens? Haha, man don't you wish it was that easy. No suffering is easy at the time. In fact I am finding myself in the midst of it right now this very second and it is only by the grace of God (as it always is) that I am even typing out these words right now. Because honestly about 15 minutes ago I was begging the Lord to show me Himself so I could see Him and His will through all the worldly, sinful MUCK and MIRE that was plaguing my life and my view of things. And I debated writing a post or just going to sleep, but the Lord led me to this keyboard, so here I am. I am not writing this tonight to in any way, shape or form act like I have this all together. I am simply passing on what the Lord is teaching me this very second. And in return, just knowing that the Lord has brought me back to enough sanity and emotional stability to write these words is so encouraging. You have no idea.

Look, the truth is I have NO IDEA what the Lord is up to right now when it comes to circumstances in my life. But I do know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. The Lord is always so gracious to use my times of uncertainty and freaking out as times to stretch and grow me beyond anything my little finite mind can fathom. He has been faithful to me up to this point; I have a whole testimony to show for it. So why in the world would this be any different? Great goodness, it isn't....I just pray that I take in my own words and hear the scriptures on this and not what my emotions are screaming. The Lord desires us to be meek and lowly and to be poor in spirit, and most of the time the way He accomplishes that is by humbling you down to the ground (quite literally sometimes) so that you come up broken and contrite and in a million different pieces so HE can reconstruct you into the child He has called you to be. HE is the one equipping me for this Christian life in which I fall unimaginably short of qualifying for, so of course I trust that He knows the means in which that must come about.

But I am learning what a blessing it is when the Lord brings these moments when everything I am putting my trust in on this earth is stripped away from me (not literally, but comfort-wise in my heart) and I am left feeling wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind <---not just feeling that way but actually realizing that without the Lord I am that way. The feeling is awful, and I don't wish it on anyone, but the weeping only lasts for the night because His joy DEFINITELY follows it up in the morning. And how can it not? To be emptied out and stripped of dependence on carnal affections means that the Lord is about to abundantly fill you up with what is good and pure and holy and of Him! I know I shared this before in a previous post, but one thing I have learned from reading The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs is that when you find yourself discontent with your worldly circumstances, then a way to take care of that is to remind yourself of the great burden of sin you have before a holy, perfect righteous God. Boy does that work- it quickly puts things back into perspective and within seconds turns all that worldly sorrow into a godly sorrow that works repentance, the sweetest gift that God can give us. I love it when I get to put my theology into action :).

Right now, I confess that the road up ahead of me seems long, and dark, and lonely and well...impossible. That is why the Lord tells us to take no thought for tomorrow for sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. So true. I also know that the Lord loves taking what seems impossible to me and bringing it to pass in such a way that leaves me in awe of His glory, so in that lies my hope. Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, so my faith is not in vain...and I take hope in the promise of the things unseen. Praise God for that.

So Lord Jesus if this is the way in which you have willed for me to be drawn in closer to You, then I count it but a privilege to endure such afflictions. I pray that you will bring comfort to me during this time, though, so that I may know for certainty the path in which you are leading me. Comfort me in a way that no worldly possession or promise can comfort me, and help me to long after the true peace that is found in you, instead of settling for the fake peace that is offered by the world that leaves only emptiness. Help me to be guided by Your Spirit so that I do not grieve You, and please rid me of any worldly sorrow that is blinding me and keeping me in bondage to the carnal affections. I pray for all my brothers and sisters out there that are experiencing similar afflictions. Please comfort your people during their times of uncertainty and open up their eyes to your will so that they may take great pleasure in it. Thank you for your Grace, Father, for without it I would not last a second in this world. It is amazing how you can bring me from a feeling of despair to hope in just a twinkling of an eye, and thank you for your precious word: I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for you, LORD, only make me dwell in safety. (Psalms 4:8 )

On the Road Again...

2008-05-07T23:16:00.005-04:00

I have been traveling for the past week...and I will be on the road for the next two weeks as well, so I have not been able to blog like I've wanted to. But I am enjoying being able to visit with a bunch of my old friends. I was back in Clemson this past weekend for one of my friend's wedding (Clemson is where I transferred from last year) and I was so encouraged to meet up with the people that I was close with there and see what all the Lord was doing in their lives. Wow. In fact, going back to Clemson was kind of monumental for me; Lord willing I will write about it at a later date. For now, I wanted to at least post a little something to keep the refreshing Word of God alive and well on the blog. After all: It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4).

Here's some of the video clips of Paul Washer at their Reality Check Conference a couple months ago. I know I post a lot of Washer on here, but I am just so encouraged by all of his messages. Until I get a chance to blog again...God bless you all!

The Great Privilege

2008-04-24T18:36:00.002-04:00

This is one of the best sermons I have ever heard....and I don't say that lightly. I have watched it 4 times in the last week because it is just that powerful. I posted a ten minute clip of it a week or two ago, but this is the entire sermon. I pray that we will listen and take heed to this message.

"I don't need to be a prophet or a son of a prophet to know what your God is, I only have to watch your life. When Jesus Christ is just something you do at the beginning of the week, but yet throughout your life you are a practical atheist, I know who your God is and it is not the one who is the One true God. When you have just enough Christianity to make you moral and comfortable in the south, I know who your God is. If I could look into your mind to see what occupies your mind I will know what your God is."
-Paul Washer

God's Word of Promise is All We Need!

2008-04-19T14:47:00.005-04:00

Here is a must hear message from Jeff Noblit of First Baptist Muscle Shoals, Alabama:

“The great need of the church, the great need- I have to say- of the professing church is to know God. We don’t know God! We have not studied, and meditated, and worked, and digged, and seen all the glories and the wonders of who He is! Therefore when He says trust Me, we don’t know who we’re trusting!” -Jeff Noblit

The Constraining Reigns of My Loving Father

2008-04-10T00:27:00.004-04:00

It's been WEEKS since I've been able to write a blog post. And what a weird time that has been, considering I am a person who loves to write and finds it really easy to express myself through it. But man, these past couple weeks, it's almost like the Lord has put a reign on my fingers...literally restraining me from being able to translate my thoughts and all the things He is teaching me into a coherent piece. Even thinking about it right now weirds me out to an extent. I mean, what in the world? Day after day I would sign into my blog, look at it, long to contribute, and yet, there wasn't a thing I could do to make myself do it.

Well, God is good my friends. If there is one thing that I am learning, it is that God is indeed in control and sovereign over all things. And when I get comfortable in that and drift from the reality of that, He always finds a way to wake me up. There is a purpose for everything, and God is not just going around reacting to the things that go on in this world. No, in fact He is the one who ordains them. Everything that I do was predestined before the foundation of the world. A lot of people are uncomfortable with that. It makes them uneasy, and it might even go against the idea that they had of God in their minds. But I tell you, search the entire counsel of the Scriptures and discover the character of this God of ours. It is incredible and it will blow your mind. The more I learn about God's sovereignty, the more I want to submit myself to Him and His will...because guess what...I can't resist it. If God wants to do something then He will do it, and it is not without good reason- that reason being to bring glory to His Name! Wow. Talk about something that will change your perspective on life. I know that the Lord is in complete control over my life, and I know that because I am His child, He has promised to conform me to the image of His son. Therefore, I know that everything that happens to me is ordained by Him to further sanctify me. What an incredible thought.

(side note- I have been following Dr. James White's debate with Steve Gregg over Calvinism and Arminianism over at AOMIN.org for the past week or so, and well, the arguments in favor of the arminian point of view just make me sad. The God that it portrays is not one that is in control, and if I held to that position, I'm afraid that I would be at a loss for answers in my life right now. One can't read the Bible honestly and come to the conclusion that God isn't all-powerful and sovereign over ALL things (including the will of man), and if you think that He is not, then, I have to say, you have opened up a huge can of messy worms in trying then to determine what He controls and what He doesn't, leaving you with no real set purpose or guidelines for the things that happen in your life. I'm not going into a theological explanation right now, but I found myself compelled to mention this. You can get an archive of the debate at aomin.org).

Anyways, the Lord is teaching me that everything I have and everything that happens in my life is a gift from Him. I am a totally depraved sinner who deserves death, not mercy from my Lord. And like I said before, whenever this thought begins to slip my mind, the Lord is quick to remind me. My faith is a gift dependent on Him, and so is my repentance even, and so is my holy fear of Him. Without the Lord granting me these things then I am left hard-hearted and searching this world to fulfill my own lusts of the flesh. Eeek, what a terrible thought. I have gone through times where the Lord has withdrawn my repentant heart and has made me realize that it does not come from me, but instead, I am dependent on Him to be the author of my salvation. What a lesson to be learned. So when I found myself incapable of writing for weeks on end, I knew it must be for a reason.

And indeed it was. Not only was it to teach me that even my ability to write hinges on the grace of God, but also some other things as well- even though it took me weeks to see these things (leaving me in somewhat of frustration until then). But the Lord gave me this great sense of responsibility and made me realize that writing is a very powerful thing, not to be taken lightly. I mean, I am held responsible for every word that flows from my brain and onto this computer screen. There was this fear of accountability and it caused me to take a huge step backwards and view my writing from afar. This is not a light subject; this is the Word of God. This is the difference in where eternity is spent. This is the difference between living a life that is pleasing to your Savior, or storing up the wrath of God upon yourself because of sin separating you eternally from Christ and all His holiness. Perhaps I needed to see that in order to check myself. The devil would love to take this fear and cause me to stop writing, but I know that the Lord was just showing me that I am to stay continuously in His word and learning about His character and His will, because if I am not sensitive to His voice, then I can easily blurt something out on this blog that is not of Him. And that's a scary thought to me, because I know that I am going to have to give an account for every word that I write.

I went through something very similar about a year or so ago. All of a sudden I found that the Lord was putting a reign on my tongue in certain situations. It was right after the Lord had awakened my soul to His holy righteousness and had revealed to me my unrighteousness, and the Lord was in the process of revealing to me the idols in my life. And I literally found that there were times when the Lord had put such a reign on my tongue that I could not speak about things that I knew were idols in my life. I had lost my desire to speak trivial things, and then to help me out in that the Lord took even my ability to speak those things away as a whole. Again, it was an interesting thing to say the least (I speak in past tense, but it still happens to this day), but I realized that I am going to have to give an account for every idle word I speak. It's another example of not doing what is natural to you so that God may apply His supernatural work in you. Sometimes, like in these instances, He will make it so known to you that you are not doing the work that you almost feel like you can tangibly see the reigns placed on you. What a beautiful thing it is to see the work of God take place in your life!

One of the reasons that this lesson is so important in my life is because it is teaching me, like I said, to discern the Lord's voice. I mean His voice in the sense that He will guide my EVERY step through the work of the Holy Spirit. I mean, that thought alone blows my mind. But then to experience it?...wow. God is faithful to His promises. He promises to sanctify me and to grow me in holiness like my Savior Jesus Christ. And that entails me living a Spirit-led life. So now when I see that the Lord is literally restraining me from doing something, I learn to sit back and listen and to wait upon Him. Do you know what happens when you disobey and don't listen? You start to strive in sin. You start to try and come up with your own way of doing the things that come natural to you, and well, you end up in a big mess of sin. God has showed me through His word that no man can receive anything unless it is given to Him from heaven (John 3:27 John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven). Our inheritance was given to us from before the foundation of the world (Psalm 47:4)....so um, when the Lord says you can't have something, it is best to wait upon Him to show you what to do instead because otherwise you will strive in sin (and still not end up with what you thought you wanted anyways). So it's like a double loss. I write this knowing that this revelation has delivered me from so much bondage in my life, but I also write this confessing that it is a huge struggle for me. I thank God for His truth though, because it sets me free :)

Lord willing, (this idea brings a whole new meaning to the phrase Lord willing, doesn't it?) I will have more on this topic of waiting upon the Lord during times of tribulation and not striving in sin. There are verses that I want to share and examples that I want to point out from the Bible, but for now, I might have to leave it at this and just bask in the grace of my God for granting me the gift of writing again. Another thing that the Lord was teaching me in all of this was to just to make sure that I am not just typing words and not living them out. It is a great gift from the Lord to have the opportunity to live out your theology, because living it out makes it real to you. When you step out of faith and apply the truth of God to your life, then you find 100% of the time that God is faithful and keeps His word every time. This just leads to an increase in your faith and more belief in His promises and then to a more righteous lifestyle. But the flipside is that this must mean that the Lord must promise trials and tribulations to arise to give you the opportunity to step out on faith. But like I said, more to come on that point later. For now, consider these words from Peter, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to test you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, since you are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy." 1 Peter 4:12-13.

Being constrained by the reigns of our Heavenly Father can be an uncomfortable situation...scratch that, it IS an uncomfortable situation. It can feel like the very fiery furnace itself. But speaking for myself, when the reigns are removed and I find myself left to myself for a little while, I run back crying out to the Lord to restore the reigns and to apply his discipline. Why? Because it is during those times that I know I am doing the will of my Father and I am able to take comfort that He is the one that is guiding me. Without the reigns- nope, I'm just a restless sinner who is not content with the world because I have tasted and seen that the Lord's way is good. I'm praying for my brothers and sisters out there that find themselves striving to control their own reigns for their lives. Let loose and quit striving my brethren, it is a glorious thing. God bless you all.

What Does It Mean to be Meek?

2008-04-01T16:41:00.003-04:00

More to come on this topic. I have some stuff to write regarding it when I get the time. But for now I just wanted to get this up so you could see this AMAZING message from Mark Kielar on the TRUE definition of the word "meek." It is a six part playlist because it is the entire sermon, but it is well worth the listen :)

What Is The Link Between God's Word and New Age Heresy? The Emerging Church.

2008-03-18T17:20:00.011-04:00

Click on this image below to go to a document that shows just how the truths of God's Word have been twisted and distorted to bring about a completely different religion altogether, which we refer to as "New Age" or "New Spirituality." False religions are everywhere though, so why is this one any different or more concerning? Because it is creeping into today's "evangelicalism" at a FRIGHTENING rate. In case you don't know much about this man-centered, man-made religion here is a quote on it....

"The hope of the New Age faith, or New Spirituality, is that when this One Humanity has achieved its 'divine potential' and all separation has been purged from the world, then world problems such as 'tribalism' and poverty and hatred and violence will be left behind. The world will then be transformed by this New Humanity into a divine new world of peace, love, good will, and sharing where everyone can be free to worship his own inner (immanent) 'God' of his own understanding in his own way. The call for this New Age 'kingdom of God' is now being so widely heeded, even in today's Christianity, that the building of humanity's Ark of Oneness is suddenly nearing completion."
-Tamara Hartzell

One might read that and say, that has nothing to do with the Bible, how is that linked with Christianity at all??? Logically, one would think that something that teaches the opposite of God's word wouldn't even stand a chance in the church. Wrong. So what has made this New Age shift possible within "Christianity?" Three words for you: THE EMERGING CHURCH. Take a look at this document and see exactly how the Emerging Church is an open door for all this heresy to enter into what we are calling evangelical Christianity in America (which, by the way, is no Christianity at all.) The obvious, clear-cut line between true Biblical Christianity and heretical, blasphemous New Age is being completely muddled and blurred by the Emerging Church, deceiving hundreds of thousands of people. These people are subtly mixing Christian dialogue with New Age beliefs, and the result is the most dangerous and downright deceptive road to eternal destruction. There is one God to be served and worshiped and who deserves all the glory in the universe, and He is the God of the Bible, not some ambiguous god of our 'inner beings' that is different for each person. Ew.

Agonizing Consequences of Sin

2008-03-15T09:50:00.003-04:00

For anyone out there who is a born again creature in Christ but still struggles with past/present sin and its consequences. I think it is quite possibly one of the hottest most intense of all afflictions that God puts upon our souls during this bitter sweet sanctification process. The result is feeling like you have been put in an oven and God turned up the temperature to 400 degrees, but all for a loving purpose...and that is to refine the silver and get out all the impurities. Our human minds just can't wrap themselves around the concept of things getting harder before they get easier, but I know I am so thankful for the split second moments in time when the Lord gives me the eyes to see it and find hope in His promises.

Zechariah 13:8-9 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, says the LORD, two parts in it shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left in it. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them as gold is tested: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, They are my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.

Remember your brothers and sisters who are under great afflictions as we all endure the refining process of being conformed to the image of Christ. Keep them in your prayers, for we are all in this together. And do not forget the Great Comforter that we have on our side to lead us into all truth. Breathe your sorrows at the throne of Grace, for our God is faithful in hearing our cry. There is only one Comfort for our weary souls, nothing else of this world will suffice; run to Him.

The Natural Consequences of Sin
By Jeff Reed

God assures us, if we truly are repentant, we can receive forgiveness no matter what our sins. When we initially repent and are baptized, we are washed clean by the blood of Christ. As we live our lives as Christians, still not perfect, we are continually faced with overcoming sin. We are assured in Hebrews 4:16 that we can “approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” The love of God for us is truly great.

I knew this when I was baptized over 13 years ago. I was eager to have my sins forgiven and washed away, and I assumed that now my life would also be perfect. I quickly learned I was wrong. I had received forgiveness, but I still faced the effects of my prior sins. Relationships with people I had damaged by my wrong behavior were still messed up. The effects of repeated sin on my character were still there. All the wrong television, movies, music, and twisted popular culture continued to haunt my thoughts. Eating the wrong foods for over twenty years would continue to have negative impacts on my health. The consequences of sin remained.

In Deuteronomy 28 God gives a list of blessings for obedience to Him and curses for disobedience. These were given to the nation of Israel at a national level. If they collectively obeyed His laws, great blessings would occur. If they disobeyed, there would be an opposite outcome. The outcomes are very natural and are part of the world He created. They are as natural as the law of gravity. If we toss an object into the air we know the consequence will be it will fall to the earth. Because the laws God gave Israel are natural laws, they can be applied to any nation at any time in history.

Let’s imagine that everyone in our country kept God’s law against murder. The consequence would be everyone would feel absolutely safe in every situation, time and location. But the reality is that even though the vast majority of people keep that law, because there are a few who don’t, and our justice system has become weak and ineffective, people are often faced with situations where they are on guard or fearful. It is why we have elaborate security systems, people carry personal weapons, locations are well lit at night, and many other precautions are taken to keep people safe.

We can apply these natural consequences to a personal level as well. If someone is an alcoholic or drug addict before they become a Christian, he will still be dealing with the consequences of that sin for the rest of his life. If someone engages in illicit sexual practices, before becoming a Christian or sometimes unfortunately after becoming a Christian, the effects of disease, broken marriages, unwanted pregnancy, and other problems will remain, even after repentance and forgiveness.

To truly repent is to also accept the consequences of our sin. In 2 Corinthians 7 Paul writes about the attributes of Godly sorrow the Corinthian church was displaying. He writes:

“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.” 2 Corinthians 7:10,11

One of those attributes is “the readiness to see justice done” even if that justice is applied to ourselves. Imagine if you have stolen something and were sentenced to jail time and community service. If you have Godly sorrow that leads to true repentance you will accept your punishment willingly.

King David learned this the hard way when he was faced with his own terrible sins of adultery and murder. Nathan rebuked David for his sins and David repented:

“Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ Nathan replied, ‘The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die” 2 Samuel 12:13,14.

One of the consequences of his sin was the death of his child born to Bathsheba. David faced this with much sorrow. He fasted and pleaded with God to save his son. Afterward David had learned a great lesson and was able to write, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge” (Psalm 51:4). He accepted the judgment of God and was ready to see justice done in his life. His true repentance led him to accept the consequences of his actions no matter how painful they were.

We need to be very grateful that God has and will forgive us. We need to learn the lessons of our lives and what the consequences of sin can teach us. God, by His Spirit, is creating Godly character in us by those lessons.

This article can be found here.

The Therapeutic (Non)Gospel

2008-03-08T23:30:00.007-05:00

Here is what I consider to be one of the best articles I have ever read. David Powlison uncovers the deceptive message that this world is trying to serve up as the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is called the "therapeutic" gospel and it has nothing to do with the message found in the Scriptures and yet it is sweeping the nation (and the world) and blinding the eyes of millions. Don't believe me? Look at the thousands who line up to listen to Joel Osteen tickle their ears every Sunday. It is a message that is appealing to the flesh and it is not centered around the message of Christ cruicified. This false gospel comes cleverly wrapped in a package labeled with Christian ideas so it is pulling the wool over many people's eyes. I thank God that He is preserving His true message during this dangerous time of half-truths (which is no truth at all) and I pray for discernment among His people so that we will continue to take a stand. To put it frankly, born-again believers who, through the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, understand that this life is not meant for us to serve the lusts of our own deceitful heart should not/will not even be able to stomach this perversion of the truth.

This is a great article to forward to your friends who you think might be caught up in this. Compare what is described in it to what the Emergent church leaders are teaching today and you will find that their gospel is not the one of the Bible, but instead a therapeutic one. Please hear me when I say that the Christian life is not about coming to Christ so that our needs are met, it is about becoming A NEW CREATURE through faith in Christ which leads to sanctification and a whole new set of unselfish desires. It is truly an incredible, supernatural work of God in which you desire to live holy and bring glory to Him; it's not an all-inclusive train ride that takes you to your 'best life now' here on this earth. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation for all those who believe, why do people think they have to change it? Because they don't believe in it themselves and they are blinded by their own sinful lusts. Pray for these people because their eternity is in danger. All the glory to Christ for saving us, brothers and sisters, from this mindset, for it is by His grace alone. Let this motivate us to study the scriptures like the Bereans and combat these lies with the truth. Ok, I could go on and on but I will stop and let the article do the talking :) Lord willing, take the time to read this entire thing; it is WELL worth the time. The article can be found here at 9marks.org.

The Therapeutic Gospel
By David Powlison

What may be the most famous chapter in all of western literature portrays the appeal of a "therapeutic gospel."

In his chapter entitled "The Grand Inquisitor," Fyodor Dostoevsky imagines Jesus returning to sixteenth century Spain (The Brothers Karamazov, II:5:v). But Jesus is not welcomed by church authorities. The cardinal of Seville, head of the Inquisition, arrests and imprisons Jesus, condemning him to die. Why? The church has shifted course. It has decided to meet instinctual human cravings, rather than calling men to repentance. It has decided to bend its message to felt needs, rather than calling forth the high, holy, and difficult freedom of faith working through love. Jesus’ biblical example and message are deemed too hard for weak souls, and the church has decided to make it easy.

The Grand Inquisitor, representing the voice of this misguided church, interrogates Jesus in his prison cell. He sides with the tempter and the three questions the tempter put to Jesus in the wilderness centuries before. He says that the church will give earthly bread instead of the bread of heaven. It will offer religious magic and miracles instead of faith in the Word of God. It will exert temporal power and authority instead of serving the call to freedom. "We have corrected Your work," the inquisitor says to Jesus.

The inquisitor’s gospel is a therapeutic gospel. It’s structured to give people what they want, not to change what they want. It centers exclusively around the welfare of man and temporal happiness. It discards the glory of God in Christ. It forfeits the narrow, difficult road that brings deep human flourishing and eternal joy. This therapeutic gospel accepts and covers for human weaknesses, seeking to ameliorate the most obvious symptoms of distress. It makes people feel better. It takes human nature as a given, because human nature is too hard to change. It does not want the King of Heaven to come down. It does not attempt to change people into lovers of God, given the truth of who Jesus is, what he is like, what he does.

THE CONTEMPORARY THERAPEUTIC GOSPEL

The most obvious, instinctual felt needs of twenty-first century, middle-class Americans are different from the felt needs that Dostoevsky tapped into. We take food supply and political stability for granted. We find our miracle-substitute in the wonders of technology. Middle-class felt needs are less primal. They express a more luxurious, more refined sense of self-interest:

-I want to feel loved for who I am, to be pitied for what I’ve gone through, to feel intimately understood, to be accepted unconditionally;
-I want to experience a sense of personal significance and meaningfulness, to be successful in my career, to know my life matters, to have an impact;
-I want to gain self-esteem, to affirm that I am okay, to be able to assert my opinions and desires;
-I want to be entertained, to feel pleasure in the endless stream of performances that delight my eyes and tickle my ears;
-I want a sense of adventure, excitement, action, and passion so that I experience life as thrilling and moving.

The modern, middle-class version of therapeutic gospel takes its cues from this particular family of desires. We might say that the target audience consists of psychological felt needs, rather than the physical felt needs that typically arise in difficult social conditions. (The contemporary "health and wealth" gospel and obsession with "miracles" express something more like the Grand Inquisitor’s older version of therapeutic gospel.)

In this new gospel, the great "evils" to be redressed do not call for any fundamental change of direction in the human heart. Instead, the problem lies in my sense of rejection from others; in my corrosive experience of life’s vanity; in my nervous sense of self-condemnation and diffidence; in the imminent threat of boredom if my music is turned off; in my fussy complaints when a long, hard road lies ahead. These are today’s significant felt needs that the gospel is bent to serve. Jesus and the church exist to make you feel loved, significant, validated, entertained, and charged up. This gospel ameliorates distressing symptoms. It makes you feel better. The logic of this therapeutic gospel is a jesus-for-Me who meets individual desires and assuages psychic aches.

The therapeutic outlook is not a bad thing in its proper place. By definition, a medical-therapeutic gaze holds in view problems of physical suffering and breakdown. In literal medical intervention, a therapy treats an illness, trauma, or deficiency. You don’t call someone to repentance for their colon cancer, broken leg, or beriberi. You seek to heal. So far, so good.

But in today’s therapeutic gospel the medical way of looking at the world is metaphorically extended to these psychological desires. These are defined just like a medical problem. You feel bad; the therapy makes you feel better. The definition of the disease bypasses the sinful human heart. You are not the agent of your deepest problems, but merely a sufferer and victim of unmet needs. The offer of a cure skips over the sin-bearing Savior. Repentance from unbelief, willfulness, and wickedness is not the issue. Sinners are not called to a U-turn and to a new life that is life indeed. Such a gospel massages self-love. There is nothing in its inner logic to make you love God and love any other person besides yourself. This therapeutic gospel may often mention the word "Jesus," but he has morphed into the meeter-of-your-needs, not the Savior from your sins. It corrects Jesus’ work. The therapeutic gospel unhinges the gospel.

THE ONCE-FOR-ALL GOSPEL

The real gospel is good news of the Word made flesh, the sin-bearing Savior, the resurrected Lord of lords: "I am the living One, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore" (Rev. 1:18). This Christ turns the world upside down. The Holy Spirit rewires our sense of felt need as one prime effect of his inworking presence and power. Because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, we keenly feel a different set of needs when God comes into view and when we understand that we stand or fall in his gaze. My instinctual cravings are replaced (sometimes quickly, always gradually) by the growing awareness of true, life-and-death needs:

-I need mercy above all else: "Lord, have mercy upon me"; "For Your name’s sake, pardon my iniquity for it is very great";
-I want to learn wisdom, and unlearn willful self-preoccupation: "Nothing you desire compares with her";
-I need to learn to love both God and neighbor: "The goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith";
-I long for God’s name to be honored, for his kingdom to come, for his will to be done on earth;
-I want Christ’s glory, lovingkindness, and goodness to be seen on earth, to fill the earth as obviously as water fills the ocean;
-I need God to change me from who I am by instinct, choice, and practice;
-I want him to deliver me from my obsessive self-righteousness, to slay my lust for self-vindication, so that I feel my need for the mercies of Christ, so that I learn to treat others gently;
-I need God’s mighty and intimate help in order to will and to do those things that last unto eternal life, rather than squandering my life on vanities;
-I want to learn how to endure hardship and suffering in hope, having my faith simplified, deepened, and purified;
-I need to learn to worship, to delight, to trust, to give thanks, to cry out, to take refuge, to hope;
-I want the resurrection to eternal life: "We groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body";
-I need God himself: "Show me Your glory"; "Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus."

Make it so, Father of mercies. Make it so, Redeemer of all that is dark and broken.

Prayer expresses desire. Prayer expresses your felt sense of need. Lord, have mercy upon us. Song expresses gladness and gratitude at desire fulfilled. Song expresses your felt sense of who God is and all that he gives. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. But there are no prayers and songs in the Bible that take their cues from the current therapeutic felt needs. Imagine, "Our Father in heaven, help me feel that I’m okay just the way I am. Protect me this day from having to do anything I find boring. Hallelujah, I’m indispensable, and what I’m doing is really having an impact on others, so I can feel good about my life." Have mercy upon us! Instead, in our Bible we hear a thousand cries of need and shouts of delight that orient us to our real needs and to our true Savior.

GOOD GOODS, BAD GODS

Properly understood, carefully interpreted, the felt needs make good gifts. But they make poor gods. Get first things first. Seek first the Father’s kingdom and his righteousness, and every other good gift will be added to you.

This is easy to see in the case of the three particular gifts offered by the Grand Inquisitor’s therapeutic gospel. It is a good thing to have a stable source of food, "bread for tomorrow" (Matt. 6:11, literally). All people everywhere seek food, water, and clothing (Matt. 6:32). Our Father knows what we need. But seek first his kingdom. You do not live by bread alone, but by every word out of his mouth. If you worship your physical needs, you will only die. But if you worship God the giver of every good gift, you will be thankful for what he gives; you will still have hope when you suffer lack; and you will surely feast at the endless Banquet.

A sense of wonder and mystery is also a very good thing. But the same caveat, the same framework, applies. God is no wizard of Oz, creating experiences of wonder for the sake of the experience. Jesus said "no" to making a spectacle of himself in the midst of temple crowds. His daily faithfulness to God is a wonder upon wonder. Get first things first. Then you’ll appreciate glory in small ways and large. In the end you will know all things as wonders, both what is (Rev. 4) and what has happened (Rev. 5). You will know the incomprehensible God, creator and redeemer, whose name is Wonderful.

Similarly, political order is a good gift. We are to pray for the authorities to rule well, so that we may live peacefully (1 Tim. 2:2). But if you live for a just society, you will always be disappointed. Again, seek first God’s kingdom. You’ll work toward a just social order, enjoy it to the degree it’s attainable, have reason to endure injustice. In the end, you will know unutterable joy on the day when all persons bow to the reign of the true King.

Of course, God gives good gifts. But he also gives the best gift, the inexpressible Gift of gifts. The Grand Inquisitor burned Jesus at the stake in order to erase the Gift and the Giver. He chose to give people good things, but discarded first things.

The things offered by the contemporary therapeutic gospel are a bit trickier to interpret. The odor of self-interest and self-obsession clings closely to that wish list of "I want_____." But even these, carefully reframed and reinterpreted, do gesture in the direction of a good gift. The overall package of "felt needs" is systematically misaligned, but the pieces can be properly understood. Any "different gospel" (Gal. 1:6) makes itself plausible by offering Lego-pieces of reality assembled into a structure that contradicts revealed truth. Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve was plausible only because it incorporated many elements of reality, continually gesturing in the direction of truth, even while steadily guiding away from the truth: "Look, a beautiful and desirable tree. and God has said that the test will reveal both good and evil, with the possibility of life not death arising from your choice. Just as God is wise, so you the chooser can become like God in wisdom. Come now and eat." So close, yet so far away. Almost so, but the exact opposite.

Consider the five elements we have identified with the therapeutic gospel:

1. "Need for love"? It is surely a good thing to know that you are both known and loved. God who searches the thoughts and intentions of our hearts also sets his steadfast love upon us. However all this is radically different from the instinctual craving to be accepted for who I am. Christ’s love comes pointedly and personally despite who I am. You are accepted for who Christ is, because of what he did, does, and will do. God truly accepts you, and if God is for you, who can be against you? But in doing this, he does not affirm and endorse what you are like. Rather, he sets about changing you into a fundamentally different kind of person. In the real gospel you feel deeply known and loved, but your relentless "need for love" has been overthrown.

2. "Need for significance"? It is surely a good thing for the works of your hands to be established forever: gold, silver, and precious stones, not wood, hay, and straw. It is good when what you do with your life truly counts, and when your works follow you into eternity. Vanity, futility, and ultimate insignificance register the curse upon our work life – even midcourse, not just when we retire, or when we die, or on the Day of Judgment. But the real gospel inverts the order of things presupposed by the therapeutic gospel. The craving for impact and significance – one of the typical "youthful lusts" that boil up within us – is merely idolatrous when it acts as Director of Operations in the human heart. God does not meet your need for significance; he meets your need for mercy and deliverance from your obsession with personal significance. When you turn from your enslavement and turn to God, then your works do start to count for good. The gospel of Jesus and the fruit of faith are not tailored to "meet your needs." He frees from the tyranny of felt needs, remakes you to fear God and keep his commandments (Eccl. 12:13). In the divine irony of grace, that alone makes what you do with your life of lasting value.

3. "Need for self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-assertion"? To gain a confident sense of your identity is a great good. Ephesians is strewn with several dozen "identity statements," because by this the Spirit motivates a life of courageous faith and love. You are God’s – among the saints, chosen ones, adopted sons, beloved children, citizens, slaves, soldiers; part of the workmanship, wife and dwelling place – every one of these in Christ. No aspect of your identity is self-referential, feeding your "self-esteem." Your opinion of yourself is far less important than God’s opinion of you, and accurate self-assessment is derivative of God’s assessment. True identity is God-referential. True awareness of yourself connects to high esteem for Christ. Great confidence in Christ correlates to a vote of fundamental no confidence in and about yourself. God nowhere replaces diffidence and people-pleasing by self-assertiveness. In fact, to assert your opinions and desires, as is, marks you as a fool. Only as you are freed from the tyranny of your opinions and desires are you free to assess them accurately, and then to express them appropriately.

4. "Need for pleasure"? In fact, the true gospel promises endlessly joyous experience, drinking from the river of delights (Ps. 36). This describes God’s presence. But as we have seen in each case, this is keyed to the reversal of our instinctive cravings, not to their direct satisfaction. The way of joy is the way of suffering, endurance, small obediences, willingness to identify with human misery, willingness to overthrow your most persuasive desires and instincts. I don’t need to be entertained. But I absolutely NEED to learn to worship with all my heart.

5. "Need for excitement and adventure"? To participate in Christ’s kingdom is to play a part within the Greatest Action-Adventure Story Ever Told. But the paradox of redemption again turns the whole world upside down. The real adventure takes the path of weakness, struggle, endurance, patience, small kindnesses done well. The road to excellence in wisdom is unglamorous. Other people might take better vacations and have a more thrilling marriage than yours. The path of Jesus calls forth more grit than thrill. He needed endurance far more than he needed excitement. His kingdom might not cater to our cravings for derring-do and thrill-seeking, but "solid joys and lasting treasures none but Zion’s children know."

We say "yes" and "amen" to all good gifts. But get first things first. The contemporary therapeutic gospel in its many forms takes our ‘gimmes’ at face value. It grabs for the goodies. It erases worship of the Giver, whose greatest gift is mercy towards us for what we want by instinct, choice, enculturation, and habit. He calls us to radical repentance. Bob Dylan described the therapeutic’s alternative in a remarkable phrase: "You think He’s just an errand boy to satisfy your wandering desires" (from When You Gonna Wake Up?). Second things are exalted as servants of Number One.

Get first things first. Get the gospel of incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and glory. Live the gospel of repentance, faith, and transformation into the image of the Son. Proclaim the gospel of the coming Day when eternal life and eternal death are revealed, the coming Day of Christ.

WHICH GOSPEL?

Which gospel will you live? Which gospel will you preach? Which needs will you awaken and address in others? Which Christ will be your people’s Christ? Will it be the christette who massages felt need? Or the Christ who turns the world upside down and makes all things new?

The Grand Inquisitor was very tender-hearted towards human felt need—very sympathetic to the things that all people everywhere seek with all their heart, very sensitive to the difficulty of changing anyone. But he proved to be a monster in the end. There is a saying in mercy ministries that runs like this, "If you don’t seek to meet people’s physical needs, it’s heartless. But if you don’t give people the crucified, risen and returning Christ, it’s hopeless." Jesus fed hungry people bread, and Jesus offered his broken body as the bread of eternal life. It is ultimately cruel to leave people in their sins, captive to their instinctive desires, in despair, under curse. The current therapeutic gospel sounds tender-hearted at first. It is so sensitive to pressure points of ache and disappointment. But in the end it is cruel and Christ-less. It does not foster true self-knowledge. It does not rewrite the script of the world. It creates no prayers or songs.

We must be no less sensitive but far more discerning. Jesus Christ turns human need upside down, creating prayer. He is the inexpressible Gift of gifts, creating song. And he gives all good gifts, both now and forever. Let every knee bow, and let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

George Washington's Prayer

2008-03-06T22:33:00.002-05:00

Oh how far this country has strayed. Here is a deep, theologically rich prayer from our founding president:

O eternal and everlasting God, I presume to present myself this morning before thy Divine majesty, beseeching thee to accept of my humble and hearty thanks, that it hath pleased thy great goodness to keep and preserve me the night past from all the dangers poor mortals are subject to, and has given me sweet and pleasant sleep, whereby I find my body refreshed and comforted for performing the duties of this day, in which I beseech thee to defend me from all perils of body and soul. Direct my thoughts, words and work, wash away my sins in the immaculate blood of the Lamb, and purge my heart by thy Holy Spirit, from the dross of my natural corruption, that I may with more freedom of mind and liberty of will serve thee, the ever lasting God, in righteousness and holiness this day, and all the days of my life. Increase my faith in the sweet promises of the gospel; give me repentance from dead works; pardon my wanderings, and direct my thoughts unto thyself, the God of my salvation; teach me how to live in thy fear, labor in thy service, and ever to run in the ways of thy commandments; make me always watchful over my heart, that neither the terrors of conscience, the loathing of holy duties, the love of sin, nor an unwillingness to depart this life, may cast me into a spiritual slumber, but daily frame me more and more into the likeness of thy son Jesus Christ, that living in thy fear, and dying in thy favor, I may in thy appointed time attain the resurrection of the just unto eternal life. Bless my family, friends and kindred unite us all in praising and glorifying thee in all our works begun, continued, and ended, when we shall come to make our last account before thee blessed Saviour…

(From William J. Johnson, George Washington, the Christian (New York: The Abingdon Press, New York & Cincinnati, 1919), pp. 24-35.)

Lord Willing....

2008-03-01T10:45:00.001-05:00

I am going to be taking some time off from blogging. Not that I post everyday anyway, but I feel the Lord calling me away for a while....not sure how long. It could be 2 days or it could be weeks. It isn't about the amount of time...it is about being obedient to the Lord and taking heed to His way which is infinitely better than mine. There is much heaviness and conviction on my heart at the moment and many parts of my life that the Lord is graciously working on right now, and well, the Lord is calling. If the Lord wills, pray that I will seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and that my will and His will may become melted into one. God bless you all.

I leave this treasure with you. An excerpt from an incredible book, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs:

A CHRISTIAN COMES TO CONTENTMENT, NOT SO MUCH BY WAY OF ADDITION, AS BY WAY OF SUBTRACTION.

That is his way of contentment, and it is a way that the world has no skill in. I open it thus: not so much by adding to what he would have, or to what he has, not by adding more to his condition; but rather by subtracting from his desires, so as to make his desires and his circumstances even and equal.

A carnal heart knows no way to be contented but this: I have such and such possessions, and if I had this added to them, and the other comfort added that I have not now, then I should be contented. perhaps I have lost my possessions, if I could only have given to me something to make up my loss, then I should be a contented man. But contentment does not come in that way, it does not come, I say, by adding to what you want, but by subtracting from your desires. It is all one to a Christian, whether I get up to what I would have, or get my desires down to what I have, either to attain what I do desire, or to bring down my desires to what I have already attained. My wealth is the same, for it is as fitting for me to bring my desire down to my circumstances, as it is to raise up my circumstances to my desire.

Now I say that a heart that has no grace, and is not instructed in this mystery of contentment, knows of no way to get contentment, but to have his possessions raised up to his desires; but the Christian has another way to contentment, that is, he can bring his desires down to his possessions, and so he attains his contentment. Thus the Lord fashions the hearts of the children of men. If the heart of a man is fashioned to his circumstances, he may have as much contentment as if his circumstances were fashioned to his heart. Some men have a mighty large heart, but they have straitened circumstances, and they can never have contentment when they hearts are big and their circumstances are little. But though a man cannot bring his circumstances to be as great as his heart, yet if he can bring his heart to be as little as his circumstances, to make them even, this is the way to contentment. The world is infinitely deceived in thinking that contentment lies in having more than we already have. Here lies the bottom and root of all contentment, when there is an evenness and proportion between our hearts and our circumstances. That is why many godly men who are in low position live more sweet and comfortable lives than those who are richer.

A CHRISTIAN COMES TO CONTENTMENT, NOT SO MUCH BY GETTING RID OF THE BURDEN THAT IS ON HIM, AS BY ADDING ANOTHER BURDEN TO HIMSELF.

This is a way that flesh and blood has little skill in. You will say, 'How is this?' In this manner: are you afflicted, and is there a great load and burden on you because of your affliction? You think there is no way in the world to get contentment, but, O that this burden were but off! O it is a heavy load, and few know what a burden I have. What, do you think that there is no way for the contentment of your spirit, but to get rid of your burden? O you are deceived. The way of contentment is to add another burden, that is, to labor to load and burden your heart with your sin; the heavier the burden of your sin is to your heart, the lighter will the burden of your affliction be to your heart, and so you shall come to be content. If you burden were lightened, that would content you; you think there is no way to lighten it but to get it off. But you are deceived; for if you can get your heart to be more burdened with your sin, you will be less burdened with your afflictions.

You will say, this is a strange way for a man or woman to get ease to their condition, to lay a greater burden upon them when they are already burdened? You think there is no other way, when you are afflicted, but to be jolly and merry, and get into company. Oh now, you are deceived, your burden will come again. Alas, this is a poor way to get one's spirit quitted; poor man, the burden will be upon him again. If you would have your burden light, get alone and examine your heart for your sin, and charge your soul with your sin. If your burden is in your possessions, for the abuse of them, or if it is a burden upon your body, for the abuse of your health and strength, and the abuse of any mercies that now the Lord has taken away from you, that you have not honored God with those mercies that you have had, but you have walked wantonly and carelessly; if you so fall to bemoaning your sin before the Lord, you shall quickly find the burden of your affliction to be lighter than it was before. Do but try this piece of skill and art, to get your souls contented with any low circumstances that God puts you into.

Many times in a family, when any affliction befalls them, Oh, what an amount of discontent is there between man and wife! If they are crossed in their possessions at land, or have bad news from across the seas, or if those whom they trusted are ruined and the like, or perhaps something in the family causes strife between man and wife, in reference to the children or servants, and there is nothing but quarrelling and discontent among them, now they are many times burdened with their own discontent; and perhaps will say one to another, It is very uncomfortable for us to live so discontented as we do. But have you ever tried this way, husband and wife? Have you ever got alone and said, 'Come, Oh let us go and humble our souls before God together, let us go into our chamber and humble our souls before God for our sin, by which we have abused those mercies that God has taken away from us, and we have provoked God against us. Oh let us charge ourselves with our sin, and be humbled before the Lord together.'? Have you tried such a way as this? Oh you would find that the cloud would be taken away, and the sun would shine in upon you, and you would have a great deal more contentment than ever you had. If a man's estate is broken, either by plunderers, or any other way; how shall this man have contentment? How? By the breaking of his heart. God has broken your estate; Oh seek to him for the breaking of your heart likewise. Indeed, a broken estate and a whole heart, a hard heart, will not join together; there will be no contentment. But a broken estate and a broken heart will so suit one another, as that there will be more contentment than there was before.

IT IS NOT SO MUCH THE REMOVING OF THE AFFLICTION THAT IS UPON US AS THE CHANGING OF THE AFFLICTION, THE METAMORPHOSING OF THE AFFLICTION, SO THAT IT IS QUITE TURNED AND CHANGED INTO SOMETHING ELSE.

I mean in regard of the use of it, though for the thing itself the affliction remains. The way of contentment to a carnal heart is only the removing of the affliction. O that it may be gone! 'No,' says a gracious heart, 'God has taught me a way to be content though the affliction itself still continues.' There is a power of grace to turn this affliction into good; it takes away the sting and poison of it. Take the case of poverty, a man's possessions are lost: Well, is there no way to be contented till your possessions are made up again? Till your poverty is removed? Yes, certainly, Christianity would teach contentment, though poverty continues. It will teach you how to turn your poverty to spiritual riches. You shall be poor still as to your outward possessions, but this shall be altered; whereas before it was a natural evil to you, it comes now to be turned to a spiritual benefit to you. And so you come to be content.

Therefore think not this strange that I am speaking of. You do not find one godly man who came out of an affliction worse than when he went into it; though for a while he was shaken, yet at last he was better for an affliction.

Luther has a similar expression in his comment on the 5th chapter of the Galatians, the 17th verse: he says, 'Christian becomes a mighty worker and a wonderful creator, that is', he says, 'to create out of heaviness joy, out of terror comfort, out of sin righteousness, and out of death life.' He brings light out of darkness. It was God's prerogative and great power, his creating power to command the light to shine out of darkness.

If you understand this in a carnal way, I know it will be ridiculous for a minister to speak thus to you, and many carnal people are ready to make such expressions as these ridiculous, understanding them in a carnal way.

This is just like Nicodemus, in the third of John, 'What! can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?' So when we say of grace, that it can turn water into wine, and turn poverty into riches, and make poverty a gainful trade, a carnal heart says, 'Let them have that trade if they will, and let them have water to drink, and see if they can turn it into wine.' Oh, take heed you do not speak in a scornful way of the ways of God; grace has the power to turn afflictions into mercies. Two men may have the same affliction; to one it shall be as gall and wormwood, yet it shall be wine and honey and delightfulness and joy and advantage and riches to the other. This is the mystery of contentment, not so much by removing the evil, as by metamorphosing the evil, by changing the evil into good.

A GRACIOUS HEART IS CONTENTED BY THE MELTING OF HIS WILL AND DESIRES INTO GOD'S WILL AND DESIRES; BY THIS MEANS HE GETS CONTENTMENT.

This too is a mystery to a carnal heart. It is not by having his own desires satisfied, but by melting his will and desires into God's will. So that, in one sense, he comes to have his desires satisfied though he does not obtain the thing that he desired before; still he comes to be satisfied with this, because he makes his will to be at one with God's will. This is a small degree higher than submitting to the will of God. You all say that you should submit to God's will; a Christian has got beyond this. He can make God's will and his own the same. It is said of believers that they are joined to the Lord, and are one spirit; that means, that whatever God's will is, I do not only see good reason to submit to it, but God's will is my will. When the soul can make over, as it were, its will to God, it must needs be contented. Others would fain get the thing they desire, but a gracious heart will say, 'O what God would have, I would have too; I will not only yield to it, but I would have it too.' A gracious heart has learned this art, not only to make the commanding will of God to be its own will-that is, what God commands me to do, I will do it-but to make the providential will of God and the operative will of God to be his will too. God commands this thing, which perhaps you who are Christians may have some skill in, but whatever God works you must will, as well as what God commands.

You must make God's providential will and his operative will, your will as well as God's will, and in this way you must come to contentment. A Christian makes over his will to God, and in making over his will to God, he has no other will but God's. Suppose a man were to make over his debt to another man. If the man to whom I owe the debt be satisfied and contented, I am satisfied because I have made it over to him, and I need not be discontented and say, 'My debt is not paid and I am not satisfied'. Yes, you are satisfied, for he to whom you made over your debt is satisfied. It is just the same, for all the world, between God and a Christian: a Christian heart makes over his will to God: now then if God's will is satisfied, then I am satisfied, for I have no will of my own, it is melted into the will of God. This is the excellence of grace: grace does not only subject the will to God, but it melts the will into God's will, so that they are now but one will. What a sweet satisfaction the soul must have in this condition, when all is made over to God. You will say, This is hard! I will express it a little more: A gracious heart must needs have satisfaction in this way, because godliness teaches him this, to see that his good is more in God than in himself. The good of my life and comforts and my happiness and my glory and my riches are more in God than in myself. We may perhaps speak more of that, when we come to the lessons that are to be learned. It is by this that a gracious heart gets contentment; he melts his will into God's, for he says, 'If God has glory, I have glory; God's glory is my glory, and therefore God's will is mine; if God has riches, then I have riches; if God is magnified, then I am magnified; if God is satisfied, then I am satisfied; God's wisdom and holiness is mine, and therefore his will must needs be mine, and my will must needs be his.' This is the art of a Christian's contentment: he melts his will into the will of God, and makes over his will to God: 'Oh Lord, thou shalt choose our inheritance for us' (Psalm 47:4).

THE MYSTERY CONSISTS NOT IN BRINGING ANYTHING FROM OUTSIDE TO MAKE MY CONDITION MORE COMFORTABLE, BUT IN PURGING OUT SOMETHING THAT IS WITHIN.

Now the men of the world, when they would have contentment, and lack anything, Oh, they must have something from outside to content them. But a godly man says: 'Let me get something out that is in already, and then I shall come to contentment.' Suppose a man has a fever, that makes what he drinks taste bitter: he says, 'You must put some sugar into my drink'; his wife puts some in, and still the drink tastes bitter. Why? Because the bitterness comes from a bitter choleric humor within. But let the physician come and give him a bitter portion to purge out the bitterness that is within, and then he can taste his drink well enough. It is just the same with men of the world: Oh such a mercy added to this mercy, then it would be sweet; but even if God should put a spoonful or two of sugar in, it would still be bitter. The way to contentment is to purge out your lusts and bitter humours.

'From whence are wars, and strifes? are they not from your lusts that are within you?' (James 4:1).

They are not so much from things outside, but from within. I have said sometimes, 'Not all the storms that are abroad can make an earthquake, but the vapours that have got within.' So if those lusts that are within, in your heart, were got out, your condition would be a contented condition. These are the mysterious ways of godliness, that the men of the world never think of. When did you ever think of such a way as this, to go and purge out the diseases of your heart that are within? Here are seven particulars now named, and there are many more. Without the understanding of these things, and the practice of them, you will never come to a true contentment in your life; Oh, you will be bunglers in this trade of Christianity. But the right perceiving of these things will help you to be instructed in it, as in a mystery.

The mystery of contentment may be shown even more. A gracious heart gets contentment in a mysterious way, a way that the w

Repent, Throw Away Everything, and Serve the Lord

2008-03-01T10:29:00.002-05:00

"Were you as excited about this missions conference as you were the football game yesterday?" -Paul Washer

Sweet Redemption

2008-02-28T10:28:00.002-05:00

It’s the most amazing thing that has happened yet.
It’s a mystery Father, that I still don’t get.
How is it Lord, that you have set me free
From the most trapping of sin that was enslaving me?
You see, seems just days ago I cried out to Thee
Because my heart was succeeding in deceiving me.
And now my heart rejoices with such liberty
That you allow me to take part in this ministry.

Because You, my Lord, are in the business of
Reconciling sinners back to their first Love.
Beckoning us to come, even when the road looks dark
And we see nothing but sin entangling our hearts.
So helplessly, we ask you to help us flee
From the idols of our youth, oh Lord, come please!
Because if left alone, our flesh takes over with ease
Leaving us with an emptiness this world vainly leaves.

But you longsuffer, Lord, and thankfully so
Redeeming the wrath that we rightfully sow
Intervening on behalf of the children you chose
Washing us clean from our head to our toes.
And so my friends, with a grateful heart I now say
That the most dreadful of sins cannot keep Him away
If you’re His, you are His til the last of the days
As He compels you to follow in His Son’s holy ways.

So to the sinner who sits and with sorrow cries out
Because unbelief is so real to their heart filled with doubt
To the one who just can’t seem to do what they say
Instead keeps going back to the most ungodly of ways
I tell you, look up, and be reminded again
That the Lord can set you free from this mindset of sin
No longer a slave to the world or its friends
You died with Christ, and so now live in Him.

Resist the devil and he will flee from thee
But how can you resist him when you are under his decree?
So I ask you dear sinner, has your soul been set free?
Are you a child of the Most High and He’s just chastening thee?
You see, the problem is you still love your sin
And you follow your lusts over and over again
I tell you this truth in love as a friend
You must repent and trust, you must be born again.

There is a war out there, and the battle is for your soul
You must put on the armor of truth, not it part, but in whole
Conforming to the image of Christ is the goal
But I tell you the first step is the old idols must go.
Put on the new nature, the nature of Christ
And watch as the Lord does His work in your life.
I tell you the truth it’s the most wonderful thing
Being set free from my chains by my Savior, my King.

Flee From Idolatry!

2008-02-27T09:06:00.005-05:00

Here is one of the most convicting messages I have heard about idolatry. This is a sermon by Andrew Webb on the danger of playing with the fire of idolatry- the scripture is 1 Corinthians 10:6-14. Lord willing, take the time to listen to it all the way through, and I pray the Lord will examine our hearts for idols.

1 John 5:21
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

This isn't a two part sermon, it is just a separate sermon on the same topic of idolatry by Webb. Both of them are good though. This second one deals with Deuteronomy 4:15-31.

I recommend checking out all of Andrew Webb's sermons which can be found here.
His sermons are very, very sound and scriptural and have admonished me much.

The Street Preacher Isn't the Problem, It is the Hatred for the Truth...

2008-02-26T20:04:00.018-05:00

Apparently there was a street preacher on campus today that was screaming and yelling at everybody and telling them that they were going to hell. He was calling everyone a whore and condemning all the homosexuals to hell. Hmm. Personally, I didn't see him, but my teammates certainly did. And so, of course, it was the topic of conversation today in the locker room after practice. So immediately I tense up as I listen to my teammates mock the guy and say how ridiculous he is and how un-Christian he is being and blah blah, you know the drill. Honestly, I'm writing about this because this really got to me. Being one of the only Christians on my team (although I'm sure most would claim to be one), there are certain times (mostly taking place in the locker room) when the topic of conversation is so blasphemous and so ungodly that I am forced to speak up. This usually happens though when the sanctity of marriage is flippantly talked down about, or when the cussing has gotten to a point when it outnumbers regular words, or when something extremely vulgar is said, but lately most of the times that I have engaged in spiritual talk has come as a result of someone saying something about God, or the Bible, or Christianity in general that just simply ISN'T true. And this has caused me so much discouragement lately, because I realized that the concept of what it means to be a Christian to these girls is COMPLETELY 100% skewed and messed up on SO MANY levels that I don't even know where to start.

But back to the street preacher- I knew the phrase was going to come, so I waited, and sure enough... "The Bible says to judge not!" ughhhhhhh. So at this point I had to jump in. I proceeded to say that while I agreed with them that this guy should not be out there screaming at every person that walks by and calling them whores, I couldn't denounce everything that this guy was saying. I had to set it straight that while the Bible says 'judge not, lest you be judged' you have to actually know the CONTEXT in which it was said in. Yes, it is true that if you are living in a particular sin and you are JUDGING someone who is doing the same thing, then you are a hypocrite. BUT, the Bible says for Christians to use RIGHTEOUS judgment, and I said to the person who had brought it up, "(insert name), would you agree that if someone murdered someone, you could rightly look at the guy and tell him that he was wrong??" and she said, yes. So I then told her that the Bible didn't mean to never use judgment in any case, because that would be foolish. I said, if you read what the Bible says and take it in context, then it is totally obvious that it is indeed true that unrepented homosexuals will not inherit the Kingdom of God (there were homosexuals in the room at the time, yikes. But, you see, that didn't cause a stir because my teammates know that I love them and am not saying that because I want to hurt them, but rather because I stand on the word of God) and so, therefore, this guy, even though I didn't agree with his means of spreading his message, was telling the truth and using righteous judgment on most of the things he was saying. But then I clarified that if he didn't know you personally and just started spewing things at you and calling you names, then that is not right. So then I just got some blank stares and most people had tuned me out before I even started, and man, it was probably one of the most helpless moments I had felt in a VERY long time. But I told them that this guy was out there warning people, and that yes, he could have done it differently, BUT maybe the warning should be taken heed to. And I also noted to them, that maybe the reason why so many people get SO OFFENDED by what he says is because a lot of stuff he says is true, and people don't want to hear it. (I couldn't believe that I had said that, God completely was giving me boldness because I was in the hot seat for sure). So then they look at me and say, but Sue, all those preachers out there don't make me want to have anything to do with Christianity or Christ.

Man, that sentence struck me. Not because it made me mad that the street preacher had done that, but because I realized that, even before this street preacher came and caused havoc, these girls didn't want anything to do with Christ or Christianity ANYWAY. I realized why people get so emotionally reactive to these guys....because they are JUMPING all over an excuse for why they denounce Christ and His teachings. They are jumping all over the opportunity to point the finger and blame someone else for their sinful lifestyles. One girl said, Sue, I grew up in the church and I believe in the Bible, but that guy just makes me mad and turns me off. But I wanted to say, no you grew up in church and you still have NO concept about the teachings of Christ and you may know some of what the Bible says, but you certainly don't believe it or you would be standing right next to me right now defending the truth with me, but instead, you are too busy being offended because he confronted your lifestyle. I didn't say that because that sounds really harsh, but I mean....what do you say? I didn't know what to say really; I didn't know where to go from there, I really didn't. Because for a second I saw the condition of my teammates. I saw just how confused they were about the truth and just how blind they were in their sins, and it made me sick. And sad. And it made me feel helpless, because I didn't have anything to say right then and there that was going to change their minds. I had shared the gospel with them earlier in the season, so they knew what it was about, but they didn't care. And this was proving it. Man, they didn't care about knowing the truth of the situation, they just wanted to condemn this preacher guy. Gosh, as I type that out, it really is so sad to me. They didn't care PRIOR to this preacher guy, so the issue at hand- as it became clear to me in the locker room- was not the street preacher at all. Instead, it was their hatred for the truth. And THAT is why I walked away from it all feeling so helpless. Only God can open ones eyes to the truth, we can only plant the seeds.

I couldn't help but think about how messed up everyone's view of love is. I mean true love. Most people have no concept whatsoever. And I thought about all the people that go out to the same spot on campus and preach the gospel and how from now on my teammates have lumped all of us into the category of the street preacher (because they have seen me out there before, and they will continue to see me out there in the future). It was such a weird feeling when my teammates were saying all this though, and then I realized why I felt so torn- literally, while they were talking I felt like the insides of me were being ripped out. And I think I know why. I thought about all the guys that I know that head out to turlington plaza (the place on campus where this guy was) and they bring their Bibles and they preach out of the love of their hearts to these students who are their own peers and who they know will mock them. But they do it for the remnant out there that might hear the word and believe, by the grace of God. I thought about how now whenever I go out there with my brothers and sisters and support them and help them, or when I am out there just sharing with people one by one, because I have a bible in my hand and I happen to be walking through turlington plaza, I am now lumped into this category of 'mean street preacher.' It made me so sad, because these are the people that truly love them; love them enough to tell them the truth. But instead they are mocked.

But then I thought about the verse in Galatians 6:7 that says be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. Seeing the evilness in that locker room today and hearing all the mocking of God's truth really made me sick. I walked away wondering what it is that I could have said or done differently. I truly had felt like such an outsider (most of you are like, duh Susan, you are) but I mean really, I felt so alone at the time because I looked around and everyone else was on the same page but me. But when I racked my brain on why this was so and why I was feeling so helpless, I remembered that on the last day I will no longer be the one that is being ridiculed. But that comfort only lasted for a split second because it reminded me that I didn't want that fate for my teammates. I didn't want them to face judgment having not repented and turned to Jesus. So it brought me right back to where I started...the reason why people put themselves out there and preach the gospel and share truth even when they know they are going to be mocked is because they, too, are caught in the very same predicament as me. They are comforted that what they said may be mocked now, but be not deceived, for God cannot be mocked...but then they are driven with love for the lost and are compelled to share the truth with people even though it may hurt them at the time. Think about it, will the one sinner who heard the message and repented be sorry that you had hurt their feelings? No, they will be so overjoyed that you took the time to share it with them and that, as a result, they were set free from their bondage to sin. To this day I thank the person that spoke truth to me- he was also the one who 'hurt my feelings' the most for the time being-but there isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank God for compelling someone to love me enough to confront my sinfulness. The Bible says that angels rejoice in heaven when one sinner repents. So just because this form of preaching doesn't bring about an alter call in which a hundred people are deemed saved after saying a prayer, doesn't mean that it is unsuccessful or not glorifying to Christ (if done in humility and love).

Um, so, yeah. Street preachers. I love them (the ones out there for the right reason)....I am friends with many of them. But the guy that comes out and calls everyone a whore doesn't help the cause. And yet, I don't know what to think about the whole thing. His message is there but his deliverance is skewed? If anyone has some ideas on how to handle this situation when unsaved people bring this up please feel free to let me know. Because now, I have gotten to the point where I love people too much to just go along with their street preacher bashing. Even if I don't join them, not speaking up about it goes against my conscience because I know they are unfairly lumping all who stand on the street and proclaim the Gospel in love. I am so afraid of letting people think that their message doesn't hold truth and that they are doing a bad thing for getting out there and proclaiming it, because honestly, I don't think it is bad. I'm not Rob Bell who says, "bullhorn guy, I....don't....think...it's....working." No way, because who are we to say it isn't working? God's word will never return void. And think about the prophets of the Old Testament. You think Jeremiah wasn't mocked and talked bad about like this? Man, the people plotted his death, and it wasn't because he was out there preaching about 'asking Jesus into your heart.' No, he was calling out a sinful nation for what they were doing....turning their backs on a holy God and serving the lusts of the flesh...which by the way...leads to death. It is not a pretty message when you think about it for what it really is. But I don't want them to think that I condone them calling everyone a whore. And another thing, if someone goes out to preach and they are doing it in pride or arrogance, I don't see how that can be. The only thing that is keeping a Christian from being enslaved to sin like the world is the mercy and grace of God...and there is no room for pride in that case. And I'm afraid that the when someone is out there screaming at people and calling them every name in the book it is not a fruit of humble lovingkindness, that is for sure.

So there you have it. A street preacher came to UF and my team and probably 99% of the student population was offended by him. Go figure. The law is the schoolmaster, folks. When you preach it, it brings to light the true condition of unreconciled sinners, and well, they aren't going to like it. So if you find yourself being overly offended by one, maybe you should take heed to his message. Just a thought though. But thanks be to God that after the law reveals the condition, we have the remedy in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross. Don't get so caught up in the first message that you forget the second part. The Gospel is indeed the Good News, announcing freedom from the Law through Christ, and we should be hastily getting that message out to the people.

Again, any thoughts about this are welcomed, as long as you don't have the approach of most when they say that all street preachers are mean and bad and not nice and ahhhhh I can't handle that, so please refrain. I agree that truth should be spoken in love, but that doesn't mean we exclude anything that is offensive to sinners ( I am not talking about the screaming and abuse, that is not only offensive it is just wrong.) I don't write this to sound mean, I just really can't handle the Rob Bell and Rick Warren approach to things, it is sickening. Thanks guys, God bless.

War? What War?- by Mike Ratliff

2008-02-22T11:34:00.006-05:00

Here is a great article written by Mike Ratliff from Possessing the Treasure
on the weapons the devil uses against the children of God when dealing with professing Christians. Read it all the way through because the ending is where I really could identify specifically.

War? What War?

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” (Zechariah 3:1-2 ESV)

About a week ago or so a fellow writer for CRN gave me access to a preview of the video of Bill Clinton speaking at the Liberal Baptist conference in Atlanta. When I first watched it I had to stop. I just couldn’t take his deceptive handling of his version of Christianity. I made a comment along those lines and my friend wrote back that I should watch it all. Why? It is imperative to know the enemy and how he works. To have an enemy implies that there is a conflict of some kind. Is there a war going on between God and His forces on one side and Satan and his forces on the other?

First let us take a look at Satan, our enemy. Who is he? Should we fear him? Satan is not God nor is equal with God in any way for he was created.

You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. (Ezekiel 28:13,15 ESV)

God created him as the model of perfection, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
“Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord GOD: “You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. (Ezekiel 28:12 ESV)

He was in the garden of Eden and every precious stone adorned him.
You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. (Ezekiel 28:13 ESV)

He was anointed and ordained by God as a guardian cherub who was blameless in his ways.
You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. (Ezekiel 28:14-15 ESV)

That described Satan before his fall. However, something went terribly wrong. His heart became proud on account of his beauty, and he corrupted his wisdom because of his splendor.
Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you. (Ezekiel 28:17 ESV)

He became filled with violence.
In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. (Ezekiel 28:16 ESV)

He led many of the angels in a war against God and his angels.
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world–he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (Revelation 12:7-9 ESV)

He tried to take God’s place.
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. (Isaiah 14:12-15 ESV)

Satan sinned. He is therefore credited with sinning since the beginning.
Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8 ESV)

Because of his actions, he was a murderer from the beginning.
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44 ESV)

According to Jude 6 he abandoned his home in heaven. He was driven in disgrace from the mount of God and expelled (Ezekiel 28:16). He lost his place in heaven (Revelation 12:8), was thrown or hurled from heaven (Ezekiel 28:16; Revelation 12:9-12), fell like lightning from heaven to the earth (Isaiah 14:12; Luke 10:18), and was made a spectacle before kings (Ezekiel 28:17).

That is how Satan came to be where he is now and explains why he is the way he is. What is he up to now? He is kept in darkness and is bound with everlasting chains.

And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day– (Jude 1:6 ESV)

He is filled with fury, because he knows his time is short (Revelation 12:12). Not only does he have power (Acts 10:38), but he is the power of this dark world and is the spiritual force of evil in the heavenly realm (Ephesians 6:12). The whole world is under his control (1 John 5:19), and he leads it astray (Revelation 12:9). He roams the earth (Job 1:7; Job 2:2), and prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). Needless to say, he is earthly and unspiritual (James 3:15).

Not only is Satan our enemy (1 Peter 5:8), but he is also an enemy of everything that is right (Acts 13:10). He can present himself before the Lord and make petition against us (Job 1:6-12; Job 2:1-7). Satan asks God for permission to “sift” us (Luke 22:31), and he accuses us day and night before God (Zechariah 3:1; Revelation 12:10). He lies and slanders; in fact, there is no truth in him (John 8:44; Revelation 2:9).

The devil twists the scriptures for his purposes and perverts the right ways of the Lord (Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:2-13; Acts 13:10). He is cunning and deceives (2 Corinthians 11:3). He schemes and tries to outwit us (2 Corinthians 2:11; Ephesians 6:11), and is full of all kinds of deceit and trickery (Acts 13:10). He takes the Word away from hearts (Luke 8:12), and blinds the minds of unbelievers (2 Corinthians 4:4). He traps and takes captive (2 Timothy 2:26), binds (Luke 13:16), incites (1 Chronicles 21:1) and, in general, is a stumbling block (Matthew 16:23). He can fill one’s heart (Acts 5:3) and lead minds astray from Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3).

Satan masquerades as an angel of light, and his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness (2 Corinthians 11:14-15). He is at work in those who are disobedient (Ephesians 2:2). He sows “weeds” (Matthew 13:38-39), and can work through anyone (Matthew 16:23; Mark 8:33). He can even display counterfeit miracles, signs, and wonders (2 Thessalonians 2:9).

No one is immune to Satan’s temptations; he even tempted Jesus (Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:2-13). But Satan could not prevail; he had no hold on Christ (John 14:30)!

Satan will put some Christians in prison to test them (Revelation 2:10), and he holds the power of death (Hebrews 2:14). But Christians are not powerless against him. The Bible tells us that faith extinguishes his flaming arrows (Ephesians 6:16), and if resisted, Satan will flee (James 4:7). He has been overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the testimony of Christian martyrs (Revelation 2:11). Christians have overcome him (1 John 2:13)!

Now, with all of that in mind, could we agree that there is a war still going on between God and His Kingdom on one side and our enemy Satan and his powers on the other? Yes, and it is very real. The more I get involved in this struggle the more it has become apparent to me that our enemy can and does use other professing Christians against us. They may very well believe they are not serving him, but God, however, their actions reveal that they are deceived. I have learned in a very painful way to discern that I am dealing with one of these. There will always be a few characteristics that give them away. Remember, our enemy’s “people” operate as he does. How is that? It is through lies and deceit. He is the devil and that means he is a slanderer. He twists the truth in order to build doubt in the heart. This is what we must look for in those who come to us as angels of light, but inwardly are nothing more than Satan’s pawns.

They will often have a very convincing appearance of godliness. They use the right words and know a lot of Biblical jargon. However, when those points of contention come to bear such as The Gospel, Justification, Sanctification, the Nature of God, the Nature of a genuine Christian, Doctrine, humility, pride, spiritual warfare, etc. you will find at least one hot button in there where their true nature will be revealed. This can be one of myriads of things, but if we pray for discernment and wisdom, we will be able to spot them. One very telling thing I have found that differentiates these “folks” is the mention of “compromise” and “unity” and “experience” and “Biblical doctrine.” Their reaction to these things are very telling. Also, these people tend to be “universalists” to some degree. If the discussion leads to Spiritual warfare or Spiritual maturity, if they are a pawn of the Devil, they will respond with scorn against the need for either.

They will accuse all who are certain as being prideful. If these who are certain refuse to compromise then they are accused of being so prideful that they must be Satan himself. The cry is unity, unity, unity, at all costs! Compromise, compromise, compromise! To them the truly humble are compromisers who are totally uncertain about anything.

For those reading this who were upset by those last two paragraphs I have some reading for you to do. Start at Ephesians 6:10 and read through 6:20. If we weren’t supposed to stand and not give in to the lies of the enemy then why did Paul give us this passage? To stand means we are standing on something substantial. That is the truth of which we are certain. Our example on how to stand is found in Matthew 4.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. (Matthew 4:1-11 ESV)

This is why we must become totally immersed in the Word of God. We must know it. We must always be in prayer with a constant God focus. When we do this much of what calls itself the Church will hate us because we will not be all about unity at all costs, but will be all about the truth and God’s glory. This does not make anyone popular. John MacArthur has said that it is impossible for men to be obedient to God and be popular with the majority. He is right.

To those called to his level of discernment, the way is rugged. It can be confusing and treacherous. Our enemy is a wordsmith and is a deceiver at heart. He knows how to create chaos in our lives to the point that we become disoriented at times. At these times the words of whoever is being used by Satan to attack us will cut like a surgeon’s scalpel. We will believe that our entire being is being exposed in a way to cause us shame. What we hold as right will be twisted in our presence by our enemy to be made to resemble the worst evil and what we know to be evil will appear to be the greatest good. This is why we must NEVER respond to these things emotionally nor from any fleshly position. We must pray and respond with the Word of God for it is the only weapon we have that will make our enemy flee as we resist Him.

As we deal with these people we must also beware of a backlash of “guilt” that we are made to feel because we were “so harsh.” We must be careful here. This is the time to get to a quiet place to pour out our hearts to God. We must repent of what He shows us, but also praise Him and thank Him for helping us stand and not fall. When we do this, more than likely, we will find that those feeling of “guilt” were more fiery darts from our foe as he fled. Never be above asking for forgiveness of these fellows, but do not be surprised when they respond with Satan’s vileness.

God knows that we are fragile creatures who are subject to great emotional stress. He knows that we cannot remain in the front lines indefinitely without some relief. What we must be wary of, however, is to not become complacent during the quieter times. I have found that being in unrelenting battles can wear upon me. I become weary. However, there are times that that is the very moment when the most deceiving of our enemy’s pawns will appear like an angel of light. We must seek the Lord’s face here and plead for help because it is when we are weary that we can make huge mistakes by reacting emotionally in the flesh. This only creates fruitless arguing and hurt feelings that will eventually lead to a very long time on our knees confessing all of this to God, seeking forgiveness, strength, wisdom, and discernment.

Is there a war going on between God and His Kingdom on one side and Satan and his forces on the other? Yes! Sadly, most believers interpret the warnings in God’s Word about this war as it only being Satan trying to tempt Christians to sin. That is only a small part of this war. Satan also attacks the Church. He attacks the Gospel. He attacks the leadership of the Church. Not every Christian is equipped to fight this battle because most are not very mature and are enslaved to their flesh. These are no threat to Satan so they are not attacked. However, those who are maturing and are equipped with God’s armor are a huge threat to our enemy and his kingdom. Therefore, he attacks them. We must do as Paul instructs in Ephesians 6:10-20. We must take up the armor of God and put it on and use it as we bathe our lives in prayer and immerse ourselves in God’s Word. Then when the fiery darts come we will be ready.

SDG

HT: Possessing the Treasure

Battling Unbelief

2008-02-19T17:59:00.006-05:00

The root of every single one of our sins is unbelief. Unbelief is turning away from Jesus to look for satisfaction somewhere else. Ultimately, the reason why we sin is because we believe our sin will satisfy us more than anything that God has to offer, which is a lie every single time. And we usually find that out the hard way. Here is an excellent sermon series by John Piper on battling unbelief and the sins that result from giving into it.

Love of the Truth

2008-02-18T01:02:00.004-05:00

"The Scriptures teach in 2 Thessalonians 2:10, that many will perish because they 'received not the love of the truth.' To walk in truth, one must really have a love for it, because it is a hard road to walk! Further, in order for one to actually love truth, that love has to be worked in them by God. This is because the natural man is repulsed by, and rebels against, the truth.

Let me hasten to say that I only have a love for the truth because God has worked it in me to love it. I am no better than anyone else. My natural tendency was the same as any individual until God worked in me a desire to know the truth at any cost. And it certainly will cost one to come to a knowledge of the truth. First, because the truth will point out the reality of who we, as natural men, really are- enemies of that truth and of God Himself.

Then, too, the truth is costly in that when one comes to embrace the truth, he finds that he lives in a world where the vast majority do not want the truth and turn on those who do. He becomes an enemy of many in his own family and of many who were at one time considered to be his friends!

This should not surprise us, in light of what Jesus taught when He walked among His own people. In Matthew 10, He told the disciples, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household."

The truth sets free the one who receives it, but it also alienates that individual from those who do not want to embrace the truth. This has ever been so and ever will be so."

-Pastor J.M. Grapp
from his booklet: Decisional Regeneration

εἰλικρινής (Sincere)

2008-02-12T10:41:00.000-05:00

I know I've touched on this in a previous post, but the Lord is really dealing with me on this topic. Here is the Greek word for sincere:

εἰλικρινής
eilikrinēs
It means: judged by sunlight, that is, tested as genuine (figuratively): - pure, sincere.

Here is a prayer out of the book The Vally of Visions (A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions) called Sincerity that deals with this topic perfectly. I pray, brothers and sisters, that we will not be afraid to examine the sincerity of our faith.

Elector of Saints,
Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and callest to thyself.
With thee is mercy, redemptions, assurance, forgiveness;
Thou hast lifted me, a prisoner, out of the pit of sin
and pronounced my discharge,
not only in the courts of heaven,
but in the dock of conscience;
hast justified me by faith,
given me peace with thee,
made me to enjoy glorious liberty as thy child.
Save me from the false hope of the hypocrite:
May I never suppose I am in Christ unless I am a new creature,
never think I am born of the Spirit
unless I mind the things of the Spirit,
never rest satisfied with professions of belief
and outward forms and services,
while my heart is not right with thee.
May I judge my sincerity in religion
by my fear to offend thee,
my concern to know thy will,
my willingness to deny myself.
May nothing render me forgetful of thy glory,
or turn me aside from thy commands,
or shake my confidence in thy promises,
or to offend thy children.
Let not my temporal occupations injure my spiritual concerns,
or the cares of life make me neglect the one thing needful.
May I not be inattentive to the design of thy dealings with me,
or insensible under thy rebukes,
or immobile at thy calls.
May I learn the holy art of abiding in thee,
of being in the world and not of it,
of making everything not only consistent with
but conducive to my religion.

Amen.

...That Saved a Wretch Like Me

2008-02-10T17:06:00.000-05:00

I was tagged by someone on youtube earlier this week, which simply means I was supposed to share five things about myself. I turned my 5 things into a shortened version of my testimony. Here is the video:

**I pray that the Lord will open up the eyes to anyone who sees this and is caught in the deceptions of cultural Christianity today. I pray that we continue to hold fast to the entire counsel of God's word and preach Christ crucified, for the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes (Romans 1:16). Amen.

A Deceitful Heart

2008-02-07T02:13:00.000-05:00

Oh Lord a troubled heart have I in the face of deadly sin
I come to Thee as a helpless sheep with the sin that I’m stuck in
Praying that You hear my cry and take this deceitful heart
Deliver me from the danger nigh and from the flesh help me depart.
Oh how sick and ill inside I get when I think of me
And how I stray so far away, continuously grieving Thee.
Discipline now meets me face to face, chastisement for Your child
In love, You make sure I don’t return to the path that much defiled

So blinded by the pride of life, but by Grace You’ve set me free
And opened up mine eyes to truth, but oh Lord how it hurts to see.
Because truth repels the fleshly sins in which I’ve gloried in
And it shines its light upon the dark, revealing my comfort sins.
But the child of God, by Grace from Him, cannot remain the same
The fires get hot and the silver refines as the flesh’s strength is maimed.

What once was slavery now is freedom, the old is now made new
So tempted by the former ways, help me Lord to hold fast to You
But I thank you Lord for the thorns in me, that are causing me great pain
So that I may look only unto You, and humbly call upon Your name
For when the flesh rises up, O Lord it hurts to believe that which is true,
But painfully I’m reminded to deny myself, take up my cross, and follow You.

For in my weakness, You're made strong, and in pain You make it clear
Being drawn unto You is no easy thing, even now as I write with tears.
But I consider it joy to suffer Lord, just promise to me You'll bring
In the morn a whole new hope and grace, as refreshing as a spring.
So faithful You are to keep Your own, and tonight I feel Your grasp,
Now keep me from falling into sin, until the day I see You at last!

"That's Not My God"

2008-02-05T11:23:00.000-05:00

"Sunday morning is the greatest hour of idolatry in America, did you know that?" - Paul Washer

But It Hurts So Bad

2008-02-02T23:42:00.000-05:00

Matthew 16:24-28

Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life shall lose it, and whoever desires to lose his life for My sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He shall reward each one according to his works. Truly I say to you, There are some standing here who shall not taste of death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.

Looking around right now, what is it that is so important, so pressing on me, that would be worth not denying myself and not spending eternity with Christ? Nothing. I pray that the Lord takes these things pressing upon my heart, these burnings, and removes them, if it be His will.

I’m just going to cut to the chase. The reason I am writing tonight is to say this: It hurts so bad to deny yourself. It is so painful during moments of extreme selfishness and worldly thoughts to deny yourself. But really, what is so important in this world that is worth denying Christ for? A degree? A good job? A good basketball career? Peace with the world? A good night’s sleep? A friend? A relationship? Certain conversations? Lust of the flesh? Lust of the eyes? The pride of life? Is there anything out there? Anything at all?? Nope. Nothing. There’s absolutely nothing out there AT ALL that is worth denying Christ for. I’m tired of being so civilized within this world that I give in to the expectations of the world over my duties to Christ. I want so badly to live a Spirit-led life, but I’m reminded that it is very costly to do so, at least in the eyes of the world. But I mean really, why do I care? Read Matthew 16:24-28 again. Why would I want to gain the world? It’s these moments that I’m so aware of my struggle with the flesh. I hate it. It drives me insane. The Spirit is telling me to do something and yet my first reaction is to cry out, “BUT IT HURTS!” But Lord, if I don’t deny myself then am I really worthy to be called Yours? Um, is there some encouragement in the midst of all this? Well, verses 27 and 28 are pretty much the only motivation one should need. Christ is coming back in all His glory and is rewarding every man according to his works. I pray right now that the Lord grants us an eternal perspective, so that we may grasp this.

Ok, on to the crux of the issue. I want to deny myself but there are so many moments when it hurts so bad to do so. Is it those moments that bring spiritual growth? Because it is during those times that I find I must rely 100% on Christ to get me through them, to deliver me from them. You see, if I look to myself at any point during this life (let alone moments of struggle), I will fall flat on my face and give into the desires of this world. The strength to deny myself must come from Him. So it is in these times when you find everything in you screaming to give in (and these moments look completely different to different people, but they are caused by the same lies and deceit from Satan), that we must look to Christ. Think about it. All that is pressing on you in this world, all the things your deceitful heart cries out for are worth nothing. NOTHING. Even if you were to gain them, Christ reminds us that what we’ve ultimately done is lost everything. Wow.

But Lord, it hurts. My human mind wraps itself around the seen, causing all these problems…all this grief and struggle and anguish that Christ is waiting to deliver me from, if I would just trust in Him instead. That is why I must be transformed by the renewal of my mind, to deliver me from this human state of mind that sees only the things that are right in front of me. Only then can I even begin to let go- LET GO of this life that I hang on to with dear life. The life that I think if I don’t get then it will feel like pure death is upon me. But Christ says the opposite, you see. He says if you hang on to that life then you will find the very thing you were trying to avoid: death. Because gaining the world and losing your soul leads to death. Lord, please reveal the things that I hold on to because, frankly, giving them up and denying myself hurts too bad.

Denying yourself hurts. If it was easy then broad would be the way that leads to life, not narrow, and every one would be doing it. But look around. That is clearly NOT the case. What we need to keep in mind, brothers and sisters, is that this way that Christ speaks of in Matthew 16, this path that God has willed for us through the denial of ourselves, is the best way. No side path that you pave out in your head (caused by the guidance of a deceitful heart) can ever prove more beneficial for you no matter HOW GREAT IT LOOKS to you at the time. In other words, if you find yourself doing this: “well, if I do this, then this will happen, and then this will happen because of that, and then finally I’ll be able to….” No, uh uh. Stop it. Christ says, do this: Deny yourself. Lose this life so that you may gain it truly. Wow. Do you see how we get ourselves in so much trouble? It all starts right there. And because many of us scream, “BUT THAT HURTS!” we don’t ever make it past that point because we give into ourselves, the opposite of denial, and look inward at our own pity and excuses. We miss the whole point- looking unto Christ and His finished work on the cross which provides for us the strength to do just what He commands: denying yourself. But like I said, we give in because it hurts, and it starts us down the path that we’ve created and it snow balls from there. How many sins could we have avoided if we would have just nipped it in the bud and trusted God’s way of denying ourselves? Wow, for me, too many to count.

We get so caught up in ourselves and hanging on dearly to our lives, that we miss the path of righteousness that Christ lays out for all of those whose lives are consumed by one thing: Himself. Does living a Spirit-led life look absolutely crazy and foolish to the world? Of course it does; hence the verses that say to the world it will look like you’ve completely lost your life and missed out, but Christ says otherwise. And He says we will be rewarded for that. Oh my goodness, it hurts so bad to do this, I don't think I can say that enough. But the truth is I know because I experience it often. But too many times I give in to what I think is the easy way out by doing what the flesh wants in order to avoid the pain of denying yourself. But we all know what that leads to: just more pain down the road because you trusted in yourself and not the Lord. Unfortunately knowing this ahead of time for me doesn't always stop me from falling into sin. And I didn't write this entire thing to leave you with that downcast, gloomy thought. Because the truth is, there is freedom from this, and it is found only through trusting the Lord and His Word and loving Him with all your heart, soul, and mind. Look not unto yourself for strength; I thank the Lord for this verse from Paul the Apostle: 2 Corinthians 12:9 "And He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may overshadow me." Wow, pretty much says it all huh? Take that verse in.

Also, think about some of these things as you find yourself enduring this painful process. Every pang you feel as a result of denying the flesh is like a prayer of intercession for you who is finding yourself in bondage to that sin. It is like the groaning that the Spirit gives to the Father, telling Him to set you free from your sin (Romans 8:26). What is happening is you are realizing, "Even though the culture says this, you tell me otherwise, Lord" or "Even though my feelings say this, I am going to follow my Father." Those are beautiful things, my friend. You are avoiding what is natural to you so that God may apply His supernatural work in you. Through prayer (and intercession from the Holy Spirit who prays for the things that we cannot see because we are biased towards the flesh and to the things that are seen) our burden will begin to be lifted and it begins to melt our wills into the will of God. And ultimately you will discover that the Word of God does, indeed, have the power to sustain: "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Matthew 4:4. Let the joy of the Lord be our strength.

Lord, please help us to deny ourselves. Help us to let go of the things we hold so closely to that are keeping us from gaining true life in You. It isn’t easy. It hurts. But no matter how bad it hurts, Lord, help us to look unto You, oh refuge of our weary souls. Your way leads to life, please grant our eyes the ability to see that even though it goes against every ounce of the flesh. But that is the glory of the Gospel: because of what You have done on the cross, we may now have new life free from this bondage to the flesh. The fires of sanctification are hot. You don’t promise us our best life now (in the eyes of the world) but You do promise to continue to refine us until the day we leave this earth and come unto You, Lord. Oh what a glorious day that will be! Amen.

Seriously?

2008-01-30T12:18:00.000-05:00

I have so many comments on this video I don't even know where to start. I might not even start. I might just stop and let the video speak for itself. But the sad thing is, if I don't say something then the people who watch this are left to their own discernment. And sound discernment these days is almost nonexistent among evangelicalism. I don't cringe when I think about my Christian brothers and sisters who might watch this because I know they will compare it to the scriptures and throw it out. I cringe when I think about all the people who will take anything and everything Rick Warren says and believe it all just because he has written a popular book and says things in the name of the Lord. My friends, when we are guided by the Holy Spirit and we see something like this displayed, our discernment starts kicking in and we are repulsed by the 1) failure to give an account of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ 2) flippant talk about a God who should be both revered and feared for His holiness 3) an almost "universalistic" approach that God loves everyone for who they are, simply tickling the ears of millions of spiritually unreconciled sinners 4) a disdain for anyone who stands for objective truth and doesn't waver with every wind of doctrine (deemed fundamentalists who don't listen). My friends, this guy is dangerous. I mean, whoa. I realize that me saying this makes me part of a very unpopular, small few of people who, by the Grace of God, will not tolerate the watering down of the true Gospel. The bottom line is the true Gospel is a stumbling block for those who refuse to repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ. It is a stumbling block for those who choose to live for the ways of the world and do not deny themselves. Rick Warren can try and water it down all he wants and make it so the stumbling block becomes a circus, but he cannot rewrite the Word of God. This just encourages me to read and study the ENTIRE counsel of God so much more because I know that so many people are out there perverting it like this. If what Rick Warren says is true, we serve a God that can be won over with cotton candy and lolly pops, as he simply smiles down at all our iniquities that are leading us to death? I'm sorry, but I don't believe that...that is not the God of the Bible...period. And you can call me whatever you want, but that is perversion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Please, can we wake up to this incredible danger that is right in front of our eyes? I say this in love....love for the brethren and love for the lost souls. Both of us need to be fed the unadulterated Word of God, so it needs to be preached that way. I pray the Lord will let Romans 1:16 reign true in our lives: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes."

Jeremiah 6:13-16

For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest everyone deals falsely. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people lightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I punish them they shall be cast down, says the LORD. Thus says the LORD, Stand you in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk in it.

Be Still, My Soul

2008-01-28T13:25:00.000-05:00

My friend and sister in Christ sent me this hymn this morning and I wanted to share it with you guys. I pray that it will be a blessing to you as much as it was for me today.

Be Still, My Soul

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on your side;
bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
leave to your God to order and provide;
in every change he faithful will remain;
Be still, my soul: your best, your heav'nly Friend
through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: your God will undertake
to guide the future as he has the past.
Your hope, you confidence let nothing shake;
all now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know
his voice who ruled them while he was below.

Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,
and all is darkened in the vale of tears,
then shall you better know his love, his heart,
who comes to soothe your sorrows and your fears,
Be still, my soul, your Jesus can repay
from his own fullness all he takes away.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
when we shall be forever with the Lord,
when disappointment, grief and fear are gone,
sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past,
all safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

Have You Been Deceived by the Milky Way?

2008-01-25T00:23:00.000-05:00

What enemy has slowly and seductively crept into the church? Here is a great word from Pastor Jeff Noblit regarding the condemnation for any attempt to go deeper in the Doctrines of Christ:

After you watch that clip you are probably going to want to hear the entire message...so here you go my friends! Its a two part sermon:

Test yourself...are you glorying in shallowness?

Seriously, I remember around July of last year or so when I was really going through a lot of stuff spiritually as the Lord really began to draw me unto Himself. The more I learned about Jesus, the more I saw how much I had missed the mark all my life when it comes to knowing what it means to be a true follower of Christ. I was so blinded by cultural Christianity that I failed to see the truths of the doctrines of Christ found in the Bible that were waiting to set me free from my bondage. But at the time I was facing some opposition from some people around me and I didn't understand why. And then one of my friends sent me this sermon at the time, and wow, what an encouragement it was able to be in my life. It explains one of the huge problems in the church today and why "going deeper" is almost a cuss word to some congregations.

Fish Out of Water

2008-01-21T23:57:00.000-05:00

Even though I have a million and twenty things to do right now I wanted to take the time out to write a quick post. I don’t know if it is going to be a long or short one, or what it is really going to be about in particular…I just know that I need to write something right now in this moment. I am a bit overwhelmed, to put it frankly. Ok, I am extremely overwhelmed. I have a million different things running through my head and if it wasn’t for the Lord and knowledge of His sovereignty over all things I would probably have already gone insane by now. Do you ever have those moments? Well pray for your sister because it is definitely one of those times right now. I guess the only thing I can do at this point is start trying to put these thoughts out on paper (or blog), even if they don’t make much sense…they have to come out. So bear with me as I share my burdens….

1) My best friend and brother in Christ just left not too long ago after visiting me for the weekend. My time with him is so edifying and such a HUGE BLESSING in my life, it is always hard to say goodbye. I don’t always understand why we have to live a 6 hour drive away from each other and it always gets to me a little bit. Do you have those people in your life that were there during the time when the Lord really REALLY started to draw you in? They were the ones that spoke truth to you no matter how hard it was to hear and no matter how much it hurt your pride to hear it. They were the one that loved you enough to go to the Lord on your behalf because your right standing with a holy perfect God was more important than flattering you and feeding you a watered down, feel good version of the truth. They were the ones that God placed in your life during that specific time because He knew that the world would call you crazy….and there stood that person reassuring you with the truth of God’s Word and reminding you that you aren’t the only one that has gone through those tough times. I know, I kind of got carried away a bit, but its true. He was/is that for me and I know that my fellow brothers and sisters can attest to this feeling: anytime you depart from a fellow servant of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, it is hard. Reminds me of Paul’s letters to Timothy. It always was emotional for him to depart his brothers and sisters in Christ and he talks of the many tears shed because of it, and his longing to be with them in person even though the Lord had other plans for him. 2 Timothy 1:3 I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of you in my prayers night and day; Greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy.

2) I am overwhelmed also because it is 8:30 at night as I write this and I have so many lectures to watch for my two online classes and I have no desire to do it at all. What do you do when the homework has piled up yay high and yet, the only thing you have the desire to do is curl up in bed and read one of the many books written by J. Gresham Machen or John Calvin or Arthur W. Pink that are STARING at you from your bookshelf. Either that or listen to a great sermon or two by Paul Washer or some other edifying broadcast or dive straight into the Word of God to see what nugget of treasure He has for you. But I know that going another night of neglecting my studies will put me so far behind. This just leads to the bigger issue of what the heck am I even studying? There are times when I look around and I kind of feel enslaved to this whole college idea. No, I don’t feel like this ALL the time, and maybe this is just an exaggerated moment because I am feeling so overwhelmed. But there are definitely times when I realize that I have to be careful about who and what I am letting control my life. The more I learn about God, the more in control I want Him to be…this is obvious because His ways are pure and righteous and just flat out waaaay better than mine. And even though I push and pull and fight for my will to be done…God ultimately brings me back to His path. This hurts like crazy a lot of the times as discipline and rebukes are there to meet me, but I am so grateful for it. The Bible says that God’s children don’t shy away from discipline, in fact they want it. You kind of have to be out of your mind to say something like that, which is why you have to be changed into the like-mindedness of Christ in order to know what the Bible means when it says that. This like-mindedness comes through sanctification which is the promise God makes to all who are justified by faith in Him. Sanctification is the process of being made into the image of Christ and it is quite possibly the most grueling and yet joyful process of all time. That is to be another post at another time. But there are times when I look ahead and see two more years of college and want to scream. Why? Because I know that it means that for two more years I will be consumed with the hectic schedule of balancing school and basketball and that a lot of this time will be accompanied by the feeling of, man I want to read a book and watch a sermon, when the circumstances just won’t permit for it. This makes me sad…and thus…overwhelmed. That’s what I get for taking thought for tomorrow. It is a sin…and I need to repent of it because I don’t know what will happen tomorrow…sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. I just really don’t want to go back to serving the things that God has delivered me from, which included the bondage of living my life for the praise of others and for myself. It was miserable, and I just want to be free from that bondage, and well sometimes I feel like college suffocates me in that sense. I want to be free to follow Christ with all my heart, soul, and mind with no inhibitions holding me back. In a way college brings me those opportunities to do just that and to serve (things that I am so grateful for and wouldn‘t trade anything for), and in another way I still feel the magnitude of the fact that playing a college sport can have such a gripping control of your life. They want your time, energy, passion, heart, soul, life and did I mention time? I can’t just up and do something that regular students can do…and as awesome as that is at times, it is also scary. But I know that the Lord has placed me in this situation for a reason, and it is my duty to do all of this to further His kingdom. And I don’t say that lightly (I used to profess that with my mouth but now the burden of the calling is real.) I thank God for His truths because it is the only thing that can bring true, meaningful, lasting peace.

Ok, I think I am going to stop right there…I could go on and on because there are certainly more things going on in my head. But it comes down to this: I feel like a fish out of water. You ever have those nights where you are so aware that your home is not anywhere on this earth, but rather up in heaven? Wow. I definitely feel like that right now and it is really hard to deal with. It is such a blessing though, it is just hard at the same time. I look around and I want so badly to be up in Heaven with my Maker, even though I know that because of Jesus Christ I can now spend time with Him here on earth too. But seriously, I don’t want to study right now, I want to be in communion with God. I don’t want to do anything really, but bask in His holy presence. And I look around and I don’t see anyone else struggling over this, they seem to be flowing down stream with no problems, and yet here I am…total fish out of water. The truth behind all of this is that I now have a new life in Christ. So every time I feel the old life trying to suck me back in I get really overwhelmed. But then comes the truth that sets me free: I don’t have to serve the lusts of my old life. I now have a new one that delights in the joy that is derived from the Lord and not from the things of this world. The result: whenever I am pulled back into that old life I feel really out of place…like a fish that is plucked from the water. It is not my home and I don’t want to be there. I desire fellowship with Christians who are following after God. Perfectly? Nope. We mess up and we still fall into the traps of the world…but we hate it. We strive against sin and the distractions that are there to bring us back to our old bondage. That doesn’t mean you grow cold and withhold grace from those that are around you, it just means you desire the opposite of what the world has to offer and you don’t compromise. Sweet fellowship with other believers and reaching the lost through the power of the Gospel….that is the essence of a new life with Christ.

And at the same time, I am being convicted heavily of the sin in my life right now and it is also overwhelming. I want so badly to be delivered from this body of death. I am tired of sinning and doing the same stuff over and over again when I know it is not pleasing to the Lord. I am finding myself repenting and being burdened over the same things, and I hate it. It makes me sick. How can you think about school and basketball and all this other stuff when all you want to do is be free from anything worldly that holds you back from sweet, pure communion with our Holy and righteous God? Who I want to be and who I am is not matching up. And I know that is the great dilemma for the Christian who is seeking after the things of the Lord, because we still battle with our old nature that we want so badly to demolish once and for all. God promises to do that for us on the last day, and it is that promise that gets me through the day. I realize that many people would read what I have written and just tell me to lighten up, but the truth is I can’t. The truth is too real in my life to deny it. The calling to be conformed to the image of Christ is too strong. And one thing that the Lord has taught me today is to have a whole new appreciation for His grace. I thank the Lord for it, and I realize now that I cannot function without it. No seriously, I am not saying that flippantly. I cannot function one minute without the grace of God. If it wasn’t for His shedding of blood for those that believe in Him, I don’t know what I would be doing. Well, one thing is for sure I would be ignorant to the greatest gift of all time, and well, for that I am grateful for these struggles. If feeling like a fish out of water is what I have to endure as a result, then so be it. I will endure it with joy my friends. I will consider it pure joy to suffer for His cause; I am so grateful for this gift because I know that I have done absolutely nothing to deserve it. In fact God is revealing so much to me about His grace that Lord willing, I am going to have to write a whole separate post on it soon. Yes, it is simply that amazing. I hate that there was a time in my life when I treated grace like a flu shot. It was like I had it so why bother worrying about it. What a sad thought. I am pretty sure the Lord is allowing me to struggle over these things in my life so that I am even more aware of the grace He has given me. And even more reminded of how amazing my God really is. This post was all over the place, and for that I apologize, but I end it with a prayer:

Lord, please be with your children. Please bring a clarity to our minds and hearts as we live in this world physically, yet have our affections set on the things above. And I pray that anytime we start to feel at home here you will rebuke us, no matter how uncomfortable it is at the time. Comfort in the things of this world has proved to be a slippery slope for me, so please keep me from taking that step. And as we serve you, please help us to balance our earthly duties with our heavenly convictions. Allow time for us to spend all the time with You that is necessary for our souls. Refresh the weary with your faithful promises from Your word as we struggle against the powers and principalities of this world. Thank you for all the many blessings you have given us here in this life, and help us to take none of them for granted, but also remind us of the wretchedness you have saved us from by Your wonderful grace. Though overwhelmed with circumstances I thank You that we are able to take refuge in Your promises. Give us grace and mercy to endure until the end, Lord, and thank you for the joy that comes only from You. Amen.

The Heart of a True Christian (Mark Kielar)

2008-01-21T11:41:00.001-05:00

Christless Christianity

2008-01-13T12:11:00.000-05:00

This is a recent program of the White Horse Inn on "Christless Christianity: The American Captivity of the Church." Much of what is trying to pass itself off as Christianity today is not Christianity at all. As B. B. Warfield pointed out, is there really such a thing as Christianity without Jesus Christ?

For more information on White Horse Inn visit: http://www.whitehorseinn.org/

Does God Give a "DoOver?" (Rick Warren vs The Gospel)

2008-01-11T09:12:00.000-05:00

Here are some clips by Todd Friel of Way of the Master Radio regarding Rick Warren's Christmas message aired on Fox:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Belonging To Jesus

2008-01-07T12:14:00.000-05:00

Here is a great prayer/devotion from the book The Valley of Vision. A friend of mine just gave it to me and I am so excited about sharing from it with you guys from time to time. It is a collection of Puritan prayers and devotions. Here is one that I wept over a couple of nights ago. It defines my (and all my Christian brothers and sisters) struggle with the sanctification process and our mourning over sinning as we struggle to rid ourselves of the sin that dwells within us. Through faith, we now have put on the righteousness of Another, our righteous and holy Savior. With that comes the struggle to put away the old man and all the self-confidence and self-righteousness (that is but filthy rags) that we still insist on clinging to. We still tend to think that we can purify ourselves, but it can't be done my friends. And it is through the awareness of my own revile sin that the Lord humbles me and teaches me, for the millionth time, that salvation from this struggle cannot and will not ever come from me, but instead from the grace and power and working of the Spirit. Amen.
Also, this particular one hit home as I know what it is like to see Christ 'in reason' and not be amazed. I spent the majority of my life in that state. It wasn't until Christ revealed Himself to me, IN FAITH, that I was able to be so taken by Him that I am incapable, because of His grace, to ever EVER look back again.

O Heavenly Father,
Teach me to see
that if Christ has pacified thee and satisfied divine justice
he can also deliver me from my sins;
that Christ does not desire me, now justified,
to live in self-confidence in my own strength,
but gives me the law of the Spirit of life
to enable me to obey thee;
that the Spirit and His power are mine
by resting on Christ's death;
that the Spirit of Life within answers to the law without;
that if I sin not I should thank thee for it;
that if I sin I should be humbled daily under it;
that I should mourn for sin more than other men do,
for when I see I shall die because of sin,
that makes me mourn;
when I see how sin strikes at thee,
that makes me mourn;
when I see that sin caused Christ's death,
that makes me mourn;
that sanctification is the evidence of reconciliation,
proving that faith has truly apprehended Christ;
Thou has taught me
that faith is nothing else than receiving thy kindness;
that it is an adherence to Christ, a resting on him,
love clinging to him as a branch to the tree,
to seek life and vigour from him.
I thank thee for showing me the vast difference
between knowing things by reason,
and knowing them by the spirit of faith.
By reason I see a thing is so; by faith I know it as it is.
I have seen thee by reason and have not been amazed,
I have seen thee as thou art in thy Son
and have been ravished to behold thee.
I bless thee that I am thine in my Saviour, Jesus.

An Emerging Dilemma

2007-12-31T03:29:00.000-05:00

The more I study and learn about the Scriptures and the Doctrines that the Christian faith is founded upon, the more certain I am that they are in complete contradiction with the ways of this world. That may seem very simplistic and obvious, but it is a truth that the Lord is making very plain in my life. It is a truth that, if grasped and believed upon, can set you free from many chains Satan would like for you to be trapped in. For instance, prior to the Lord awakening my soul to His holy righteousness, I got by a lot of the time in life because of appearance. No, not by my clothes or by the way my hair looked, but by the way I "appeared" to be living my life. For 20 whole years I was able to make it look like I was the most humble person, but in actuality I was one of the most prideful. Because I had mastered how to appear humble, I was able to peacefully live the cultural Christian lifestyle with virtually no conflict or interruptions. No it wasn't all candy canes and lolly pops, but as far as peace with the world, I had it. Why? Because no one was ever confronting me with truths that would have been in direct conflict with my pride, and nor was I confronting the world with them either. If you ever questioned my belief or salvation, well all I had to do was point to myself...my works...my character, and it usually sufficed. People saw me going to church and leading high school Bible studies and not cussing and not going out to parties, so there was no grounds for questioning right? Oh great goodness, if there was one thing that I wish I could change, it would be that there would have been some way some how my heart could have been examined a decade earlier than it was. I never lacked affirmation from people in my life. There was never a time when the people around me weren't encouraging me and patting me on the back and telling me I was doing a great job. I thought I was truly blessed, and there is no doubt that I was (my point is not to say that encouragement is a bad thing), but I was also equally cursed.

Ok, here is the tricky part...I was completely 100% dead set that I was sincerely following Christ during this time. I confessed that everything I did was to give God the glory, and while I knew I wasn't perfect, I really did desire to glorify the Lord in all that I did. Or did I? That isn't a question added for clever interjection...I seriously don't know if I did desire that or if I was just deceived into thinking that I did. It wasn't like I knew that I was prideful and I was purposefully getting up every morning planning on tricking people into thinking I was humble...No. I truly believed that I was humble. Do you see the problem? I believed with all my heart that I was walking in truth, when really I was deceived. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? (Jer 17:9). I knew the truth. Some of it at least. It was common knowledge to me, however it wasn't a reality in my life. And it took the Word of God to change that. I don't get too meticulous when I look back at that part of my life, not because I take my deception lightly; no way, there have been plenty of sleepless nights spent with tears and godly sorrow and repenting for the times that I lived deceived by the idols in my life. I simply don't get too meticulous in trying to define exact details of why I was this way and why I was that way because it is simple. I loved my darkness and sin more than the light of Jesus Christ and I am held responsible for that, while at the same time, God is sovereign and was working out my salvation on His timing. The most important thing that I learned was that I was not the author of my own salvation, and that the opening of my eyes to truth was completely dependent on a gift from God....so who am I to boast?

But with many people today, the emerging church specifically, it is completely alright with them to appear to be living the Christian life. As long as they have fooled themselves into thinking that what they are doing and believing is true simply because of their experience and their feelings affirm them, well of course they are going to object to anything that is on any other level than the one they are on. Reaching any deeper might cause them to have to question this "nirvana" they have reached. That is not a truth seeker my friend, that is a personal peace seeker. The ways and thoughts of God are at utter variance with man's thoughts. The emergent, seeker-sensitive church is not producing converts with new, regenerated, heart of flesh souls, they are simply bringing thoughts and ideas of this world which agree with their natural fleshly state and sprinkling a little talk about God and Jesus and the Bible and WAHLA, of course people are going to eat it up. It's like personal peace served up on a platter to them, and even better, it satisfies the question of eternity for them too. Great, killing two birds with one stone! It is true that Jesus Christ meets the sinner directly where they are, but not so that they can stay there and enjoy a latte and worship on a comfy couch. It is so that their lives can be transformed by the renewal of their minds. And the renewal of their minds comes from nothing other than the truths found in GOD's Word.

To tie this all back together...what is my point? My point is that for 20 years I appeared to have it all together, especially in the eyes of the world. And all the while, the 'Christian' aspects of my life at the time were doing a great job in fueling this deception. I'm not writing this post to say that I have all the answers. All I am simply doing is sharing my concern for a situation that I was firsthand right in the middle of. I thought I was living for Christ. My feelings and emotions confirmed that for me, and of course so did the others that were right there in it with me. But I wasn't. And going to many of what the world calls Christian functions did nothing but further me into this deceived state. SO WHAT DO WE DO WITH THIS?!!

Well, really it is simple, and it is the only thing that rescued me from the pit of this deception: preaching the ENTIRE counsel of God. If the heart is wicked, and if there is a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death (Proverbs 14:12), then wouldn't it be wise to look outside our feelings and emotions and personal experiences to define what it means to be a follower of Jesus? We need to preach the character of God that comes from Scripture. The one thing that bothers me so much about seeker sensitive churches is how much they talk about being like Jesus, and following Jesus, and loving Jesus, and Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, when in all actuality they don't even know the true character of Jesus, the Son of God. And even if they have some grasp, why do they spend so much time and effort refuting the people who embrace the idea that doctrine (the actual TEACHINGS OF JESUS) should be studied thoroughly and diligently in order for the correct Jesus to be portrayed? It boils down to this: the emergents preach an all-inclusive (non)gospel that is unoffensive to sinners (this is not an exaggeration, they are proud of this fact), all the while God's Word, when preached in its entirety is very offensive to people and to the very nature of mankind. It offends the self-righteous, which includes, um, everyone in their unregenerate state. That was me. It was only when my pride and self-righteousness were confronted head on with the preaching of the character of a God who will have nothing to do with anything of the sort that my form of godliness was brought to the exposure of the white light of Christ. In Philippians 1:10, Paul's prayer for the brethren of Philippi is "that you may approve things that are excellent; that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ." In the Greek, the word sincere (eilikrinēs) means judged by sunlight, that is, tested as genuine. WOW! Why are people afraid of the preaching of doctrines from the Bible? Is it because they are afraid their true identity will be exposed? It certainly exposed mine.

It is frustrating, but it makes perfect sense. The ways of God are in perfect variance with the ways of man. When I was a professing believer I was known as a humble person, but since the Lord, in His loving and underseving grace, has opened my eyes, to the world I am probably looked at as a prideful and arrogant person who thinks she is always right. But in all actuality I am more humble now than I ever have been (I say that in an unprideful way, for it is by the Grace of God alone). I used to be so full of self-righteousness that I couldn't see past my own selfish ambitions. Now, I am more aware of my sin and my faults and my selfishness and my unrighteousness before a holy and perfect God than I ever have been, and that usually results in a prostrated position on my dorm room floor. I am so aware that every part of my flesh wants to be prideful in myself, and because of that I still struggle with it, but I fight it with the power of Jesus Christ risen. And yet the world sees me as arrogant because I believe in objective truth and believe that the doctrines of this objective truth should be taught. If that isn't evidence to the Lord's ways being directly contrary to man's then I don't know what is.

I kind of got off track in this blog post. I meant for it to be about how dangerous it is to have what the Bible calls a form of godliness but denying the power thereof (2 Timothy 3:5) and how the emergent church and seeker sensitive movement is only leading people down this path. I may or may not have stayed on that track, I really don't know, but you can see that I am very passionate about this subject. But one thing that I have learned is that it is completely, 100% possible to be walking in complete and utter darkness and yet be deceived in thinking you are in the light. It may sound obvious, but I've been there. The only way to get someone out of the darkness is to make them aware that they are walking in it in the first place. It is like man's default position is to think that they are fine right where they are and walking in the light, but we know that this is not true (total depravity). For the longest time I had myself and others fooled by my appearance of godliness. But it took hard Biblical preaching to shine the light of Christ on my life to expose it. Did it hurt my personal peace at the time? Very much so. But looking back, there isn't anything in the world that would make me go back to the deceived state. Why? Because the personal peace is a fraud. It is an idol that is ultimately being served. It is not eilikrinēs and it will not withstand the test of sunlight. Only through living in the truths of Christ can you obtain the peace that passes all understanding.

Ultimately it is not important if you know something is true; it is only important that the truth becomes a REALITY in your life. The confusing part is that not everything preached at these particular churches that I am referring to is untrue. It is, however, severely one-sided. They spend too much time trying to convince people that they really are sincere, when they need to be holding up themselves to the mirror of Scripture and then determining if they pass the sunlight test or not. Not running full speed away from the light in fear that they will get burned, and ultimately, exposed. When God finally held my life up to the entire counsel of His word, I flunked the sincerety test with a capital F. My idols couldn't stand the sunlight and they came rushing to the surface, and well, that didn't go over very well with my personal peace. And whether we realize it or not, the emergent church and a lot of these 'seeker sensitive' ideas are creeping, one by one, into a lot of evangelicalism, and I'm afraid that the disdain for hard, Biblical preaching is one of them. The plead to dig deeper is labeled as Pharisaical, and that thought alone makes me cry.

Because the power of Jesus Christ is the only thing that can save a blind person from falling into the pit of deception, join me in praying that the Lord will save His people from this horrifying dilemma.

Here is a video by a Sis that knows exactly what I'm talking about:

"Christ came here NOT to help those who were willing to help themselves..."

2007-12-28T02:58:00.000-05:00

A lot of today's evangelicalism consists of the idea of walking down an aisle and making a decision to 'choose' Christ as your Savior. They say, Jesus is knocking at the door and it is now up to you to let Him in. While most of the time this is done with the sincere intention to invite souls to believe in their Savior, I'm afraid that it is done in blindness to the truth and is causing a lot of false converts in our churches today. The idea that man has the free will to choose Christ is not a Biblical teaching; it denies that man's will became totally depraved and dead in sin after the fall of Adam. This teaching is also very man-centered and it attempts to rob the Lord of the glory that is His regardless of what we say when it comes to the conversion of human souls. The debate between free will and election is not a trvial argument, rather it is a fundamental backbone to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. While, most professing Christians will say that God gets the credit when it comes to their salvation, you will usually find something different when you dig a little deeper because most people believe that it was them that chose to trust in Christ. Even if it was 1% them and 99% God, it still leaves room for man to hold on to a self-righteousness that is not theirs. The Bible says we are saved by faith and not by works and that there is nothing that differs between the saved and unsaved other than the gift of grace given to us by the Lord Himself.

It wasn't until about a year ago that the ideas of free will and election even ever crossed my train of thought, but once the Lord began to reveal what the Scriptures said about it, it was like the floodgates opened up. Suddenly I saw that I had been blindly (I didn't know it at the time) holding on to my self-righteousness because I believed that I had something to do with my own salvation (even though it was God went 99.9% of the way and I went the .1%). I saw that this little bit of righteousness of my own that I held was the breeding area of a life lived full of pride and selfishness, and ultimately I was led into much godly sorrow and repentance. It is for that reason that I am writing about this, because I know the freedom that these truths can bring. Once I saw that I was dead in my trespasses and sins and that my natural, depraved will could not get me out of that state, Christ began to quicken my Spirit to life through the preaching of the Word. It wasn't until Christ regenerated my soul and replaced my stony heart with one of flesh that I was able to choose that which was pleasing to Him. Preaching man's free will is very dangerous, and we are beginning to see the results of it taking over our churches as the gospel is being watered down to make Christ more appealing so more people "choose" Him. I pray that this post will allow you to see the importance of knowing the Biblical explaination of how God converts the human soul.

The following is a long excerpt from the book "The Sovereignty of God" by Arthur W. Pink. It is from the chapter called God's Sovereignty and the Human Will. I know that it is lengthy, but please hear me when I say that it is welll worth the read.

The freedom or bondage of the will was the dividing line between
Augustinianism and Pelagianism, and in more recent times between Calvinism and
Arminianism. Reduced to simple terms, this means, that the difference involved
was the affirmation or denial of the total depravity of man. In taking the
affirmative we shall now consider the impotency of the human will.

Does it lie within the province of man’s will to accept or reject the Lord Jesus
Christ as Saviour? Granted that the Gospel is preached to the sinner, that the
Holy Spirit convicts him of his lost condition, does it, in the final analysis,
lie within the power of his own will to resist or to yield himself up to God?
The answer to this question defines our conception of human depravity. That man
is a fallen creature all professing Christians will allow, but what many of them
mean by "fallen" is often difficult to determine. The general impression seems
to be that man is now mortal, that he is no longer in the condition in which he
left the hands of his Creator, that he is liable to disease, that he inherits
evil tendencies; but, that if he employs his powers to the best of his ability,
somehow he will be happy at last. O, how far short of the sad truth!
Infirmities, sickness, even corporeal death, are but trifles in comparison with
the moral and spiritual effects of the Fall! It is only by consulting the Holy
Scriptures that we are able to obtain some conception of the extent of that
terrible calamity.

When we say that man is totally depraved, we mean
that the entrance of sin into the human constitution has affected every part and
faculty of man’s being. Total depravity means that man is, in spirit and soul
and body, the slave of sin and the captive of the Devil—walking "according to
the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience" (Eph. 2 :2). This statement ought not to need arguing: it is a
common fact of human experience. Man is unable to realize his own aspirations
and materialize his own ideals. He cannot do the things that he would. There is
a moral inability which paralyzes him. This is proof positive that he is no free
man, but instead, the slave of sin and Satan. "Ye are of your father the Devil,
and the lusts (desires) of your father ye will do" (John 8:44). Sin is more than
an act or a series of acts; it is a state or condition: it is that which lies
behind and produces the acts. Sin has penetrated and permeated the whole of
man’s make-up. It has blinded the understanding, corrupted the heart, and
alienated the mind from God. And the will has not escaped. The will is under the
dominion of sin and Satan. Therefore, the will is not free. In short, the
affections love as they do and the will chooses as it does because of the state
of the heart, and because the heart is deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked "There is none that seeketh after God" (Rom. 3:11).

We repeat our question; Does it lie within the power of the sinner’s
will to yield himself up to God? Let us attempt an answer by asking several
others: Can water (of itself) rise above its own level? Can a clean thing come
out of an unclean? Can the will reverse the whole tendency and strain of human
nature? Can that which is under the dominion of sin originate that which is pure
and holy? Manifestly not. If ever the will of a fallen and depraved creature is
to move Godwards, a Divine power must be brought to bear upon it which will
overcome the influences of sin that pull in a counter direction. This is only
another way of saying, "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent
Me, draw him" (John 6:44). In other words, God’s people must be made willing in
the day of His power (Ps. 110:3). As said Mr. Darby, "If Christ came to save
that which is lost, free will has no place. Not that God prevents men from
receiving Christ—far from it. But even when God uses all possible inducements,
all that is capable of exerting influence in the heart of man, it only serves to
show that man will have none of it, that so corrupt is his heart, and so decided
his will not to submit to God (however much it may be the devil who encourages
him to sin) that nothing can induce him to receive the Lord, and to give up sin.
If by the words, ‘freedom of man,’ they mean that no one forces him to reject
the Lord, this liberty fully exists. But if it is said that, on account of the
dominion of sin, of which he is the slave, and that voluntarily, he cannot
escape from his condition, and make choice of the good—even while acknowledging
it to be good, and approving of it—then he has no liberty whatever. He is not subject to the law, neither indeed can be; hence, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. " The will is not sovereign; it is a servant, because influenced and controlled by the other faculties of man’s being. The sinner is not a free agent because he is a slave of sin—this was clearly implied in our Lord’s words, "If the Son shall therefore make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8:36). Man is a rational being and as such responsible and accountable to God, but to affirm that he is a free moral agent is to deny that he is totally depraved—i.e., depraved in will as in everything else. Because man’s will is governed by his mind and heart, and because these have been
vitiated and corrupted by sin, then it follows that if ever man is to turn or
move in a Godward direction, God Himself must work in him "both to will and to
do of His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). Man’s boasted freedom is in truth "the
bondage of corruption"; he "serves divers lusts and pleasures." Said a deeply
taught servant of God, "Man is impotent as to his will. He has no will favorable
to God. I believe in free will; but then it is a will only free to act according
to nature. A dove has no will to eat carrion; a raven has no will to
eat the clean food of the dove. Put the nature of the dove into the raven and it
will eat the food of the dove. Satan could have no will for holiness. We speak
it with reverence, God could have no will for evil. The sinner in his sinful
nature could never have a will according to God. For this he must be born again"
(J. Denham Smith). This is just what we have contended for throughout this
chapter—the will is regulated by the nature.

Among the "decrees" of the
Council of Trent (1563), which is the avowed standard of Popery, we find the
following:—

"If any one shall affirm, that man’s free-will, moved and
excited by God, does not, by consenting, co-operate with God, the mover and
exciter, so as to prepare and dispose itself for the attainment of
justification; if moreover, anyone shall say, that the human will cannot refuse
complying, if it pleases, but that it is inactive, and merely passive; let such
an one be accursed"!

"If anyone shall affirm, that since the fall of
Adam, man’s free-will is lost and extinguished; or, that it is a thing titular,
yea a name, without a thing, and a fiction introduced by Satan into the Church;
let such an one be accursed"!

Thus, those who today insist on the
free-will of the natural man believe precisely what Rome teaches on the subject!
That Roman Catholics and Arminians walk hand in hand may be seen from others of
the decrees issued by the Council of Trent:—"If any one shall affirm that a
regenerate and justified man is bound to believe that he is certainly in the
number of the elect (which, 1 Thess. 1:4, 5 plainly teaches. A.W.P.) let such an
one be accursed"! "If any one shall affirm with positive and absolute certainty,
that he shall surely have the gift of perseverance to the end (which John
10:28-30 assuredly guarantees, A.W.P.); let him be accursed"!

In order for any sinner to be saved three things were indispensable: God the Father had to purpose his salvation, God the Son had to purchase it, God the Spirit has to
apply it. God does more than "propose" to us: were He only to "invite", every
last one of us would be lost. This is strikingly illustrated in the Old
Testament. In Ezra 1:1-3 we read, "Now in the first year of Cyrus king of
Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled,
the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a
proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing saying, Thus
saith Cyrus king of Persia, the Lord God of heaven hath given me all the
kingdoms of the earth, and He hath charged me to build Him an house at
Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all His people? his God
be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and build the
house of the Lord God of Israel." Here was an "offer" made, made to a people in
captivity, affording them opportunity to leave and return to Jerusalem—God’s
dwelling-place. Did all Israel eagerly respond to this offer? No indeed. The
vast majority were content to remain in the enemy’s land. Only an insignificant
"remnant" availed themselves of this overture of mercy! And why did they? Hear
the answer of Scripture: "Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and
Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all whose spirit God had
stirred up, to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem" (Ezra
I :5) ! In like manner, God "stirs up" the spirits of His elect when the
effectual call comes to them, and not till then do they have any willingness to
respond to the Divine proclamation.

The superficial work of many of the professional evangelists of the last fifty years is largely responsible for the erroneous views now current upon the bondage of the natural man, encouraged by the laziness of those in the pew in their failure to "prove all things" (1 Thess. 5:21). The average evangelical pulpit conveys the impression that it lies wholly in the power of the sinner whether or not he shall be saved. It is said that "God has done His part, now man must do his." Alas, what can a lifeless man do, and man by nature is "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1)! If this were really believed, there would be more dependence upon the Holy Spirit to come in with His miracle-working power, and less confidence in our attempts to "win men for Christ."

When addressing the unsaved, preachers often draw an
analogy between God’s sending of the Gospel to the sinner, and a sick man in
bed, with some healing medicine on a table by his side: all he needs to do is
reach forth his hand and take it. But in order for this illustration to be in
any wise true to the picture which Scripture gives us of the fallen and depraved
sinner, the sick man in bed must be described as one who is blind (Eph. 4:18) so
that he cannot see the medicine, his hand paralyzed (Rom. 5:6) so that he is
unable to reach forth for it, and his heart not only devoid of all confidence in
the medicine but filled with hatred against the physician himself (John 15:18).
O what superficial views of man’s desperate plight are now entertained! Christ came here not to help those who were willing to help themselves, but to do for His people what they were incapable of doing for themselves: "To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house" (Isa. 42:7).

Now in conclusion let us
anticipate and dispose of the usual and inevitable objection—Why preach the
Gospel if man is powerless to respond? Why bid the sinner come to Christ if sin
has so enslaved him that he has no power in himself to come? Reply:—We do not
preach the Gospel because we believe that men are free moral agents, and
therefore capable of receiving Christ, but we preach it because we are commanded
to do so (Mark 16:15); and though to them that perish it is foolishness, yet,
"unto us which are saved it is the power of God" (1 Cor. 1:18). "The foolishness
of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men" (1 Cor.
1:25). The sinner is dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1), and a dead man is
utterly incapable of willing anything, hence it is that "they that are in the
flesh (the unregenerate) cannot please God" (Rom. 8:8).

To fleshly wisdom it appears the height of folly to preach the Gospel to those that are dead, and therefore beyond the reach of doing anything themselves. Yes, but
God’s ways are different from ours. It pleases God "by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" (1 Cor. 1:21). Man may deem it folly to prophesy to "dead bones" and to say unto them, "O, ye dry bones, hear the Wordof the Lord" (Ezek. 37:4). Ah! but then it is the Word of the Lord, and the words He speaks "they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). Wise men
standing by the grave of Lazarus might pronounce it an evidence of insanity when
the Lord addressed a dead man with the words, "Lazarus, Come forth." Ah! but He
who thus spake was and is Himself the Resurrection and the Life, and at His word
even the dead live! We go forth to preach the Gospel, then, not because we
believe that sinners have within themselves the power to receive the Saviour it
proclaims, but because the Gospel itself is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believeth, and because we know that "as many as were ordained to
eternal life" (Acts 13:48), shall believe (John 6:37; 10:16—note the "shall’s"!)
in God’s appointed time, for it is written, "Thy people shall be willing in the
day of Thy power" (Ps. 110:3)!

What we have set forth in this chapter is
not a product of "modern thought"; no indeed, it is at direct variance with it.
It is those of the past few generations who have departed so far from the
teachings of their scripturally-instructed fathers. In the thirty-nine Articles
of the Church of England we read, "The condition of man after the fall of Adam
is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and
good works to faith, and calling upon God: Wherefore we have no power to do good
works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ
preventing us (being before-hand with us), that we may have a good will, and
working with us, when we have that good will" (Article 10). In the Westminster
Catechism of Faith (adopted by the Presbyterians) we read, "The sinfulness of
that state whereinto man fell, consisteth in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the
wont of that righteousness wherein he was created, and the corruption of his
nature, whereby he is utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite unto all
that is spiritually good, and wholly inclined to all evil, and that continually"
(Answer to question 25). So in the Baptists’ Philadelphian Confession of Faith,
1742, we read, "Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all
ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural
man, being altogether averse from good, and dead in sin, is not able by his own
strength to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto" (Chapter 9)...

...In what does the sinner’s freedom consist? The sinner is ‘free’ in the
sense of being unforced from without. God never forces the sinner to sin. But
the sinner is not free to do either good or evil, because an evil heart within
is ever inclining him toward sin. Let us illustrate what we have in mind. I hold
in my hand a book. I release it; what happens? It falls. In which direction?
Downwards; always downwards. Why? Because, answering the law of gravity, its own weight sinks it. Suppose I desire that book to occupy a position three feet
higher; then what? I must lift it; a power outside of that book must raise it.
Such is the relationship which fallen man sustains toward God. Whilst Divine
power upholds him, he is preserved from plunging still deeper into sin; let that
power be withdrawn, and he falls—his own weight (of sin) drags him down. God
does not push him down, anymore than I did that book. Let all Divine restraint
be removed, and every man is capable of becoming, would become, a Cain, a
Pharaoh, a Judas. How then is the sinner to move heavenwards? By an act of his
own will? Not so. A power outside of himself must grasp hold of him and lift him
every inch of the way. The sinner is free, but free in one direction only—free
to fall, free to sin. As the Word expresses it: "For when ye were the servants
of sin, ye were free from righteousness" (Rom. 6:20). The sinner is free to do
as he pleases, always as he pleases (except as he is restrained by God), but his
pleasure is to sin.

(from the footnotes of the book)
The doctrine of inability does not assume that man has ceased to
be a free moral agent. He is free because he determines his own acts. Every
violation is an act of free self-determination. He is a moral agent because
he has the consciousness of moral obligation, and whenever he sins he acts
freely against the convictions of conscience or the precepts of the moral
law.
It is often assumed that man cannot be held responsible for his response to
the Gospel unless he is capable of choosing Christ; thus it is
generally taken for granted that "freewill" and human responsibility are
synonymous and that you cannot deny one without denying the other. On the
basis of this confusion the Reformed Faith is frequently charged with not doing
justice to man's responsibility because it denies his "freewill." The
Biblical and Reformed view of man's responsibility is in fact much more profound
than the popular Arminian conception. man is responsible not merely for his
will, but for his whole nature, and as long as his nature remains what sin
(not God) has made it, he "receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God" (1
Corinthians 2:14) and he "will not come" to Christ that he might have life (John
5:40). Consequently, while it is every man's duty to receive Christ, it is only
the will of a man renewed in his nature by the Holy Spirit that responds to the
Gospel.

Here are some great videos with more information on this topic:

Isn't It Enough?

2007-12-23T23:28:00.000-05:00

No words are needed for this...just watch.

"Can You Be Alone?"

2007-12-19T18:40:00.000-05:00

"If I could look back and point out one thing I see in common with men and women of God, it is their willingness to be shut up to God."

"Very rarely will you find a young man or a even man of God who will separate himself from all his playmates and just be alone with God."

-Paul Washer

If Christ Be Not Raised, Our Faith is Vain

2007-12-16T01:12:00.000-05:00

1 Corinthians 15:17
"And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins."

vain:
μάταιος
mataios
mat'-ah-yos

empty, that is, (literally) profitless, or (specifically) an idol: - vain, vanity.
1) devoid of force, truth, success, result
2) useless, of no purpose

"Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead." 2 Timothy 2:8
"The opening verses of the second chapter of the Second Epistle to Timothy are in essence a comprehensive exhortation to faithfulness. The apostle Paul was lying imprisoned at Rome, with expectation of no other issue than death. The infant Church had fallen upon perilous times. False teachers were assailing the very essence of the Gospel. Defection had invaded the innermost circle of the apostle's companions. Treachery had attacked his own person. Over against all these dreadful manifestations of impending destruction, he strenuously exhorts his own son in faith, Timothy, to steadfast faithfulness. Faithfulness to himself, faithfulness to the cause he had at heart, faithfulness to the truth as he preached it, faithfulness to Jesus Christ, their common Redeemer and Lord.

The temptations to unfaithfulness by which Timothy was assailed were very numerous and very specious. Many good men had fallen and were falling victims to them. The perverted teachings of the errorists of the day were urged with a great show of learning and with eminent plausibility. And they were announced with fine scorn which openly declared that only dull wits could rest in the crude ideas with which Paul had faced the world-- and lost. The sword of persecution had been ruthlessly unsheathed, and sufferings and a cruel death watched in the way of those who would fain walk in the path Paul had broken out. It seemed as if the whole fabric which the apostle had built up at such cost of labour and pain was about to fall about his ears.

Paul does not for a moment, however, lose courage, either for himself, or for his faithful followers. But neither does he seek to involve Timothy unwittingly in the difficulties and dangers in which he found himself. He rather bids him first of all to count the whole cost. And then he points him to a source of strength which will supply all his needs. We called the passage an exhortation. We might better call it, more sepcifically, an encouragement. And the encouragement culminates in a very remarkable sentence. This sentence is pregnant enough to reveal at once the central thought of Paul's Gospel and the citadel of his own strength. Amid all the surrounding temptations, all the encompassing dangers, Paul bids Timothy to bear in mind, as the sufficing source of abounding strength, the great central doctrine, --or rather, let us say, the great centract fact-- of his preaching, of his faith, of his life. And he enunciates this great fact, in these words: Jesus Christ raised from the dead, of the seed of David.

...Paul bids Timothy in the midst of all the beseting perplexities and dangers which encompassed him to strenthen his heart by hearing constantly in remembrance, not Jesus Christ simpliciter, but Jesus Christ conceived specifically as the Lord of the Universe, who has been dead, but now lives again and abides for ever in the power of an endless life...

It is not to be overlooked, of course, that Paul adverts to the resurrection of Christ here with his mind absorbed not so much in the act of His rising as in its issues. "Bear in mind," he says,"Jesus Christ, as one who has been raised from the dead": that is to say, as one who could not be holden of the grave, but has burst the bonds of death, and lo! He lives for evermore. But neither can it be overlooked that it is specifically to the resurrection, which is an act, that he adverts; and that he adverts to it in such a manner as to make it manifest that the fact of the resurrection of Christ held a place in his Gospel which deserves to be called nothing less than central...To Paul, it is clear, the resurrection of Christ was the hinge on which turned all his hopes and all his confidence, in life and also in death...

It is through the power exerted by His resurrection that His saving work takes effect on men. That is to say, Paul discovers the centre of gravity of the Christian hope no less than of the Christian faith in the fact of the resurrection of Christ. And of the Christian life as well. From the great fact that Christ has risen from the dead, preceed all the influences by which Christians are made in life and attainments, here and hereafter, like him.

O the comfort, O the joy, O the courage, that dwells in the great fact that Jesus is the Risen One, of the seed of David; that as the Risen One He has become Head over all things; and that He must reign unil He shall have put all things under His feet."

-B.B. Warfield from "The Risen Christ "

*I pray that the fact that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead will
encourage you just as it encouraged Timothy in Paul's second epistle to him.
Let it be your strength as you endure the tribulations and laborings for
Christ in the midst of a fallen world.
Also, here is a great video from Paul Washer on this subject:

The Sovereignty of God

2007-12-14T17:43:00.000-05:00

-An excerpt from the book "The Sovereignty of God" by A.W. Pink

The "Sovereignty of God" is an expression that once was generally understood. It was a phrase commonly used in religious literature. It was a theme frequently expounded in the pulpit. It was a truth which brought comfort to many hearts, and gave virility and stabilty to Christian character. But, today, to make mention of God's sovereignty is, in many quarters, to speak in an unknown tongue. Were we to announce from the average pulpit that the subject of our discourse would be the soverignty of God, it would sound very much as though we had borrowed a phrase from one of the dead languages. Alas! that is should be so. Alas! that the doctrine which is the key to history, the interpreter of Providence, the warp of woof of Scripture, and the foundation of Christian theology, should be so sadly neglected and so little understood.

The sovereignty of God! What do we mean by this expression? We mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the Godhood of God. To say that God is sovereign is to declare that God is God. To say that God is sovereign is to declare that He is the Most High, doing according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, so that none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest Thou? (Daniel 4:35). To say that God is sovereign is to declare that He is the Almighty, the possessor of all power in heaven and earth, so that none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purposes, or resist His will (Psalms 115:3). To say that God is sovereign is to declare that He is "The Governor among the nations" (Psalms 22:28), setting up kingdoms, over throwing empires, and determining the course of dynasties as pleaseth Him best. To say that God is sovereign is to declare that He is the "Only Potentate, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords" (1Timothy 6:15). Such is the God of the Bible.

How different is the God of the Bible from the God of modern Christendom! The conception of Deity which prevails most widely today, even among those who profess to give heed to the Scriptures, is a miserable caricature, a pathetic travesty of the Truth. The God of the twentieth century is a helpless, effeminate being who commands the respect of no really thoughtful man. The God of the popular mind is the creation of maudlin sentimentality. The God of many a present-day pulpit is an object of pity rather than of awe-inspiring reverence. To say that God the Father has purposed the salvation of all mankind, that God the Son died with the express intention of saving the whole human race, and that God the Holy Spirit is now seeking to win the world to Christ; when, as a matter of common observation, it is apparant that the great majority of our fellow-men are dying in sin, and passing into a hopeless eternity: is to say that God the Father is disappointed, that God the Son is dissatisfied, and that God the Holy Spirit is defeated. We have stated the issue baldly, but there is no escaping the conclusion. To argue that God is "trying His best" to save all mankind, but that the majority of men will not let Him save them, is to imply that the will of the Creator is impotent, and that the will of the creature in omnipotent. To throw the blame, as many do, upon the Devil, does not remove the difficulty, for if Satan is defeating the purpose of God, then Satan is Almighty and God is no longer the Supreme Being.

To declare that the Creator's original plan has been frustrated by sin, is to dethrone God. To suggest that God was taken by surprise in Eden and that He is now attempting to remedy an unforeseen calamity, is to degrade the Most High to the level of a finite, erring mortal. To argue that man is the sole determiner of his own destiny, and that therefore he has the power to checkmate his Maker, is to strip God of the attribute of Omnipotence. To say that the creature has burst the bounds assigned by his Creator, and that God is now practically a hopeless Spectator of the sin and suffering entailed by Adam's fall, is to repudiate the express declaration of Holy Writ, namely, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain" (Psalms 76:10). In a word, to deny the sovereignty of God is to enter upon a path which, if followed to its logical terminus, leads to blank atheism.

The sovereignty of the God of Scripture is absolute, irresistible, infinite. When you say that God is sovereign, we affirm His right to govern the universe, which He has made for His own glory, just as He pleases. We affirm that His right is the right of the Potter over the clay, viz: that He may mould that clay into whatsoever form He chooses, fashioning out of the same lump one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour. We affirm that He is under no rule or law outside His own will and nature, that God is a law unto Himself, and that He is under no obligation to give an account of His matters to any."

-Arthur W. Pink

O God, Hear My Cry

2007-12-08T00:30:00.000-05:00

The only thing bringing me comfort right now is scripture, so I thought I would share.

Psalm 4
Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: you have delivered me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.

O you sons of men, how long will you turn my glory into shame? how long will you love vanity, and seek after falsehood? Selah.

But know that the LORD has set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him.

Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD.

There are many that say, Who will show us any good? LORD, lift up the light of your countenance upon us.

You have put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their grain and their wine increased.

I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for you, LORD, only make me dwell in safety.

Spurgeon's Spiritual Journey

2007-12-07T22:37:00.000-05:00

"When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this. I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths in my own soul - when they were as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron; and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown all of a sudden from a babe into a man - that I had made progress in scriptural knowledge, through having found, once for all, the clue to the truth of God ... I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, I ascribe my change wholly to God."

-Charles Spurgeon, Autobiography: 1, The Early Years, Banner of Truth, pp. 164-165

This was like reading a page ripped straight out of my biography. God is so good.

"We declare on scriptural authority that the human will is so desperately set on mischief, so depraved, so inclined to everything that is evil, and so disinclined to everything that is good, that without the powerful, supernatural, irresistible influence of the Holy Spirit, no human will ever be constrained toward Christ."
- Charles Spurgeon

No Really, You are NOT Going to Believe This....

2007-12-05T16:13:00.000-05:00

Scenario: A couple of days ago it was 4 o'clock in the morning and I was pulling an all-nighter studying for two of my finals the next day. One of those which happened to be my "Television and the American Family" class. One of the chapters that I was studying in my textbook was on how television influences religion in our society. AND GUYS, I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP....right there in the middle of the night with my eyes getting real heavy, there it was...the passage that woke me up straight out of my bed and on to my feet. Take a look...and keep in mind this is from my textbook...

It may be that the mere presence of television as a medium has altered all religion in subtle but profound ways, so much so that the perceived reality about religion will never be the same agian. In his provacative book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman (1985) argued that television has radically reshaped practically everything about our lives. One domain that has been greatly changed is religion, in ways that go far beyond the Sunday broadcasts and the TV evangelists. Postman argued that, because TV is, at heart, entertainement, then the preacher is the star performer, and "God comes out as second banana" (p.117). Although Christianity has always been "a demanding and serious religion," its TV version can acquire its needed share of the audience "only by offering people something they want" (p.121), which is hardly historical Biblical Christianity. Furthermore, Postman argues, TV is such a fundamentally secular medium that religious TV uses many of the same symbols and formats (e.g., The 700 Club was modeled after Entertainement Tonight).

Thus, TV preachers are stars attractive and affluent just like movie stars. Worship on TV is not participatory; the audence can sit at home and absorb, but cannot have the corporate worship experience of group singing, praying, or liturgy. Although a church may be considered holy ground where people act with reverence, there is no comparable sacred space when watching church on TV at home, where one can sit in dirty underwear drinking beer and eating pizza during the sermon.

Postman argued that, as more and more religious services are broadcast on TV and as pastors are more acquainted with the television medium, the "danger is not that religion has become the content of television shows but that television has become the content of religion" (p.124). Pastors become concerned about providing the kind of worship conducive to television, even if the service is not being televised. Congregations subtly expect to be entertained, even amused. Worship services have jazz music, rap liturgy, and computerized multimedia presentations. One church ran a full-page ad touting its contemporary Saturday evening service called "Church Lite" for college students who wanted to sleep in on Sunday. Other churches use Sunday school curricula like "The Gospel According to the Simpsons" or "The Gospel According to Harry Potter." A Baptist church in Arkansas hired Wacky World Studios in Tampa for a $279,000 makeover of a former chapel into "Toon Town," with buzzers and confetti that explode during joyful celebrations like baptisms; the Sunday school attendance doubled (Labi, 2002). Is this creative reaching out to people in mission or selling one's soul on the altar of popular culture? The answer is not always obvious.

Places of worship have no particular sacred character, because one can worship through TV while at home. One congregation worships regularly in a former roller rink, another in an old laundromat, whereas yet another rents space on Sunday mornings in a large university classroom. There is no sense of the sacred, as was found most strikingly in the magnificent cathedrals of Europe. Thus, behavior in the house of worship is no different than it is anywhere else. Has television contributed to this change?

Wow. Folks, this is a class at the University of Florida. We may win a sports championship here and there but we sure as heck don't win theological debates and we certainly wouldn't be considered anything less than a liberal school. This wasn't an article I copied from an, oh what are they calling them these days..."over-religious, Pharisaical blogging-coward." Nope. Straight from the mouth of Richard Jackson Harris in his book A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communication. Even the psychologists are picking up on what most of American Christianity is letting happen right before their eyes. He did a FANTASTIC job of pointing out the danger and absurdity of the "emergent" philosophy of "let's just get them here in any way that we can!" There are consequences of that, and it usually results in the compromising of truth. Harris said it himself, the only way to get the needed audience (or as we have heard by leaders of these places referred to as "their numbers") is to offer what it is their audience wants...and well, let's be honest that usually isn't to hear they are a sinner and that without Christ they are storing up for themselves jars of wrath from a Holy and righteous God. The Gospel of Jesus Christ of the scriptures was a very offensive thing to the world 2007 years ago, so offensive in fact that they killed Him. So we must ask what Richard Harris asks in his book: have we sold our souls to the altar of pop culture in order to become friends with the world? Do you see the danger?

Many people will read this and call me judgmental, but I'm seriously just calling it like it is. As the church becomes more and more like the world, its hard to point out which is which....and as Richard Harris proves right here, it doesn't take a John MacArthur or a R.C. Sproul to see it. America is doing an excellent job of letting pop culture infiltrate the very doors of the church (little "c"). I am not saying that in order for a church to grow and be big that they must be doing something wrong (nor do I think it is wrong for a church to meet in a rented out space), I am simply saying when the cases in which they do so involves conforming to this world, it is doing the very thing that God hates. But despite all of this, God has and will continue to preserve and protect His Church (big "C") in the midst of a world that insists on exchanging a truth for a lie, and for that I am very grateful.

Test for Biblical Assurance- Paul Washer

2007-12-05T04:13:00.000-05:00

5 of the most amazing sermons by Paul Washer on Biblical Assurance of Salvation...

OH MY GOSH STOP FORCE FEEDING ME EVOLUTION PLEASE!

2007-12-03T13:23:00.000-05:00

I DON'T BELIEVE IN EVOLUTION!!!! AHHH AND IF I HAVE TO ANSWER ONE MORE QUESTION ABOUT IT ON MY WILDLIFE EXAM I'M GOING TO GO INSANE! EVERY TIME I HAVE TO ANSWER A QUESTION ABOUT IT I HAVE TO ASSUME THAT ITS TRUE IN ORDER TO ANSWER IT, RIGHT? SO DOES THIS MEAN THAT I AM DENYING TRUTH JUST SO I CAN GET A GOOD GRADE?? THIS IS AWFUL. LORD WILLING, I ONLY HAVE ONE MORE DAY OF IT, BUT IT DOESN'T TAKE AWAY THE LAST 3 MONTHS OF DAMAGE. MY JAW LINE DID NOT EVOLVE FROM THAT OF AN AMPHIBEANS'....PERIOD.

Realizing Truth- Alone on a Friday Night

2007-12-01T16:28:00.000-05:00

Here is something that I wrote last night while out late by myself...I'm sharing it with you in hopes that you will find the Truth of God and be encouraged...even if it's just one person whose life is pointed away from sin and unto Christ, it is well worth it to me.

It's about 11:30 at night and I'm sitting outside of the Starbucks in Gainesville, FL and I have this incredible burning to write. It's like the Lord is revealing so much to me my pencil has no chance of keeping up. It's a Friday night and I'm right next door to a liquor store that is in plain view. I can see streams of college students trickling in buying what they hope will finally bring them that happiness they long for. They are hopeless; it's really hard to just sit here. Thank you, Lord, for keeping me and protecting me from all of that junk. Many people look at me and say, "man, that girl is out on a Friday night by herself reading a book- what a loser." But the Lord is doing something incredible for me right now because I can honestly say I don't care. No really, I don't care. For years I professed those very words, but deep down I struggled between living a life that serves Christ in truth and in Spirit and a life that just "appears" to. Thank goodnes the truth ALWAYS comes to the light, and thank goodness it came now while I was still on this earth to repent than when I met my Maker and it was too late.

Earlier tonight, on my way home from Bible study I was overcome with the presence of the Lord in my car. I'm serious, it was like all of a sudden I felt him take me into his hands and holding me so tight that all the lies from the world were shut out. It was an impenetratable fortress. It was like I finally realized, by the Grace of God, that I can serve Christ and not have to worry about what anybody says or thinks of me as a result. The Lord says it is impossible to serve 2 masters- and WOW is that true. So let me explain. It's Friday night and I'm overcome by this drawing from the Lord into His presence- to the point where I wanted nothing other than to just spend the rest of the night with Him, alone, just basking in His holy presence. Normally I would think to myself, "But its a Friday night, aren't I supposed to hang out with my roommates or teammates? You know, I don't really have THAT many friends here in FLA and it's probably because I'm not out interacting enough, I should go out and try to meet some new people." OR "What if my family calls and I tell them that I spent my Friday night with my pencil and paper and a Book and, oh yeah, the LORD." It will just confirm to everyone for the millionth time that I've changed and I'm not the same "Susan" that they knew not too long ago. Because that Susan didn't ever seem to be lacking anything, especially friends or things to occupy her time with. So usually I find myself right back into contemplating those statements and trying to deny all the truth the Lord has revealed in my life. I think back to all the times, now, that I denied truth in order to keep "peace" and I seriously get physically sick. I realized tonight that I've been serving the wrong master.

But also, tonight my thought process was different. While those thoughts entered my mind, they did so with a flash of light that exposed them for what they really were: lies. So instead, I found myself looking around out of my car window and finding no comfort whatsoever in the things of the world. I was right by a movie theater at the time and the sight of it made me sad- sad that I would ever go there hoping it would fulfill any longing I had in me. Because isn't that what we do? Movies, hanging out with friends, going out to dinner and bars- don't people do that stuff in hopes of fulfilling something in their lives? Even if its just so it takes up enough of their evening to keep them from being alone and having to deal with Truth and with reality. I'm not condemning hanging out with friends, I'm condemning the act of idolizing and worshipping the act of distracting yourself from the Truth. I mean think about it....how incredibly DANGEROUS!

So there I was- probably one of the most single-minded passion-filled moments I had ever had thus far in my 20 years of life. My passion was single- no not perfectly because I still manage to muddy up even my most pure thoughts with my depraved thoughts and nature. But in that moment I felt like my mind was so heavenly minded that the world was going to swallow me up. But at the same time the Lord was right there, protecting me and reminding me that I shouldn't act so surprised. He has already told me this would happen. It's right there for me to read in His Word.

So while the world says, "Sue, just go watch a movie and find something fun to do" the Lord says, "Sue, follow me." I was set free. I was set free from the lie that I have to cater to the world while I still try to please Christ. Impossible. It can't be done and it is a path of sin that leads straight to death. If the Lord called me EVERY NIGHT to dedicate my time to enjoying His presence then that is what I am to do. Not do it some of the time and still try to maintain the ties to this world. I'm not saying we withdraw out from this world because it is the Lord's will for us to be "in" it but not "of" it and we have a duty to love others by telling them the truth of Jesus Christ. What I'm talking about is serving man over God. I'm talking about not being obedient to God because you are too busy being a slave to the world. I'm talking about how all this time I didn't let God do with me what he wanted because part of me wanted to make sure I tended to my "earthly" duties first. Well the result is sin everytime. The result was a girl who denies truth in order to keep peace with the world and that is enough to lead you straight into Hell. So tonight I let go of the lie that I should fear what people think when I choose time with the Lord over the distractions of the world. And those "distractions", while most are perfectly ok in the right timing, are sin 100% of the time if you are denying what the Lord has for you during that time instead.

If you were to compare me to the person I was a year ago, wow, words can't even describe it. I'm afraid of what actually would have come out of my mouth if asked about some of the foundational DOCTRINES and TRUTHS that the Bible stands on. Sure I could have given you most of the right words to say- which was a horrible thing because no one ever dug deeper than the surface of those words to find out what really lied beneath. It is because of that right there that I am so grateful that the Lord chose to reveal truth to me and to deliver me from that bondage. He brought me to my knees and showed just exactly how deceitful and wicked I really was. Once I saw I was wretched, and naked, and poor, well, it forced me to look outside of myself for a remedy- and there stood Christ beckoning me to come. It is for this very reason that I cringe when people ignorantly say stuff about Doctrine not being important, or the oh so famous "doctrine divides" comment. Your exactly right. Doctrine divides the True followers of Christ from the professing ones, and if it wasn't for the truths that come from studying such Biblical doctrines, well, I would have been stuck right where I was in serving mammon (more info on this topic here). I thank GOD that someone took the time to dig past my facade and expose truth to me. It is that kind of love that I am a debtor to because that is the love of Christ- and that is what allows lives to be changed through the renewal of minds. I don't have to hide it...I'M NOT THE SAME PERSON I WAS A YEAR AGO and that is just simple truth. So why I try to deny it and act like I am, I have no idea. Well, yes I do, it is because of the sin inside of me. But I know that Susan Yenser of old might have looked like she had it all together (tons of friends, basketball scholarship, popularity, cultural Christianity) but let me tell you- I was enslaved to the ways of the world and it took Christ's light to reveal to me just how miserable I truly was. I looked like I had it all but indeed I had nothing, because without Christ there is nothing to be had. Now I have Christ, the true Christ of the Bible, and He is everything I will ever need. And it is now those very things that 'made' me then, such as a scholarship to play basketball at the University of Florida that I lay at the foot of the cross and ask the Lord to use for His glory, not so that I can be on top of my own selfish throne. And He is faithful to strip all the stuff that I had only to consume for my own lusts out of my life. Remember that next time you pray for the Lord to reign in your life, because it just might actually happen, and it is a beautiful thing but foolishness to the world. The Lord has separated me unto Himself- so therein lies my loyalty and duty. I'm not naive enough to say that I will never struggle with this again because I know my heart and I know it wanders full speed away from a holy God, but I pray the Lord will remind me of tonight anytime I start answering to man instead of God. Because the sweetness of a single-passion for the righteousness of God was so real to me tonight it repulses me to think I would ever depart from it.

So I sit here tonight, alone and content on a Friday night. Enjoying the quietness and fellowship with the God that created me. And Lord, I pray for those that may be going through the same thing right now. Maybe they too are alone and seeking you instead of comfort from the world. Protect them from lies Lord, and comfort them in such a way that they are content with spending time with You, and You alone. Keep their passion single, and help them shut out the patronizing of the worldlings. Thank you Lord. There is nothing in me that is worthy of this calling, but through the righteousness of Christ I can pursue a life that is pleasing to you. Amen.

I Am A Debtor

2007-11-27T19:40:00.000-05:00

Romans 1:14-17
"I am a debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith."

I read these verses today and Paul's words really hit me. Paul truly lived his life as a debtor...but a debtor of what? Love. He lived his life as if he owed everyone love. True love. Love that can only come from Christ. Guys, there is only one way to love someone, and that is to share the ultimate love of Christ with them. Do you understand that we owe it to people to be ready at all times to preach Christ? Does it sink in that we are to be like Paul, unashamed to proclaim Christ to anyone and everyone that he came across? Christ loves us so much that He died on the cross and paid OUR price for sins. It was completely undeserved and now we must live as debtors of that love. We are to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and minds but that is much easier when you are reminded of the debt that He paid for you. So now Paul says he is a debtor to the Greeks, Barbarians, the wise, and the unwise...to everyone! There isn't anybody out there that doesn't fit that criteria. You owe it to the most hard hearted of people to share Christ with them and offer reconciliation of their sinful separated lives with a Holy God. You owe it to your co-worker and your family. I owe it to my teammates and to my coaches and strength coach. I owe it to the person that sits next to me on the plane. I owe it to everyone, and that is regardless of the response that I get. I am called to share the Gospel, the Good News, and it is up to God to do the work. The power lies within the Gospel, not me and not you. The Bible says it right there in those verses. "It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes!" You never know when one of God's elect is sitting right in front of you and is waiting to hear the Word of God so that they may believe it! This is what John Calvin started to realize as he would preach on Sundays: there are some people who hear the Word and fall asleep in boredom and there are those that are on the edge of their seats yearning to hear more. Why is this, he came to ask....BECAUSE it is a work of God in someone that allows them to believe the Gospel and to hear it and be born again. And it is us that God uses to deliver that message. Paul makes it very clear in those couple verses that it is our job to bring the Good News to people, regardless of the circumstances. As debtors to Christ, it is love that we must show the world. And what better way to love someone than to tell them the truth?

I pray that the Lord will give us boldness to be unashamed of the Gospel of Christ and to realize that it is the power of God unto salvation. These few verses from Romans were a great wake up call for me today, as well as an encouragement. I pray they were the same for you. The just shall live by faith. Take that in, and God bless.

The Comforter

2007-11-25T02:11:00.000-05:00

An excerpt from C.H. Spurgeon's sermon "The Comforter":

Then mark, how safe a Comforter the Holy Ghost is. All comfort is not safe, mark that. There is a young man over there very melancholy. You know how he became so. He stepped into the house of God and heard a powerful preacher, and the word was blessed, and convinced him of sin. When he went home, his father and the rest found there was something different about him, "Oh," they said, "John is mad, he is crazy;" and what said his mother? "Send him into the country for a week; let him go to the ball or the theatre." John, did you find any comfort there? "Ah no; they made me worse, for while I was there I thought hell might open and swallow me up." Did you find any relief in the gayeties of the world? "No," say you, "I thought it was idle waste of time." Alas! this is miserable comfort, but it is the comfort of the worldling; and, when a Christian gets into distress, how many will recommend him this remedy and the other. "Go and hear Mr. So-and-so preach;" "have a few friends at you house;" "Read such-and-such a consoling volume;" and very likely it is the most unsafe advice in the world. The devil will sometimes come to men's souls as a false comforter; and he will say to the soul, "What need is there to make all this ado about repentance? you are no worse than other people;" and he will try to make the soul believe, that what is presumption, is the real assurance of the Holy Ghost; thus he deceives many by false comfort. Ah! there have been many, like infants, destroyed by elixirs, given to lull them to sleep; many have been ruined by the cry of "peace, peace," when there is no peace; hearing gentle things, when they ought to be stirred to the quick. Cleopatra's asp was brought in a basket of flowers; and men's ruin often lurks in fair and sweet speeches. But the Holy Ghost's comfort is safe, and you may rest on it. Let him speak the word, and there is a reality about it; let him give the cup of consolation, and you may drink it to the bottom; for in its depths there are no dregs, nothing to intoxicate or ruin, it is all safe.

I'm Totally Depraved (GASP!)

2007-11-18T02:12:00.000-05:00

“Repentance is to leave the sins we loved before
and show that we in earnest grieve by doing so no more.”

I am overwhelmed today with the faithfulness of the Lord. Words are really incapable of describing this, but I guess I will try nonetheless. These past two weeks of my life have been characterized with a dwindling passion for the things of the Lord, and as awful as it sounds, I see now the Providence of the Lord shining bright as ever through it all. Let me explain: about a year ago the Lord awoke my heart to righteousness and began to convict me greatly about the way I was living. Suddenly my nights and bedside prayers were turned into great wailings to the Lord begging for forgiveness and crying out for Him to save me from my iniquities. All the pride, all the selfishness, all the unbelief was being exposed for what it really was, and it was one of the hardest times, but more than that, it was one of the greatest. The godly sorrow was leading me into repentance, and repentance led me to salvation, and the Lord revealed to me what it really means to repent and believe the gospel (something that I had heard all my life, but obviously never truly understood.) This time of my life was marked by the bitter sweet taste of repentance and the indescribable faith that follows. The Lord opened my eyes to things that can only be seen by the grace of God, and I learned that my faith and repentance truly were dependable on the GIFT of the Lord. He showed me that in my own strength and power I am 100% incapable of seeking Him.

(side note: This is why I hate the self-esteem gospel! Had I continued to listen to everyone out there that says that it is wrong to walk around thinking negative thoughts about yourself, then I would have NEVER EVER in a million years come to the conclusion of the magnitude of the fact that I am a GREAT sinner who has sinned against a Holy and righteous and PERFECT God and that I am incapable of doing a thing on my own to take care of that. I would have never come to the realization that what I was professing and what I was doing did not match up. The seeker-sensitive movement would have never led me into repentance because it would have been considered too harsh to tell a person who looked like a great Christian on the outside that they needed to examine themselves. Look folks, I‘ve been there…I‘ve done that, and if it wasn‘t for hard-Biblical truth being preached who knows what I would be writing about today. Probably about basketball practice and what I was going to eat for dinner. Repentance leads to salvation….and it needs to be preached that way. The Lord is so good to have opened my eyes. So when I think about what some people out there are being taught, I get so sad. Yes, I am reminded that I was there once too, and I need to remember the grace that the Lord showed me during that time, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t expose it. Had it not been exposed to me then I would still be in that state, you see?)

Ok back to this. About two weeks or so ago I began to get comfortable and complacent in my walk. I’m not saying that I am not capable of falling into complacency in my faith at any point during the course of a day, because I am, it’s just that this particular time started a couple weeks ago. Suddenly my passion wasn’t single anymore and I was letting the things of everyday life distract me from my duties to Christ like I had done pretty much the first 20 years of my life. It was like I could feel my mind becoming more and more worldly in thought by the minute. You would think red flags would have gone up and I would have crushed these thoughts of unbelief immediately, but that didn’t happen. Yes the red flags went up, and yes I was aware of what was happening, but it was like I was completely helpless of doing anything about it. Things that I used to savor such as reading the Word or spending time in prayer were all of a sudden things that were overlooked with ease. The difference this time around though: I HATED THIS. For some reason the Lord was making me perfectly aware of what was happening instead of it just blinding me and taking over. No, I knew what was happening, and it was tearing me up. The main thing that I could pinpoint was I had lost my fear of the Lord. And with that, I realized the truth in Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Because without the fear of the Lord I was left with nothing. My thoughts and my actions are left to the consumption of my own lusts if I don’t have the fear of the Lord. I wasn’t ignorant to Satan’s device, so it made me even more frustrated that I was not overcoming this. So I was left with no other option but to cry out to the Lord to deliver me from this. I did it earnestly and in pain because I wanted so badly to return to how it was before. Get this: I was begging for the reigns of the Lord to be put back on me. I was CRAVING his discipline because I had tasted it for the past year and I realized how GREAT it was. Fun at the time? No. But glorious afterwards? YES.

Job 36:10 He opens also their ear to discipline, and commands that they return from iniquity.
Job 5:17 "Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.
Proverbs 12:1 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. (ESV)

This reminds me of something that Paul Washer said in a sermon. He said that becoming a Christian does not mean that you start to do the righteous things that you hate and stop doing the unrighteous things that you love. No way, your desires are changed and you no longer WANT to do the unrighteous things and you CRAVE the holy righteous things of the Lord.
So as I cried out the Lord to deliver me from the darkness, the Lord seemed to do anything BUT that. Day after day it was the same thing. I kept reading in Lamentations 3:26 “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.” But it didn’t seem to be doing me any good!

Oh me of little faith.

I’m sure that you all have heard something about how unconfessed sin can cause a barrier between you and the Lord. I have heard it plenty of times. Well, now I know that it is true. This past week was a big week for me. Some sins that were in my life were brought to the light and the result was repenting from the horrible act of disobeying God’s law. Some sins I had realized before but crept back into, and some of them that I was completely blind to altogether. At least, blind enough to not deal with them. And while I find myself asking, “Why would I do that?!” I don’t have to look very far for the answer because it’s right there in the Bible screaming at me. Men love darkness. It’s true. And even though I have been born again and become a new creation in Christ, dieing to my flesh and putting on the righteousness of Christ with the Spirit living within me….my flesh still loves darkness. And I will struggle with my flesh from now until the last day when I meet my Almighty Creator. I am no longer a slave to it, however, because Jesus Christ is risen and is alive today in Heaven sitting at the right hand of God. Because that is true, the power of Jesus’ blood has set me free from the bondage of that darkness.

So, the Lord brought these sins to the light and I was able to repent and it was like the walls were torn down. Seemed so simple, but I learned a very very important lesson. I am not the author of my own salvation. I know we all would say, of course you aren’t Susan, but do you realize that we live like we think that we are? In this Semi-Palagian-infested mainstream “Christianity culture” we live like we are the ones that control our destiny. Ask anyone who does not believe in the predestination of the saints before the foundation of the world. Who do they put in charge? Man. They put themselves in charge. They become the ones responsible for their salvation, even though the Bible teaches the opposite. So do you realize that with that kind of mindset I am subject to staying in the state of darkness while I run around frantically trying to “do something” to get out of it. Because if I am the author of my own salvation, then I must be doing something wrong and I need to fix it. Well the truth is, yes, I have done something wrong. I am a totally depraved sinner who is incapable of doing anything right without the grace of God, so I then must put all my dependence on the Lord to deliver me from this pitiful state.

Lesson learned. These past two weeks I was under the chastisement of the Lord. He was getting my attention and teaching me to wait on Him. And then He was faithful in bringing my sins to the light so that they can be dealt with and forgiven by the blood of Christ. If these sins were left in the dark then I would have been miserable. But as Romans 8:30 says, “ Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” God has promised to keep those whom he has called and it is on that promise that I lean on. This is a pretty difficult concept to a society who preaches self-reliance as the saving grace of living an unsuccessful life.

Luke 7:47
Therefore I say unto you, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.

This verse is incredible, and it is the very thing that the Lord is teaching me. This doesn’t mean that you go around sinning as much as you can so that you can be forgiven a lot. The reality is that we have so much sin in our lives that if we saw it all at once we wouldn’t be able to handle it. But the Lord is loving enough to reveal it to you so that you can confess it and be forgiven and experience His grace. This repentance is a gift from Him, and it should be cherished. Faith and repentance go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other.

So basically here is what I have learned from all of this: Men love their darkness…clearly this is true, it is in the Bible (John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.) and it is obvious, all you have to do is look into your own heart to see this. So this is in direct, full-on collision and battle with your love for the Lord and His righteousness that is given to you by Him. The problem: You are completely incapable of doing anything about this because of your depraved state. Result: waiting upon the Lord for His grace and gift of deliverance from this spiritual battle. Another Result: patience. Great dependence on the Lord and only Him because you acknowledge that your ability to believe on Him is completely dependent on Him.

There are three things that a believer will continue to do while here on this earth: Sin, Repent, and Believe. Without repentance you can't have faith, they go hand in hand.

Here is a great sermon by Charles Spurgeon that the Lord used to wake me up to these truths: