How Not To Do It

If you've noticed I post a lot of stuff about spiritual disciplines, prayer, Bible reading, etc..... well, duh! These are the subjects the Lord is speaking to me about more than anything else. So here's Three Ways Not To Approach Spiritual Disciplines by David Burnette at Radical.net

Although Christians should always practice the spiritual disciplines, many choose to jumpstart their efforts at the beginning of a new year. A Bible reading plan, a prayer guide, a strategy for limiting social media, or an intentional effort to share the gospel more—all these are good things. Even if you don't like making New Year’s resolutions, hopefully you’re planning to continue practicing the spiritual disciplines in the coming year. Whatever the case, it helps to pursue them in the right way.

I want to offer three cautions regarding bad approaches to spiritual disciplines. There's much more to say on this topic, but hopefully these cautions will serve as encouragements to pursue Christ-likeness in ways that are biblical and wise.

1. Do not practice spiritual disciplines to get on God's good side.

No amount of praying, Bible reading, witnessing, or fasting—or any other discipline—has the power to change your standing before God. Those who are in Christ are declared righteous and cannot be separated from God's love (Romans 8:31–39). If we forget about God's grace in preserving us, then the result will be burnout, discouragement, or some form of works-righteousness. Striving to grow in the spiritual disciplines is important, to be sure, but it shouldn't be the kind of striving that comes from fear or anxiety. Spiritual disciplines should flow from our love for the One who has given his own Son to rescue us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8). It will put wind in your spiritual sails to recall that God’s saving mercy has been lavished on you, a sinner deserving of his judgment, and that the ability to pursue spiritual disciplines is itself a gift from God.

2. Do not avoid spiritual disciplines out of fear of legalism.

While spiritual disciplines can turn into a form of mere moralism, they don’t have to. There’s nothing inherently wrong with putting forth effort to grow in godliness. Words like train and discipline aren't un-Christian. In fact, Scripture tells us to “train yourself for godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7), and Paul spoke of disciplining his body to keep it under control (1 Corinthians 9:27). We must be intentional if we want to obey Paul's charge to Timothy to “flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace” (2 Timothy 2:22). This kind of effort is fueled by God's grace, of course, but growing in Christ-likeness doesn't happen by sitting on your couch and hoping for a surge of joy to overtake you. That's not how God has designed it. We are commanded to "run with endurance" as we look to Jesus (Hebrews 12:1), and this takes some spiritual exercise.

3. Do not treat spiritual disciplines as an all-or-nothing pursuit.

Some Christians pull the plug on a spiritual discipline simply because they're not meeting their goals. They begin a Bible reading plan with gusto, but then when work gets hectic or deadlines start piling up at school, they stall out. After missing a few days, they get frustrated and stop reading altogether. But think about it: wouldn’t it be better to read through most of God’s Word in a year rather than quitting in late February? Remember, the ultimate goal is not to complete a Bible reading plan or to pray for fifteen minutes a day; those are means to an end. The ultimate goal is to grow in your love for God. Expect temporary setbacks and occasional resets, and ask for God’s grace to move forward and grow. Spiritual maturity isn’t built in a day, or even a year.

The Enemy Within

My biggest enemy is me. Your biggest enemy is you. I agree with The Enemy Within by Adam McClendon

How do spiritual disciplines help the spiritual life? Up front, it must be admitted that in today’s society anything with the word “discipline” in it sounds unappealing. Nevertheless, historically, spiritual disciplines (such as reading the Bible, prayer, fasting, worship, etc.) have been practiced by the church as a means to reveal sin and grow in godliness.

This post is not about five profound and practical points pontificating the poignant purpose spiritual disciplines serve in proliferating godliness in the believer’s life. Okay, that was ridiculous. No, this post is just an honest assessment of how I’m so easily drawn into sin, my daily struggle against my sinful tendencies, and how basic personal spiritual disciplines help me walk in greater faithfulness and experience greater intimacy with God. So, here goes…

I am my biggest enemy. No really. Day to day, my biggest struggle lies within. Emotions of complacency flow to internal explosions of anger, laziness, lust, impatience, worry, and frustration. Throw in a little envy and voilà, a perfect dish of self-pity, self-justification, and self-condemnation all rolled up in one.

As a believer, I still live within a fallen context, and so long as I live in this world, I will have desires that battle for my attention and affection. These desires seek to lure me, like a bass chasing a spinner bait, right into self-fulfilling sin (James 1:14). Sinful thoughts will invade my mind and desires will bring shock and awe to my heart: not because I am inherently evil as a believer, but because I am inherently human and live in a fallen world (that sentence really deserves another post by itself).

The Bible warns that these sinful thoughts and desires will come. 2 Corinthians 10:5 states that I am to “destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” and Galatians 5:16 commands me as a believer to “walk in the Spirit,” so that I “will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” The implication is that ungodly thoughts and desires will bombard me. These desires in and of themselves are not sin; rather, it is the entertainment of these thoughts and desires that results in sin.

As a believer when emotions seek to burst forth unrestrained, when sinful thoughts come calling, when fleshly desires dangle their lures, I am to bring them in submission to the will of the Spirit (Gal 5:16). I am to submit to him. This act of the will is critical in walking in obedience.

Unfortunately, too often, I don’t recognize the will of the Spirit and the attacks of the enemy until it is too late. That’s where certain spiritual disciplines help me. Reading, memorizing, and meditating on Scripture, prayer, confession, fasting, etc. all work together to continue to reveal areas in which I need to live in greater submission to the Spirit. The Lord faithfully uses these disciplines and others to constantly show me a distinction between fleshly desires and godly ones, his will versus competing ones. Thus, I find that God is so faithful in bring passages to mind, fanning the affections of my heart, and guiding my soul to him in the midst of the chaos of life through these basic disciplines.

So, that’s my encouragement and reminder. I don’t “have to” read my Bible every day, I need to. I don’t have to pray, meditate on Scripture, fast, etc., but I need to. I need to seek him, and the spiritual disciplines are means by which God helps train his children to be godly (1 Tim 4:7). Spiritual disciplines then are not something I do to check proudly off my list as if something has been accomplished. No! They are not a cure-all. They are not magic bullets, but they are tools that help bring perspective and balance to life. They steady the ship so that the horizon can be seen and the course can be set. They are means to draw me close to Christ so that I might be ready for the battle ahead and choose to serve him this day versus myself. For, I am my greatest enemy.

More Than Principles

Following Jesus is More Than Applying Principles by Jeff Clarke

Being a Christian is less about looking for ways to mechanically apply practical ideas and principles to ones life and more about becoming a living embodiment of the One we’re trying to follow.

The ancient art of apprenticeship communicates just that. As Jeff Goins wrote in a recent blog post, apprenticeship in ancient times wasn’t a two-week or two-month process, but a totally immersive process where the student at times actually lived in the same house as the teacher – absorbing their ideas, watching their every move, listening to their every word.

As it relates to Christian apprenticeship, following Jesus is less concerned with looking for ways to add his principles to one’s life and more about modeling our Teacher as a way of life.

While we may start out following Jesus along pragmatic lines as we look for concrete situations into which we can apply Jesus’ teachings, the process needs to grow into a more natural outflow of one’s total life, rather than a mechanistic, almost robotic like, application of principles.

• The former feels like we’re trying to add something to life from the outside-in. The latter flows naturally from the inside-out.
• The former follows only for pragmatic reasons. The latter is an expression of life.
• The former doesn’t require relationship. The latter assumes it.
• The former views principles as good things that will make life better – as in good advice. The latter views the story of Jesus as good news that changes the very course of one’s entire life.
• The former picks and chooses principles based on personal preference. The latter sees the entire Jesus-story as an all-encompassing, ethos-shaping lifestyle.
• The former can lead to moralism that demands we follow a system of rules and obligations. The latter leads to adopting a posture of grace and mercy towards oneself and others.

Discipleship is First and Foremost About Being – Not Doing

Discipleship is first and foremost about being. It is an identity we embrace and become. It is an active and ongoing participation with Christ in his life, death and resurrection, in the power of the Holy Spirit. It has never been something we add to our life as a periphery item, but something that defines the very essence of who we are as Christ-followers...

Read the rest at the link.

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Small Moments

From Tim Challies

Desire in Formation

Found this well-done post, "Faith and Human Desire," from Jen Pollock Michel (by way of Amy Simpson). Her book Teach Us To Want sounds quite interesting:

Here’s a conversation with my friend Jen Pollock Michel (you can read more about her and her wise book, Teach Us to Want, at the end of this post). As Christians we often assume our desires are something to be denied, but Jen gives us a different perspective–one that considers how our desires themselves can fuel our spiritual growth.

Desire is at the heart of Christian formation, but we tend to focus on belief and behavior more than desire. Why do you think we tend to do this?

We owe our emphasis on rationality to the Enlightenment. When Descartes introduced the idea “I think, therefore I am,” we began putting cognition at the center of human personality. This philosophical shift affected our theology, and the project of spiritual formation became something very rational. Certainly there are many Scriptures about belief (Romans 10:9, for example), so it’s not unimportant that we believe in Jesus. It’s just that belief must be held in proper balance with what Jesus named as the two most important commandments: love God and love neighbor. These commands make desire central to spiritual formation.

Behaviorism, of course, has long been a part of humans’ attempts at religion. In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees were the ones who measured virtue by externals. They were fastidious about their rule-keeping: washing hands before meals, observing the Sabbath traditions, etc. As long as they could keep their “behaviors” in check, they assumed all was well. But Jesus disagreed, as we know. He called them “whitewashed tombs.”

Maybe we all prefer to emphasize belief and behavior in spiritual formation because these suggest something we can more handily manage. We feel in control of our beliefs and behaviors. But the moment we mention desire, suddenly we’re aware of the deep work of transformation needed. When we talk about desire, it’s as if we put our finger on an exposed spiritual nerve. Do I want Jesus? Is he my greatest treasure? Those are challenging questions we would sometimes prefer to avoid.

Churches that value truth tend to focus on cognitive models of change. Why is this approach insufficient?

I was raised in a church that emphasized Biblical knowledge, and I currently attend a church that emphasizes good theology. I’m grateful for both! But as you’ve said, Biblical knowledge and theology, when viewed as ends rather than means, will prove to be insufficient. We need to know God’s Word, and we need to develop good theology. But we need to do both of these in order than our desires for Christ and his kingdom may be formed. Otherwise we’re on the way toward becoming Pharisees ourselves. Their example reminds us that we can know a lot, even obey very carefully, and somehow miss the divinely intended point. We can strain gnats and swallow camels (cf. Matthew 23:24).

We usually don’t think of The Lord’s Prayer as having much to say about our desires. What made you choose that as your guide?

It’s been many years now that I’ve been studying–and praying!–the Lord’s Prayer. This is funny, I guess. I grew up Baptist, and we certainly did not make it a practice to pray the Lord’s Prayer together! But in my own spiritual life, I’ve loved the prayer for its simplicity. So often, I make things more complicated for myself than they need to be. I tend to get tangled up in my own thoughts. The Lord’s Prayer has been an invitation into what’s most elemental about God’s desires for me and for the world. It’s a prayer I find myself praying a lot, especially when words and understanding fail for a particular situation. When I don’t know how to pray, I remember that Jesus said, “Pray like this!”

But I have to credit Ben Jolliffe, who was an intern at our church for a couple of years, for really shaping the book’s use of the Lord’s Prayer. We were studying the Lord’s Prayer together as a church, and he preached that what we so often get wrong about prayer (and I think, desire) is the tension between, “Our Father” and “Hallowed by your name.” First there’s this beautiful invitation toward God’s generosity and love when we call him our Father. Jesus is saying, “Ask! You can’t believe how much God wants to give!” But right on the heels of this invitation is this necessary caution: God’s name must be made holy. Don’t ask thinking God owes you your wildest dreams.

When I heard that sermon, I had been working on the book already, but it gave me really clear language for the tension of human desire in the context of faith. We should want from God because he is so unbelievably good. And yet we should want very soberly, knowing that God isn’t dedicated to the project of making our lives easy and convenient. Instead he’s committed to his kingdom, his own glory.

How has a deeper understanding of desire changed your approach to your own spiritual growth?

I use the question “What do I want?” as a way forward into understanding my own heart. Here’s an example: maybe I've been irritable with the kids. It’s easy enough to confess that irritability. But maybe there’s something worthwhile about digging into the desires, which promote that irritability. Maybe there are good desires that are being obstructed. Maybe one of my children is being persistently disobedient, and God is calling me into greater courage and consistency in my parenting. But maybe I have disordered desires, which need to be confessed. Maybe it’s my insane craving for quiet and order that makes me irritable, and I need to embrace that my children are children and not adults! As I understand what I want, for good or for bad, it informs the way I pray and then act.

Here’s another example: in my marriage, maybe I want greater intimacy with my husband. But maybe I also want to avoid the real work of participating in that growth. Maybe in asking myself the question “What do I want?” I recognize that at the end of the day, I’m most interested in crawling into bed with a good book!

When I pray, considering my desires, I can see my heart’s contradictions and bring these before God for healing. I don’t ever trust myself to change my desires. I simply look for God’s grace to be active in their transformation. I ask him to help me want and will what he wants and wills.

- See more at: http://amysimpsononline.com/2014/12/guest-post-faith-and-human-desire-jen-michel/#sthash.djYVYlVz.dpuf

Letting the Bible Read You

Do you read the Bible....Or does the Bible read you? Good question from a post at Jesus Creed:

This set of images comes from a wonderful article by James Bryan Smith, at Friends University and with Apprentice Institute, and illustrates the differences of reading the Bible for information vs formation or reading the Bible vs being read by the Bible:

Read more: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2014/11/09/reading-the-bible-vs-being-read-by-the-bible/#ixzz3JKwjvMqY

Becoming.By Praying

More Caught Than Taught

From a review by Trevin Wax of Victor A. Copan’s Saint Paul as Spiritual Director: An Analysis of the Concept of the Imitation of Paul with Implications and Applications to the Practice of Spiritual Direction  entitled Recovering the Role of “Imitation” in Discipleship Today 

...One cannot read Copan’s work and come away with the impression that spiritual direction can be mass-produced or accomplished through programs. Evangelicals have a tendency to see disciple-making as primarily a knowledge exercise. Teach people truth and doctrine, make them aware of the biblical exhortations to holiness and obedience, and then encourage them in their “personal walk.”

Copan’s work does not deny any of these aspects, but his vision of spiritual direction is more holistic because it includes a healthy emphasis on modeling the Christian life. Modeling takes us beyond the transfer of information; it includes the practice of spiritual disciplines and the intentional copying of one’s thought processes that lead to certain decisions. Wisdom is not obedience in the simplest sense, but is instead a robust understanding of how to live, an understanding modeled by the example of the person who is giving direction.

A holistic view of discipleship means that spiritual direction is not merely delivered; it is displayed. Copan’s research is valuable for evangelicals who are seeking to grow in their faithfulness and Christ-likeness, as well as evangelicals who sense the need to reach out and mentor younger people in the faith.

Look like a book worth a read. 

The DNA of Jesus

Sounds like an interesting idea for a book, and one I'd like to read. From a CT Magazine review of Called to Be Saints: An Invitation to Christian Maturity by Gordon Smith.

Over the past 35 years or so, evangelical interest in the classical spiritual disciplines has grown exponentially, thanks to the groundbreaking work of writers like Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, and Henri Nouwen. We increasingly understand, as Nouwen expressed it, that the spiritual life "involves human effort," a disciplined embrace of such concrete means of grace as prayer, silence, worship, simplicity, and service to others.

Gordon T. Smith, president and professor of systematic theology at Ambrose University College in Calgary, Alberta, applauds these developments within a tradition that, in its early years, had focused largely on evangelism and conversion. But what, he asks, is the underlying purpose of the spiritual disciplines? Why pray, worship, fast, or lead a simple life? In Called to Be Saints: An Invitation to Christian Maturity (IVP Academic), Smith offers an answer: We do these things to grow as believers, to become ever more holy.

Cultivating Our Union

Holiness is a loaded term, one with a checkered reputation. "Holy" people are often portrayed in film and books as mean, angry, self-righteous, hypocritical, screamingly judgmental, perfectionistic, emotionally stunted, and lifeless. Few of us would want to spend an evening with such people. And false holiness is especially unattractive (even though, in our honest moments, we know we often behave like the very people who drive us crazy).

Yet all of us have, at one time or another, encountered holiness with an attractive, loving face. For me, Julian of Norwich, Francis of Assisi, Billy Graham, Pope Francis, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Mother Teresa come to mind. Most of us have been blessed with Christlike relatives, friends, and acquaintances whose holiness we long to imitate. Seeing their example, we yearn for something similar, for a harmony and integrity in our lives, a kind of loving genuineness that weaves our words and actions into a seamless garment.

In Christ, we find the fundamental pattern and strength for becoming ever holier. Genuinely holy people, as Smith portrays them, remind me of trees in which the DNA of Christ has been fully replicated through the power of the Spirit. The transformation of an acorn into a mature oak tree—or, to shift the metaphor, of a fallen sinner into a restored image bearer—is a wondrous, grace-filled process founded upon our union with Christ.

"I will speak of how the whole of the Christian life is found 'in Christ,'" writes Smith. "I will stress that this vision assumes a dynamic participation in the life of the ascended Christ, in real time. . . . We participate in the life of Jesus—literally, not metaphorically. . . . the extraordinary vision into which we are called is that we would be drawn into the very life of Christ and thereby into the life of God." In summary, Smith defines spiritual formation as "the cultivation of this union with Christ...."

More at the link.

In Process

"Discipleship is the process of becoming a genuine follower of Jesus Christ. We don't complete the process this side of eternity, but it is a continual learning of who Jesus is and striving to be like Him. Discipleship combines teaching, studying, circumstances of life and Holy Spirit revelation to transform us into His image."

               - Ron Edmondston @ Church Planter Weekly

RIP Dallas Willard

Dallas Willard went to be with the Lord this morning. Prayers up for his family. He will be greatly missed.

Dallas Willard, a prominent philosopher on a "quiet quest to subvert nominal Christianity" (according to a 2006 CT profile), died today after losing a battle with cancer. He was 77.

HarperOne broke the news:

Beloved author of THE DIVINE CONSPIRACY and critical thought leader Dallas Willard passes. Rest in peace, Dallas. bit.ly/10blVF2

— HarperOne (@HarperOne) May 8, 2013

Prayers for Dallas Willard

Please pray for Dallas Willard, an influenecial Christian leader and one of my favorite authors. From CT

Dallas Willard has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, according to a tweet from the author's official Twitter account. Willard, who is a University of Southern California philosophy professor, is 77 years old.

Willard is well known to many Christians from his books on spiritual formation, including The Divine Conspiracy (which Christianity Today selected as Book of the Year in 1998), The Spirit of the Disciplines,Hearing God, and Renovation of the Heart.

Willard has been a provocative Christian thinker since the 1960s, when he abandoned ministry to study philosophy. Since then, he has "devoted [himself] to reestablishing the exalted place moral reasoning once held in the academy."

May the Lord be with him and his family in this time of trial. 

The Way In = The Way On

This extract is from Tim Keller's new expository guide, Galatians For You: For Reading, For Feeding, For Leading. As part of this curriculum, Keller has also written an accompanying Bible study, Gospel Matters: The Good Book Guide to Galatians.

How do we change and grow as Christians? In the same way we became Christians. That's why in Galatians 3 v 1-3, Paul reminds the Galatian Christians how it was that they came to Christ. And in essence, “Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified” (v 1). This portrayal was achieved through preaching, through “what you heard” (v 2, 5). Paul isn’t referring to a literal picture, but a metaphorical one.

There was a message communicated—“Jesus Christ … crucified” (see 1 Corinthians 2 v 1-5). Notice that the essence of this message is not how to live, but what Jesus has done for us on the cross. The gospel is an announcement of historical events before it is instructions on how to live. It is the proclamation of what has been done for us before it is a direction of what we must do.

But it also says that this message gripped the heart. Jesus was “clearly portrayed”. The NIV translates the Greek as “clearly”; it also means “graphically”, “vividly”. This probably is a reference to the preaching’s power. It was not dry and lecture-like. It “painted a picture” of Jesus, giving the hearers a moving view of what Christ did. “Our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction” (1 Thessalonians 1:4). A Christian is not someone who knows about Jesus, but one who has “seen” Him on the cross. Our hearts are moved when we see not just that He died, but that He died for us. We see the meaning of His work for us. We are saved by a rationally clear and heart-moving presentation of Christ’s work on our behalf.

And this was what these Christians had heard and believed. But now, something has changed. Now, they are “foolish” and “bewitched” (v 1). What has gone wrong? In verse 3, Paul comes to his major “beef” with the Galatian Christians and the false teachers. He says that the way the Spirit entered your life should be the very same way the Spirit advances in your life. He says this twice, strongly: “After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” (v 3).

In verse 5, Paul is even stronger. He moves into the present tense and says that right now the works of the Spirit—even miracles—occur “because you believe” (not “because you believed”) and because you no longer “observe the law”. The Spirit works as Christians don’t rely on their own works, but rather consciously and continuously rest in Christ alone for their acceptability and completeness. The Spirit works as you apply and use the gospel.

How People Change

From a review at the Resurgence of the book How People Change by Timothy S. Lane & Paul David Tripp:

The central theme of How People Change is that much of the time, Christians live with a “gospel gap.” We believe the gospel intellectually, but we don’t live out its implications practically. This gospel gap “subverts our identity as Christians and our understanding of the present work of God” as it “undermines every relationship in our lives, every decision we make, and every attempt to minister to others” (p. 2).

The gospel gap

The gospel gap produces three kinds of blindness: “blindness of identity,” when we underestimate the power of indwelling sin and misunderstand our identity in Christ Jesus; “blindness of God’s provision,” when we do not understand that God has provided “everything we need for life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3); and “blindness to God’s process,” when we forget that the Christian life is one of “constant work, constant growth, and constant confession and repentance” (p. 6).Many external things can wrongly fill the gap of the gospel for us:

• Formalism reduces the gospel to church attendance and spiritual disciplines.

• Legalism adds to the gospel law-keeping and rule-keeping.

• Mysticism reduces the gospel to personal experience.

• Activism reduces the gospel to doing social justice.

• Biblicism reduces the gospel to loving theology more than Jesus.

• Psychology-ism reduces the gospel to therapy.

• Socialism reduces the gospel to being accepted by a particular Christian community.

By contrast, the authors offer five gospel perspectives that fill the gospel gap:

Jesus-Centered Leadership

From Creature of the Word, here is the best definition of Christian leadership I have ever read:

"Jesus centered leadership is God-focused, Christ-exalting, and Spirit-led influence toward a kingdom agenda." (page 164)

Also the best definition of the goal of Christian leadership I have ever read:

"...the goal or aim of gospel-centered leadership is the formation of Christ in people who long to see the formation of Christ in other people" (page 176)

Can't top that!

Imperfect People, Clinging to a Perfect Savior

I've been reading Gospel-Centered Discipleship by Jonathan Dodson, and would like to recommend the book to you. His thesis is that there should be no wall in our minds and ministries between evangelism and disciple making, because both are grounded and sustained in the Gospel, in the message of grace and acceptance imparted by and through the Cross. Some quotes:

"I began to realize that Jesus is not merely the start and standard for salvation, but that he is the beginning, middle and end of my salvation...the gospel is for disciples, not just for 'sinners;' is saves, and transforms people in relationship, not merely people who go it alone." (Page 17)

"Gospel-centered discipleship is not about how we perform, but who we are - imperfect people, clinging to a perfect Christ, being perfected by the Spirit." (Page 18, italics in original)

More to come throughout this week.

Permeation Needed

“The Gospel is the power of God for the beginning, middle, and end of salvation. It is not merely what we need to proclaim to unbelievers; the Gospel also needs to permeate our entire Christian experience.”

— Jim Wilhoit. Spiritual Formation As If the Church Mattered

(Grand Rapids, Mi.: Baker Academic, 2008), 27

Hat Tip: Of First Importance

Ruthless Perfection

We are, I am, being changed by a God of ruthless perfection.

This week I listened to an old album by Christian singer Kim Hill from the  late 90's called "The Fire Again." This song, Ruthless Perfection, grabbed me with both its words and tune. A good message to meditate on and pray through this morning.

Iron sharpens iron, deep cries to deep
The roar of the lion rouses from sleep
All who would heed the call of their election
He will baptize them with fire, and work His ruthless perfection

Is it any wonder, is it any guess
How He will respond to the one who answers yes?
I will yield to your love and to Your correction
In mercy severe He will work His ruthless perfection.

As we behold Him, we will be like Him
Changed from glory into glory into glory again.
As we behold Him, we will be like Him
Changed from glory into glory into glory again.

Let's call on His kindness, and fall on our face
Surrender the flesh to His judgement and grace
Comes the cross, so comes the resurrection
Let us be made new, by a work of ruthless perfection.

"Ruthless Perfection", words by Judie Lawson, music by Kate Miner

 

Holiness and Happiness in Marriage

From Tim Keller's new book mentioned in the previous post:

"A parishioner heard me preach on Ephesians 5, where Paul says that the purpose of marriage is to “sanctify” us. She said, “I thought the whole point of marriage was to be happy! You make it sound like a lot of work.” She was right—marriage is a lot of work—but she was wrong to pit that against happiness, and here is why. Paul is saying that one of the main purposes of marriage is to make us “holy . . . without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish” (verses 26–27). What does that mean? It means to have Jesus’s character reproduced in us, outlined as the “fruit of the Spirit”—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithful integrity, gentle humility, and self-control—in Galatians 5:22–25.

When Jesus’s love, wisdom, and greatness are formed in us, each with our own unique gifts and callings, we become our “true selves,” the persons we were created to be. Every page in the Bible cries that the journey to this horizon cannot be accomplished alone. We must face it and share it with brothers and sisters, friends of our heart. And the very best human friendship possible for that adventure is with the lover-friend who is your spouse.

Is all this a lot of work?

Indeed it is—but it is the work we were built to do. Does this mean “marriage is not about being happy; it’s about being holy”? Yes and no. As we have seen, that is too stark a contrast. If you understand what holiness is, you come to see that real happiness is on the far side of holiness, not on the near side. Holiness gives us new desires and brings old desires into line with one another.

So if we want to be happy in marriage, we will accept that marriage is designed to make us holy."

- Tim Keller, The Meaning of Marriage, pages 132-133

Hat Tip: Take Your Vitamin Z

More Signs You Are Growing in Grace

Here's another installment from the series Signs You Are Growing in Grace, from Timmy Brister quoting Scotty Smith:

A sign you’re growing in grace: You don’t park your car half-way into another slot just to protect against dings.
A sign you’re growing in grace: Your conversation and attitude don’t convey as much “us versus them” arrogance & phobia.
A sign you’re growing in grace: You want people to hold you accountable for believing the gospel more than anything else.
A sign you’re growing in grace: You no longer confuse self-examination with self-flagellation. Freedom trumped bondage.
A sign you’re growing in grace: You no longer “should” all over yourself. Jesus’ performance matters most to you.
A sign you’re growing in grace: You don’t clear your throat to get soft or low talkers to speak louder.
A sign you’re growing in grace: Your increased use of the word “gospel” is surpassed by evidences of grace in your life.
A sign you’re growing in grace: You’ve learning to enjoy all of God’s good gifts without guilt or dependence on them.
A sign you’re growing in grace: You spend more time wrestling with God in private than whining about people in public.
A sign you’re growing in grace: You no longer suffer from delusions of adequacy.
A sign you’re growing in grace: You waste less energy turning legitimate desires into consuming needs.
A sign you’re growing in grace: Nobody is more grieved by your demanding and controlling ways than you. Grace is at work.
A sign you’re growing in grace: You don’t start talking faster and louder when you’re in persuasion mode.
A sign you’re growing in grace: You’re better at catching yourself importing old unrelated pain into a current story.
A sign you’re growing in grace: You don’t “fish around” trying to find what someone WANTS you to say before speaking.
A sign you’re growing in grace: When commenting on you kid’s music, u no longer say, “How can you listen to that junk?”
A sign you’re growing in grace: You look to build bridges between you & your kids, not throw grenades on the bridge.
A sign you’re growing in grace: You don’t pompously ask, “Who ate the last piece of cake?”, when you already know.
A sign you’re growing in grace:You’re learning to steward your anger, as opposed to dumping or stuffing it.
A sign you’re growing in grace: When someone gossips about you, you don’t immediately gossip about their gossip to others.