Slow and Steady

"There are many people who think of spiritual growth as something like high diving. They say, ‘I am going to give my life to the Lord! I am going to change all these terrible habits, and I am really going to transform! Give me another six months and I am going to be a new man or new woman!’

That is not what a walk is. A walk is day in and day out praying; day in and day out Bible and Psalms reading; day in and day out obeying, talking to Christian friends and going to corporate worship, committing yourself to and fully participating in the life of a church. It is rhythmic, on and on and on. To walk with God is a metaphor that symbolizes slow and steady progress."
            - Tim Keller

(From Daily Keller)

5 Questions

From Ann Voskamp - 5 Questions to Ask to Get You Out of Any Hard Time and Change Your Life

....I met a guy last week who told me that he carried around five questions that had ploughed a way through grief, through life for him. He had held up his hand and touched each of his fingers, his thumb: “These Five Questions changed me more than anything anyone ever told me.

And if you don’t make time to work out these answers, don’t be upset if your life doesn’t work.

If you want to make sense of life, you have to make time to ask yourself these.”

Grief and sadness and lostness had made me desperate for a way out — had made me desperate to lean in…

What is my greatest fear?

What is my greatest motivator?

What is Truth?

Who is God?

What is Success?

Unless you ask yourself the right questions, your life will never live into the right answers.

Read it all at the link.

Past and Future

In Need Of Overhaul

From @IAmNotAFan

Identity Change

"We don’t change so we can prove ourselves to God. We’re accepted by God so we can change. God gives us a new identity, and this new identity is the motive and basis for our change."

— Tim Chester, You Can Change (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway, 2010), 29

HT: Of First Importance

Come As You Are

From @DailyKeller and challies.com

Total Overhaul

From NotAFan.com

Only Love Brings Change

Only Love Causes Change - Tullian Tchividjian




From Liberate

Changing By Grace

Great article on how to change by Paul Tripp

The Bible is all about the grace of change. It’s a story of new beginnings and fresh starts. The Bible holds before us that hope that we can change, and in so doing, act and speak in new and better ways. And although the Bible clearly presents that change generally is a process and not an event, it does call us to do all that we can do to participate in God’s work of change.

So here’s the question you need to ask yourself today: “What can I do to participate in God’s agenda of change for my life?” That’s what today’s article is all about. I want to lay out a series of 10 steps that will move you in the direction of personal change.

1. Don’t give way to regret.

It’s so easy to meditate on the long list of your past mistakes. But your Lord knows that growth is a process. He won’t turn His back on you because you’ve failed. Remember this: God not only forgives your mistakes; He empowers you to not make them again.

2. Embrace gospel hope.

You need to remember that you have been gifted with grace that is more powerful than all of your sins. On the cross, the power of sin over you was broken, and although the presence of sin still remains, you don’t have to live under its domination. Your Lord is with you, working to free you from sin’s addiction and to change you into His image.

3. Examine your fruit.

What kind of fruit does your lifestyle produce? What have your decisions harvested this past week?

Good Fruit: encouragement; hope; love; forgiveness; reconciliation; peace

Bad Fruit: discouragement; division; condemnation; bitterness; foolishness

Examine your harvest honestly; it will tell you a lot about where you need to change.

4. Expose your roots.

It’s not enough just to examine your harvest; you must expose your roots. We need to humbly admit that our bad fruit is connected to bad thoughts, attitudes, desires, and motivations in our heart. Don’t settle for superficial behavioral modification; you need to go after the heart of the problem – your heart.

5. Seek forgiveness.

It’s only when we humbly ask for forgiveness that we quit excusing, quit rationalizing, and quit justifying ourselves. You see, when you do that, you’ve provided self-atonement, and because of that, you don’t go and seek the forgiveness of God and others, and you abort His work in your life. When was the last time you self-atoned for yourself with a statement like:

“I wasn’t angry; I was just trying to emphasize my point.”
“She has the unique ability to drive me crazy.”
“I wasn’t feeling well, so I wasn’t myself when I spoke.”
“I was just having one of those days.”

Jesus provided all the atonement you needed at the Cross. Stop trying to provide it yourself.

6. Change the rules.

Lasting change is the result of a commitment to a new and better way. You need to ask yourself:

“What old patterns is God calling me to replace?”
“What will the new way look like?”
“Where are places where you will be tempted to go back to the old way?”
“Where will change be hard and demand perseverance?”
“Who are the people in your life that you can invite to hold accountable?”

7. Look for real opportunities.

So much of real change starts with a change of perspective. Instead of looking at those difficult and tough moments as obstacles to change, see them as God-given opportunities to experience God’s grace and to step out in a better direction.

8. Choose your words and actions.

Determine to be intentional, rather than reactive. Determine to think before you speak, and pray before you think. Change is all about choosing your words and actions wisely, and God will give you the grace to choose.

9. Confess your weakness.

Our problem is not that we’re weak; God delights in meeting us in our weakness with His powerful grace. We don’t change because we have delusions of personal strength and holiness.

10. Don’t give the devil an opportunity.

Learn to locate where you are most susceptible to temptation. Learn to watch for his tricks and prepare yourself.

You don’t have to be discouraged. There are steps of change, and in every step, God will make Himself and His grace known to you. God will not call you to do something without giving you the wherewithal to do it. There really is a way to get from where you are to where God has made it possible for you to be. Change is possible.
_________

100 Percent

"You don't have to make one hundred changes. all that does is divide your energy by one hundred and results in a 1 percent chance of success. You have to be 100 percent committed to one change.It will take and all-out effort.  And it will probably be the hardest thing you've ever done. But that one change has the potential to make a 100 percent difference in your life."

  -Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From A Totally Different Life, page 104

Out With the Old, In With the New

"One of our fundamental spiritual problems is this: we want God to do something new while we keep doing the same old thing. We want God to change our circumstances without us having to change at all. But if we are asking God for new wine, we will need a new wineskin.

Change is a two-sided coin

Out with the old is one side.

In with the new is the other side.

Most of us get stuck spiritually because we keep doing the same thing while expecting different results...."

-Mark Batterson, All In: You Are One Decision Away From A Totally Different Life, page 55 (italics in the original)

Cross Shaped Living

From "10 Things We Would Stop Doing If We Adopted Paul’s Cross-Shaped Resolution" by David Burnette (referring to 1 Corinthians 2:2 - “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” )

1)   We would stop judging people, circumstances, and events based on outward appearances. Things aren't always as they appear. The God who brought about salvation through the death of His Son turns the world’s expectations upside down. (1 Cor 1:18-20) 

2)  We would stop trying to win God's approval through our obedience. Christ's death dealt decisively with our sins, and God now views us as righteous in Him. You cannot add to a perfect sacrifice. (Gal 2:21) 

3)   We would stop trusting in our own resources to bring about spiritual transformation. It took the crucifixion of Christ to save us, and it will take the power of the gospel to make us more like Jesus. The cross and resurrection are essential to the daily pursuit of holiness. (Rom 6:10-11) 

4)   We would stop worrying about being clever in our presentation of the gospel. Power belongs to God and His message, not the messenger. There is no smooth way to talk about a bloody cross. (1 Cor 1:17) 

5)  We would stop considering some people to be beyond God's reach. There is no one whose sin can outmatch the grace of God in the gospel. Christ's death is more than sufficient for the vilest offender. (1 Tim 1:16) 

6)  We would stop being surprised that our witness isn’t received warmly. At the heart of the gospel is the emphatic rejection of King Jesus. Why would his servants expect to be treated differently? (Jn 15:20) 

7)   We would stop expecting ease and comfort in this life to be the norm. Suffering, hardship, and opposition only make sense when you follow in the footsteps of the Man of Sorrows. (Lk 9:57-62) 

8)   We would stop worrying so much about the details our lives. God was willing to give His own Son for us. Why would he be unwilling to take care of everything else? (Rom 8:32) 

9)   We would stop thinking highly of ourselves and looking down on others. If the death of Christ was necessary for our rescue, what do we have to boast about? The cross levels the playing field, for all of us are debtors to God's infinite mercy. 

10)  We would stop fearing death. The crucifixion put death to death, so those in Christ now have the sure hope of the resurrection and eternal life. (Heb 2:14-15)

HT: Vitamin Z

Hijacked by Jesus

From Hijacked by the Gospel by Jared Wilson at The Gospel Coalition site- Good stuff!

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.– Philippians 3:12 (ESV)

“Christ Jesus took hold of me” (NIV)

“Christ Jesus first possessed me” (NLT)

“I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus” (NASB)

“I am apprehended of Christ Jesus” (KJV)

Looking for the umpteenth time over Galatians 1:11-24 I am struck again with how utterly supreme God’s loving plans are for us in Christ. Paul, captured always by the vision of the original capturing vision of Jesus Christ on the Damascus road, appeals again to singular transforming power of the gospel by appealing to the way it powerfully transformed him. He was headed one direction, resting in his own sovereignty over his life, but the One who had set Paul apart before his life story even began also called him in grace and was pleased to reveal the Son to him (Gal. 1:15-16), and life was never the same. Paul was writing his own life story, but Jesus stole his pen.

He got hijacked by the gospel.

F.F. Bruce writes this about Paul’s amazing about face:

"It is plain that what happened on the Damascus road was no isolated mystical experience, no mere “flash” of insight or intellectual conviction, but a personal encounter, the beginning of a personal relationship which became the dominating passion of his life." 

Paul’s conversion was so abrupt, enlightening, and illuminating, such a surprise and such a reversal, everything he says and does thereafter is bathed in the same blinding light. Gospel wakefulness is so powerful, its effect is sustained. It forever changes the game, flips the script.

Like C.S. Lewis getting into the sidecar of his brother Warnie’s motorbike for that fateful trip to the zoo: “When we set out I did not believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did.”

I have been laid hold of. I’ve been apprehended. I was writing my own life story, and it was a tragedy despite my own best efforts. But my life story got hijacked by the good news.

Have you been hijacked?

The Destructive Power of Grace

Love this from "Grace Destroys" by Justin Buzzard:

We sing about “Amazing Grace,” but we could change the adjective and also sing about “Destructive Grace.”

Grace destroys.

Grace is the undeserved love of God. It’s the most powerful force in the universe. And when grace comes into your life it destroys things.

Grace destroys the old you.

Grace destroys the idols that enslave you, breaking the chains you didn’t even know you had.

Grace destroys old habits, old ways, that had been part of your life for so long and had been killing you for so long.

Grace destroys the old operating system.

It’s a good destruction. Grace destroys in order to birth and build something new and beautiful.

Destructive Grace, how sweet the sound.

Jesus Changes Everything & Everybody

Some good lessons here for everybody, on what the cost is to follow Jesus- Learning From a Lesbian Visitor to Your Church.

Coming to Jesus means change; change for everybody. He changes our values, priorities, finances, relationships, sexuality...He changes everything. We don't get to set the boundaries. He comes to be King and Lord, or not at all. Change is not just for "them." Change is not just for those we define as "sinners." Change is for you and me, for all of us.

You need to know that. So do I.
   

Transformed Wholeness

"Some think of the gospel as so slender it does nothing more than get us into the kingdom. After that the real work of transformation begins. But a biblically-faithful understanding of the gospel shows that gospel to be rich, powerful, the wisdom of God and the power of God, all we need in Christ.

It is the gospel that saves us, transforms us, conforms us to Christ, prepares us for the new heaven and the new earth, establishes our relations with fellow-believers, teaches us how to work and serve so as to bring glory to God, calls forth and edifies the church, and so forth. This gospel saves — and ‘salvation’ means more than just ‘getting in,’ but transformed wholeness. "

— D. A. Carson   "Four Questions with D. A. Carson"

HT: Of First Importance

Get Wet

"The love of Jesus is so amazing, so overwhelming, that you simply cannot come into contact with it and not be radically changed. You cannot be a real Christian without that love gripping you any more than you can jump into a swimming pool and not get wet."

       - Joe Coffey in Red Like Blood: Confrontations With Grace, page 120

Amazing Story of Total Transformation

Please watch this very interesting, provocative, and, in fact, wonderful, testimony of Dr. Rosaria Champagne Butterfield. She was once a feminist, a lesbian, very anti-Christian, and a post-modernist college English professor. Now, she is a Christian wife and mother, married to a Presbyterian pastor. Amazing story! It will take some time to listen and watch, but it will be so worth it.





And in this second video, she takes audience questions.





For more of her story, read her book, Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert An English Professor’s Journey into Christian Faith

Hat Tip: Justin Taylor

Motive

"To those who wonder what good is Christian faith if it's not going to make a difference, I reply: If you're a Christian mainly because you want to be changed, that's a problem. If you've given your life to God mostly because you are tired of yourself and want to be a different person—well, that may suggest you're merely using God to fix you. That's not faith. That's not love of God. That's love of self.

If you look into your heart and determine that you have given your life to God mostly because you are tired of the world and wish it were different and think that teaming up with God can make it so, then you are merely using God to fix the world you are sick of. That's not faith or love either. Again, you're just using God. "

             -Mark Galli (Entire article is well worth a read)

Home Renovation

One of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes:

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right, and stopping the leaks in the roof, and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably, and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of — throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

— C. S. Lewis  Mere Christianity(London: William Collins, 1970), 172

HT: Of First Importance