Identities of a Christian Pilgrim in a Fallen World, Part 3

21.  I am differently driven.  Exhorted to do nothing out of selfish ambition, I must humbly seek to glorify God in everything I do.  This does not mean throwing away all ambitious dreams, but sanctifying them.  "Sometimes God brings our dreams to life; sometimes He doesn't.  But how we respond to His work creates an important intersection for change in our lives.  As we cooperate with Him, we discover that it's not ultimately about nailing the promotion, or raising well-behaved kids, or winning the Daytona 500 - as good as all of those things may be.  It's about something much bigger: how I become like Christ while I pursue these dreams." - Dave Harvey, Rescuing Ambition.  (Philippians 2:3)

22.  I am on the Lord's side.  This means that, particularly in times of distress, He gives me triumph over those who hate me and stand against me.  Nothing happens to anyone, believer or unbeliever, outside God's control.  But since I am His child, my Father in Heaven actively fights for me against my enemies.  "God will repay.  You cannot improve upon His justice.  He sees every angle of the evil against you - far better than you can see it.  His justice will be more thorough than any justice you could administer." - John Piper, Future Grace.  (Psalm 118:6-7, Romans 8:31-33).

23.  I am a hyper-conqueror through Him Who loved me.  The Lord gives me a most glorious victory in any trial, whether tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sword.  Nothing can separate me from His love, as He is sovereign over all as the Creator and Sustainer of all things.  "They [trials] have the effect of making us super conquerors because in those times of weakness we are infused with divine strength.  Those trials work to our greater good.  They work to our eternal glory." - John MacArthur, "The Challenges to Christian Invincibility".  (Romans 8:37)

24.  I am looking forward to a different world, whose architect and builder is God.  Rather than living for this world, I look forward to another world and lay up my treasures there, not here.  Rather than looking to this world for ultimate satisfaction, I look forward to another world that is uncontaminated by idolatry, misdirected ambitions, and other forms of sin.  To me, heaven is wonderful because God is there; I would not want to spend eternity in a wonderful place without Him.  "Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can, with all the power; might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of." - Jonathan Edwards, "The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards".  (Matthew 6:20; Hebrews 11:10)

25.  I am growing in God's grace and knowledge, aiming to have a faith in Him that is both zealous and intelligent.  Far from a call to put rational thought on hold, God calls me to discover more of the truth about Himself that He has spent 66 books revealing.  In addition to commanding me to love Him with my heart, soul, and strength, Christ also exhorts me to love Him with my mind.  "God's gift of understanding is through thinking, not instead of thinking." - John Piper, God's Passion for His Glory.  (Luke 10:27; Philippians 1:9-11; Romans 12:11; 2 Peter 3:18)

26.  I am forgiven of much, and I must forgive much.  My sins, regardless of their presumed severity and impact upon others, helped make the death of Christ necessary for my salvation.  Even a wayward thought, which no one sees and no one knows that I have had, is a sin against a holy God if not taken captive outright.  Even the smallest misdeed, when set against the background of a great Savior's tremendous sacrifice for it, is something that screams out of my life, "I need a Savior!"  How can I then say that I have the right to not forgive another person's wrongs against me?  "But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine percent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one percent of guilt which is left over.  To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian character; it is only fairness.  To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you." - C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory.  "No prayers can be heard which do not come from a forgiving heart." - J.C. Ryle.  (Luke 7:41-48; Colossians 3:13)

27.  I am rejoicing when I see my brothers standing firm in the Lord.  Though it needs to be self-focused in the sense that I need to watch myself regarding sin and spending time with and obeying the Lord, the focus of my faith does not stop with me.  Even when my walk with Christ shows little progress, seeing others' faith not waver, particularly as they endure trials, is an encouragement to my faith.  (1 Thessalonians 3:8)

28.  I am finding Christ in common with other believers, even when their other interests do not match mine.  Such friendships are possible because commonality in Christ takes precedence over all worldly interests.  Even when I cannot speak the same languages that they speak, our devotion to Christ marks us out; as many missionaries can attest, they can tell when they are in the presence of brothers and sisters in the Lord.  I am hopeful that God will make my godly fellowship with other believers possible on a more worldwide scale.  (1 Thessalonians 3:11)

29.  I am a Jew under the new covenant.  In the old covenant, Jews had to be Jews outwardly through circumcision.  The new covenant changed our understanding of how the law is fulfilled because Christ fulfilled the law.  Many Jews in the outward sense opposed Christ and His ministry.  The true circumcision is not of flesh but of heart.  "... Christ Himself is 'the seed' of Abraham (Galatians 3:16), so that being in Christ means being Abraham's 'seed', and, therefore, heirs of the promise (Galatians 3:29, 16). ... So knowing that we non-Jews are 'latecomers' to the covenant of Abraham and that we are nevertheless loved as full fellow-heirs should humble us and give us hope.  Humble hope in the Messiah, Jesus Christ, is the aim of all redemption.  For humility puts us in our lowly place of happy dependence, and hope puts God in His exalted place of glorious mercy." - John Piper, Taste and See.  (Romans 2:29)

30.  I am serving a perfect Master.  The world serves masters that will ultimately fail them: money, sex, power, pleasure in self, even family and goodwill.  These masters will fail them because the God over all, Who gave them life and breath and the ability to chase these things, will not allow them or anyone else to steal His glory.  He will be ultimately glorified in the end.  And no one can serve two masters.  He will hate one, even if it is something good that he is doing for the wrong reasons, and love the other.  Or he will hate the other and love the one.  "And I don't want to change on the so called spiritual level. I want to change in the inner chambers of my heart. That even His thoughts the deepest expression of who He is; it was his desire that they be according to the will of almighty God. The freest man on the face of the earth is the one who makes himself a slave to a perfect master. Where has God been wrong, and where has He wronged you? Has there ever been a time when listened to Him? When you obeyed Him, when you sought out His will that He has misled you somehow? "Never!" But have you ever followed your own ways and been mislead by your own devices? Always." - Paul Washer, "This Is War".  (Luke 16:13).

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This might be my last post before I go to the Philippines, depending on how much time I have to write on my upcoming trips.  In case I don't get to write again before or on Christmas, merry Christmas and happy New Year (maligayang Pasko, at manigong Bagong Taon!).

This trip is the first "vacation" I have ever prepared for by prayer and fasting.  I don't know whether to call it a vacation or a missions trip, or some of both.  My hosts and I will go do some fun stuff and sightseeing.  I also have a long Bible study prepared to present for the annual kickoff of my main host's Bible study group.  Last Friday, I did a test run of it for three other men in my Bible study who are also leaders in our church.  It was well-received, and their comments were helpful.  Lord willing, I will go verse-by-verse through a passage of 1 John and also look at Philemon.  I have a full verse-by-verse lesson on Philemon prepared too, but it does not align well with the topic of the study, so I will shorten it unless people want to hear the whole thing.  After I give the study lesson, I plan to post it here.  I'm sure I will also want to write about my trip.  So I don't know if the next post during or after the trip will be "Identities... Part 4" or something else. :-)

Lord willing, I will also see at least one of the children that I have sponsored there.  He is a college student, though he is taking some time off from that so that his parents can support putting one of his older brothers through college.  Please pray that I will minister well to everyone I get to meet in the Philippines, that I will live the gospel life before them and in private, that I will grow in the Lord and that I will set for them a good example of Christlike character and manhood.

"'I am going down into the pit; you hold the ropes', said Carey, the pioneer missionary. They that hold the ropes, and the daring miner that swings away down in the darkness, are one in work, may be one in the motive, and, if they are, shall be one in the reward. "

- Alexander MacLaren.

This Entertaining Truth, Part 1: I'll Have My Spiritual Steak Medium-Well, Please.

As a Christian who listens to and reads from some of the most truthful Bible preachers and teachers available today - such as Paul Washer, John Piper, Voddie Baucham, Eric Mason, John MacArthur, Alistair Begg, and the list goes on - sometimes I tend to sit back, taking more security than I should in the fact that much of my spiritual food comes from these teachers. Thoughts of, "This guy can really bring truth", start going through my head.

But, as Pastor Begg calls his radio show, it is "Truth for Life".

In high school or college, I memorized all of James 1. I probably cannot recite it word for word anymore, but verses 22-25 stay with me to this day:

" ²²Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, andcontinues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it— he will be blessed in what he does."

Listening to the truth of God can, quite wrongfully, become a form of entertainment. Perhaps that is is part of my motivation for why I tend to prefer to listen to very theoretical preaching that emphasizes the otherness of God, His holiness, His justice, His grace, and His other attributes. Often I think, "We have a song in church where we sing, 'I will worship You for who You are'; and it doesn't say much more than that. It doesn't actually tell us who God is or explain His characteristics. So how can I 'worship God for who He is' unless I study Him and find out who He is?" So it leads me into high-flown thought after high-flown thought, which leads to great worship if I am given a doctrinally sound enough song to sing. This can be a good thing. Or it can turn me into a theological elitist or someone who is merely entertained by good preaching.

Ok; that's a good thought. But why do Christians like me shy away from practical messages? Is it merely because we don't hear much more than that in most modern churches and we are looking for the real meat?

Or is it because we find the meat entertaining and because only listening to the meat can sometimes get us thinking about God's nature so much that it lets us off the hook of practical obedience?

Don't misunderstand me. We do need to listen to the meat and not live on only the milk of the Word forever. We need to listen to, and/or read, the preachers and writers who can really chop up a text of Scripture and mine it like gold. Listening to John Piper or Eric Mason preach for an hour or so on just one verse, like John 1:1, or even just "In the beginning was the Word...", gives great depth to our knowledge of God; it can greatly help our spiritual growth and enhance our worship of God. And we need to study Scripture to get as much out of it as we can and then live it out and share it in times of fellowship with each other. We need all of that.

But sometimes I get to a point where I start to say things like, "Whoa, that's convicting!" And then at the end of the message, I listen to some music or Tagalog lessons and forget what I have heard.

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"11. Resolved, when I think of any theorem in divinity to be solved, immediately to do what I can towards solving it, if circumstances don't hinder.

"12. Resolved, if I take delight in it as a gratification of pride, or vanity, or on any such account, immediately to throw it by."

- from the Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards.

Godly Fellowship, Part 10: Some Closing Meditations.

"After the show, after the set, after the music stops, what's next?
Will there be fellowship, prayer, disciples, will you open your Bibles after the music stops?
After it’s over, after it ends, after the music stops, what then?
Will you understand that Christ is King?
Or will you just like the words we sing after the music stops?"
- Lecrae, "After the Music Stops"

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"The fellowship of the church is part of God's good news to men. It imparts to the gospel one of its most thrilling notes—that when Christ saves a man He not only saves him from his sin, He saves him from his solitude."
- Frank Colquhoun, Total Christianity

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"[O]ur thoughts and words and feelings concerning our fellow men are His test of our humility towards Him."
- Andrew Murray

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²⁰"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, ²¹that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in me and I am in You. May they also be in Us so that the world may believe that You have sent me. ²²I have given them the glory that You gave me, that they may be one as We are one: ²³I in them and You in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent me and have loved them even as You have loved Me. ²⁴"Father, I want those You have given Me to be with me where I am, and to see My glory, the glory You have given Me because you loved Me before the creation of the world. ²⁵"Righteous Father, though the world does not know You, I know You, and they know that You have sent Me. ²⁶I have made You known to them, and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for Me may be in them and that I Myself may be in them."
- John 17:20-26

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"In and of itself, your longing for acceptance isn't a bad thing; God, in fact, created you for acceptance. This longing, however, was meant to be satisfied by God alone. But because of sin, we look to things smaller than God for it - things incapable of providing this infinite approval we crave. Your deep longing for acceptance can only be satisfied when you're accepted by the One Who made you for Himself. If you embrace what Christ has done on the cross for sinners, you're in! Your infinite hunger for approval will be forever satisfied, because you'll be unchangeably accepted by the only One Who offers eternal acceptance. You'll no longer have to depend onfinite things like your size, your stuff, or your smarts to get you in so that your life will matter. Once you understand that in Christ you're accepted by God, you're free and empowered to live unfashionably, because you won't need the acceptance of the world around you. You won't care if you're in with them, because you'll already be in with Him."
- Tullian Tchividjian, Unfashionable.

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"O Lord, we honor you for the gifts you have given in our churches - all of these men and women of whom the world is not worthy. And if we could do just a small part in our small days to be another stone - another living stone - in Your building, we would be thrilled with that - as long as we are built on the cornerstone."

- Kevin DeYoung.

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"You know, I have talked to so many old missionaries - seen them in nursing homes, seen them buried.... I have never in my life heard a missionary that regretted that he gave so much or that he invested too much in eternal things! But I have met countless men who have regretted investing everything in this world. You want to live for that which is profitable. Listen: Every Bible study, every bit of prayer, every Godly fellowship, every sitting under Biblical preaching is an investment in eternity. ... Everything lost for the sake of Christ is not lost at all! Everything kept outside of His name is lost! We shouldn't live as fools but should live as wise. We should walk circumspectly, knowing that time is fleeting, strength is fleeting, physical beauty is fleeting, wealth is fleeting; it's all fleeting. But he who does the will of God abides forever."

- Paul Washer, “Things Applicable for God’s Servants”

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"We also tend to worry [too much] about being good examples to the outside world... We ought to also concern ourselves with being examples to our brothers and sisters in Christ. How my life has benefitted from examples! I have known men and women who glowed with Christ. What an example they have been to me! The greatest thing I could do for the world: if I could just somehow bring them all onto one platform and just let you look at them - the glory, the kindness, the love, the knowledge! And I need them! ... We ought to surround ourselves with godly men and women who are alive, and with godly men and women who are dead - because though they are dead, they still speak."

- Paul Washer, “Things Applicable for God’s Servants”

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“Let there be something of benevolence, in all that I speak.”

- Jonathan Edwards.

A Thrill of the Soul: Part Three: Spirit and Truth.

Our truest worship comes when we know both in a “thrilled soul” and in facts from Scripture about the God that we are worshiping. When knowledge about God meets love for God, the converted soul's most natural, indeed supernatural, reaction is to pour out everything in worshiping Him. He is the God that we hated when we were born into this fallen world. Yet, in His mercy He caused us to hate our sins, turn from them, and flee to Him, the Savior and satisfaction of our souls. The truly converted soul can never have satisfaction in trash anymore than a civilized human can enjoy eating pig slop.

The thoughts of the satisfied believer remain dominated by the One who is truly gracious, merciful, holy, just, beautiful, faithful, loving, powerful, worthy of all praise, and mighty to save.

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In a time of fellowship, a brother told me that he had never once attended a church service where every song in their worship set was theologically correct. It saddened me to hear this, but it does not greatly differ from my experiences with churches. With many churches content to use any popular Christian song that cultural Christianity is cranking out as a worship song, a lot of worship sets have at least one song in them that lacks depth or uses false doctrine. I recently got to visit a large church with a well-known pastor and great doctrine. Their worship songs, which included hymns and more modern songs, were all highly Christ-centered and Biblically accurate.

But what surprised me was that the crowd was solemn to a degree that I have not seen except in some Presbyterian churches. It was a quite yuppie church with a parking lot full of Beemers and Benzes. It seemed like one of the McChurch-y megachurches in some ways, but with far better teaching than most of them have. Yet in a large auditorium, few people could get excited about God. You don't need to have your hands up, although it is Biblically permitted as a correct way to worship (Psalm 63). And I realize that church cultures are different. But is it too much to expect that at least some of the people in there would occasionally look happy?

Why do people that go insane over football and baseball look funereal at church, especially at one that teaches so much truth and a high view of God? I don’t know about you, but I ride roller coasters to know what it is like to be excited – and then try to translate that into zeal for God in everyday worship. A hobby is not worth pursuing if it cannot bring any glory to God, so search for ways to make His name great in whatever you do. And if there are none, why waste your time?

But, even as truth alone is not sufficient, passion alone is not sufficient either. Many Christians go crazy in worship for the sake of going crazy in worship while not really trying to understand what they are singing about. You need passion and the truth. So go ride your favorite rides; and then read the Word of God, with a book by John Piper and Jonathan Edwards's Resolutions along with it.

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“God’s purpose for my life was that I have a passion for God’s glory and that I have a passion for my joy in that glory… [T]hose two are one passion.”

- Jonathan Edwards

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Please also see Lyrical Theology for the words to Shai Linne's song, "The Greatest Story Ever Told".

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“Our desire must be not only toward the good things that God gives, but toward God Himself, His favor and love, the manifestations of His name to us, and the influences of His grace upon us. We wait on God when our souls pant after Him and His favor, when we thirst for the living God. Oh, that I may behold the beauty of the Lord! Oh, that I may taste His goodness! Oh, that I may bear His image and be entirely conformed to His will! For there is none on heaven or earth that I will desire in comparison with Him. Oh, that I may know Him more, love Him better, be brought nearer to Him, and be made fitter for Him. Thus, upon the wings of holy desire, our souls should still be soaring upward toward God, still pressing forward, forward toward Heaven.”

- Matthew Henry, Experiencing God's Presence.