This Entertaining Truth, Part 5: Having Great Theology Does Not Equal Repentance And Belief.

I mentioned in a recent post that I visited a Biblical megachurch for their Easter Sunday service this year. The church had a baptism for three people that morning. In at least one of the testimonies, I saw a theme that seems common in youth who grow up in Biblical churches: Kid grows up attending Biblical church with parents. Kid gets old enough to make their own decisions, falls into a sinful lifestyle, leaves the church, gets into all sorts of trouble. At some point, kid hits rock bottom and God saves them, and kid returns to the church they grew up in - but this time, as a true believer.

Reformed churches tend to stress catechizing children - doing this, not with the guarantee of "this will save them", but in hopes that through diligent plowing, the truth will take root in their hearts and they will be genuinely saved. This is a great thing. But it often backfires as God shows us that we are not saved by our own effort or the effort of our parents - "born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:13, ESV). Parents can be raising the "perfect" children, discipling them well at home, having them sit under the preaching of a modern-day Spurgeon Sunday after Sunday, training them like Pavlov's dog to come up with the right answers to every theological question whenever you ask, and have them not really know Jesus Christ. And as they sit under true Biblical preaching week after week, they will search for more and more loopholes around that truth. And if they are listening to a preacher who knows how to close all of those loopholes, they will learn to appease their parents by continuing to hear it while, all the while, deeply hating that truth in their hearts and seeking every possible way to rebel against it.

I grew up as one of those kids who would fire off a whole chapter of Awana sections every week. As a wee lad, I was good at word-for-word memorization. I would finish my books with half a school year left to spare, then complete Scripture memory packets and, at least once, started memorizing a whole book of the Bible. I was the Awana leaders' dream, but I couldn't say much about what the verses actually meant. I wasn't much of a Christian - if I was even one at all at the time. "Repent" was just a word that sounded cool and spiritual. "Application" in sermons that I heard was a foreign language to me. In the background, I wanted to be in another world, whether an imaginary world or a real world where Game Time never ended. And in high school I just wanted my music and my movies. My desire wasn't for God; it was for fun. I didn't want to be part of any small groups where people would actually hold me accountable for growing in sanctification; I just wanted to hang out with my friends and do the minimum to appease their desires to see me bear fruit. And in college, when I started to listen to internet radio, fun meant listening to mostly disgusting comedy routines for hours on end with the excuse that a good clean routine would come on once in a while. Through headphones, you can deceive a lot of people. "What are you laughing at?" "Oh, nothing." Christ had to die for that "nothing" - and for the lie that it was "nothing". You can live casually until you see sin's gravity. But a blind eye can't even begin to see the infinite severity of even one sin against an infinitely holy God.

There is a huge danger in wanting to bear only a minimum amount of fruit for the Lord. It is quite possible that, in effect, in this desire, someone is really saying, "I'm really bearing thistles, but let me spray-paint them to look as much like figs as I can, in my fleshly power, so that, from a distance, more spiritual people will glance at me and say, 'That guy is doing his job for the Kingdom', and they will want me to be their friend. But, oh, how I fear the scrutiny of those who want to look closely at my heart. They will realize, 'He's saying the right words, but his heart is far from Christ. If he were to leave this world right now, God would look on him as his Judge and sentence him to an eternity of eternities in hell, while this hero of deception has everyone, most of all himself, believing that he would be in heaven.' I must do everything I can to keep people from judging me like that." And all the while, they say loudly to others, "I am a five-point Calvinist." They carry a big Bible in a word-for-word translation. They know how to evaluate preachers: "He is a talented exegete and sesquipedalian, but I do not listen to him because we differ on infra- versus supralapsarianism. I would much rather listen to sermons by [fill in the blank]." They sing worship songs only to affirm, "That's... correct. That's... correct. Hey, that ain't right!" But where is the genuine fruit, the genuine rejection of your own sin (not only other people's), and the genuine affections for the Lord?

You can believe in your head without believing in your heart. The more advanced an unconverted person becomes in theology, the more they might become able to trust their own knowledge and say, "Look at me. I read Edwards. I'm definitely in." But that is not trusting in the finished work of Christ and realizing deeply that He had to die even for the pride of propping up your own religious accomplishments. God alone is capable of doing that in the heart of an unconverted person, who by nature hates Him. The Israelites did not have to speak of their own qualifications to look at the bronze serpent on a pole. They only, in their desperate condition, had to fix their eyes on that frightening creature that looks like the same thing that killed their families and friends, and they would be saved from death. And today, you cannot save yourself from spiritual death by knowing which theologians to quote when. Godmust open your eyes and turn your head to look on Christ in His frightening perfections, frightening because Christ is everything you are not and the Lord is thoroughly offended by even the good things you do in your own flesh. But the Father sent His Son, who laid aside His glory to die a gruesome death for your sins on this earth. The unconverted crowd looked upon Him with ridicule, as if to say, "He is not our King! We were expecting dashing good looks and the end of Roman rule, and instead we got this donkey-riding man from Nazareth. Whatever good ever came from there?" But the poor in spirit know: "In this Savior, who died for me, there really is a certain salvation, 'certain' in the surest sense of that word. And, as Spurgeon said, 'How can I [even] trifle with the evil that killed my best Friend?'" Forget yourself; look on Christ and live. Seek Him while He may be found. Turn away from your sins, to Christ, and believe in this gospel.

I do not write this with anyone in particular in mind. If I saw someone in my life acting like this, I would go to them privately and tell them rather than blogging about it. But maybe God will use this to wake someone up. The Lion is not tame, and His truth is not a toy.

A Sword

Builder of Each Constellation,
Inventor of Cogitation,
Definer of Consecration,
He reigns in conflagration,
worthy of all commendation.

He shaped the depths and elevations
With the words of His exhalations.
Most are unfound by our explorations.
Try to start with nothing for your emulations.

Somehow, we only see Christ as Lamb, or we only see Him as Lion.
Each angle sheds another light on the chief resident of Zion.
Many lesser-loved words of Christ need to be underscored,
like this one: "I came to bring a sword."

"It's strange that the Prince of Peace would say something so warlike"
may be a common objection,
but is worthy of correction,
since it is inspired truth despite apparent contradictions.

Yet a gospel of repentance is a call
to find no inherent worth in all
of our ambitions and hope in self.
There, Christ brings the maul
between us and our cosmos since the fall.

And many will find it strange that the score
to a follower of Christ is not based on what we hoard
for ourselves in this world, but the wrath poured
into the cup for Christ to drink down for sins galore.

Yet we were undone to the core
and our sins, we deplored
when He opened our dead eyes and our first sight was the Lord
and we saw that Christ our sins bore.
Are there treasures in store?
Yes, more.
But He Himself is the greatest of all treasures.

This Entertaining Truth, Part 2: Sola "Scriptura + My Opinions"?

"In a separate report, Barna found that more than 6 in 10 born-again Christians say they are customizing their faith, not following any one church's theology. 'Americans are increasingly comfortable picking and choosing what they deem to be helpful and accurate theological views and have become comfortable discarding the rest of the teachings in the Bible,' the report notes."

- "Christian faith: Calvinism is Back".

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In the last few years, I have picked up on a tendency of American Christians (including myself, to some extent) going into a church service with everything they believe already made up and then filtering everything they hear through that lens instead of through Scripture. There's this notion of "Joel Osteen is saying this; Paul Washer is saying that; they are both Christians, so they must both somehow be telling the truth... so I'll believe both of them." A lot of them don't read their Bibles enough to know the difference, and a lot of them do not "search the Scriptures to see if these things are so" like the Bereans did. And a lot of them don't examine themselves well enough to see whether they or their teachers are genuinely converted. (Note: God is the final arbiter of that, as the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked - Jeremiah 17:9. But: "you shall know them by their fruit" - Matthew 7:16.)

And then as they hear all these teachers saying all these different things, they cancel each other out. So when they do hear something about how their lifestyle habitually does not fall in line with Scripture and that if they don't repent, that is evidence that they may have never been saved, they dismiss it as, "Oh, that's just what John Piper thinks. That's nice. I'll just let him believe what he believes." Just as bad: "Oooo, that's convicting! But I don't need to do anything about it." It becomes like a college lecture on something that has nothing to do with your job: just interesting, just entertainment, just more useless knowledge in a brain that is most likely already full of worldly useless knowledge.

The problem is, God, not you, determines absolute truth. He alone sets the standards that determine whether you are really saved and whether you are growing in holiness. A lot of people mask their opinions with "God told me..." to get away with anything. But the Bible alone holds final authority regarding doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness.

So I ask: where does your "customized faith" come from? Does it come from legitimate Biblical convictions obtained by reading and praying through Scripture? Or is it just what you want to believe?

It would be nigh upon impossible for me to pick a church that agrees with me 100% on every major and minor issue. I identify, in rapidly descending order of importance, as a Christian, a five-point Calvinist, a Baptist, and a qualified continuationist (in the vein of John Piper and Wayne Grudem). And I don't worship like a dead man. All of this, I arrived at through studying Scripture and listening to faithful preachers from Baptist, Presbyterian, nondenominational, Sovereign Grace, Acts 29, (etc.) churches.

Maybe you are from a Sovereign Grace church, read the preceding paragraph, and said, "I don't see what this guy's problem is. He should just join one of our churches. We agree with him on practically everything." The problem is the will of God.

After spending time in prayer about it and becoming convinced that God would be most glorified in my life right now if I do this, I became a member of a Reformed Baptist church in my area. (This is also the "international church" to which I referred in Godly Fellowship, Part 8.) We don't actually have "Reformed" or "Baptist" in our name. We have gone through three names and two pastors during the two-plus years that I have been there. The majority of the members who were there two years ago have left the church and been replaced by new people whom I do not know as well. And in my age group, our church is so full of young men that we all basically have to look outside our local church for prospective wives - and then make sure that they too agree with us on matters of the faith and can serve in our church - not an easy task. (In our young adult ministry recently, we had five men's small groups and only one for women.) There is really very little in it for me except that I know I am being fed with the Word here and worshiping God truthfully with other genuinely converted people here. And those two things outweigh everything else.

I do not want to make minor issues major, if I can help it in the least. To have fellowship with me as a Christian, someone must agree with me on one thing: the gospel. That is the most important thing in all of Christianity, and everything else in our faith is insignificant to this one thing: Christ died for sinners. And if someone repents of their sins (not just confessing them) and believes in Christ alone, God has given them that repentance and faith and saved them. Nothing else really matters compared to this gospel.

At this stage in life, loving the church means the following for me: "To the wind with 10- or 20-year Christian friendships that were not founded in Christ. Possibly, to the wind with getting married or even finding love, at least for now. I do not wear a cross around my neck. I carry it on my shoulder. And this is no sacrifice to me, because God killing His Son at Calvary was an unthinkable sacrifice, and He did it anyway to glorify His name by saving my soul from His eternal wrath. These are my brothers and sisters. They are with Christ. So I am with them."

When we approach doctrine or the church with apathy or we emphasize our customized theology above everything else, we ought to consider the following:

"You wonder why people choose fields away from the States when young people at home are drifting because no one wants to take time to listen to their problems. I’ll tell you why I left. Because those Stateside young people have every opportunity to study, hear, and understand the Word of God in their own language, and these Indians have no opportunity whatsoever. I have had to make a cross of two logs, and lie down on it, to show the Indians what it means to crucify a man. When there is that much ignorance over here and so much knowledge and opportunity over there, I have no question in my mind why God sent me here. Those whimpering Stateside young people will wake up on the Day of Judgment condemned to worst fates than these demon-fearing Indians, because having a Bible, they were bored with it – while these never heard of such a thing as writing."

- Jim Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty, p. 237, quoted on Pure Church.

To Chase Him Down

Died He for me,

Whose life disappears like vapor

Who once chased a stack of paper

Instead of my sovereign Maker?

He's one Holy God in three,

His ways know no limitations,

His purpose sees no frustrations,

His Spirit - Regenerator.

His will? To make me holy,

Like Him, who became lowly,

The Son, who suffered slowly

And was once not seen as Son.

Fulfilled? Each prophet's story

By Christ, who left His glory

Who made it auditory:

The redemptive work was done!

My long-gone brother said it well,

I once dangled over hell

Only mercy did sustain me - kept on this earth to tell

That until that final bell

Repentance makes a sinner well

And believing in the spotless, perfect Lamb Who never fell.

It glorified my King to throw off my every chain,

To cleanse great and minor stains,

To test my growing faith with pains.

Let my life song's each refrain

Scream that He my life maintains

And that He by grace sustains

My chase of Him and not the vain.

I read and I write to encounter the divine,

To worship with heart and mind

To speak the truth that I find.

Lord, entrance Your chosen saints

In a state of faithful praise,

Amazed by Your sovereign grace.

Transfix my gaze,

Transform my ways,

To become what befits one who lives in endless day.

Rewrite each phrase,

Ignite my praise,

Set my passion on Your glory. May I never stray.

Many days I have a faraway look in my eyes,

Thinking of my future home where the pleasure never dies.

Considering His perfections, I do well to surmise

That His grace for today makes me able to live wise.

Seek His face, and chase it down,

In your house and in your town

Cling to the gracious Savior whose love and grace abound

Your life cannot be rewound.

Let it send a worthy sound.

Not knowing you were lost, by His mercy you were found.

As a lost sheep, lost coin, lost son, now found -

you can grasp parables now - thoughts unbound.

The Spirit shed light and made your mind renewed:

The Good Shepherd left ninety-nine for you!

On Obedience to Civil Government, Part 2: The Cost of Obeying the Lord.

Another item worth highlighting from Romans 13:1-7 is that it calls earthly rulers "God's servant to do you good." Even in today's society, we can find that hard to believe. With rampant corruption in some nations' governments and representing special interest groups instead of the people in others, it becomes difficult to think many of these rulers can possibly have the best interests of the people anywhere in their hearts.

Yet, what is "good"?

God says He will work every circumstance in our lives "for [our] good" (Romans 8:28), to conform us to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). This includes "trials of many kinds" that He brings into our lives to test our faith, develop perseverance in us, and allow us to become mature and complete (James 1:2-4). Serving under a ruler who dishonors God can be somewhat of a trial in itself, at times. But people in our cultures today tend to cry wolf at even the slightest hint of a trial.

Consider the people to whom the Apostle Paul wrote. They lived and functioned during the reign of the emperor Nero, considered one of the most wicked emperors in Roman history.

What do historians and students of Christian history think of when they first think of Nero? One of the first items - mere word association with Nero's name?

He killed Christians for their faith.

The Apostle Paul was saying that even Nero's authority was God-ordained, and he ought to submit to it - even if it meant "off with his head".

How would a Christian today respond to that?

If you identify first with Christ, you are in the best position. Responding to "Tell me, 'Caesar is Lord'" (or "[insert ruler's name here] is Lord") with "No, Jesus is Lord" would be almost a natural response to that - even if it costs you everything. As Martin Luther pointed out, a faith that costs you nothing is worth nothing.

If you are most modern-day Americans, you would either deny the faith to save your own skin or call in to every talk show affiliated with your political party and mobilize people who agree with you to pray for the persecution to stop.

And if you are listening to some of the prophets of today, you may say, "Down with Nero. We need a Christian emperor." And then you would mobilize your Christian countrymen to take him out.

A better question to ask is: what gives God the most glory? If an anti-Christian ruler kills me for my faith in Jesus Christ, my death brings God glory. It is easier for me to fade into the background of the world around me and become known as just a good, moral person ("the guy who doesn't ...") than it is for me to take a stand for God and let God make an example out of me to others as, "This is what your faith can cost you. The only other alternative to turning from your sin, denying yourself, and following hard after Christ is going to hell. Count the cost, and follow Him." Luke 14:26-27 reads, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters - yes, even his own life - he cannot be My disciple. And anyone who does not carry His cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple."

In Hard to Believe, John MacArthur writes,

"The manifestation of true faith is a commitment that no influence can sway. Of course you love your family... But if you're a real disciple, your commitment to the salvation found only in Christ is so deep, profound, and far-reaching that you will say no, if need be, to those you love for the cause of Christ. ...

"I pray to God I never have to make that decision, but I might. You may have had to make that choice because you confessed Jesus Christ, and it has been a burden on your family. But that's the way we prove the reality of our conversion. The one who says, 'I'm not willing to make that sacrifice', isn't genuine. ... You can't be His disciple and receive His salvation if your family means more to you than He does."

We can substitute anything other than God for "family" in that quote - including "country".

Dillon Chase - "How He Loves Remix"

I saw some people have been looking for the words to Dillon Chase's remix of "How He Loves". I transcribed them around the same time that I did the words to his remix of "Here In Your Presence", so here they are. Again, please correct me if anything is not accurate.

"From the chosen of Israel to the present-day times,

God, we are inferior!

This blessing is mine.

I question to find myself truly acquainted with You.

I'm frustrated by what moves me to forget You.

Consumed with Your greatness; You prove to be gracious.

I view this throughout Your Scripture, read it, hear it, feel it.

Consuming my heart, produce from the thought

The depths of the sovereign grace.

God, You are great; I am not.

But You view me as bought.

You Who sought me when I kept on running,

Fingertips stripped away chains I was hugging.

I willfully spit in Your face with my lips.

You wiped it off and let Your blood drip.

"Oh, how He loves us! [Grace alone]

Oh, how He loves us, [Through faith alone]

How He loves us so! [In Christ alone, for Your glory alone]"

"In the heat of the storm, I'm seeking You, Lord.

Your lovingkindness is better than life!

I need You more than anything, You're

More than enough, my Treasure, my Prize!

Yes, You are God. Yes, I am fallen.

But You gave a calling that had to be heard.

You opened up the ears of my heart,

Came near my heart and actually turned.

I wouldn't have wanted to trust in the Gospel

And now I am brought to my knees; I surrender.

Your love overflows; it spills in my mouth.

I yell and I shout,

That Jesus is risen! Jesus is Lord! He's mighty to save!

Humbled by Your grace, I died to my ways!

I try to explain, but I run out of words!

I cry and proclaim Your wondrous works!

Oh, how You loved me first.

Oh, how I am nothing but dirt,

But You make me Your own. You cover my hurt

With Your love, not my works. Only by grace, You're taking me home.

Oh, how He loved us first.

Oh, how we're nothing but dirt,

But He makes us His own. He covers our hurt

With His love, not our works. Only by grace, He is taking us home.

"Oh, how He loves us! [By grace alone, through faith alone]

Oh, how He loves us, [In Christ alone, for Your glory alone!]

How He loves us so!"

"I pray that this world, in their sin and rebellion,

Would turn from their sin and begin to go tell them

That we who belong to the God Who has saved us.

Have hope and not hurt. He is the safe haven.

This here was the greatest. He's holy and just,

Gracious and merciful - that's not enough.

On top of that, He is sovereign 'cause

He receives all who He bought with His blood.

Nothing can keep Him from loving His people,

Not death, man, or satan can seek to

Snatch us from His hand. We're clutched by His grace

Kept by the Spirit, we're one in this race.

Safe in His hands, clutched by His grace:

what got us here was nothing but faith.

Safe in His hands, clutched by His grace:

what got us here was nothing but faith.

"Oh, how He loves us!

Oh, how He loves us!

Oh, how He loves us!

Oh, he loves!

"And we are His portion

And He is our prize

Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,

If His grace is an ocean, we are sinking.

And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss

And my heart turns violently inside of my chest

I don't have time to maintain these regrets

when I think about the way that He loves us.

Oh, how He loves us!

Oh, how He loves us!

Oh, how He loves!"

- Dillon Chase, "How He Loves Remix", available on the Pause mixtape.

Godly Fellowship: Part Two: It All Goes Back to Day One.

“‘Do not lay a hand on the boy,’ He said. ‘Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from Me your son, your only son.’

”Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, ‘On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.’”

- Genesis 22:12-14

As Tedashii says in his song "Hollywood", did you not find it beautiful to "look behind the bush to see the Ram"? This refers to a picture in the book of Genesis of salvation - the most important thing in the Christian life! As believers, it is important to keep in mind what we were saved from and whose sake we were saved for.

We do not need a Savior because having one will make all of life’s problems magically disappear. (If anything, Christianity can introduce whole new sets of problems to one’s life.) We need Christ because of how utterly depraved and lost we are without Him. Someone had to die in my place. Only Christ could.

Without His saving grace, I would be a God-hating, greedy, covetous, lustful, idolatrous wretch, sentenced to the worst torment in hell. And without His common grace, I might have become the wickedest man alive. I had “stumbled in one point of the Law”, and actually in many; so I was “guilty of all” (James 2:10). But God, being infinitely rich in mercy, determined in eternity past that He would declare me “not guilty”, looking on His Son Jesus and pardoning me. I cannot say that He, sentimentally, “saw anything good in me that made Him love me”. There was nothing good whatsoever. Christ would have thrown out my nicest deed ever as filthy in His sight. I had to turn from sin and self and throw myself upon Him to be saved.

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"We should aim to speak as in the sight of God. We are to ask ourselves not, 'what did the people think of me?', but, 'what was I in the sight of God?'"

- J. C. Ryle (note: in his sermon, his original context was preaching; however, this is still good advice for any of us as believers.)

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“My dear friend, everybody wants to go to heaven. They just don’t want God to be there when they get there. The question is not do you want to go to heaven. The question is this. Do you want God? Have you stopped being a hater of God? Has Christ become precious to you? Do you desire Him?”

- Paul Washer, “Ten Indictments Against the Modern Church in America”

This leads me to another question: How can I even consider someone else to be a believer if they have an apathetic, “Yeah, I did that”, view of their “salvation”? If someone sees nothing beautiful, nothing mind-blowing about the High King of Heaven – the universe’s ultimate Authority, who has no flaws at all and cannot accept sin in His Kingdom – sending His only Son to die in their place, so that He could declare them not guilty – has the Holy Spirit even done a work in them?

This goes back to a point Shai Linne made about the definite nature of Christ’s atonement; he said he believes in that because it ensures that not one drop of Christ’s blood was shed in vain. I would like to connect this to the work of the Holy Spirit. Suppose Christ comes in to one person’s life and the Spirit changed everything in their life. They stop getting drunk, get much better at loving other Christians, have a voracious appetite for Scripture, and want to grow spiritually as much as they can. Then suppose that Christ allegedly “came in” to somebody else’s life and the Spirit changed nothing at all. In fact, the second person only comes to church on Christmas and Easter to make an appearance; the rest of the year, they put work and hobbies above anything related to Christ. They never read the Word or seek any kind of fellowship with other Christians. And they’re still in love with all of the sins that they loved committing prior to “praying their prayer”.

Is the second person saved? The book of 1 John says plainly that they probably never were. And most people in America that claim the name of Christ, including most people that fill the pews, serve, and even preach in American churches, fall into that category.

So, then, going back to godly fellowship: it can’t be with just anybody. If you are a true believer in Christ – which means that 1 John describes you as a “child of light” – then you cannot have true “godly fellowship” with a non-believer or with someone who says they are saved but displays no interest in the things of God. This is why I find it so easy to have good godly fellowship with some people in my churches, but trying to have it with others is like running the Iditarod with a team of dead sled dogs. Although I am not the ultimate Judge of who is going to be saved, and some people who appear godly are “inwardly ravenous wolves”, the Word of God says that believers are known by their fruit (Matthew 7:15-16).

Realizing this has an impact on who I consider to be my close friends. To a believer, spiritual things are of the highest importance. So a close friendship with a non-believer could involve evangelism, but not kinship. But a close friendship with a believer would be between siblings in Christ.

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“ ³At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. ⁴ But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, ⁵ He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. ⁸ This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.”

- Titus 3:3-8

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"Daily discipleship is not a new revolution each morning or an agent of global transformation each evening; it's a long obedience in the same direction."
- Kevin DeYoung, Why We Love the Church

We must always live with that in view, and we must interact with each other with that in view – as we seek to progress from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity. Do not be content to remain a baby. To remain a baby for twenty years in a human body would be a medical absurdity. With that in mind, babies do not learn to walk or run without help. Their parents, or others that can demonstrate what they need to learn, teach them. In the same way, we still need to be taught in matters of the faith. And hence, God has given us brothers and sisters in Him – to instruct us in the theory and the practice of showing off the glory of Christ in every area of life.

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“In every part with praise,
That my whole being may proclaim
Thy being and Thy ways.
Not for the lip of praise alone,
Nor even the praising heart
I ask, but for a life made up
Of praise in every part!

“Praise in the common words I speak,
Life’s common looks and tones,
In fellowship in hearth and board
With my beloved ones;
Not in the temple crowd alone
Where holy voices chime,
But in the silent paths of earth,
The quiet rooms of time.

“Fill every part of me with praise;
Let all my being speak
Of Thee and of Thy love, O Lord,
Poor though I be, and weak.
So shalt Thou, Lord, from me, even me,
Receive the glory due;
And so shall I begin on earth
The song forever new.

“So shall each fear, each fret, each care
Be turned into a song,
And every winding of the way
The echo shall prolong;
So shall no part of day or night
From sacredness be free;
But all my life, in every step
Be fellowship with Thee.”

- Horatius Bonar, “Fill Thou My Life”