Hidden Sins

In recent days this psalm has once again taken on special significance in my heart as I have been confronted with some very troubling sin that remains hidden in the deeper recesses of my mind and spirit. It is often the case that when we mature as believers, we don't always forsake our sin, we simply learn to cover it over better and to hide it. This is a very dangerous place to be, as accountability is almost non-existent and our own conscience can be easily soothed when we merely examine the outer displays of morality and obedience. Praise God for His gracious revealing of those sins, and that it truly is His kindness that leads us to repentance!

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!
O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.

Psalm 130

Individualism Abounds

In a day when we are mostly concerned with personal ambitions and pursuits, quick to judge and respond harshly to the hypocrisy and hurts that we may have experienced within the Church, remember that if we are genuine believers, we were not called to be individuals any longer. We represent the Bride of Christ, the Church, in its devotion and loyalty to God the Father through the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 8 says:
7But just as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also. 24Therefore openly before the churches, show them the proof of your love and of our reason for boasting about you.

It cannot be better said than the way this brother in Christ lovingly and directly calls us to remain faithful in our pursuits to go forth alongside the Church to minister to a lost world. Please read his recent blog post here:

http://rawchristianity.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/do-it-as-the-church/

Singleness and the mystery of Christ

This question was recently posted on the blog for The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood:

How can a Christian single woman enter into the mystery of Christ and the church if she never experiences marriage? Elisabeth Elliot has given an answer to this that we prefer to quote rather than try(in vain) to improve: The gift of virginity, given to every one to offer back to God for His use, is a priceless and irreplaceable gift. It can be offered in the pure sacrifice of marriage, or it can be offered in the sacrifice of a life's celibacy. Does this sound just too, too high and holy? But think for a moment - because the virgin has never known a man, she is free to concern herself wholly with the Lord's affairs, as Paul said in I Corinthians 7, "and her aim in life is to make herself holy, in body and spirit." She keeps her heart as the Bride of Christ in a very special sense, and offers to the Heavenly Bridegroom alone all that she is and has. When she gives herself willingly to Him in love she has no need to justify herself to the world or to Christians who plague her with questions and suggestions. In a way not open to the married woman her daily "living sacrifice" is a powerful and humble witness, radiating love. I believe she may enter into the "mystery" more deeply than the rest of us. (Elisabeth Elliot, "Virginity," Elisabeth Elliot Newsletter, March/April 1990 [Ann Arbor: Servant Publications]: 2-3)

Thoughts on counseling

I am currently completing a master's degree in biblical counseling, as most of my friends and family know. What many of you may not know is what that specifically means. While I will not try and explain it all in one post, let me give you a few brief thoughts to consider about the way that each of gives and receives counsel. Because let's face it, we are all counselors in some fashion or another. Understanding true biblical counsel means understanding the depravity of man, which most of us don't. Even those of us who have been well-taught in a solid doctrinal church, who claim that we understand it, really don't when we step back and examine our typical responses to the sin that we see in our own lives. We are eager to excuse it, to blame it on something or someone else, as if it is out of our control somehow. We are bad people struggling to do good, not the other way around! One of my pastors recently told me that his most basic definition of depravity is that it is "refusing to accept the goodness of God". This floored me with its simplicity, yet obvious truth when I consider it experientially. God's goodness is found in His Law, which He was kind enough to reveal in His Word, so that we have the instructions for righteousness, yet we continue to choose our sin over Him every day. We must embrace wholeheartedly what the Bible says about our hearts, our wicked imaginations and our deceitful thoughts. Consider what God's Word says in Hebrews 4:

11Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

This is where biblical counseling finds it foundation, by using Scripture ALONE through the power of the Holy Spirit, to lay open the heart of man, exposing his evil ways and then supplying the healing and hope-filled balm of the Word.

Narcissism, Stalking and ADHD

A humorous media graphic for all our technological interests, or should we say self-interests? (courtesy of Pastor Chris Brauns)

Viewing romantic movies with a critical eye...that doesn't mean we can't watch them at all!

So I really am not trying to avoid posting something original these days, but just keep coming across other blog posts that I find to be extremely thought-provoking! This one comes from a newly discovered blog that I am really excited about reading more from. I strongly suggest taking a peek:

http://thoughtsontheword.blogspot.com/2008/10/27-dresses.html

And...I will be posting something original in the next day or two...after I meet a looming school deadline:)