29When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.' 31You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
Deuteronomy 12:29-31
I have pondered this verse many times over the past few months, particularly in relationship to biblical counseling. I don't have any profound insight or mysterious exegesis of it, but I think it bears such a practical and tangible picture for the believer, as it exposes clearly how far we will go to hold onto what is most valuable to us. It is becoming more common in many evangelical circles to speak about idols, and trying to identify what it is that we worship. Elyse Fitzpatrick has even written a book entitled, Idols of the Heart, which I have found to be extremely insightful in learning to understand my heart and what it is lusting after or desiring more than Christ. But even long ago, before this resurgence of idol conversation, the Puritans often wrote on the topic. Jonathan Edwards, John Flavel, John Calvin (all the great "John" theologians!) - all spoke frequently about the tendency of man to place his own wants before his loyalty to the Father.
So back to the verse that started this post - what is the point? It shows the absolutely insane fervency with which man pursues his idols. He is so obsessed with these self-motivated and self-absorbed pursuits that he is willing to sacrifice his own sons and daughters in the fire to display his loyalty to the idol. You say, "Ridiculous! I would never burn my children on an altar for the sake of a false idol!" But wait. Consider how we do this very thing quite often. We allow others to provide the majority of the primary care for our children so that we can make more money to live in our perfectly decorated "dream home" where we all have plenty of space to spread out and make sure we have at least two nice vehicles as well as being able to afford some fun entertainment on the weekends. No physical children of your own? We are not off the hook either. Ponder how often we avoid spending time with spiritual children because it inconveniently interferes with our personal time. We would rather have that time to "rest" because we already work hard all week and we "deserve" to relax, right? We refuse to intentionally seek out opportunities to disciple or mentor a younger believer because we think this time of singleness is our time to enjoy life in ways that we will be restricted from if we ever marry. Singleness, biblically speaking, means a time of singular devotion to the ministry God has granted us, not a time of singular devotion to self. We are all placing these children, whether our own offspring or a spiritual daughter or son, on the burning altar of our own idols! We desire our own satisfaction and pleasure and comfort more than their eternal welfare.
Tend to your heart. Search out its idols and put them to destruction. John Flavel writes, "God, our Creator, has formed man with not only a physical body, but within that magnificent body is an inner realm even more significant, glorious and powerful than the body which contains it. This stately palace, the soul of man, was designed for habitation by God and not for any other." What rules me? Is it Christ who habitates my heart above all other longings? Who or what am I sacrificing in the fire for the sake of my own ease?
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
What I need...
When I am weary, this bears particular importance for me to remember. What I really need is simply Jesus!
In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise, give me Jesus
Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
But give me Jesus
When I am alone
When I am alone
When I am alone, give me Jesus
Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
But give me Jesus
When I come to die
When I come to die
When I come to die, give me Jesus
Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
You can have all this world,
You can have all this world,
But give me Jesus
Fernando Ortega
In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise, give me Jesus
Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
But give me Jesus
When I am alone
When I am alone
When I am alone, give me Jesus
Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
But give me Jesus
When I come to die
When I come to die
When I come to die, give me Jesus
Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
You can have all this world,
You can have all this world,
But give me Jesus
Fernando Ortega
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Women as Influential Teachers
"Since there are more women and children in the world than men, what a mission field women have! Some women complain, 'I don't have anything to do for Christ.' But the women who say that are usually looking for an excuse because they do not really want to serve Christ sacrificially. Women can never legitimately say that they have nothing to do for Christ until they have taught every needy child and every needy woman in the church and in their community everything they know about the Word of God. In fact, these are ministries that women can perform better than men because there are problems among children and other women that women can deal with better than men. Women may disclose personal problems to women that they would not discuss with men, and women can often understand the emotional makeup and disposition of other women better than men." (Mack & Swavely)
"Be hospitable to one another without complaint." (I Peter 4:9)
"Be hospitable to one another without complaint." (I Peter 4:9)
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Repentance
First of all, please don't think I chose this topic because I am any kind of expert on it. In fact, I actually just finished a research paper on this topic and realized how poor I truly am at repentance...at least a sincere biblical repentance. Can there be any other forms of repentance? Oh yes!
The Scriptures say in Second Corinthians 7:10, “For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.” If there is a sorrow that leads to life and a sorrow that brings forth death, then certainly it is imperative that man knows the difference. When a believer turns from evil and intends to serve God, because of the remaining flesh, he cannot do that once perfectly for all time. He must choose day to day to turn from his sin and pursue Christ with his whole heart and being.
One commentator offers a solid picture of these two types of sorrow in comparing the lives of the apostle Peter and Judas Iscariot. He says that godly sorrow is evidenced in Peter’s repentance after his denial of Christ, while a worldly sorrow can be seen in Judas when he betrayed Christ. This conclusion can be reached in evaluating the differing responses: Peter’s repentance led him to serve God, while Judas’s repentance resulted in him ending his own life as he was overcome by his guilt. Peter rested in the cleansing righteousness of His Savior, while Judas gave into his own self-condemnation. Dr. John Street says, “Worldly sorrow is focused on self and self-consequences, not God. It is concerned with forgiving self, which places self above God. Instead of saying, ‘I can’t believe I did that sin,’ man should be saying, ‘I can’t believe I’m not worse.’ It is a complete change of mind that leads to a permanent change of life.”
How am I failing at true repentance? By practicing a self-revealed repentance, one that is characterized by penance and not a complete turning of the heart and mind and will. “Penance is ‘a religious attitude prompting men to attempt to pay for their sins through good works and suffering’.” The primary difference between repentance and penance then, is that penance relies upon the works of man, while repentance relies entirely upon the merits of Christ and His righteousness.
One poor example of repentance can be found in the book of First Samuel, where Saul failed to show full and true repentance. Though commanded to utterly destroy King Agag and his kingdom, Saul pursued his own selfish desires, allowing his people to keep some of the spoils. When he was confronted with his sin, he quickly expressed some measure of repentance, yet in the end showed his true colors by still asking Samuel to help him save face in front of his people. One author writes, “There are many who turn from sins, even odious ones, who do not turn to God. A drunkard may turn from his liquor to preserve his reputation or the health of his body, only to take up some other form of self-gratification or self-indulgence…Saul spared but one Agag, and that cost him his soul and his kingdom.” (Jonathan Edwards)
True repentance is specific, to the point of making public confession and restitution if that is what is necessary. True repentance does not fear the idea of gracious humiliation, and is willing to turn immediately – urgently – from his sin and to forsake it entirely. Saul showed no such willingness. Instead, he tried to excuse his actions, blaming it on the people and then trying to blame it on his own desire to please the people. He was more concerned with making a good impression than with pleasing God, and this was his demise. True repentance is radical in nature and produces radical results, as evidenced in Isaiah 55:6-7, “Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Romans 7:24-8:2:
Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
Paul lives out the purpose of biblical counseling, to be able to use biblical truths about God to question and answer oneself to attain godliness. Here Paul provides a glimpse of a very important element of biblical repentance. The repentant individual cannot attain righteousness apart from a fixed meditation upon Christ and His finished work. The person who is sincerely repentant knows that there is no act of penance that could ever satisfy the Lord and because of Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross there is no need for such acts. Men often make repentance too difficult for themselves by refusing to rest in Christ and claim Him as their right standing. One writer quotes one of the Puritans on this very tendency, stating, “Brooks tells the tempted person, under the power of this distortion, to remember continually that Satan is a liar. Before you sin, he will tell you repentance is easy, but after you sin, he will tell you repentance is too hard! Both are lies.” Paul knew of the condemning accusations of the enemy, and he recognized the tendencies within toward self-condemnation and despair. True repentance boldly embraces the freedom that has been granted from Christ’s death and welcomes with joy the substitutionary atonement made on man’s behalf. There is no longer a need for atonement. The truly repentant man flees from sin and runs to the cross.
A primary hindrance to sincere repentance is self-love. Again, pride is the root of such tendencies and the result is a deceived heart, which never knows true repentance. In a recent sermon, one preacher stated:"Self-love renders itself to self-deception to maintain its position of authority and can only be healed by self-examination. It is a preferred willing deception. Men do such a thing because they love a god that is pliable to their own desires. Self-love will only move when it finds a place of greater happiness or contentment or when the current place of contentment and happiness is dismantled. True repentance shows up in contrition and humiliation, being cut off from previous self-trust and self-love. If we are in Christ then we will love Christ supremely. This is not a momentary examination, but lifelong." (Kent Pletcher)
One writer states, "The key to a godly life is not more and more self-generated effort. Instead, Jesus is saying, 'Love me and your obedience will flow naturally from that love.' The secret to obedience isn’t formulaic steps found in a self-help book. It is a relentless pursuit of love for him. How then do I cultivate the sincerity of love that motivates obedience? By focusing more intently on his love for me than on my love for him, more on his obedience than mine, more on his faithfulness than mine, more on his strengths than mine." (Elyse Fitzpatrick)
I am learning that my self-efforts will always fall short of pleasing God, and so by loving Christ supremely, I am pleasing to God because when He looks at me, He sees Christ. I am learning that my repentance is only true when it is focused entirely upon the merits of Christ and on the restoration of fellowship with the Father.
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. (I Timothy 1:12-17)
The Scriptures say in Second Corinthians 7:10, “For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.” If there is a sorrow that leads to life and a sorrow that brings forth death, then certainly it is imperative that man knows the difference. When a believer turns from evil and intends to serve God, because of the remaining flesh, he cannot do that once perfectly for all time. He must choose day to day to turn from his sin and pursue Christ with his whole heart and being.
One commentator offers a solid picture of these two types of sorrow in comparing the lives of the apostle Peter and Judas Iscariot. He says that godly sorrow is evidenced in Peter’s repentance after his denial of Christ, while a worldly sorrow can be seen in Judas when he betrayed Christ. This conclusion can be reached in evaluating the differing responses: Peter’s repentance led him to serve God, while Judas’s repentance resulted in him ending his own life as he was overcome by his guilt. Peter rested in the cleansing righteousness of His Savior, while Judas gave into his own self-condemnation. Dr. John Street says, “Worldly sorrow is focused on self and self-consequences, not God. It is concerned with forgiving self, which places self above God. Instead of saying, ‘I can’t believe I did that sin,’ man should be saying, ‘I can’t believe I’m not worse.’ It is a complete change of mind that leads to a permanent change of life.”
How am I failing at true repentance? By practicing a self-revealed repentance, one that is characterized by penance and not a complete turning of the heart and mind and will. “Penance is ‘a religious attitude prompting men to attempt to pay for their sins through good works and suffering’.” The primary difference between repentance and penance then, is that penance relies upon the works of man, while repentance relies entirely upon the merits of Christ and His righteousness.
One poor example of repentance can be found in the book of First Samuel, where Saul failed to show full and true repentance. Though commanded to utterly destroy King Agag and his kingdom, Saul pursued his own selfish desires, allowing his people to keep some of the spoils. When he was confronted with his sin, he quickly expressed some measure of repentance, yet in the end showed his true colors by still asking Samuel to help him save face in front of his people. One author writes, “There are many who turn from sins, even odious ones, who do not turn to God. A drunkard may turn from his liquor to preserve his reputation or the health of his body, only to take up some other form of self-gratification or self-indulgence…Saul spared but one Agag, and that cost him his soul and his kingdom.” (Jonathan Edwards)
True repentance is specific, to the point of making public confession and restitution if that is what is necessary. True repentance does not fear the idea of gracious humiliation, and is willing to turn immediately – urgently – from his sin and to forsake it entirely. Saul showed no such willingness. Instead, he tried to excuse his actions, blaming it on the people and then trying to blame it on his own desire to please the people. He was more concerned with making a good impression than with pleasing God, and this was his demise. True repentance is radical in nature and produces radical results, as evidenced in Isaiah 55:6-7, “Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Romans 7:24-8:2:
Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
Paul lives out the purpose of biblical counseling, to be able to use biblical truths about God to question and answer oneself to attain godliness. Here Paul provides a glimpse of a very important element of biblical repentance. The repentant individual cannot attain righteousness apart from a fixed meditation upon Christ and His finished work. The person who is sincerely repentant knows that there is no act of penance that could ever satisfy the Lord and because of Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross there is no need for such acts. Men often make repentance too difficult for themselves by refusing to rest in Christ and claim Him as their right standing. One writer quotes one of the Puritans on this very tendency, stating, “Brooks tells the tempted person, under the power of this distortion, to remember continually that Satan is a liar. Before you sin, he will tell you repentance is easy, but after you sin, he will tell you repentance is too hard! Both are lies.” Paul knew of the condemning accusations of the enemy, and he recognized the tendencies within toward self-condemnation and despair. True repentance boldly embraces the freedom that has been granted from Christ’s death and welcomes with joy the substitutionary atonement made on man’s behalf. There is no longer a need for atonement. The truly repentant man flees from sin and runs to the cross.
A primary hindrance to sincere repentance is self-love. Again, pride is the root of such tendencies and the result is a deceived heart, which never knows true repentance. In a recent sermon, one preacher stated:"Self-love renders itself to self-deception to maintain its position of authority and can only be healed by self-examination. It is a preferred willing deception. Men do such a thing because they love a god that is pliable to their own desires. Self-love will only move when it finds a place of greater happiness or contentment or when the current place of contentment and happiness is dismantled. True repentance shows up in contrition and humiliation, being cut off from previous self-trust and self-love. If we are in Christ then we will love Christ supremely. This is not a momentary examination, but lifelong." (Kent Pletcher)
One writer states, "The key to a godly life is not more and more self-generated effort. Instead, Jesus is saying, 'Love me and your obedience will flow naturally from that love.' The secret to obedience isn’t formulaic steps found in a self-help book. It is a relentless pursuit of love for him. How then do I cultivate the sincerity of love that motivates obedience? By focusing more intently on his love for me than on my love for him, more on his obedience than mine, more on his faithfulness than mine, more on his strengths than mine." (Elyse Fitzpatrick)
I am learning that my self-efforts will always fall short of pleasing God, and so by loving Christ supremely, I am pleasing to God because when He looks at me, He sees Christ. I am learning that my repentance is only true when it is focused entirely upon the merits of Christ and on the restoration of fellowship with the Father.
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. (I Timothy 1:12-17)
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Why I love biblical counseling
I just finished a 20+ page paper on the Sufficiency of Scripture as related to biblical counseling. WOW! Intensely wonderful! Now I am moving on to finish putting all my notes for my next paper into their final form - this one is on Repetance and remorse vs. Repentance and penance. Also intense! But in the midst of all this reflection, I was reminded quite vividly about why biblical counseling is so important to understand, not just for the biblical counselor, but for the local church, which is the primary place in which biblical counseling should be happening. Here are a couple of thought-provoking quotes:
"Our ecclesiastical theology has inadevertantly taught Christians that church is where I learn how to get to Heaven, but the psychologist's office is where I learn how to live right now." - Dr. John Street
"To deny a counseling ministry in the church is to deny the church to fulfill its purpose." - Steve McAlister
And so I remember again why am I doing this. Because God has called the Church to meet the needs of its people and to try and do so outside of the local body is to go beyond the bounds of Scripture. Let me clarify that I am not saying that believers don't minister outside the local body. However, that would be a different type of ministry as the only true counsel that can be given to an unbeliever is to call them to Christ in repentance. Teaching an unbeliever biblical concepts without a regenerate heart results in nothing more than moralism and behaviorism, neither of which will secure eternal life or freedom from the bonds of sin. For the true believer, there is no source of counsel other than that which is based on the Scriptures. The Word is wholly sufficient! If it was not, God would have provided another means of help. The reason this is so precious is because that means that I don't need an "expert" because I have the expert handbook right infront of me, accessible at all times!
"Our ecclesiastical theology has inadevertantly taught Christians that church is where I learn how to get to Heaven, but the psychologist's office is where I learn how to live right now." - Dr. John Street
"To deny a counseling ministry in the church is to deny the church to fulfill its purpose." - Steve McAlister
And so I remember again why am I doing this. Because God has called the Church to meet the needs of its people and to try and do so outside of the local body is to go beyond the bounds of Scripture. Let me clarify that I am not saying that believers don't minister outside the local body. However, that would be a different type of ministry as the only true counsel that can be given to an unbeliever is to call them to Christ in repentance. Teaching an unbeliever biblical concepts without a regenerate heart results in nothing more than moralism and behaviorism, neither of which will secure eternal life or freedom from the bonds of sin. For the true believer, there is no source of counsel other than that which is based on the Scriptures. The Word is wholly sufficient! If it was not, God would have provided another means of help. The reason this is so precious is because that means that I don't need an "expert" because I have the expert handbook right infront of me, accessible at all times!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Social Networking
Anyone who knows me knows that I teeter back and forth about whether I want to involve myself in social networking. On the one hand, I guess even this blog could be seen as a form of such. However, I believe that my purposes in blogging are vastly different than the purposes that go along with much of the social networking sites (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, etc.) I still do not really even know what "Twitter" is, but statistically, all these avenues of networking combined, allow us humans to be invasively involved in one another's lives in no way we have ever historically experienced before. Sometimes I think, "what's the point in getting to know someone when I can read all about them online?" and other times - let's be honest here - we contemplate not wanting to know someone after seeing all their dirty laundry aired all over the pages. I came across the following quote from an article about people leaving social networking sites and why they are doing so. Obviously, I am not calling for any of us to delete our Facebook accounts or stop twittering altogether. But this is just another good reminder about evaluating our motives behind what we write for our status updates, "tweets", etc:
"...Social networking seems to me to often demonstrate the “thinness” of our lives, to use a David Wells term I like alot. What is it about the modern person that so needs to share with and be connected to massive amounts of people? Christian or otherwise, is this a healthy trend? What good, lasting good, comes of it? Or does social networking often highlight our less flattering features–narcissism, need to be linked to popular/cool/attractive folks and exciting events, endless talking/communicating, oversharing, and so on? If you stay on Facebook, and you use it for good ends (like making meaningful kingdom connections, and especially encouraging other Christians and evangelizing friends), great. Keep at it. I’m still on it, and I hope to use it for good insofar as I can." - Owen Strachan
"...Social networking seems to me to often demonstrate the “thinness” of our lives, to use a David Wells term I like alot. What is it about the modern person that so needs to share with and be connected to massive amounts of people? Christian or otherwise, is this a healthy trend? What good, lasting good, comes of it? Or does social networking often highlight our less flattering features–narcissism, need to be linked to popular/cool/attractive folks and exciting events, endless talking/communicating, oversharing, and so on? If you stay on Facebook, and you use it for good ends (like making meaningful kingdom connections, and especially encouraging other Christians and evangelizing friends), great. Keep at it. I’m still on it, and I hope to use it for good insofar as I can." - Owen Strachan
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