"There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech. We should be better Christians if we were more alone, waiting upon God, and gathering through meditation on His Word spiritual strength for labour in His service. We ought to muse upon the things of God, because we thus get the real nutriment out of them...
"Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make but slower advances in the divine life? Because they neglect their closets, and do not thoughtfully meditate on God's Word. They love the wheat, but they do not grind it; they would have the corn, but they will not go forth into the fields to gather it; the fruit hangs upon the tree, but they will not pluck it; the water flows at their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it. From such folly deliver us, O Lord..."
"The Lord is all and in all. If today I am patient, it is not I but He who lives in me who is patient. If today I love, it is not because I try my best to love, for the power of love is not in me; but it is because there is One who loves in me. If today I am humble, it is not because I remind myself how proud I am and, therefore need to be humble. He is my humility, therefore I am humble."
Humanity's depravity has been so abundantly clear to me as of late.
And it's baffling...the evil that is here. Questions are raised; hope is shattered; trust begins to falter.
This world has nothing for me, including myself. I cannot trust my own thoughts, desires, plans, and dreams. I must trust the One who will not be crushed under the weight of worship. The One who died for my doubt and unbelief.
This verse has taken on a whole new meaning.
"Whom have I in Heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" (Psalm 73:25-26).
He does not make me strong, rather, He is my strength.
Therefore I must be weak.
"Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with my weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:8-10).
Break our hearts in worship.
"Farther Along"
(Chorus)
Farther along we'll know all about it
Father along we'll understand it
Cheer up my brothers, live in the sunshine
We'll understand this, all by and by
Tempted and tried, I wondered why
The good man dies, the bad man thrives
And Jesus cries because He love 'em both
We're all cast-aways in need of rope
Hanging on by the last threads of our hope
In a house of mirrors full of smoke
Confusing illusions I've seen
Where did I go wrong, I sang along
To every chorus of the song
That the devil wrote like a piper at the gate
Leading mice and men down to their fate
But some will courageously escape
The seductive voice with a heart of faith
While walking that line back home
There so much more to life than we've been told
It's full of beauty that will unfold
And shine like you struck gold my wayward son
That deadweight burden weighs a ton
Go down into the river and let it run
Wash away all the things you've done
Forgiveness all right
(Chorus)
But still I get hard-pressed on every side
Between the Rock and a compromise
Like the Truth and a pack of lies fighting for my soul
My discipler got to go, so for a lot more and accurate notes and more reflective wisdom, check out her upcoming posts :)
The conference's main sessions were streamed LIVE--words cannot express how happy I was/am about this. The way I worship, fear, and view God has been shifted. This brings Him more glory, and for that, I am so so grateful.
I only got to watch about four (I say about because I was only half-listening to one) talks, but my favorite one that I got to hear was Paige Benton Brown's, In the Temple: The Glorious and Forgiving God.
She taught from 1 Kings 8:1-30, 52-63. And she spoke for over an hour. And none of it was boring. Impressive.
A few great points/quotes:
- All other religions present a relationship between god and his people that is causative--If you do ____, god will give you ____.
- Christianity presents a relationship between God and His people that is contradictory -- He says that we have done nothing to merit His love, favor, mercy, etc...yet He freely gives it as a gift despite our failure.
- She referenced verses 27-28: "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You; how much less this house I have built? Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O Lord my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before You this day."
- That "Yet" is huge -- it indicates that Solomon knows he does not deserve answered prayer, or anything good, from God, yet he asks for it, knowing that God keeps His promises: "'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who with His hand has fulfilled what He has promised with His mouth to David...'" (v. 15).
- God keeps His promises; therefore we can trust Him.
- The purpose of God's will is relationship, not forgiveness. Forgiveness is required for relationship.
- He gives up His rightful throne to take on my rightful Cross.
- As the temples was the dwelling place of God, now because of Jesus, WE are the temples in which God dwells.
- Does my hatred, jealousy, doubt square with the fact that I house the glory of God?
- Work, reason, wrestle FROM the "templeness" that Jesus has given to us, not TO it--you can't.
- He tells us to "...be filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18) -- therefore, if we are filled, "there ain't no room for anything else."
- Being a temples of the living God changes the amount of time I spend investing in the way that I look, how I spend money, etc.
- There is no room for the attitude that "the way I spend my money, time, and efforts is up to me, because He fills ALL of it.
I have never before considered, to this degree, that I am a temple of God. Not as some princess-like jewel that God doesn't want anyone to scratch, but I literally house the presence of God. Therefore, fickle discipline and doubt of God's sovereignty is laughable; my prideful desire for control and fear at the thought of relinquishing control seems not just erroneous, but ugly.
I am always more wretched that I think I am; He is always more good, more holy, and more glorious than I think He is.
Relationships are huge to me. For one, relationships, by and large, are enjoyable to me. People are interesting; conversation is interesting, and holds my attention.
With that in mind, engaging in relationships is necessary as a human, and commanded by God for believers.
Relationships: A Mess Worth Making is a book that my mentor gave me months some time ago that I have yet to return.
I was reading it yesterday, and stumbled across this:
This quote was extremely relevant to a sermon that I had watched a few hours prior that the small groups pastor at my church, Spence Shelton, gave last week. His message was on the community of believers and how integral it is to our walks with Christ.
Hebrews 3:12-14 says:
"Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end."
Spence explained that we must share our thoughts, sin, disappointments, marriages, and relationships with other believers--to prevent any one from "[falling] away from the living God." We also must "exhort one another every day", to remind each other that Christ is better. He is better than financial; marital; relational; personal success. We are sons and daughters that have the privilege of laboring for our King who rescued us.
We must confess to, share with, and exhort one another.
Relationships are for the purposes of sanctification and witness to the Gospel.
They are not supposed to make us uncomfortable--that is where our sin destroys God's perfect design.
Spence stated that when you are finally known for who you really are and you experience love and not condemnation, you experience the Gospel...and it changes you.
Charles Spurgeon was a 19th century British Baptist pastor whose fervor for the Risen Jesus is something by which believers are still inspired and challenged.
The following is an excerpt from a sermon he delivered on August 1, 1875. The sermon was entitled "The Choice of a Leader."
"We must be all conscious that we imitate those whom we admire. Love has a strange influence over our nature, to mould it into the form beloved. A true disciple is like clay on the wheel, and his Master fashions him after his own image. We may be scarcely conscious of it, but we are most surely being conformed to the likeness of those to whose influence we submit ourselves.
"Whoever then your Master may be, dear friend, you are changing into his image: if you choose to be led by the votary of pleasure, you will become more and more frivolous; if you admire the slave of avarice, you will become avaricious, if you feel the sway of the minion of vice, you will grow vicious yourself. If a man who despises the word of God becomes your hero, you will ere long despise it too: while men are gazing upon him with admiration, a kind of photography is going on, and you, like a sensitive plate, receive his image. I charge you, therefore, to be careful who becomes your guide."
I need to preach this to myself daily. Every influence I submit myself to should be intentional, so as to refine my character and labor for Christ's fame. Though I deem the influence to which I submit myself is mostly aware of sin and worshipful of Jesus, I need to constantly check myself. Am I actually worshipping Jesus? Or am I worshipping someone(s) who love Him?
I am extremely apt to people please and therefore need to ensure that I am aiming to please and give glory to the Giver of Life, not another person.
Jesus is my treasure, my hope, and my rock. He died for me; He took my place--no one else did that. Submitting to church authority and seeking wise council is a part of submitting to God, but I need to remind myself that Jesus pursued me before anyone else did. I need to study Him before I can study another's thoughts.
He is the perfect example of fulfilling the law; no other person has done or will ever do this.
My life is hid with Him; I will give an account to Him and Him alone.
I went to the library earlier this afternoon to write a
paper, and instead ended up praying and dwelling on Scripture (common occurrence)—but so is reading other blogs, blogging, pinteresting, excessively writing in my planner, and
making lists. Type A, I know.
I was sitting at a table by myself in a small common
area. There was minimal chatter
and lots of goose bumps. Our library is freezing.
A group of students convened to work on a group project at a
larger table to my forefront; one student was blind and had a guide dog
accompanying him.
Once about half an hour passed, I finally collected myself
after shedding several tears over God’s heart for a group of people I love—I’m accustomed to crying in public; I do it
so often it’s hardly embarrassing anymore.
The group disassembled and the student who was blind stood
up and began to leave the table.
The walkway was short before he had to turn right to descend the stairs
and exit the library. However, as
he made his way down the walkway, his guide dog didn’t make him turn right, and
the student walked directly into another student who was working at another
table. The collision was audible
and my heart broke for the blind student’s embarrassment.
The student quickly found his way around the corner, down
the stairs, and practically ran out of the double doors—only heightening the
number of eyes on him.
Since I had been crying only a couple of minutes beforehand,
I proceeded to march myself to the bathroom, as I was a basket case. I wanted to glare at every person that
was staring at the student, as if that would alleviate his humiliation and make
me feel better. I’m glad that I
didn’t. I’m half as bold as I think
myself to be—even if it’s about chastisement.
Here comes the
analogy…
Does my heart break for spiritually blind people? Do I weep at the sight of a person who
does not know and love Jesus Christ as Lord? Am I filled with sorrow when I see a nonbeliever “collide”
with their sin and disappointments and their lack of a God to seek for security
and atonement?
The funny thing is, I was dwelling on Psalm 126 when I was
praying a few moments before the incident (and had even shared it with a friend
this morning!).
“When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who
dream. Then our mouth was filled
with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the
nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like
streams in the Negeb! Those who
sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall
come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him” (v. 1-6, ESV).
Jesus has graciously granted me undeserved salvation, so I
am joyful and glad and tell others that “The
Lord has done great things” for me.
But I also go “out weeping”
because others do not know Jesus, and I bear “the seed for sowing.”
Because I know of God’s goodness to me displayed on the Cross, where He
stood in my place and paid my punishment for my sin, there is a internal,
produced desire to share the Gospel with people who do not know/believe it.
I don’t just want people to know about Jesus—I want them to
experience the joy of being freely forgiven.
The Psalm concludes with the coolest assurance—those who
desire and labor for the salvation of nonbelievers “shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.” If my heart is joyful at Jesus’
sacrifice on my behalf and breaking for people who do not believe the Truth of
His message, He is faithful to use me in the salvation of others.
My pastor often refers to Dr. Keller as “Yoda”. I wouldn’t disagree.
Tim’s points:
- All religions cannot be equally right–Christianity is either false and irrelvant or true.
- All religions cannot be equally wrong–there is a single truth. Stating that no religion has all the “parts” of “truth” is a claim of truth in and of itself.
“A fact isn’t narrow…it’s a fact that you’re going to wither and die if you don’t eat. It’s not narrow, it’s just a fact. And if Jesus Christ is the Son of God, your soul will shrivel without Him, and you’ll die. And that’s not narrow, it’s just a fact.”
“What you really need in this world is people who’ve got an exclusive truth that humbles them.”
It is easy to just let people vacuum over my life. Yes I am involved in my local church, yes I am making good grades, yes I have awesome friends and a wonderful godly man in my life…blah blah blah.
But in reality, I fail constantly at being an effective and equipping small group leader; I am not making straight A’s this semester; my friendships are encouraging and edifying, but we often do a terrible job at loving each other; my relationship with Bradley is certainly blissful and sanctifying, but it is also a cycle of loving, failing to love, repenting, apologizing, and looking to Jesus for complete satisfaction.
In reality, I am chock-full of shortcomings and sin. I can be “sweet” or even sacrificial, but in the depths of my sinful heart, I am prideful, self-centered, and controlling of myself and other people.
There is always something to be redeemed.
I’m doing “well” because the grace of Jesus covers all my crap—anything I do that’s “good” is because He who is good lives in me, not because I have conjured up goodness by myself.
All this was collected AFTER I vacuumed my floor...
Lint rollers are great inventions. Not only do they get nearly every grimy, nasty hair and piece of whatevers off my dorm room floor, they also show me exactly what has been hiding—as it is contrasted to the white sticky substance.
Discipleship, accountability, coffee—call it what you like. We, as followers of Jesus, need to be sharing our lives and hearts—our WHOLE lives and hearts—with older, godlier people (of the same gender) and believing peers. We are weak and need other people to speak truth into our lives.
I am incredibly grateful for God-fearing girlfriends…
sweet Bradley…
and a wise woman with whom I engage in these conversations.
And we MUST be completely honest. Otherwise we’re just chatting and flaring our personalities.
Real brokenness, conviction, confession, repentance, and healing is FAR sweeter when it is shared and urged by people around me that love me. I need people consistently in my life with whom to share my life—thoughts, actions, passions, and situations—openly and honestly. Those people need to love me enough to not tell me what I want to hear. They need to be obedient in their own walk with Christ, so that they can be honest, discerning, and wise in their assessment of me and my walk with the Lord.
That’s why accountability, or even just raw honesty, is so hard—not only do you realize there’s a lot more sin there than you previously thought, but you also realize your old method wasn’t working like you thought it was. Or you’re already aware that your method isn’t working and you’re simply refusing to walk in complete repentance/struggling obedience—which is a much scarier place to be.
Vacuums are great for giving the illusion that my floor is clean; lint rollers are great for ensuring that my floor is not completely pure.
Bubbly conversations about surface-level struggles diminish the toxicity and presence of sin and suppress the Holy Spirit’s sanctification in my life and others’ lives.
Lint rolling over my life/my heart—raw openness, humility, and awareness of sin—leads me to a deeper love for and obedience to the God of the Gospel. When my eyes are opened to my wickedness, which is always more depraved than I think it is, it is easier to see how insanely gracious Jesus was to come and die for my depravity.
And I remember His resurrection and victorious cry: “It is finished.”
I can share my sin and shortcomings because I know how much I am loved by the all-holy God—because He loves me despite my failure. I want to share my sin because I love Him and want to reflect Him instead of myself.
This past Christmas break, Bradley and I drove up to RDU early on Sunday morning to go to our church. That particular morning, Matt Papa, a worship leader at the Summit preached. He preached Jesus–and that is what I most recall.
In the conclusion of his sermon, he quoted A. W. Tozer when he said:
“I think it would be a wonderful thing if every preacher in America would begin to preach about God and nothing else for one solid year. Just one solid year to preach about God. Who He is, His attributes, His perfections, His being, the kind of God He is, why we dare to trust Him, why we can trust Him, why we should trust Him, why we can love Him, why we should love Him, why we dare not fall short. And keep on preaching on God, the triune God, and keep on until God fills the whole horizon and the whole world. Faith would spring up like grass by the watercourses. Then let a man get up and preach a promise and the whole congregation would say, ‘I can trust that promise; look who made it.’”
I pray that all church leaders and believers would be filled with the Holy Spirit enough so that Jesus and our desperate need for Him would be proclaimed and received–over and over again.
May “faith spring up like grass by the watercourses”; may you use us, Lord.
Bradley and I were running errands last week (something that is done at our leisure over spring break), and talking in the car about verses in the Bible. Our conversations aren’t always that spiritual, it was just something that was on his mind.
I was blessed this past summer to be a part of The City Project, in which I was able to take a Christian Philosophy course through Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. I gained biblical and relevant wisdom and knowledge–read: It was humbling. I distinctly remember my professor telling us that the best and worst thing we [believers] ever did was insert verses in the Bible.
Short verses are good for memorization; bad for comprehension. The large majority of Scripture are letters or stories. They are not to be read sporatically or inadvertenly. They are to be read and studied completely.
It would not make sense to pick up a novel and read one sentence on page 328…so why do we do this with Scripture?
Bradley joked that he loves when people–(we have both been very guilty of this in the past; we do not want to be condemning, but sanctified and wise)–quote a verse that begins with “Therefore…” Obviously that word refers to something that was previously said. We should probably read what was previously read in order to better comprehend what is about to be said.
For example: The Great Commission.
The widely accepted first word of The Great Commission is “Therefore”.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”(Matthew 28:19-20)
However, Jesus’ first words were: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (v. 18).
By saying that “all authority” is His, Jesus exercised His authority post-resurrection. He proved His compassion by His death on our behalf and His ultimate Lordship by His raising Himself from the dead. I hope I never get over that.
His command for us to make disciples, to make them of all nations, and His promise that He will always be with us are legitimized by His resurrection. This is why He has the authority to command us and the power to fulfill His promise.
Don’t quote verses that begin with “Therefore.” Read your Bible…and see Jesus for who He is.
On Tuesday night, Bradley and I went to his family’s church’s college ministry gathering, Overflow. Sometimes I find (slash pridefully scrutinize) that some churches’ worship and preaching contain musical and communicative prowess, but lack theological depth–aka, they could be singing or talking about Joe-shmo because they don’t mention Jesus/the Cross. Tuesday night, the Overflow ministry preached the Gospel of Christ in word and worship. Bradley and I were blessedandhumbled by it.
Nathan, Brad’s best friend, has an older brother, Micah, who leads worship at Overflow and is the lead singer of his band, Rio Bravo. The last song Micah led that night was Phil Wickham’s, “You’re Beautiful”. It was incredibly worshipful.
Phil Wickham is one of the few Christian artists I have enjoyed over the years. I remember hearing his song, “Cannons” on our local Christian radio station, “K-Love” (who I originally thought was named “Kayla”–self-absorbed from the start). I went home, looked up the lyrics, and have been listening to his music since.
I have a sentiment attached to the song below. When I was in Kenya this summer, I realized I had been running from the Lord with my previous relationship with Bradley and that I needed to be obedient with the knowledge I possessed at the time, and end our then 2 1/2 year relationship. It was obviously an emotional time where I was not unsure, but was very emotionally weak.
Our group went on a safari for a nice break during our two-week mission in which we got to camp in a Kenyan national park! During our safari drive, I sat next to one of the girls I grew close to, Jenny. She held me, stroked my hair, and spoke biblical assurances to me. She was acting so much like Jesus to me in that moment. I am so grateful for her.
We were listening to her iPod for a while, and this song began to play…as the tears started to roll.
I see Your face in every sunrise
The colors of the morning are inside Your eyes
The world awakens in the light of the day
I look up to the sky and say
You’re beautiful
I see Your power in the moonlit night
Where planets are in motion and galaxies are bright
We are amazed in the light of the stars
It’s all proclaiming who You are
You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful
I see You there hanging on a tree
You bled and then You died and then You rose again for me
Now You are sitting on Your heavenly throne
Soon we will be coming home
You’re beautiful, you’re beautiful
When we arrive at eternity’s shore
Where death is just a memory and tears are no more
This is the packet I received last night when I attended my church‘s Night of Prayer. Members are to utilize this packet as a guide to set aside time everyday to pray (with 2 days of fasting). The idea is to foster collective prayer and enhanced unity in fellowship via increased adoration for Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection–all for the sake of His renown.
Yesterday, being Monday, was a bit crazy (and rainy), and having to embarrassingly leave a class early, praying my car wouldn’t be towed where I parked it, and driving in the rain on the way there with my gas light on while on the phone with an upset girlfriend–I was not in the mood to pray. I can be really mature at times…
Worshipping and praying with close friends is incredible. While I sat with a lot of fellow college students, I was able to pray with my best friend and co-small group leader, Bailey, her awesome boyfriend Justin, and the man who is courting me, Bradley. Such power in those relationships; so many relationships for which to pray; so many people in our lives who have yet to be raised to life in Jesus. Come, Lord.
The Gospel manifested between believers is literally Heaven on earth. Move us, Spirit.
Our pastor read a passage toward the beginning of the night, Psalm 126:
“When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negeb! Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.”
We rejoice for our own salvation and weap for those who are still lost. But those who labor for Christ’s fame with a broken heart for sin will not return empty-handed. May I recall the depth of which Jesus pulled me out, so that I will ask and expect Him to do the same for other people. Use me; send me. You took my place–You will be glorified for eternity.
