Great servants but lousy masters

Phillip Jensen from the forthcoming book "The Archer and the Arrow": Commentaries, Bible dictionaries and the like are great servants but lousy masters.

Read a longer excerpt from the book at Challies.com.

The cost of discipleship: To give all that you have and are for all that Christ Jesus is

Considering all that God is and promises to be for us in Jesus Christ, the cost of discipleship seems hardly a sacrifice. The Christian life, however, should be a sorrowful-yet-always-rejoicing experience. Consider Steve Lawson's preaching on Luke 14.



Luke 14:25-33

25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

(HT: Grant Castleberry)

No people ever rise higher than their idea of God

"No people ever rise higher than their idea of God, and conversely, a loss of the sense of God’s high and awesome character always involves a loss of a people’s moral values and even what we commonly call humanity. We are startled by the disregard for human life that has overtaken large segments of the western world, but what do we expect when countries like ours openly turn their back upon God? We deplore the breakdown of moral standards, but what do we expect when we have focused our worship services on ourselves and our own often trivial needs rather than on God? Our view of God affects what we are and do ..."

James Montgomery Boice, Psalms, Volume 3: Psalms 107–150 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1998), 912.

Fullness in Christ

Here's a prayer titled "Fullness in Christ" from "Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions" edited by Arthur Bennett (pages 34-35):

O GOD,

Thou hast taught me
that Christ has all fullness and
so all plenitude of the Spirit,
that all fullness I lack in myself is in him,
for his people, not for himself alone,
he having perfect knowledge, grace,
righteousness,
to make me see,
to make me righteous,
to give me fullness;
that it is my duty, out of a sense of emptiness,
to go to Christ, possess, enjoy his fullness
as mine,
as if I had it in myself, because it is
for me in him;
that when I do this I am full of the Spirit,
as a fish that has got from the shore to the sea
and has all fullness of waters to move in,
for when faith fills me, then I am full;
that this is the way to be filled with the Spirit,
like Stephen, first faith, then fullness,
for this way makes me most empty,
and so most fit for the Spirit to fill.

Thou has taught me that the finding of
this treasure of all grace in the field of Christ
begets strength, joy, glory,
and renders all graces alive.

Help me to delight more in what I receive from Christ,
more in that fullness which is in him,
the fountain of all his glory.

Let me not think to receive the Spirit from him
as a 'thing'
apart from finding, drinking, being filled
with him.

To this end, O God,
do thou establish me in Christ,
settle me, give me a being there,
assure me with certainty that all this is mine,
for this only will fill my heart with joy
and peace.

'The God Who Is There' by D.A. Carson (book, audio and video, and study guide)

There are many good books that should be read for both personal and professional profit. If there's only one book you read, however, let it be the Bible, for it warns of eternal peril and promises eternal profit. After the Bible, ensure you read books that help you understand the Bible. "The God Who is There" by D.A. Carson is such a book. I could recommend so many more books that go deeper than Carson's book, which surveys the Bible and shares its main message in 14 chapters, but Carson is a good place to start. Check out the link below for more information about the book, audio and video messages upon which the book is based, and a study guide. If you have ears to hear and eyes to see, you will not regret it.

"The God Who is There" by D.A. Carson (book, audio and video, and study guide)

You may also view previews at the link above. A preview for the first session is below.

The God Who Is There - Part 1. The God Who Made Everything (Preview) from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

Christianity is for imperfect people

"People who want a religion that will merely affirm them will find Christianity disappointing. Christianity is about repentance. Now, if you believe you have never sinned, you may believe that you don’t need to repent. If you do have sins to repent of, then Christianity is for you. Christianity is the religion for sinners. Every other religion on the planet will explain everything you must do to make yourself right with God. Christianity alone will explain that you have already failed; that, though majestically made in God’s image, you have selfishly turned in on yourself and rebelled against him; and that your only hope lies in acknowledging your sin and crying out to God to forgive you for Christ’s sake. Friend, according to the Bible, there has been only one person who had no sin to repent of. There has been only one on whom God’s justice had no claim. At the same time, there has been only one who bore the punishment for the sin of whoever would repent and turn to him."

(Mark Dever, "The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made," pages 209-210)

Lewis on Love and God

C.S. Lewis on Love and God:

“(Sensual love) ceases to be a devil when it ceases to be a god. So many things—nay every real thing—is good if only it will be humble and ordinate.” (from a 1940 letter)

“When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. Insofar as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.” (from a 1952 letter)

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Andrew Peterson - Dancing in the Minefields

Check out Andrew Peterson’s song "Dancing in the Minefields," which is about the joys and trials of marriage from his new album "Counting Stars."



(HT: Justin Taylor)

How God loves!

God's love is not sentimental or passive. Consider the following regarding God's love:

"The love of God is not God's making much of us, but God's saving us from self-centeredness so that we can enjoy making much of him forever. And our love to others is not our making much of them, but helping them to find satisfaction in making much of God. True love aims at satisfying people in the glory of God. Any love that terminates on man is eventually destructive. It does not lead people to the only lasting joy, namely, God. Love must be God-centered, or it is not true love; it leaves people without their final hope of joy." (John Piper, October 14, 2000 article titled "The Goal of God's Love May Not Be What You Think It Is")

"The love of God is his doing whatever needs to be done, at whatever cost to himself or to us, so that we will see and be satisfied by the love of God in Christ forever and ever." (John Piper, November 18, 2001 sermon titled "Thankful for the Love of God! Why?"

In light of Piper's comments, consider how much God loves you if you have any love for God in your heart and strive to obey God on his terms. If you don't love God, why not? There's no one and nothing more worthy of our trust, hope and love.

Below is a music video of the song "How He Loves" by John Mark McMillan from his album titled "The Medicine." The song helps communicate in song some of what John Piper points out in prose and what prayerful reading of God's Word will cause us to ponder. The lyrics are posted below the video.

How He Loves

he is jealous for me
loves like a hurricane
i am a tree
bending beneath
the weight of his wind and mercy
when all of a sudden
i am unaware of these
afflictions ecclipsed by glory
and i realize just how
beautiful you are
and how great
your affections are for me

oh how he loves us so
oh how he loves us
how he loves us so
yeah he loves us
oh how he loves us

so we are his portion
and he is our prize
drawn to redemption by the grace
in his eyes
if grace is an ocean
we're all sinking
so heaven meets earth
like a sloppy wet 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
yeah he loves us
oh how he loves us

Check out McMillan's album "The Medicine" on iTunes or Amazon.

What one thing would you say to rising church leaders?

John Piper answers that question in the following video:



His answer is sound advice for all people: Make the Bible the supreme intellectual and emotional authority in your life, for the sake of magnifying Christ in the fullness of his person and his work, so that generation after generation preserves the foundation and the capstone of the glory of God in Christ, and the grace that is the apex of that glory.

See an edited transcript of the audio at the Desiring God Blog.

Christ is All

Here's a prayer titled "Christ is All" from "Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions" edited by Arthur Bennett (pages 32-33):

O LOVER TO THE UTTERMOST,

May I read the meltings of thy heart to me
in the manger of thy birth
in the garden of thy agony,
in the cross of thy suffering,
in the tomb of thy resurrerction,
in the heaven of thy intercession.

Bold in this thought I defy my adversary,
tread down his temptations,
resist his schemings,
renounce the world,
am valiant for truth.

Deepen in me a sense of my holy relationship
to thee,
as spiritual Bridegrooom,
as Jehovah's Fellow,
as sinners' Friend.

I think of thy glory and my vileness,
thy majesty and my meanness,
thy beauty and my deformity,
thy purity and my filth,
thy righteousness and my iniquity.

Thou has loved me everlastingly, unchangeably,
my I love thee as I am loved;

Thou has given thyself for me,
may I give myself to thee;

Thou hast died for me,
may I live to thee,
in every moment of my time,
in every movement of my mind,
in every pulse of my heart.

May I never dally with the world
and its allurements,
but walk by thy side,
listen to thy voice,
be clothed with thy graces,
and adorned with thy righteousness.

Losing the gospel

"Losing the gospel doesn't happen all at once; it's much more like a four generation process too:

The gospel is accepted —>

The gospel is assumed —>

The gospel is confused —>

The gospel is lost.”

(J. Mack Stiles, "Marks of the Messenger: Knowing, Living, and Speaking the Gospel")