God Overpowers Satan & Evil To Do Us Good!

The devil and sinful men can make you sick, can steal your car, can sow seeds of strife in your marriage, can take away your job, and rob you of your child. But verse 28 says, God works all those things together for your good if you love him. And if they finally work for your good, the designs of the adversary are thwarted and his aim to be against you is turned into a Christ-exalting, soul-sanctifying, faith-deepening, painful benefit. If God is for you, he does not spare you these things. But he designs good where the adversary designs evil (Genesis 50:20; 45:7). The things that are against you he designs to be for you. No one can be successfully against you.

John Piper, "God Did Not Spare His Own Son," Romans 8:28-32, August 18, 2002

Eleven Practical Steps to Stay Alive to the Beauty of God's World

By Clyde Kilby

1. At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above me and about me.

2. Instead of the accustomed idea of a mindless and endless evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall suppose the universe guided by an Intelligence which, as Aristotle said of Greek drama, requires a beginning, a middle and an end. I think this will save me from the cynicism expressed by Bertrand Russell before his death, when he said: "There is darkness without and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendour, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing."

3. I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence but just as likely ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.

4. I shall not turn my life into a thin straight line which prefers abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am d oing when I abstract, which of course I shall often have to do.

5. I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. I shall stop boring into myself to discover what psychological or social categories I might belong to. Mostly I shall simply forget about myself and do my work.

6. I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their "divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic" existence.

7. I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I chad in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of Lewis Carroll, the "child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder."

8. I shall follow Darwin's advice and turn frequently to imaginative things such as good literature and good music, preferably, as Lewis suggests, an old book and timeless music.

9. I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, "fulfill the moment as the moment." I shall try to live well just now because the only time that exists is just now.

10. If for nothing more than the sake of a change of view, I shall assume my ancestry to be from the heavens rather than from the caves.

11. Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life in the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the architect who calls Himself Alpha and Omega.

 

Despair At Our Imperfections Is a Greater Obstacle Than the Imperfection Itself

In a small book entitled, Let Go, François Fénelon (French priest & theologian, 1651-1715), wrote some sage advice to an unknown woman. The following comes from chapter 13:

Do not be overly concerned about your defects. Instead concentrate on having an unceasing love for Jesus, and you shall be much forgiven, because you have loved much (Luke 7:47). However, we need to beware of the tendency to seek the good feelings and selfish thrills of love (which are the by-products of love) instead of love itself. We can so easily deceive ourselves on this matter. We can concentrate so much on love that we miss the point entirely. You are more occupied with the love, says St. Francis of Sales, than with the Well-beloved. If Jesus were the sole object of our love, we would be all wrapped up in Him. But when we are concerned with constant assurance of His love, we are still in a measure busy with self.

When we look at our defects in peace through the spirit of Jesus, they vanish before the majesty of His love. But when we concentrate on our defects, forgetting that Jesus loves us, we become restless, the presence of God is interrupted, and the flow of God’s love is hindered. The humiliation we feel about our own defects can often be a greater fault than the original defect itself if it keeps you from moving into the realization of God’s love. So don’t let yourself get taken up with lesser of the two. Do not be like a person I just met a short time ago, who, after reading the life of one of the saints, was so angry about his own life in comparison that he completely gave up the idea of living a devoted Christian life. I know this will not be true of you.

When I receive your letters, I can just about tell how faithfully you have lived by the amount of peace and freedom you manifest in your writing. The more peaceful and free you are, the nearer you seem to be to God.

Sign Readers or Pilgrims?

It's one thing to read the signs along the road, quite another to journey toward a destination. To point the way is less involved than putting your foot to the path. Some "Christians" attend church and only ever learn the signs. They adroitly point in the right direction, but wince at the thought of allegiance to the heavenly Companion. As an example take the chief priests and scribes who pointed the Wise Men in the right direction, but did not take a step to see (much less worship) Jesus in Bethlehem (Mt. 2:1-6).

Which are you--sign reader or pilgrim traveler? Much depends on how you learned Christ or how you were taught. The scribes knew the answer, the wise men sought the savior. Tremendous difference! In this information-glutted age, how do we who follow Christ become more like wise men and less like scribes? Psalm 25 sets our feet on the right path!

The Psalmist begins with, To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. Lifting up the soul is another way of saying I desire or yearn for God. There is a sense of expectation in it, of destitution, of dissatisfaction with the status quo. We come to God ready, needing help, wanting filling. For what? In verse four he pleads,

Make me to know your WAYS, O LORD; teach me your PATHS.

I have highlighted two words--ways and paths because they indicate far more than mere knowledge. As Spurgeon puts it, "Four times over in these two verses [4-5] he [David] applies for a scholarship in the college of grace" (Treasury of David, 1:392). This is the kind of grace we need in order to live holy lives not just talk religiously. Talk is cheap. Path and ways stress lifestyle change, or an alteration in our worldview. A person's worldview is his philosophy of life--how we view good and evil, politics and religion, work and play. Point? It is not enough in church to surface facts about God, to merely inform Sunday School classes of Noah's ark, Aaron's budding rod, or the lions in Daniel's den. Rather, we must ask what these well-known stories teach us about God, his power, love for him--in short, the way God thinks and moves. What do they mean? We must do more than give the WHAT of Bible knowledge; we must answer the WHY of Scripture as well. Only then can we be said to have entered into the ways of God, and begun learning his paths. The purpose of a path is to travel it. To know about the path, or to have taken a myriad photos of it is not the same. Walking in the way of God requires intimacy, relationship, a certain vulnerability in conversation, and time. Time! I fear that what we have inadvertently been teaching our churches is the art of visitation, not of people, but of God himself! We walk the pathways of this world, and then satisfy ourselves with a mere visit with Jesus on certain days of the week! That is not what salvation is about on any level. Does it not border on blasphemy to relegate our wonderful Savior to few short disengaged minutes each week!? No wonder so many people find God boring and so many churches grow anemic. There is honestly little that can be termed relationship at all. God help us!

Let us seek out what David teaches in Psalm 25, lift up our parched souls in holy dissatisfaction and seek him who by his grace draws us into the path of yearning and love and joy. The call of Christianity is not to "drop-in" on God once in a while but to quit this world and throw all effort into walking with Jesus every day! Put yourself into the path of grace today.

He who would valiant be 'gainst all disaster,

Let him in constancy follow the Master.

There's no discouragement

shall make him once relent,

his first avowed intent

to be a pilgrim.

John Bunyan

Holiness More Rewarding Than Lust

The Preacher rightly said, "Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh." And right here at the launching of a new school year there are those who after a few weeks will empathize with this inspired text even if they will not bow the knee to it. But better to bow than to sneer.

It is this text upon which Thomas Watson builds his raison d'être for writing the wonderful little book, Religion Our True Interest. It was out of publication for three centuries, but is now thankfully in our hands! The modern reader will be apprised that the term "religion" in the Puritan era meant what we mean by Christianity and not just a mere external observance of rites or ceremonies.

While there is much to write from this book, it is simply Watson's "To The Reader" that interests me today. In a sort of apology for writing yet another book, of which there is seemingly "no end", Watson stirs up our interest with his inimitable flair.

The main design of this excellent scripture [Eccl. 12:12 above], is to encourage solid piety [holiness] and confute the atheists of the world, who imagine there is no gain in godliness. It was the speech of King Saul to his servants, "Will the son Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards?" (1 Sam. 22:7). Will the world of men's lusts give them such noble recompences of reward, as God bestows upon his followers? Surely, it is holiness carries away the garland. As for this treatise, it comes abroad in a plain dress: Truth, like a diamond, shines brightest in its native lustre; Saint Paul came not to the Corinthians with the excellency of speech (2 Cor. 1:1), or the pride of oratory. His study [intent] was not to court [entice], but convert. It is an unhappiness that in these luxuriant times, religion should for the most part run either to notion [informal imagination] or ceremony [formal liturgy]. The spirits of religion are evaporated. When knowledge is turned into taste, and digested into practice; then it is saving. [emphases mine]

What a wonderfully concise closing statement is his last! Read it again. I include this quotation for two reasons, 1) as an example of Watson's deeply biblical style, but more 2) for an enticement to witness his heart, which if exemplified will lead us into higher and more noble path to our Lord Jesus. Perhaps this is not enough to whet your appetite for Watson. Perhaps it is. I hope it's the later.

Perhaps more later on this man.

How To Hear From God

As a matter of practice, we do not turn to just anybody for advice, at least not if we really want help. What determines whom we consult? We get a good inside look from Saul and his servant prior to Saul's being made king. The issue was simple, his father's donkeys had escaped, and Saul along with his servant were to go find them. But after failing to do so, Saul became very concerned that his father might be worried as to their whereabouts and planned to return home. But the servant stopped Saul saying he had heard tale of a prophet in the area from whom they might gain advice:

But he said to him, “Behold, there is a man of God in this city, and he is a man who is held in honor; all that he says comes true. So now let us go there. Perhaps he can tell us the way we should go.” (1 Samuel 9:6)

In this one verse, we get a sort of inside look at what kind of man one might seek out if he wanted godly advice--the kind that will really help.

FIRST, he should be a "man of God". A man of God is essentially a godly man. And according to Thomas Watson, "‘Godliness is the sacred impression and workmanship of God in a man, whereby from being carnal he is made spiritual.' When godliness is wrought in a person, he does not receive a new soul, but he has 'another spirit' (Num. 14:24). The faculties are not new, but the qualities are; the strings are the same, but the tune is corrected." Samuel was clearly a man whose heart had been "tuned" to heaven, and he welcomed the heavenly strummer to make music with his soul.

SECOND, he is "held in honor". In other words, he is respected because how he lives comports with what he believes. "Let your life speak even louder than your sermons. Let your life be the life of your ministry," said Robert Murray M'Cheyne (19th C. Scottish Pastor).

THIRD, He is right; "all that he says comes true". One hundred percent accuracy is the test of a true prophet of God (Deut. 18:22, When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him). We do not typically seek help from someone who seems perpetually to come from "left field." We look for common biblical sense.

FOURTH, one must "go there," or put his foot in the path. Knowing the truth is not enough. And knowing whom to contact isn't either. Acting on it is necessary. But the truth is more convincing than that isn't it? When we are convinced someone has helped others and can therefore help us, we have no problem "going there" to receive the help.

FIFTH, one must move in faith, "perhaps he can tells us the way we should go". Nothing is lost in the attempt is it? "It can't hurt," we might say. We put confidence in those whom we trust. Perhaps he can show us the way. Why? He has shown himself to be faithful in walking in God's way. He's the one we want to follow.

The kind of help, or advice we all need, and should want comes from God. Obvious, you say? Perhaps on paper. But only experience proves its reality. "Follow me as I follow Christ," Paul encouraged the Corinthians. In this sense, Paul and Samuel were comrades in God's service. Seek out those who seek out Christ!

Unsearchable Riches of Christ

In praise of Christ may I praise his servant?! Thomas Brooks' works are simply jam-packed with gold upon gold. But don't take my word for it. C. H. Spurgeon said: "The volumes now before us are by that marvellously rich author Thomas Brooks, whose wealth of imagery surpasses all others of his age." I hope this post will at least whet your appetite for this puritan of Puritans!

Under the heading, "The Unsearchable Riches of Christ," the following is but 1 of 18 properties (characteristics) of a humble soul. Imagine that--eighteen! It comes from volume 3 of his Six-Volume Works published by Banner of Truth Trust:

The eighth property of a humble soul is this, It can never be good enough, it can never pray enough, nor hear enough, nor mourn enough, nor believe enough, nor love enough, nor fear enough, nor joy enough, nor repent enough, nor loathe sin enough, nor be humble enough, etc.

The Humble Soul Disregards Greatness

Humble Paul looks upon his greatness—all as nothing at all; he forgets those things which are behind, and reaches forth to those things which are before, "that if by any means he might attain unto the resurrection of the dead," Philip. 3:11-14; that is, that perfection of holiness which the dead shall attain unto in the morning of the resurrection. [It signifies the straining of the whole body, a stretching out head and hands, as runners in a race do to lay hold on the prize, Psalm 10:17. It signifies so to desire and long after a thing as to have one's teeth water at it; so in Micah 7:1. But proud hearts sit down and pride themselves, and bless themselves, as if they had attained to much, when they have attained to nothing which can raise them above the lowest step of misery.]

The Humble Continue Aspiring After God

No holiness below that matchless, peerless, spotless, perfect holiness that saints shall have in the glorious day of Christ's appearing, will satisfy the humble soul. A humble heart is an aspiring heart; he cannot be contented to get up some rounds in Jacob's ladder—but he must get to the very top of the ladder, to the very top of holiness. A humble heart cannot be satisfied with so much grace as will bring him to glory, with so much of heaven as will keep him from dropping into hell; he is still crying out, Give, Lord, give; give me more of yourself, more of your Son, more of your Spirit; give me more light, more life, more love, etc. Caesar in warlike matters minded more what was to conquer than what was already conquered; what was to gain than what was already gained. So does a humble soul mind more what he should be—than what he is; what is to be done—than what has been done. Truly heaven is for that man, and that man is for heaven, that sets up for his mark the perfection of holiness.

The Humble Soul Longs After God

Poor men are full of desires; they are often a-sighing it out, Oh that we had bread to strengthen us, drink to refresh us, clothes to cover us, friends to visit us, and houses to shelter us, etc. So souls that are spiritually poor they are often a-sighing it out, Oh that we had more of Christ to strengthen us, more of Christ to refresh us, more of Christ to be a covering and shelter to us, etc.

I had rather, says the humble soul, be a poor man and a rich Christian, than a rich man and a poor Christian. Lord, says the humble soul, I had rather do anything, I had rather bear anything, I had rather be anything, than to be a dwarf in grace, Rev. 3:17, Isaiah 65:5, Luke 18:11-12.

The Humble Soul Increases In Humility By Degrees

The light and glory of humble Christians rises by degrees: Cant. 6:1, (1.) Looking forth as the morning, with a little light; (2.) Fair as the moon, more light; (3.) Clear as the sun—that is come up to a higher degree of spiritual light, life, and glory. Lord, says the humble soul, give me much grace, and then a little gold will serve my turn; give me much of heaven, and little of earth will content me; give me much of the springs above, and a little of the springs below will satisfy me, etc.