Labor of Love

This is "Labor of Love" performed live with Jill Phillips singing the lead. This song is one of several great ones on the album Behold the Lamb of God by Andrew Peterson. I highly recommend this album!

The Key to Spiritual Growth

So often we talk of "growing in Christ." We talk of our desire to "grow in Christ." We confess certain struggles or areas that we need to "grow in Christ." Yet so often that growth never happens, the transformation we long for never comes. Why is that? Author, RC Sproul offers his thoughts:

The key method Paul underscored as the means to the transformed life is by the 'renewal of the mind.' This means nothing more and nothing less than education. Serious education. In-depth education. Disciplined education in the things of God. It calls for a mastery of the Word of God. We need to be people whose lives have changed because our minds have changed...To be conformed to Jesus, we must first begin to think as Jesus did. We need the 'mind of Christ.' We need to value the things He values and despise the things He despises. We need to have the same priorities He has. We need to consider weighty the things that He considers weighty. That cannot happen without a mastery of His Word. The key to spiritual growth is in-depth Christian education that requires a serious level of sacrifice. (The Holiness of God, 164)

Consider that last line: "The key to spiritual growth is in-depth Christian education that requires a serious level of sacrifice." My question is, what will you sacrifice for your spiritual growth?

The Pride of Hezekiah....and Me

In Isaiah 39 (which by the way follows 36-38 where God miraculously saves Hezekiah and Judah from the destruction of the Assyrians and then also adds 15 years to Hezekiah's life) the king Hezekiah receives some guest from Babylon and proceeds to "show off" all the possessions of his kingdom. When confronted by Isaiah Hezekiah openly admits that he showed them everything. Isaiah then prophesies the coming of the Babylonians, even going as far to mention that Hezekiah's sons (probably grandchildren) would serve as eunichs in the kingdom of Babylon. And here is how Hezekiah responds:

Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my days.”

Do you hear the self-centered pride? Hezekiah doesn't really care what happens after he's gone, just as long as there is peace and security in his lifetime.

Well I can't be too hard on Hezekiah because I too struggle with self-centered pride. I too get wrapped up in my own world. I too get set in my own agenda, ignoring God's and others - which if I'm not mistaken is the complete opposite of what I am supposed to be doing - the command is to love God with all of your heart, soul, and mind and love your neighbor as you love yourself. Hezekiah's story of pride works like a mirror revealing my own self-centered attitudes and actions. So my prayer today is that God would help me to get over myself and love Him and others more than I love me.

Pleasing My Father

Over the past several weeks I've been reading through The Holiness of God, by RC Sproul. Below is a quote that I found very encouraging yesterday:

"....We are to fear God not with a servile fear like that of a prisoner before his tormentor but as children who do not wish to displease their beloved Father." (pg. 154)

O LORD, Be Gracious to Us

This morning I read this great prayer from Isaiah 33:2

"O LORD, be gracious to us; we wait for you. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble."

It is important that we remember that God doesn't owe us grace. Grace is His choice. Yet we stand in need of His grace every moment of the day, and as we approach a new year I for one will be begging God for more and more. Let me encourage you to make this verse your prayer too!

I Will Rise

Here is a great passage meant to remind us of our great and merciful God...

Micah 7:7-8 But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me.

Trials and the Love of God

This morning I read this conclusion to 1 Peter chapter 4:

"Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good."

The fact is suffering is everywhere around me right now and this verse lovingly reminds us that we must entrust our suffering souls to God who is faithful and who has promised that our suffering is for our good and His glory. So with that in mind let me share with you a quote that has meant a lot to me and my wife over the past few days...

God's love is simply this: a passionate, unwavering, joyous determination to do us good and to bestow upon our souls eternal happiness, no matter what the cost.

Elyse M. Fitzpatrick and Dennis E. Johnson, Counsel From the Cross, 60

Faithfulness

Luke 16:10 reads, "One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much..."

So often I want more than God has given me. You know what I mean? I want more money, a larger ministry, more books on my shelf, a bigger house, etc. But Luke 16:10 graciously asks: "Josh, what are you doing with what you already have?"

The Cost of Discipleship

In Luke 14.25-33 Jesus provides three conditions for discipleship. In other words, if you want to follow Jesus here is what He requires:

1. Love your family less than you love Christ (26)
2. Bear your cross and follow Christ (27)
3. Renounce everything (33)

Growing in Christ - Romans 6

In Sunday's worship service we worked through 2 Peter 1.1-11 and talked about growing in Christ; or to use Peter's words "becoming partakers of the Divine nature." In the end we concluded that the goal is to live godly and Christ-like lives (see Romans 8:28-29). To be godly husbands & wives; to be godly parents & children; to be godly co-workers & friends; and yes, to even be godly while we are driving our cars! But as Peter explains this godliness grows in us as we grow in the knowledge of Christ. This isn't a reference to an intellectual knowledge, but a deep, intimate, and relational knowledge of Jesus (dependent on His Divine power and precious and very great promises - see verses 3,4).

I know from experience that growing in the knowledge of Christ can be a confusing concept, so this week i want to take some time to introduce a few more passages that help to paint a more full picture for us. Today i want to look at Romans 6.

Romans 6:1-14 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 ¶ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 ¶ Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

I know this is a big chunk to try to digest, but in order to understand it we have to see it all together.

Basically, Paul is arguing that those who have put their faith in Christ have died to sin and been made alive to righteousness. If we plugged Peter's terminology into Romans 6...he would be saying that we have escaped the corruption of this world and have been granted the power to live a godly life. But the key to our death and new life is found in Jesus death and resurrection (what we call the gospel). When Jesus died and was buried...I died with Him and my old sinful nature was buried with him. When Jesus rose from the dead...I rose with Him claiming a new power and a new life. It is because of this union with Jesus that we can say "No" to sin and choose to live a godly life; and it is this union with Jesus that Peter argues, we need to gain a deeper knowledge of. Because Peter knows that the deeper the knowledge of this gospel union with Christ, the more effective and fruitful we will be in the Christian life (vs. 8).

So instead of simply praying to be effective and fruitful, why not begin by praying for greater faith and greater knowledge of Christ and His gospel.

Worshiping God

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him" - John Piper, Desiring God

Is this your hearts prayer? "The LORD is my portion, therefore I will hope in him." (Lamentations 3:24)

Amos

This week I have been reading through the book of Amos and for those who know me you know I have a 4 year old ball of energy named Amos. My Amos gets his name from the Bible Amos. And this morning I would like to share why, but in order to do that I need to set the stage a bit...

The Bible Amos was a prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of Jeroboam, and like most other prophets, no one wanted to hear what he had to say, especially the religious establishment of his day. In Amos 7:10, Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, had this to say to King Jeroboam, "Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words." Isn't that a great phrase, "The land is not able to bear all his words." (But I must stay focused!).

Amaziah then turns his attention to Amos saying, "O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom." Basically he says, "Get out of here, we do not want to hear any more from you!" (note the blatant absence of God in Amaziah's words)

What Amos says in the next 3 verses encourages my faith and provides the reason I chose to name my son after this obscure prophet. In verse 14, I can see Amos looking squarley at Amaziah and responding to his threat, "I was not prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.' Now therefore hear the word of the LORD."

Did you get that? Did you catch the last phrase? It gives me goosebumps he says, "Now hear the word of the LORD..." These powerful men just told Amos to get out of town and stop prophesying and his answer to them, "Now hear the word of the LORD..."

It is that faith and boldness that I respect, but it is also important to note that his faith and boldness is clothed in humility. In his response Amos confesses his profession: herdsman and fig dresser (basically a confession of his poverty)...But the LORD took him and made him a prophet and he obviously takes his calling seriously. Amos admits that he is a nobody that God has chosen to use and because God has called him, he will not refuse, nor compromise...but he will, as he does, continue to speak the word of the LORD.

My hope is that I will model this faith and boldness, clothed in humility to my Amos and to the world around me.

Losing Our Faith

Have you ever lost your keys?

Normally we realize they are gone in the moment we need them. You know, all of the sudden there is a crisis: We are in need of some dessert, which means a late night run to Wal-mart to get something sweet to eat before bed. So, you go to get your keys and they are not in "the spot." So you look in another "spot" and another and even another, in a matter of minutes you have dug through the couch cushions, through the kids toys, and maybe even looked in the refrigerator (for the record I have never left my keys in the refrigerator). All you can do is think about cheesecake, brownies, and ice-cream, then in an instant you realize if you don't get to Wal-mart the economy will not be stimulated, but in order to save wall street and the weakening dollar, you need your keys.

Alright, that might be a stretch, but I also hope you can see yourself in that silly story. All of us have at some point lost something important (keys, phone, check, child, etc.) and in desperation we searched, because life couldn't go on unless we found what we needed.

Here lately I've needed faith; you know the believing without seeing kind of faith. The Hebrews 11 kind of faith. The Peter walking on water kind of faith. In certain moments over the past several weeks I've turned to cling to my faith, joy, love, patience, self-control and I couldn't find them. If you have every experienced this, as a Christian, it is quite terrifying. Initially we are prone to think that God has left or moved away, writing Ichabod on our soul. But the truth is He hasn't gone anywhere; His Spirit is still alive and well. Didn't He promise that He would never leave us or forsake us, that he would be with us always to the end of the age? That he did! So what's the problem? Where is my faith? Where is my joy? It has been neglected, it has been ignored, it has been covered up and is overgrown with other weeds. Today, John Owen helped me to see this, i encourage you to read on as he writes...

"...as you may see in a garden, let there be a precious herb planted, and let the ground be untilled, and weeds grow about it; perhaps it will live still, but be a poor, withering, unuseful thing. You must look and search for it, and sometimes you can scarce find it; and when you do, you can scarce know it, whether it be the plant you look for or no: and suppose it be, you can make no use of it at all. Whereas, let another of the same kind be set in ground naturally as barren and bad as the other, but let it be well weeded and every thing that is noxious and hurtful removed from it, it flourishes and thrives; you may see it at first look into the garden, and have it for your use when you please.
So it is with the graces [fruits] of the Spirit that are planted in our hearts. That is true, that they are still, they abide, in a heart where there is some neglect of mortification; but they are ready to die, they are withering and decaying. The heart is like the sluggard's field, so overgrown with weeds that you can scarce see the good corn. Such as man may search for faith, love and zeal, and scarce be able to find any; and if he do discover that these graces are there, still alive and sincere, yet they are so weak, so clogged with lusts, that they are of very little use; they remain indeed, but are ready to die. But now let the heart be cleansed by mortification; the weeds of lust constantly and daily rooted up, as they spring daily, nature being their proper soil; let room be made for grace to thrive and flourish; how will every grace act its part, and be ready for every use and purpose!

John Owen - The Mortification of Sin

Friends, let us root up the weeds of lust continually, so that when we need love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23); or simply put, when we need the Spirit to assure us and work through us, nothing will be growing in the way.

First Post

I do believe it is fitting that 2 hours before writing my first official blog-post i was reading in the gospel of Luke and came across Jesus parable of the wedding feast. You know the one where he suggests that the guest to a party start in the cheap seats and if they get invited to sit in a seat of honor all the better and all the more honor - the conclusion: "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

I don't write this to claim that I have mastered humility or that "I've written the book on it" (just a side note C. J. Mahaney actually did write the book on it and i highly recommend it if you don't own it). No, i point out this passage because my intent in starting a blog isn't to highlight me in anyway, and if I ever do begin to highlight me, I invite those 2 readers (that may be a stretch) to lovingly remind me of this initial blog.

So what is my purpose in starting a blog? In one word: Grace. I want this blog to be about God who is gracious, Christ who graciously took my sin and punishment, the Spirit who by grace patiently continues to shape me into the image of Christ. Yes, I want this blog to communicate gracious words that will build you the reader up in the faith.