What Does Love Look Like?

Jerry Bridges in his book The Discipline of Grace takes 1 Corinthians 13 (The great love chapter) and writes out verses 4 and 5 as action statements, encouraging the reader to "Ask yourself how your doing in your day to day practice of love."

• I am patient with you because I love you and want to forgive you. 
• I am kind to you because I love you and want to help you. 
• I do not envy your possessions or your gifts because I love you and want you to have the best. 
• I do not boast about my attainments because I love you and want to hear about yours. 
• I am not proud because I love you and want to esteem you before myself. 
• I am not rude because I love you and care about your feelings. 
• I am not self-seeking because I love you and want to meet your needs. 
• I am not easily angered by you because I love you and want to overlook your offenses. 
• I do not keep a record of your wrongs because I love you, and "love covers a multitude of sins."  

So how is your love?

Laughing At the Mercy of God

This morning in my Bible reading I was struck by a particular line I found in 2 Chronicles 30:10.  Before I get to that line let me set up the context a bit. Hezekiah is king in Judah and is calling on not only Judah to repent and turn back the Lord, but all of Israel.  So Hezekiah sends out letters inviting all of Israel (Ephraim and Manasseh included) to come to Jerusalem for Passover.  In verse 7-8 he exhorts them to avoid being faithless and stiff-necked like their fathers and grandfathers so that they may avoid the judgment and wrath of God.  Then in verse 9 he writes,

For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land.  For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away His face from you, if you return to Him.

So in verse 10 we read of the couriers traveling from city to city delivering this message of repentance and mercy, and here is where the text becomes troubling.  In verse 10 it says that they traveled to Ephraim and Manasseh, and even as far as Zebulun, but when they delivered the message the people "laughed them to scorn and mocked them."  Did you get that?

 ...they laughed them to scorn and mocked them.

Hearing about the grace and mercy of God they laughed and mocked. It is important to point out according to verse 11 that some of the people did humble themselves, but the greater populous laughed at the mercy of God.  How wicked! How rebellious! How evil it is to laugh at God's merciful call to repentance!

BUT (you probably knew that was coming) aren't we all guilty of taking lightly God's merciful's calls to repentance in our lives?  Sure we may not openly mock during the response time on a Sunday and we may not scornfully laugh after personal or family time in Scripture - but doesn't our indifference really communicate the same thing? Doesn't our lack of repentance make us just like them? Doesn't our lack of "doing" the word reveal that we don't really take God or His words seriously? 

Just something to consider. 

The Discipline of Grace

This morning I picked up a book that I haven't looked at in a couple of years - The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges.  One of the bloggers that I follow, Tim Challies chose this book to read through, inviting his readers to join him (he does this a couple times each year).  So I decided to join in on this read and wanted to share a few thoughts with you.

In chapter one (titled How Good is Good Enough?) I was reminded once again of this truth that I so often forget - THIS LIFE IS NOT ABOUT ME; SALVATION IS NOT ABOUT ME.  Meaning it's not about my sins and failures, or the guilt that I experience when I sin and fail.  Rather it's about God's grace in forgiving my sins and failures.  Nor is it about my good works, rather it's about God's grace working through me to accomplish good.   Here is how Bridges summarized this point: 

Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace.  And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace (19)

Bridges goes on unpacking what he means throughout the chapter, and I thought these lines offered a helpful explanation.

Pharisee-type believers unconsciously think they have earned God's blessing through their behavior.  Guilt-laden believers are quite sure they have forfeited God's blessing through their lack of discipline or their disobedience.  Both have forgotten the meaning of grace because they have moved away from the gospel and have slipped into a performance relationship with God. (22)

In other words Bridges is saying it's not about what WE did or do...it's about what CHRIST did through His death and resurrection - the Gospel!  But then the question comes if I cannot use "duty" or "guilt" to motivate myself and others to follow Christ, what should I use?  Bridges addresses this too:

We believers do need to be challenged to a life of committed discipleship, but that challenge needs to be based on the gospel, not on duty or guilt.  Duty or guilt may motivate us for awhile, but only a sense of Christ's love for us will motivate us for a lifetime.  (25)

So Christ's love for us should motivate us to lives of Radical discipleship...that's good stuff!  It's not to late to join in on the read.  If you are interested click here to see how it all works.

Take Up Your Cross

In Luke 9:23 Jesus instructs His disciples to "take up their cross," these words by the nineteenth century minister and hymn writer Walter Chalmers Smith capture well that command. 

But all through life I see a cross
Where sons of God yield up their breath;
There is no gain except by loss,
There is no life except by death,
And no full vision but by faith,
Nor glory, but by bearing shame,
Nor justice, but by taking blame;
And that Eternal Passion saith:
Be emptied of glory, right and name.

Great Leaders?

I've been reading Called To Lead by John MacArthur and I (being the sinner that I am) greatly appreciated this reminder. 

The greatest of all leaders in Scripture were fundamentally flawed.  Abraham gave in to his fears and shamefully lied (Genesis 12:13; 20:2).  Moses freely acknowledged that he was "slow of speech and slow of tongue" (Exodus 4:10).  He also had repeated problems with a fiery temper (Exodus 2:11-12; Numbers 20:11-12).  David committed adultery and murder (2 Samuel 11).  Elijah succumbed to fear and depression (1 Kings 19:3-10).  Isaiah confessed that he had a dirty mouth (Isaiah 6:5).  Jonah tried to flee his prophetic commission because he hated the people to whom God called him to minister (Jonah 4:1-3).  Most of the Twelve whom Christ appointed were crude fishermen.  On the night of Christ's betrayal , they all "forsook Him and fled" (Matthew26:56).  Peter, their leader and spokesman, had repeatedly embarrassed himself by saying and doing impetuous things. Then on that terrible night, he verbally denied Christ with cursing and oaths (Matthew 26:69-74).  Peter himself confessed that he was a sinful man (Luke 5:8).  The apostle John and his brother, James in the spirit of Jonah, wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy people whom Christ had come to save (Luke 9:54-56).  James and John (in blatant display of sinful pride) also conspired with their mother to ask Jesus to grant them thrones in the kingdom on Christ's right and left hands (Matthew 20:20-24).  All of these were fragile, imperfect men of clay.

Idolatry

“An idol is anything apart from God that we depend on to be happy, fulfilled, or secure.  In biblical terms, it is something other than God that we set our heart on (Luke 12:29; 1 Corinthians 10:19), that motivates us (1 Corinthians 4:5), that masters and rules us (Psalm 119:133; Ephesians 5:5), or that we trust, fear, or serve (Isaiah 42:17; Matthew 6:24; Luke 12:4-5).  In short, it is something we love and pursue more than God (see Philippians 3:19)” 

Ken Sande. The Peacemaker, 104

J. C. Ryle on Indwelling Sin

In my reading this morning I came across this great paragraph on sin written by J. C. Ryle, the 19th century English pastor.

...I am convinced that the greatest proof of the extent and power of sin is the pertinacity with which it cleaves to man even after he is converted and has become the subject of the Holy Ghost's operation. To use the language of the Ninth Article, 'this infection of nature doth remain - yea, even in them that are regenerate.' So deeply planted are the roots of human corruption, that even after we are born again, renewed, 'washed, sanctified, justified,' and made living members of Christ, these roots remain alive in the bottom of our hearts, and, like the leprosy in the walls of the house, we never get rid of them until the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved. Sin, no doubt, in the believer's heart, has no longer dominion. It is checked, controlled, mortified, and crucified by the expulsive power of the new principle of grace. The life of a believer is a life of victory and not of failure. But the very struggles which go on within his bosom, the fight that he finds it needful to fight daily, the watchful jealousy which he is obliged to exercise over his inner man, the contest between the flesh and the spirit, the inward 'groanings' which no one knows but he who has experienced them - all, all testify to the same great truth, all show the enormous power and vitality of sin. Mighty indeed must that foe be who even when crucified is still alive! Happy is that believer who understands it, and while he rejoices in Christ Jesus has no confidence in the flesh; and while he says, 'Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory,' never forgets to watch and pray lest he fall into temptation!

Ryle, Holiness, pg. 6