Bad parenting.

So I've been thinking a lot lately about my lack of patience, consistency etc. towards my kids, and I've come to the realization that I'm a bad father. Simple. I'm trying, but a lot of the time I'm more concerned with my own wants and needs than what is good for my kids. I was feeling all down and stuff but then it dawned on me: If you are a father, you are a bad one. Sorry if you hadn't already realized that but it's true. Be honest. How often are you impatient with your kids? Don't have time for your kids? Are more interested in the game or some movie than your kids? Hey, even if you put your kids on a pedestal and give them everything they want you're gonna give em some kind of complex that the world will not uphold for them as they get older. Bad bad bad. Your kids are gonna have some baggage from your bad parenting. I'm willing to bet that if you spend some time on it you can probably figure out some bad character traits and emotional junk you inherited from your bad dad.

Here's the good news.

There is only one who is a good Father. And he's willing and ready to adopt your kids. He's perfectly patient, perfectly consistent, and perfectly just. (By the way - your kids suck too, but this father has provided a way for that to be taken care of.)

The God of the Bible is that perfect Father. And through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ his Son your kids can be accepted as his kids.

The single greatest thing that an earthly father can do for his children is to point them to Christ and to a relationship with a Father that will never let them down and never abandon them. Teach your kids that repentance and faith in the resurrected Son of God is their only hope at a truly good Father. We will fail our kids in so many ways. But God will not. Our fathers failed us in many ways. But God the Father will never fail us. His love is steadfast, his promises sure.

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. (Ephesians 1:4-8 NIV)

Faith?

I've been listening to some lectures/debates on textual criticism of the New Testament. It's very interesting learning how scholars take the manuscripts and catalog the variants. Something to think about: we don't have the original NT. We simply don't, and we never will. We have I believe a close proximity to the originals and I certainly believe we have what we need for faith and practice. But it does bring up an interesting point - we have faith that we have enough of the original scripture to base our belief in Christ off of. It's so tempting to try and justify our faith by intellectual means and historical data. And we do have both of those things, but there IS a chance - ever so small, that it's wrong. We believe that Jesus Christ was a man, we believe that he was the incarnate Son of God, and we believe that he died on a cross and was raised from the dead. The fact remains however, that we have faith in something we can not definitively prove. We have no video evidence, we can't go back in time and find Jesus and check the story out.

I like hearing about how much manuscript tradition we have to back up the history of the Christian faith - there's not to many people kicking around that deny that Jesus was a real guy. And when you look at the historical manuscripts of the NT that are available to us there is certainly evidence for the death and resurrection. But the reality is that we can't prove it any more than we can definitively prove God exists. Or any more than we can prove the big bang or evolution or anything like that. It all comes down to faith. Faith that an impossibly random sequence of events led to our existence as purposeless living beings, or faith in a creator God who sent his Son to save us from our sins.

Faith. We can sit back all we want and say "I decided that Christianity made the most sense of all the religions so I chose it." but it still comes down to faith. Are we really gonna spend our lives for Christ if all we're basing our faith on is a bunch of fragments of papyri from hundreds of years ago? I can't see it. I don't think I would.

The reason I'm a Christian is that God dragged me out of my wicked life and granted me a faith to believe in his only Son. The faith to put my trust in Him and throw my chips in with a bunch of other sinners who were dragged out of darkness too. To fight the sin day after day that I know would give me all kinds of earthly pleasure and happiness right now. Christianity is not more fun than being secular, if you want loads of pleasure and fun now - stay out of church. God did this to me. I didn't see lights, I didn't hear voices. But I believe. I didn't wake up one day, study all the evidence and come to some kind of intellectual surrender to the overwhelming flood of proof. But I believe. I'm finding more and more that there is real hard evidence that the history of Christianity is true, but that had little or nothing to do with my conversion. God opened my heart to believe the good news of Jesus Christ and so I believe.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,

Fast bound in sin and nature's night;

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray -

I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;

My chains fell off, my heart was free,

I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

-Charles Wesley

while we were yet sinners...

And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. (Isaiah 53:9-10 ESV)

I read Psalm 22 tonight and it was kinda milling around in my head a bit... My thoughts wandered to the idea of God the Father willingly crushing his Son, his perfect Son whom he had enjoyed for eternity, all for a pack of good for nothing God-hating sinners. It's truly an incredible thing. I have kids, and they're by no means perfect - actually lots of times very frustrating. But I definitely don't entertain the thought of crushing them. Especially not on behalf of someone who hates me (of which, unfortunately, I'm sure there are a few). And those kids are both little sinners who whine and cry about the dumbest stuff, I love em, but some days they push it.

God the Father spent eternity being perfectly infinitely happy with Jesus before creating the world. And then he created the first man, who promptly failed to lead his wife and plunged all of humanity into death and darkness. God of course knew that this was going to happen and already planned to send his Son, his perfect Son, to die on a cross to redeem some of these wretched miserable humans. And he crushed him. Devastating punishment on the perfect Lamb of God to atone for the sins of a bunch of rebels who don't even think they need atonement. Incredible. I can't do it justice with words. So here I sit in awe of the wonderful mercy of God Most High. Moments like these make everything else seem to fade just a bit. In the light of eternity my day to day cares and tasks seem so pale.

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-- but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:7-8 ESV)

God the Father crushed God the Son for sinners. I'm ashamed that that doesn't affect me more than it does.

God's priorities...

Then he (Jesus) began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you." (Matthew 11:20-24 ESV)

Here we have Jesus telling people that the judgement will be less for those in Sodom and Gomorrah than for those who saw Jesus' works and heard the gospel and did not repent. So what's the deal with Sodom? Here's an excerpt from the story of Lot in Genesis. Lot lived in Sodom, and a couple of angels (who have come to tell him that God is going to destroy Sodom) are staying at his house. This is what the men of Sodom get up to:

'But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them."' (Genesis 19:4-5 ESV)

For those curious as to what "that we may know them" refers to I direct you to the account of Adam and Eve.

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, "I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD." (Genesis 4:1 ESV)

The men of Sodom are planning on raping Lot's guests.

So here we have Jesus telling the cities he's visited that the judgement will be easier for Sodom than for them. Shocking stuff.

God is more angry about the rejection of the saving work of Christ than he is about rape.

Flee the wrath to come. Repent.

P.S.

Now of course it should also be noted that God also wiped out Sodom with fire and brimstone, so I'm not downplaying the seriously evil abhorrent nature of rape. The point stands, however.

Natural man

Natural man is so enslaved to his sin that he will not turn from it at any cost. This just hit me today as I was thinking about my son and the discipline he endures for doing stuff that he knows is wrong, knows he'll get disciplined for it but does anyhow. Stupid stuff that isn't even fun. I say don't touch the phone and he looks straight at me and with on finger touches it. What purpose is there in that? Was touching the phone so much fun that it's worth the discipline that is sure to come? He has such a rebel's heart that he is irrational in his disobedience. Ok, ok I realize he's 2 and he doesn't think this stuff through in the same way that a grown man would but there's still a spark of understanding there. He can't help but be bad because it's in his blood. He's incapable of being truly good because he's got a little heart of stone.

Anyway, all this led me to think about grown sinner's like myself (and everyone else on earth for that matter). We are in the same predicament as my son. We all begin our lives with that heart of stone that will not submit to the authority of God that is over us. Not just will not, but can not. We hate the idea that we're not autonomous so much that we would never dream of submitting to the true God out of our own volition. Some preachers preach hell like it's a way to scare people into turning to God. "You don't want to go to hell do you?" is a line some use when witnessing. Nobody really wants to spend eternity in torment if there's a better option, lets face it, and most people brush this off with vain speculations that a 'good' God would never punish people for eternity in hell. But here's the reality. If it was granted me to have the keys to hell (and directions to it's gates) and I were to show sinners the torments of it, it still would not be enough to convince the sinner to turn from his sin and worship the true God in the way he must be worshiped. I'm not saying that men would not seek to find a way to avoid it, like I said, no one really wants to spend eternity in torment. But I am saying this: man in his natural fallen state hates submitting to the authority of the true triune God of the universe so much that hell is still better than a heaven where all creation praises Him for eternity. Hell is not an adequate deterrent to the natural man from his natural ways. I could show the unsaved the very chambers of hell and he still would not turn from his sin to worship God. Oh sure, he might make some show of repentance hoping to appease God, he might become an outwardly religious zealot. But inside he's dead. In the words of our Lord: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness." Those scribes and Pharisees were the most outwardly religious guys around in Jesus' day. But the truth remains that inside they were wrought with sin and unrighteousness. And given the choice between true worship of the true God for eternity or an eternity in hell - he'd choose hell every single time. "Give me liberty or give me death" becomes the sinners motto when facing the reality of this. If we must sacrifice our autonomy (or delusions thereof) to escape eternal death, we won't. We can't because we are so opposed in our fallen hearts to the God of god's. The only solution, the only way that a man enslaved to sin will turn to God in true faith and repentance is if God does something to him, that if given the choice in his natural state he would never allow. God must rip that heart of stone from his chest and replace it with a new heart. A heart that is capable of receiving the faith and repentance (also from God) that leads to eternal life. Then and only then will we be truly able to turn to the only God worthy of worship and submit to him in love. Only then are we capable of desiring a heaven where heaven and earth proclaim the excellence and majesty of it's Creator. Only then will we be able to say with the Psalmist: "One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. "(Psalm 27:4 ESV)

I can't convert anyone. Not with any means known to man, not with good arguments, not with the sword, not with trickery, not with emotional excitements, not even if it were possible to show him heaven and hell. That's God's thing, and only God's.

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. (Romans 8:7 ESV)

Turbulent Unhappiness...

"Whatever kind of tribulation presses upon us, we must ever look to this end: to accustom ourselves to contempt for the present life and to be aroused thereby to meditate upon the future life... then only do we rightly advance by the discipline of the cross, when we learn that this life, judged in itself, is troubled, turbulent, unhappy in countless ways, and in no respect clearly happy; that all those things which are judged to be its goods are uncertain, fleeting, vain, and vitiated by many intermingled evils." - John Calvin

How right he is, this life never fails to in its own self disappoint. Life alone, by itself without purpose or meaning is such desperate futility. The new vehicle I buy gets scratched, the new shirt I bought just isn't the same after I wash it, and every time I try to do something good it winds up marred by my own arrogance or annoyance at something trivial that gets in my way. How did I live before? Looking back it seems so distant though it was only a short few years ago... What was there to look forward to then that kept the despair at bay? Must have just managed to stay busy enough not to think about it. Life by itself without hope is such a waste... Don't get me wrong I'm not ungrateful. God has given us so many good things in this life to enjoy. However, unless they are enjoyed with a thankfulness to the Giver and an idea of what they point to in eternity the pleasure of such things fades rather quickly. It saddens me to see people chasing dreams that I know will not satisfy them. If they only new the One who can give true peace and rest.

Hope from the depths.

Another day gone by, another failure. A failed attempt at battling sin, with not a lot of thought to positive action. Pretty standard fair for my life. It never ceases to amaze me how delusional I once was, thinking that me and God would somehow work things out at some point. Every day without relent I come face to face with the old me. The old me that wants to rip apart everything God has built in my life. The me that waits for the new man that God has made me to relax for a minute, to get complacent and lazy so he can bust out and try and drag me back into the darkness of my past. Oh he gets weaker but I'm positive he'll never go away until I see the Lord. I hate that guy. I pray to God that I'd hate him more. The only thing that keeps me going is the "It is finished" yelled from the broken dying man on a cross some two thousand plus years ago. It is finished - the totality of that sacrifice at Golgotha ensures the death of the old me. The guarantee of my salvation and the assurance of my hope comes from the reality of the risen Christ, and the Spirit within me that cries from the depths of day to day "Abba, Father". I am no longer a slave, but a son and an heir with the one that paid for every stupid rebellious thing I've done and do day in and day out. Why? Not for anything in me thats for sure. I haven't got a doubt that I'm a step away from damnation. The only thing that keeps me from taking that step is the gracious will of God that sovereignly keeps me in his hands.

It boggles me to imagine how people go through their day thinking that they'll be good enough that God won't condemn them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not judging - I was there. But it's an insane position to take. Even now when I look at my changed life I still see so much of it worthy of condemnation and infinite punishment. People must just live better lives than I do day to day to think that they'll somehow talk God into letting them off the hook on that last day. Or they're deluded into thinking that some prayer they prayed in the past is their get out of hell free card. The devil is so sneaky. I heard it said once that if Satan had his way everyone would live morally upright lives for the most part, the liquor and porn stores would close down and the American dream would be an easy reality (thats not the quote but a hack paraphrase). That's the exact kind of world where people get lulled into thinking that they're gonna be alright. That God's gonna be maybe mildly disappointed they didn't do more good stuff, but certainly not so mad as to throw them into eternal hellfire. Sometimes I think the reason that God lets so much evil and madness go on is so that we get a glimpse into what we really are. The saddest thing is that we're so blind we don't see it. In our natural state we see evil and either blame God for it or use it as an argument against God. "How could God let that child be murdered?" We don't really think that if there is no holy God that dictates what's right and what's wrong then child murder isn't really evil, it's just an unfortunate effect of natural selection. Someone with better genes weeding out someone weaker's offspring. Maybe not so unfortunate: wouldn't want someone who can't defend their own family from predators to reproduce after all. It's a bleak, scary world-view when taken to its logical ends.

Having said all that, I'm clinging to Christ. Only because God keeps me clinging to Christ. I have a bad, rotten, sinful day and at the end of it when I feel like giving up I can get on my knees before my heavenly Father and with the Psalmist say:

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. (Psalm 130:1-8 ESV)

I wait and watch. In my failures which invariably outweigh my triumphs I have hope. More than watchmen for the morning I watch for Christ coming in his glory. Oh for that day...

The B I B L E...

It's so easy for me having grown up in evangelicalism to only think of the Bible in religious or spiritual terms. Books are books, but when it comes to the Word of God it always seems to take on something entirely different in my head. The reality is that it IS a book, a very peculiar book that makes historical claims that have an affect on every aspect of life. Jesus - a man foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament, born of a virgin, killed by skilled Roman executioners, (no messing around, you didn't get crucified and live...) and raised from the dead, after which he appeared to many witnesses. It's history, and I recommend strongly that everyone put its claims to the test. If Jesus was raised from death as this collection of reports claims, it has implications for all men. Namely: Death is not the end, God is able to raise the dead, and the same God that raised Jesus Christ will raise every human being from the grave on the last day. And we will all stand before the living God of the universe and answer for what we have done. We are not able to stand before a perfect and just God without paying for the sins we have committed against his law. Ever lied? I have. Every stolen anything? I have. How bout coveting other peoples stuff? Guilty here, pretty sure you are too. How do I pay a perfect God back for all the times I've broken his law without any regard for the fact that I owe him the very breath that I breathe? I can't. Thanks be to God that he sent his Son to pay the penalty for those who would throw themselves on his mercy. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you WILL be saved. God has promised it, and the proof that he will fulfill his promises is the reality that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and raised from the dead. We owe everything to the one who created us, because without him we would have nothing. And we go through our days largely ignoring the fact and barely (if ever) thanking him for it all. Without someone stepping into the breach between us and the God that most of the time hardly crosses our minds we would have no hope. The wrath of God will be poured out on the ungodly. We are the ungodly. We must hide in Christ, cry out to God for mercy based on the sacrifice of his perfect Son.

Believe. Believe that Jesus Christ is who he says he is. Not because I tell you to, and not because you feel good about the whole thing, but because He is raised. The tomb is empty, and we have to deal with that.

Oh the precious word of God above,

That tells us of his matchless love.

I look to him 'till my last breath,

though him alone I'm free from death.

Read the Bible.

Haiti...

There were some present at that very time who told him (Jesus) about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." (Luke 13:1-5 ESV)

All have sinned so all die. Death waits for every one of us, many Haitians have experienced it and are experiencing it in a devastating and saddening way. We will all die. We all deserve to die. We all deserve not only the physical death but spiritual death in hell. We can't escape the former, but there's a way to escape the latter. Repent and turn the Christ - the time is short.

My prayers go out to Haiti tonite...

Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!

I've been thinking a lot about the past tonight and I'm really astounded at how much God has done in my life and continues to do. I still know that without the loving discipline of the Holy Spirit I would forsake social morality out of my own insatiable desires. I walked in the passions of my flesh for so long with not a worry, and I don't for a second imagine that I'm not still capable. Without God, there is no one to serve but me. Even acknowledging God exists is not enough - we are all capable of deceiving ourselves and suppressing the truth just enough to remain comfortable in all the sinful stuff that we consider fun. I love God because first loved me. Not the other way around. It's not as if God was waiting around for me to go "OK i'm done with this scene, think I'll give God a try". Had God not wrought a work in me I would still be where I was. More than likely a whole lot worse. And if God where to abandon me tonight I have no doubts that I'd plunge myself headlong back into the slime of my former life without a hesitation. Thanks be to God that He's promised not to do that. Thanks be to God that he sent his Son to live a perfect life on this earth and then to be nailed to a wooden cross to pay for my filth. And then to raise him from death on that glorious Sunday as proof that he will raise those that are his. It's incredible.

My heart's desire is to know and love God. The God who's not defined by me or my wants. The God that IS. But not because I'm better than anyone. Not because I have some spark of good in me that seeks to know the truth. But because God out of his tremendous mercy has called me out of the darkness and into his glorious light. I'm a weak, feeble, cowardly sinner with nothing to offer. Not one thing. But I've been given everything.

You know what?

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Pro 1:7 ESV)

If you don't know God, you don't know anything. Because nothing has purpose without the God who made it all for a reason. Doesn't matter how smart or intelligent or learned you are - if you don't know the reason for the stuff you know then you don't really know it.

Living without the knowledge of why you're here or why anything at all exists is purposeless. No matter what the goal of your life, if it's not in line with the goals of the Almighty you will fail. Be it true happiness, wealth, nirvana, or whatever it is you're chasing it will all come to naught. Why are we here? The only way to know that is to know what God had in mind when He put it all together, and why He continues to hold it all together.

If God does not exist and everything is just a random chance, a one in a million flash in the pan - then your life is pointless.

"Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him." (Psalm 2:12 ESV)

Fanatics

Want to guarantee that people will die for your cause? Create a system of works salvation and then give people assurance that they'll bypass a life of slavery to legalism by their death for the cause. The knights of the crusades where told they would skip purgatory if they died in holy war, and the suicide bombers of the jihad are told of rich rewards in the afterlife for their martyrdom.

It works. Heck, if I believed I had anything to do with my salvation and someone convinced me that my death for god would allow me instant access to heaven I'd blow myself up too. The idea of having to work for salvation IS that hopeless.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4 ESV)

Great things!!

"For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol." (Psalm 86:10-13 ESV)

The Lord is great. He has done great things so we don't have to. I can rest in the work of my God even when life seems hard. The Lord is utterly unique and so unlike anything we know that we can not understand Him fully, but He is so great and able that He has made Himself known to us in a way we can understand. Praise God!! Praise Him while you have breath in you. The time is short and the day is fast approaching when the mercy that is shown to all the tribes and peoples will come to an end and the judgement will be swift. Repent and believe - Jesus Christ came as a ransom for many. Resting in our works will only result in due payment for them - and I can honestly say that my due payment would be horrifying to say the least. He has done great things - He has cast my sin as far as the east is from the west.

"O for a thousand tongues to sing

My great Redeemer’s praise,

The glories of my God and King,

The triumphs of His grace!"

"Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done great things! (Joel 2:21 ESV)

Life

Millions of people living, dying, and being forgotten in a matter of decades.

Whats the point?

If the dead are not raised, there is no point.

"O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:55-57 ESV)

I've been listening to a lot of Paul Washer and reading a bunch of Michael Horton, and this is what happens....

I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:6-9 NAS)

Paul talks about being 'called' in the same sentence as talking about the gospel. They are inseparable. What does called mean to Paul?

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. (Romans 8:29-30 NAS)

Only those that God calls are justified in his eyes. Salvation is a sovereign work of grace alone. The only way anyone makes a true choice to believe and be saved is if God raises them from spiritual death to life. Resting in a decision for Christ is resting in works. A view of salvation that leaves the end result in the hands of people alone is no different than the Pharisee in Luke 18. Maybe the prayer of the modern Pharisee now looks more like this:

"Lord I thank you that I walked the aisle and made my decision for Christ. I thank you that I wrote the date of my decision in my Bible so that I can be assured that I am saved"

That kind of decision based salvation is no better than basing salvation on infant baptism. It's a false gospel. It is NOT the gospel of the Bible. When the tax collector leaves all his works and cries out to God for mercy, he is seeking God in the only way God can be sought - by faith. His faith is a gift from God, not by his own doing. (Eph 2:8) God is the one who saves by his own sovereign will and there is nothing we can do to affect that in any real sense. If you want God, it's because God is working in you. If you see your sin for what it is, and realize that there is nothing in yourself that can save you, it's because God is working in you. If there is any true desire in you to know the only God who is over all creation it's not coming from you but from God alone. None are righteous, none seeks God unless God himself condescends to change the very will of the sinners he wishes to save so that he might manifest his glory in them. If you got to the gates of heaven and God asked you why you think you're saved what would your answer be? "Because I was a pretty good person" will not cut it. "Because I prayed a prayer" will not suffice.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:22-23 KJV)

Many people that cast out demons and do miracles while claiming the name of Jesus Christ will not enter heaven. Only those that God has saved by his own decree and the sacrifice of Christ will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Does God know you? Or do you just think you know God?

Just occured to me...

I love Christ. I really do. But I have a tendency to amass all kinds of hobbies and things that redirect my focus. Temporarily, but still it gets redirected. I like hunting and fishing, and there's nothing wrong with either of those things, but I seem drawn to picking up new hobbies even though some days I'm that guy who's saying "Oh ya I was gonna study my Bible, but I just didn't have time". How many days do I not have time for God but somehow find ways to jam a hunting trip into my busy schedule? Unbelievable, especially since I'm keenly aware that the only way to be truly at peace and satisfied is by looking to Christ.

So many Christians suffer from the same sickness. Love Christ, but fill our spare time with every diversion available because the world says we need to guard our recreation time. Now there's nothing wrong with the occasional hunting trip, but my brain that's so easily distracted could probably use more time with God in His Word than time blasting ducks.

God help us all.

Church.

Got baptized today in the river - totally freezing but definitely one of the top experiences of my life. The whole thing was great, sharing my story with the church, obeying Christ in baptism and then just feeling the love from these people of God, so many of whom I've known for such a short time. What a blessing.

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." Hebrews 10:23-25

I am encouraged. Christianity without church is a shell if it is Christianity at all. Brethren: we are the family of God, and fellowshipping in it is truly a foretaste of heaven. Everyone else: you have no idea what you're missing out on.

"...He who promised is faithful."

God is awesome.

Romans 6

Reading Romans 6 right now...

Now that we are justified, we should no longer let sin reign in our bodies, but should strive to kill it. As Christians, our world view changes, making us concerned with the heavenly things and not with the things that occupied our time before. We are no longer bound to the law, and therefore we are not ‘tied up in legalistic knots’* to try and maintain righteousness. We are free to live under the reign of God and not to be continually enslaved by sin. We should not give sin the opportunity to reign, nor should we give any ground to it because we are children of God and have been justified, and the rule of sin over us has been broken. We do not have to fumble around in the dark, we have Christ, we have peace with God, and we are made capable of killing sin by his work on the cross. We are no longer children of the devil who must play the world’s game and live in the flesh, we are children of God and must act like it, and can act like it. We are to present ourselves as slaves to God. Slaves are not autonomous; slaves do the will of their master. God will discipline us and keep us when we stray, but our responsibility is to seek his will in the word and live as though nothing matters but the glory of God. We are to be obedient from the heart to the teaching of God, which is given to us in His word. Before we are saved we strive and endeavour to satisfy our fleshly desires and to make ourselves happy. Now that we are justified and saved, the correct response is to strive for the things of God, and to present ourselves as ‘slaves to righteousness’. Slaves work for their masters. Work for God, because this results in sanctification. We cannot expect God to make us more holy when we are still presenting ourselves to the laziness and dissipation of the world. God will sanctify us when we follow the commands of scripture, which we are enabled to do by the great work of Christ on the cross. The benefits we received from our sin in the past were not lasting benefits and resulted ultimately in death and punishment. But the benefits we receive now from slaving for righteousness have eternal benefit and result in salvation.

"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23 NASB

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" Matthew 11:28-30 NASB

Let us not forget that although His yoke is most certainly an easy one, it is a yoke nonetheless. We are slaves to Christ - slaves, not associates, not coworkers, not buddies. God is for us, but we should not lose sight of the fact that our proper response to the love and mercy of God is work. We show the world what we truly believe by our lives. To often I myself am lazy and halfhearted in my slavery. What a pitiful and worthless slave I am! May God help me to be a slave who strives for righteousness.

* - From Voddie Baucham's sermon entitled "What is adultery?"

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=53091755325

All things...

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 ESV)

I forget this really, really easily. I have a bad week, get sick/tired, or any other supposed calamity befalls me and I'm complaining. The Biblical reality: all things work together for good for God's people. All things including my bad days, my sick days, and even my sinful, wicked, backsliding days (not an excuse for sinning, but a huge comfort nonetheless). God is ultimately sovereign over everything down to the tiniest detail. Germs and bacteria all obey the command of my God. The only reason anything happens is because the he 'upholds the universe by the word of His power' (Heb 1). The trials I experience are nothing compared to those of a host of godly men and women throughout history, and yet I'm so prone to complain and gripe at the slightest provocation. Christ's entire life was an infinitely bigger tribulation than anything I'll experience. I have no grounds for whining. God is good.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Called.

"...the Lord enjoins every one of us, in all the actions of life, to have respect to our own calling. He knows the boiling restlessness of the human mind, the fickleness with which it is borne hither and thither, it's eagerness to hold opposites at one time in it's grasp, its ambition. Therefore, lest all things should be thrown into confusion by our folly and rashness, he has assigned distinct duties to each in the different modes of life. And that no one may presume to overstep his proper limits, he has distinguished the different modes of life by the name of callings. Every man's mode of life, therefore, is a kind of station assigned him by the Lord, that he may not be always driven about at random." - John Calvin's Institutes - Book 3 Chapter 10 Section 6

The Lord calls us from a mode of life to that same mode of life in godliness. We have such a tendency to always strive for things that don't matter, to 'make something of ourselves'. Or it's easy for us to sit and stress about what God's plan for our lives is and whether or not we are following it. The Bible's view of this kind of thinking seems to be that we should strive for holiness, love our neighbours, and put to death the deeds of the flesh in the condition or station in which we are called. Live as a Christian where you work now, where you live now, among the people you know now. We don't need to go chasing fame or status so that God may be glorified. God is glorified in us when we seek to honor Him in the every day stuff. It's easy to think of the pastors and missionaries around us as serving God 'better' or doing more for God. The Christian who seeks to honor God in his life now - where he works and lives - honor's God just as much. We are not all called to be a Piper or MacArthur. We are not all called to be a Carey or Müller. We are called out of our sin into a life filled with gratitude to the One who saves us from the judgement and punishment that we so deserve.

"So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God." (1 Corinthians 7:24 ESV)

Calvin's view of the benefits of having an understanding of this:

"The magistrate will more willingly perform his office, and the father of a family confine himself to his proper sphere. Every one in his particular mode of life will, without repining, suffer its inconveniences, cares, uneasiness, and anxiety, persuaded that God has laid on the burden. This, too, will afford admirable consolation, that in following your proper calling, no work will be so mean and sordid as not to have a splendor and value in the eye of God."

Amen to that.