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.

Runnin'

"Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win." (1 Corinthians 9:24 NAS)

I love the race analogy. It's something that I pray that I'd focus on more often... The idea of living the Christian life as if it is a big race and you're trying to beat everyone else. Not out of mere competitiveness but out of a wholehearted commitment to striving to enter the kingdom, not under your own power, but by the power of God.

"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13 NAS)

I can run.

Hiding...

To all the so-called 'agnostics' out there: Stop hiding. You want to hide behind your assertion that there's something out there that may have created everything around you but he/she/it is to vast or distant to be known. Your life betrays you: you believe that there IS no god in your world. You're honestly going to hang eternity on a declaration that god is unknowable? A declaration that you wholeheartedly subscribe to with little to no research? If you honestly believed that you'd face something or someone after your death I dare think that you would spend at least a few years of the 80 or so you've been granted trying to find out what he/she/it is and what they/it want from you. Give up the charade. You're an athiest but you want to hide by claiming ignorance. You don't believe in god. If you did, you would try and find him. You are without excuse, and when you meet God you will have nothing to fall back on. How do you think that conversation is going to go?? (If there in fact was to be a conversation, which there won't be)

"Well you see God, I just figured you're so darn big that there's no way to understand or find you so I lived as if you didn't exist. But we're cool right?"

You can postulate on your own as to what God's response would be.

And the same goes for the "Christians" out there who live in the same way. I am not blameless in this regard and I'm not sure anyone truly is, but if your life revolves around anything other than Christ and Him crucified you have big problems. Here's another version of the same hypothetical conversation that will never be:

"Lord! I went to church every Sunday (except for sometimes in the summer and when I went snowboarding) and I even read my Bible here and there. Plus I prayed! Well... mostly just when I wanted something but still."

Again - I'll leave you to figure out how that conversation would end - especially since Jesus will turn away some that 'cast out demons', 'prophesied', and 'did mighty works' in His name. (Matt 7:22)

I'm not suggesting that you work for your salvation. I'm not suggesting you have anything to do with it. God is the only one saving you if in fact you are being saved. But I am suggesting that the God of the Bible is a big deal. You cannot with any kind of assurance consider yourself saved unless there is significant things going on in your life that cannot be explained by anything other than having your old, busted, dirty, wicked heart ripped out of your chest and replaced with something new.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." (2Co 5:17 ESV)

Are you a new creation?? Or just the same old creation with a little "christianity" sprinkled on top to give you that feeling of being ok with God just enough to ease your fear? You CAN NOT be a Christian and not have your entire set of affections changed. You cannot serve two masters.

"whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." (Jam 4:4 ESV)

Enemy of God. Sound like somewhere you want to be? I sure don't. And how much friendship with the world are we guilty of? Are we enemies of the Most High?

Time to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. High time.

The days ARE evil.

PS: I should clarify. To the agnostics who are really athiests and the 'true' athiests out there - You believe there is no God but deep down there is a sneaky suspicion that there is. That is why you want to hide behind agnosticism, or live as an 'athiest' but with a certain semblance of moral conviction. You say there is no god and yet you want to hold to a cmoral ode that is not anywhere near as self-seeking as it should be if you truly deeply with every inch of your being bought the lie. God is. It is revealed in creation and it is revealed inside all of you. Once again - you are without excuse.

Jeremiah

"If I say, "I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name," there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot." (Jer 20:9 ESV)

That is my prayer. For me. Lord give me the burning fire in my bones when I do not mention you and proclaim your majesty.