It is Christ Who Gives Us Strength.

In his book, True Community, Jerry Bridges points out that: 

"The difference between “Lord help me” and “Lord enable me” is a matter of partial trust in our self-efforts versus total reliance on Christ.” 

Paul tells the Church in Philippians 4:13 (ESV), “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” He doesn’t say I can do some things in my own strength and others in the strength the Lord provides me. He doesn't say with my own abilities and Christ's help I can do all things. Instead, he gives credit for his ability to do all things to the one who strengthens him.

For His Glory,

Jason

You Need Help!

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)

Every one of us needs help. We are not God. We have needs. We have weaknesses. We have confusion. We have limitations of all kinds. We need help.

But every one of us has something else: we have sins. And therefore at the bottom of our hearts we know that we do not deserve the help we need. And so we feel trapped.

I need help to live my life and to handle death and to cope with eternity — help with my family, my spouse, my children, my loneliness, my job, my health, my finances. I need help. But I don't deserve the help I need.

So what can I do? I can try to deny it all and be a superman who doesn't need any help. Or I can try to drown it all and throw my life into a pool of sensual pleasures. Or I can simply give way to the paralysis of despair.

But God declares over this hopeless conclusion: Jesus Christ became a High Priest to shatter that despair with hope and to humble that superman or superwoman and to rescue that drowning wretch.

Yes, we all need help. Yes, none of us deserves the help we need. But no to despair and pride and lechery. Look at what God says. Because we have a great High Priest, the throne of God is a throne of grace. And the help we get at that throne is mercy and grace to help in time of need. Grace to help! Not deserved help, gracious help.

You are not trapped. Say no to that lie. We need help. We don’t deserve it. But we can have it. You can have it right now and forever. If you will receive and trust in your High Priest, Jesus the Son of God, and draw near to God through him.

Original Post: HERE

The Word of God

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

The Word of God is our only hope. The good news of God’s promises and the warnings of his judgment are sharp enough and living enough and active enough to penetrate to the bottom of my heart and show me that the lies of sin are indeed lies.

Abortion will not create a wonderful future for me. Neither will cheating, or dressing provocatively, or throwing away my sexual purity, or keeping quiet about dishonesty at work, or divorce, or vengeance. And what rescues me from this deception is the Word of God.

The Word of God’s promise is like throwing open a great window of bright morning sun on the roaches of sin masquerading as satisfying pleasures in our hearts. God has given you his good news, his promises, his Word to protect you from the deep deceptions of sin that try to harden the heart and lure it away from God and lead it to destruction.

Be of good cheer in your battle to believe. Because the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and it will penetrate deeper than any deception of sin has ever gone and reveal what is truly valuable and what is truly worth trusting.

Original Link: HERE

The Joy of Marriage

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor. (Ephesians 5:25–27)

The reason there is so much misery in marriage is not that husbands and wives seek their own pleasure, but that they do not seek it in the pleasure of their spouses. The biblical mandate to husbands and wives is to seek your own joy in the joy of your spouse.

There is scarcely a more hedonistic passage in the Bible than the one on marriage in Ephesians 5:25–30. Husbands are told to love their wives the way Christ loved the church.

How did he love the church? “He gave himself up for her.” But why? “That he might sanctify and cleanse her.” But why did he want to do that? “That he might present the church to himself in splendor”!

Ah! There it is! “For the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). What joy? The joy of marriage to his bride, the church.

Jesus does not want a dirty and unholy wife. Therefore, he was willing to die to “sanctify and cleanse” his betrothed so he could present to himself a wife “ in splendor.” He gained the desire of his heart by giving himself up for the good of his bride.

John Piper - Desiring God

God is Always Up to Something Good

Trials sometimes make us doubt God's presence, but we must be careful not to view them as evidence of God absence, but instead we should cling to the truth in God's word which says,

Romans 5:1-5 (ESV | emphasis added)

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

The past year has been one that has stretched me in ways I've never been stretched before. I've been tested in my faith, my theology, and my character. Many of these trials have come in shapes that I never would have expected, where God...in his providence...chose to pin some of the things I value most in my life against each other. While at first glance these situations could easily be viewed as the work of the enemy, hindsight has proven them to be the work of God. You see, the truth is that even the things the enemy attempts to use for his own evil gain, sift through the sovereign hands of God...and God is always up to something good in the life of the Christian. God works tirelessly, in the lives of his elect, to conform them into the image of his Son, Jesus Christ. And regardless if it's a trial or a blessing, the aim in God's act is always the same.

I'm not sure where this post will find you in your faithwalk and Christian journey, but I'm hopeful that as you read it and (hopefully) listen to the song that I've included (below)...that your heart will be filled with joy at the work God is doing in your life. I pray that God will grant each of us the ability to look beyond our current circumstances and by his grace will give us the ability to "taste and see that the LORD is good" (Psalm 34:8). I pray that each of us will have enough faith in God's goodness and sovereignty over all things, that we'll be able to trust in God's word and cling to the promise that, 

He who began a good work in [us] will be faithful in carrying that work on to it's completion. | (Phil. 1:6)

“Though You Slay Me” (featuring John Piper) from Desiring God on Vimeo.

Holiness and Submission to God's Word

Called to Be Holy | 1 Peter 1:13-16 (ESV)

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 

10 Actions Kids Learn From Their Parent’s Marriage

Here are 10 actions that I know my kids have observed from us over the years:

1. Affection: Cathy & I are very affectionate and I like having my kids see me holding their mom’s hand, hugging, kissing, cuddling, etc… as often as I can.

2. Saying “I’m sorry”: I want to be quick to use this phrase and I want my kids to hear me say it (and I have to say it a lot more than Cathy).

3. Affirmation: this is my primary love language so it’s easy for me to dish out encouraging words. My kids get a lot of verbal affirmation, but they also hear me directing it toward my wife (which is really easy).

4. Attraction: I think Cathy is hot… and, I make it known around our family. I’ll regularly say, “Isn’t your mom beautiful?”

5. Time: our kids know that we like to spend time together. When they see us steal time away to sit in the backyard and talk, or go in the hot tub, or go on a date night, or sneak away for the weekend…that’s a good message I want them to see.

6. Laughter: we laugh a lot in our house and my wife’s cute sense of humor cracks me up. I like having my kids see that my wife makes me laugh.

7. Respect: opening the door for Cathy, saying “thank you” and “please” and showing her simple signs of respect.

8. Faith conversations: we’re not always praying in front of our kids, but they hear and see our faith conversations and know that we’re always talking about Jesus and what it means to be a follower.

9. The value of friends: our house is well worn from the traffic of friends in/out of our house. We love having people over and the Fields’ house is a regular hangout for some incredible friends.

10. Servanthood: I know my kids have had a better example in Cathy than with me because she’s the ultimate servant. Always asking, “How can I help? What do you need to make life better?” Serving one another is seen in the daily, little things and there’s many opportunities to serve.

Original Post: http://www.dougfields.com/posts/marriagemodeling/

A Challenge for Men

It is a grand thing to be a man created in the image of God, and it is an equally grand thing to be a woman created in the image of God. But since the burden of primary responsibility lies on the men — let me challenge them mainly:

Men, do you have a moral vision for your families, a zeal for the house of the Lord, a magnificent commitment to the advancement of the kingdom, an articulate dream for the mission of the church and a tenderhearted tenacity to make it real? You can't lead a godly women without this. She is a grand being!

There are hundreds of such men in the church today. And more are needed. When the Lord visits his church and creates a mighty army of deeply spiritual, humble, strong, Christlike men committed to the Word of God and the mission of the church, the vast army of women will rejoice over the leadership of these men and enter into a joyful partnership. And that will be a grand thing. | John Piper

Source: God Created Man Male and Female: What Does It Mean to Be Complementarian?

Sanctification Comes Through Submission to God's Word

17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. | John 17:17-19 (ESV)

Sanctification is the great quest in the Christian Journey. It's the purification process God uses to "make us holy as he is holy." The process is intentional in it's efforts to make us more and more like Christ, in order that we might rightly image God to the unbelieving world through the way we live our transformed & transforming lives. Another important thing for us to remember is that sanctification is a lifelong process. However, this can't be used as an excuse to continue living in sin. While we should always be growing, the tangible evidences of the Holy Spirit working in our lives is a total dying to self and a desire to annihilate the sin in our lives. As we are growing in holiness, we should be equally growing in our hatred for the things that God hates (sin) and love for the things that God loves. A natural warning sign for anyone is if they have become indifferent to any sin that remains in their life. As we grow in holiness, we should also be growing in our hatred for the sin that remains in our life and a passion to make war against it...to kill it before it kills us.

"The process of sanctification involves both a horizontal-relational component (separation from participating in and being influenced by worldliness and sin) and a moral component (growth in holiness or moral purity in attitudes, thoughts, and actions)" (ESV Study Bible). 

This occurs in the truth, that is, as Christians believe, think, and live according to God's word (the truth). The Bible is comprised of the "truth" that Jesus was referring to when he said, your word is truth.

"The interesting thing about the Greek word used here is that it's not an adjective (meaning “your word is true”) but a noun (alētheia, “truth”). The implication here is that God’s Word does not simply conform to some other external standard of “truth,” but that it is truth itself; that is, it embodies truth and it therefore is the standard of truth against which everything else must be tested and compared. (ESV Study Bible)

So what do we gain from this? For me the answer is simple. God's word is truth and our sanctification is dependant on our submission to this truth. Sanctification is a lifelong process, but our growth will be directly tied to the way in which we submit our lives to God's word (i.e. the Bible). If we submit only portions of our lives to God's truth, then only portions of our lives will be sanctified. If we submit ourselves, fully, to God's word, then we give the Holy Spirit complete access to make us holy as God is holy. This should be the aim of every believer and God will bless us exponentially as we lay down our lives, completely, as living sacrifices for his glory. Why is it important to read the word? Because as Jesus said, God's word is the truth and the primary method he uses to sanctify us.

Finally, if Jesus' words are true, that God's word is the primary method he uses for our sanctification, then how would we respond to the following questions:

1. Do I truly believe that God's word is the truth? (Do I submit to God's word or to some other external standard of truth?)
2. Have I truly surrendered my life, fully, to God's word? If so, what is the tangible evidence that this is true?
3. If God's word is the primary means of my sanctification, am I investing the time that I should be into the spiritual disciple of reading, memorizing and meditating on God's word? (How much time do I spend each day/week doing this, compared to how much time I spend fulfilling the desires of the world and/or my flesh?)
4. If I truly desire to grow in holiness, then what areas of my life do I need to surrender to God in order that God might sanctify them? (examples: control, pride, anger, lust, insecurity, self-righteousness, sloth etc.)

Seek to Serve

"Members of the older generation need to take it upon themselves to pursue younger Christians to mentor and disciple them in the faith. Let’s be honest. They might not be beating down the door to sit at your feet. They might not look to you with adoring eyes, amazed by your knowledge. You might not be a “cool” old person. Don't let that stop you. If you're motivated by the Gospel, it shouldn't stop you. Remember, it’s not about you. It’s about the Savior. It’s about what He has done. Whether or not you have the added fuel of feeling wanted, needed, and in demand, you can go out and seek to serve." | Joshua Harris

Marriage Does Not Redeem Sin

"I know...why over 50% of Christian marriages end in divorce: because Christians act as though marriage redeems sin. Marriage does not redeem sin. Only Jesus himself can do that." | Rosaria Champagne Butterfield

What God Requires

The demand in Romans 8:13 is not sinlessness but mortal combat with sin. This is utterly essential in the Christian life. Otherwise we give no evidence that the flesh has been crucified. And if the flesh has not been crucified we do not belong to Christ (Galatians 5:24). The stakes in this battle are very high. We are not playing war games. The outcome is heaven or hell.

How then do dead people "put to death the (sinful) deeds of the body"? We have answered, "By faith!" But just what does this mean? How do you fight sin with faith?

Suppose I am tempted to lust. Some sexual image pops into my brain and beckons me to pursue it. The way this temptation gets its power is by persuading me to believe that I will be happier if I follow it. The power of all temptation is the prospect that it will make me happier. No one sins out of a sense of duty, when what they really want is to do right.

So what should I do? Some people would say, "Remember God's command to be holy (1 Peter 1:16) and exercise your will to obey because he is God!" But something crucial is missing from this advice, namely, FAITH. A lot of people strive for moral improvement who cannot say, "The life I live I live BY FAITH" (Galatians 2:20). A lot of people try to love who don't realize that, "What counts is FAITH working through love" (Galatians 5:6).

The fight against lust (or greed or fear or any other temptation) is a fight of faith. Otherwise the result is legalism.

John Piper - How Dead People Do Battle with Sin

Don't Settle for Counterfeit Fulfillment

This [boredom] is why people are so prone to an addictive lifestyle. Many people who fall into sinful addictions are people who were once terminally bored. The reason why addictions are so powerful is that they tap into that place in our hearts that was made for transcendent communion and spiritual romance. These addictive habits either dull and deaden our yearnings for a satisfaction we fear we’ll never find or they provide an alternative counterfeit fulfillment that we think will bring long-term happiness, counterfeits like cocaine, overeating, illicit affairs, busyness, efficiency, image, or obsession with physical beauty. They all find their power in the inescapable yearning of the human heart to be fascinated and pleased and enthralled. Our hearts will invariably lead us either to the fleeting pleasures of addiction or to God. | Sam Storms

God Grant Me a Sensitive Conscience

Here's a newsflash for you: The Christian Life is Hard.

Now while you try to come to grips with this crazy thought, I want to share with you a few resources from John MacArthur on one of the greatest tools God has given us to help us battle sin.

"The conscience is generally seen by the modern world as a defect that robs people of their self-esteem. Far from being a defect or a disorder, however, your ability to sense your own guilt is a tremendous gift from God. He designed the conscience into the very framework of the human soul. It is the automatic warning system that cries, "Pull up! Pull up!" before you crash and burn." | John MacArthur - The Conscience, Revisited

That's right. A "guilty" conscience should not be ignored. Sensitivity to guilt is not primarily about making a person feel bad, but is instead about helping them stay sensitive to their sin. In Jeremiah, we see a passage of scripture that shows how Israel's sin no longer had any effect on them at all. A land where people had ignored their consciences and guilt for so long that their hearts were no longer sensitive to their sin. Their hearts were hard towards their iniquities and they actually forgot how to blush.

Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. | Jeremiah 6:15

The conscience is a tool which can be used to help us in our Christian walk, but we must work to keep our conscience sensitive. If we are not investing significant time into God's word and working to apply it to our lives, then our conscience will not be trained towards righteousness, but will instead be trained in worldliness. The old cliché, you are what you eat rings true here. What we invest our time into will be what we become. If we desire to be holy, then we must cling to what is holy. We must study God's holy word that our hearts may remain soft and aware of what is good, acceptable and perfect. Paul tells us in Romans 12:2:

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

We can't discern what the will of God is if we are not investing significant time into studying, meditating on and memorizing his word. God has given us his bible and our consciences as tools for our pursuit of holiness, but these two things must work together. We must fill our hearts (and conscience) with God's truth if we truly desire to have a heart that is passionate for God and his glory.

I'll leave you with this short audio clip from John MacArthur which gives a wonderful analogy of how this all applies to our lives.

For His Glory,

Jason

How to Defy Sinful Desire

By faith Moses . . . [left] the fleeting pleasures of sin . . . for he was looking to the reward. (Hebrews 11:24–26)

Faith is not content with “fleeting pleasures.” It is ravenous for joy. And the Word of God says, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). So faith will not be sidetracked into sin. It will not give up so easily in its quest for maximum joy.

The role of God’s Word is to feed faith’s appetite for God. And, in doing this, it weans my heart away from the deceptive taste of lust.

At first, lust begins to trick me into feeling that I would really miss out on some great satisfaction if I followed the path of purity. But then I take up the sword of the Spirit and begin to fight.

· I read that it is better to gouge out my eye than to lust (Matthew 5:29).

· I read that if I think about things that are pure and lovely and excellent, the peace of God will be with me (Philippians 4:8).

· I read that setting the mind on the flesh brings death, but setting the mind on the Spirit brings life and peace (Romans 8:6).

· I read that lust wages war against my soul (1 Peter 2:11), and that the pleasures of this life choke out the life of the Spirit (Luke 8:14).

· But best of all, I read that God withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11), and that the pure in heart will see God (Matthew 5:8).

As I pray for my faith to be satisfied with God’s life and peace, the sword of the Spirit carves the sugar coating off the poison of lust. I see it for what it is. And by the grace of God, its alluring power is broken.


John Piper: Future Grace, pages 335–336

Building the Foundation

"When children are little we often fail to engage them in significant conversation. When they try to engage us, we respond with uninterested “uh huh’s.” Eventually they learn the ropes. They realize that we are not interested in what goes on in them. They learn that a “good talk” for us is a “good listen” for them. When they become teens, the tables turn. Parents wish they could engage their teens, but the teens have long since stopped trying." | Tedd Tripp -- Shepherding a Child’s Heart

Have We Forgotten How to Blush?

I'm back from vacation and I am catching up on my Bible reading program. I came across a section of Jeremiah today, which brought me back to the first time I really read (and understood) it. Almost as if it was yesterday, I can still remember how this section of scripture hit me like a ton of bricks...like a punch to the stomach from Mike Tyson. The reality for Israel (as well as people today) is they became so comfortable and used to their sin, that they forget how to blush.

Jeremiah 6:13-15 (ESV)

“For from the least to the greatest of them,
everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
and from prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace.
Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No, they were not at all ashamed;
they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,”
says the Lord. 

Questions that deserve answers:

- Just like the prophets and priests of Israel, where is our embarrassment and shame about our own sin?
- Why can we so flippantly wear our sin around our necks, like a badge of honor, joking with our friends about choices we've made and things we've done which (as professing Christians) we should be embarrassed by.
- Why do we swat away, like a pesky fly buzzing around our food, the Holy Spirit's conviction...without taking even a moment to consider the damage we are causing by being so dismissive about our sin.
- Why have we lost our ability to see the reality of what sin is doing to us and to our lives, and worse yet...what our sin already cost our LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ?
- Why does it seem that we we are more concerned with how our sin affects/hurts other people (i.e. our family, friends, co-workers etc) or selfishly: how the consequences of our sin affects us (i.e. feeling sorry for ourselves) and yet we give so little regard to the fact that the most disastrous part of sin is that (as R.C. Sproul puts) it is cosmic treason.

"Even the slightest sin that a creature commits against his Creator does violence to the Creator’s holiness, His glory, and His righteousness. Every sin, no matter how seemingly insignificant, is an act of rebellion against the sovereign God who reigns and rules over us and as such is an act of treason against the cosmic King." | R.C. Sproul

Wake Up:

Isn't it time for us to wake up from our slumber? Isn't it time that we start to think biblically about sin? Put aside, just for a moment, how sin may affect other people. While the horizontal effects of sin are important, there is something much more devastating when it comes to the eternal significance of our sin, namely that unrepentant and habitual sin is what makes us enemies of God? (James 4:1-6)

Examine Yourselves:

The apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!"

"The truly loving child of God, though he knows sin is there, hates that sin; it is a pain and misery to him, and he never makes the corruption of his heart as an excuse for the corruption of his life; he never pleads the evil of his nature, as an apology for the evil of his conduct. If any man can, in the least degree, clear himself from the conviction of his own conscience, on account of his daily failings, by pleading the evil of his heart, he is not one of the broken-hearted children of God; he is not one of the tried servants of the Lord, for they groan concerning sin, and carry it to God’s throne; they know it is in them – they do not, therefore, leave it, but seek with all their minds to keep it down, In order that it may not rise and carry them away." | C.H. Spurgeon

I pray that as professing Christians, we will truly understand the significance of our sin. We can't afford to take this subject lightly. Yes, Jesus Christ paid the price for sin on the cross, but that was not so people could make a mockery out of Him by the way they choose to live their lives. We must examine ourselves and our hearts, to see if we are truly in the faith. If a person is not (by the power of the Holy Spirit) making war against the sin in their life....like it or not...they very easily might be heading towards eternal damnation. If a person cherishes their sin more than they cherish Christ, then the writing is already on the wall. “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and [sin]."

The Christian walk (i.e. discipleship) does cost us something, In fact, it costs us everything. Jesus said, "therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple." We must do all we can to ensure we are not being fooled by false and misleading doctrine. The cost of true discipleship is very significant. However, what is gained by renouncing everything we have, will last for eternity. (Luke 14:25-33)

One of my favorite authors on the deadly effects of sin is John Owen. In his work, The Mortification of Sin, he said the following:

“Let no man pretend to fear sin that does not fear temptation also! These two are too closely united to be separated. He does not truly hate the fruit who delights in the root.” | John Owen

“Do you make [killing sin in your life] your daily work? Be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you” | John Owen

For His Glory,

Jason

Go Back to The Garden

"When it comes to practically every question about God's intentions for men and women, the answer is almost always the same: go back to the garden. When Jesus was asked about marriage (Matt. 19:4-6), He answered from Genesis 2. Likewise, when Paul was discussing the role of women in relation to men (1 Tim. 2:11-14), he found his answers in Genesis 2. The New Testament sees issues of gender and male-female relationships answered in the opening chapters of the Bible: the basic teaching on creation in Genesis 1 and the record of God's specific dealing with the first man and woman in Genesis 2. It is here that we should search for the Bible's most basic teaching on manhood."

Richard D. Phillips. The Masculine Mandate: God's Calling to Men.

How Do We Feel About God's Word?

"Remember that it is not hasty reading, but serious meditation on holy and heavenly truths, that makes them prove sweet and profitable to the soul. It is not the mere touching of the flower by the bee that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time on the flower that draws out the sweet. It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most, that will prove to be the choicest, sweetest, wisest and strongest Christian." | Thomas Brooks

Psalm 119:97-104 (ESV)

97 Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.

A mark of a true Christian will be their love for God's law (his word) and their desire to meditate on it all day. It becomes for them the springboard for discovering who God is, who they are called and created to be and do. Sola scriptura (by scripture alone) asserts that the Bible is the only inspired and authoritative word of God, is the only source for Christian doctrine, and is accessible to all.

98 Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me.
99 I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.

100 I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts.

Why was this writer wiser than the others? Because the psalmist's enemies, teachers and the "aged" people he spoke of did not attend carefully to God’s word.

101 I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word.

The psalmist makes a conscience choice to avoid evil in order to keep God's word. Faithfulness over selfish, fleshly and sinful desires.

102 I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me.

Because the psalmist had a humble and "teachable" spirit, he is able to keep from sinning. God blessed his humility and replaced his sin with holiness.

103 How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

One mark of a true Christian is that God's word will become for them a sweet taste in their mouth. It will be a joyous experience for the Christian to read God's word, not out of obligation but instead because they delight in it.

104 Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

Understanding sound doctrine will produce a hatred of false doctrine and practices.

God’s Truth: The Only Solid Foundation for Life.

"We have abandoned the role of the formative instruction of our children to those who do not bow in humility before God and his word. Until God is acknowledged for who he says he is, [people] will continue to make moral judgements based upon the quicksand of post-modern, existential thought. The problem lies not with a particular form of education. The problem lies with any form of education that does not see God’s truth as the only solid foundation for life." | Jay Younts

Original Post: Supreme Court: God & Bible are Irrelevant.

For the Fame of His Name

As the spiritual leaders of our homes, what can we do to lead our families well? What can we do to help wake people up from their sleep (Eph. 5:14-16) in order that they too might see the reality of their sin, God's pending wrath for the unrighteous, and their unquestionable need for a Savior.

Far too many people have fallen for the devil's lie that it is because they are so lovable that Christ came to rescue them. This is not only heresy, but it is also dangerous thinking. Jesus didn't come to die because we are worthy...he came to diefor the fame of his great name. His elect (i.e. Christians) are not some sort of prize that Jesus received as a reward for laying down his life. Instead, Christians are the tangible and visible evidence God chose to use to vindicate his holiness (as well as his love and mercy) before the eyes of the world.

I Will Put My Spirit Within You | Ezekiel 36:22-23 (ESV)

22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. 

Men, may our efforts to make disciples always begin with the reality that it is for God's glory that Christ came to set us free. It is for the fame of God's great and glorious name that we do all things (1 Cor. 10:31). May God find our efforts worthy and may we never squander any opportunities we are given to point people towards Jesus.

How to Draw Others to Christ.

There is, therefore, hardly anything better we can do for those we lead than to love the Lord Jesus Christ supremely and keep our love relationship with Him fresh and growing every day! Out of this blessed and holy love relationship will come a greater manifestation of God’s love in us, shining out to others and drawing them to Christ. | Alexander Strauch

Do Our Choices Really Matter?

Fathers Are in the Instruction Business

"God has charged fathers with the responsibility to raise their children in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). Mothers and fathers are not primarily caregivers. They are the holy representatives of the God of Creation to their children. The father’s authority is not authority that has been given to him by the state. The father’s authority is mandated by God and derived from God." | Jay Younts

Read more [ HERE ]

She Desires to Be Fulfilled, Not Fixed.

"It's not my wife's issue that needs my attention, love and effort it's my wife who does. My wife doesn't need to be fixed...instead her longing for me to be invested into her life, to share in her burdens and to truly know her...needs to be fulfilled."

It's Not About the Nail from Jason Headley on Vimeo.

This video was sent to me today by a good friend. Of course men and women can both watch this video and find the humor in it, but something much deeper hit me today after watching the video and I'd like to share my thoughts with you.

Sometimes the greatest gift we can give our wife is to simply invest into her and truly know her. 

I have a lot left to learn in this area. I will typically try to look at facts, analyze them and seek a solution...that's my nature, but it's not always helpful. I grew up with three women in my house. I learned a lot in those years. I also have been married for thirteen years and one thing that I have learned for certain (albeit the hard way) over that period of time is that women don't always deal in black and white. Although this is strange to me...in reality this is wonderful news, because women have the ability to see things in ways that most men never would be able to without their perspective and insight. This is without question one of the ways that my wife has been designed by God to complement me. We are truly better, together.

After watching the video above I have a new goal for my week ahead...and hopefully in the weeks to follow. I want to be more intentional about simply listening to my wife and trying to know her on deeper levels than I have in a long, long time. I'm praying that in doing so she will see that I'm invested in her as a person and not simply trying to "fix her problems" and move on to the next task on the list. She isn't a task. Spending time with my wife isn't something that I do out of duty or obligation, but instead is something I do because I love her and it brings me a great deal of pleasure. Is this selfish of me? I don't think so. When we spend time listening to our wives and we give them the freedom to simply be themselves...I think we will show them the kind of love they desire and we will eventually fill their hearts with joy in the process. They will be blessed and we will be blessed as well. That, in essence, is the point of the relationship.

God doesn't love us because we are put together and have a good handle on all our problems. Instead, he loves us because he is invested into our lives and he cares deeply about us because we are his unique and beautiful creations. He loves us in spite of our imperfections and because of his patience, long suffering and grace...over time we willingly submit to his efforts to shape and mold us into the people he created and desires for us to be. He doesn't impatiently point out our failures so he can move on to his next project. He invests into us eternally, allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal to us where we need to grow. If we were to love our wives in this way, I can all but guarantee we would see a difference in them as well as their responses to us.

The only question left to ask ourselves, is this:

"Are we willing to invest into the life of our wife...in the way that Christ has invested into ours?"

Ephesians 5:25-27 (ESV)

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (ESV) - (emphasis mine)

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  

Love the woman in your life well, that by your efforts God may be glorified, your wife (or girlfriend) may be honored and you may be blessed.

For His Glory,

Jason

Satan Wants to Help You

Satan wants to help you—to help you sin. He is hell bent on taking you to hell with him. Thomas Books, in his book Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices, drew up a list of the devices Satan uses to draw you—yes you!—to sin. 

Click [HERE] to read the article.

Click [HERE] to purchase the Kindle Edition of, Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices for $0.99.

Casualness and Familiarity is a Ready Playing Field For Sin.

"If there is somewhere that I must especially be on guard against sin, the flesh, and our adversary, it is at home. Casualness and familiarity is a ready playing field for sin." | Jason Helopoulos

Prayer: Duty, Privilege or Both?

"Only a good and wise and sovereign God like ours would make prayer a duty and a privilege at the same time. Let me say that again. Prayer is a privilege. It is not a burdensome duty. It is a wonderful privilege. Even though Scripture commands us to pray, we should not view prayer as something we have to do. We should view is as something we get to do." | H.B. Charles Jr.

God's Word is Our Natural Habitat

"As water is to a fish, God's words are our natural habitat. Remaining in them, we thrive. Departing from them, we strive, suffer, and wilt." | Scott Sauls

Do You Love [Your Sin Here] Enough to Go to Hell For It?

Pornography is ubiquitous today; addiction to pornography, especially among men, is equally widespread. Young men are often introduced to pornography long before they are able to understand what it is and what it means. Many a young man's first awakening to sex and sexuality is by exposure to pornographic sex and nudity. This is sadly, increasingly, the case with women as well. 

Some Christians can take a kind of refuge in the fact that so many others share in the struggle. "We are all in this together" can minimize the weight of it. Yet the ubiquity of porn and porn addiction does nothing to lessen the horror of it. I want to ask you a question. But not quite yet. Read on…

Original Post (Desecration and Titillation) by: Tim Challies

How Will We Know When the Bible Starts to Transform Our Lives?

How will we know when the bible starts to transform our lives? "Not when we enjoy lovely teaching, but when the teaching becomes so [convicting] that [we] walk away and do something about it.” | Bishop Festo Kivengere

The New Purpose of Marriage

When we choose to ignore, change or distort what God has called good (Genesis 1:31), we must brace ourselves for the consequences that will inevitably come with such a decision. This issue didn't start with "gay marriage". It started in the garden when the woman chose to circumvent her husband's headship and the man allowed her to do so. It grew with the egalitarian and feminist movements in the culture and the church and now we see the continued consequences in so-called same-sex marriage.

Don't like gay marriage? Don't get one. My gay marriage doesn't change anything about your straight marriage. We're not altering the definition of marriage; we're expanding it. These new rights don't take away yours. So don't try to deny them to us.

The startling rise in public approval for gay marriage depends on such simple appeals to intuition. Look at all these happy gay couples. Why not invite them to join the party and get married? It's not like straight couples have done such a good job of commending the institution. Besides, what consenting adults do in the privacy of their bedrooms is their business alone.

To our highly individualistic Western culture, only libertarian arguments make any sense, even to many Christians. Personally we might say homosexuality is a sin; but what right do we have to impose our values on anyone else? If they aren't harming anyone else, then who can deny their gay marriages equal protection under the law?

Such questions have put Christians and other religious and even secular moral conservatives on the defensive. So it's surprising that Liza Mundy in her new cover story for The Atlantic, "The Gay Guide to Wedded Bliss," would threaten to forfeit the tactical advantage of supposed neutrality. She argues that gay marriages tend to be happier and more intimate, so straights can learn from them. Mundy even acknowledges the critics may be correct after all that gay marriage will change marriage for everyone. All to the better, Mundy writes: "by providing a new model for how two people can live together equitably, same-sex marriage could help haul matrimony more fully into the 21st century."

What Changes?

What exactly does she mean by these changes for the better? She means most basically that gay marriages erode differences between the sexes. There are no gendered roles and responsibilities. Men who love caring for babies and doing the laundry should do what feels right. Women who don't like to cook should work late instead. She believes that when we unshackle marriage from traditional expectations, we'll make it more appealing to the growing number of young adults who forsake the institution altogether or delay it much later than previous generations. And same-sex couples are already making marriage cooler, she says, leading to "nuptial fever" and a rush to the altar.

Read the full article [HERE]

Emotional Blackmail

“Emotional blackmail happens when a person equates his or her emotional pain with another person’s failure to love. They aren’t the same. A person may love well and the beloved still feel hurt, and use the hurt to blackmail the lover into admitting guilt he or she does not have. Emotional blackmail says, “If I feel hurt by you, you are guilty.” There is no defense. The hurt person has become God. His emotion has become judge and jury. Truth does not matter. All that matters is the sovereign suffering of the aggrieved. It is above question. This emotional device is a great evil. I have seen it often in my three decades of ministry and I am eager to defend people who are being wrongly indicted by it.” | John Piper

Our Children Will Be Good Sailors, Well Equipped for the Voyage

"The discipline of parenting can be the road to an enlarged soul and the path to unimagined heights of spiritual development. That’s the way God planned it. [If parenting is done rightly] our children’s sails will be set to go with Christ, to buck the winds of culture, to follow wherever he leads — and our children will be good sailors, well equipped for the voyage." | Hughes, Barbara (2007-03-31). Disciplines of a Godly Family

God's Mercy in Messed Up Families

"The Bible’s main theme is God’s gracious plan to redeem needy sinners. It teaches us that what God wants most for us is that we 1) become aware of our sinfulness and 2) our powerlessness to save ourselves, as we 3) believe and love his Son and the gospel he preached, and 4) graciously love one another. And it turns out that the family is an ideal place for all of these to occur."

Read the entire article here: http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/god-s-mercy-in-messed-up-families

No Plan B - On Discipleship.

Does Your Family Bring God Glory?

"The education of children for God is the most important business done on earth. It is the one business for which the earth exists. To it all politics, all war, all literature, all money making ought to be subordinated; and every parent especially ought to feel, every hour of the day, that next to making his own calling and election sure, this is the end for which he is kept alive by God — this is his task on earth." | Robert Dabney

How elevating it is to realize that your family is the divinely ordained and primary vehicle to bring glory to God.


Resource: Hughes, Barbara (2007-03-31). Disciplines of a Godly Family (Kindle Locations 190-193). Good News Publishers. Kindle Edition.

What Does God Exalt Above All Other Things?

"...you [God] have exalted above all things your name and your word."

Psalm 138. It's short, but the truth wrapped into this Psalm is wonderful. I think the entire Psalm is wonderful, but I've emphasized the parts which stuck out to me the most. I praise God for his word. His living, breathing and spiritually active word!!!

Q. If God exalts his name and his word above all things, then why is it so seldom that his people and churches do the same?


A. I think that generally speaking it's much easier (and more comfortable) for us to put value in some of the other attributes of God (i.e. his love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, faithfulness etc.) God's word says some hard and challenging things. Things that as individuals we will not always like. Things that for a church body will be challenging and difficult. Things that the culture in which we live, will be opposed to and will sometimes even hate. I think it's pretty easy, if we don't put value in God's word, to say, yes I know that such-and-such is a sin...but God is loving and his love covers a multitude of sins. While this statement is certainly true...a side-effect of this kind of thinking is that we tend to become complacent and apathetic to God's word, which this Psalm clearly tells us is one of the (2) things that God exalts above all other things. God cares about his glory. He cares about his reputation and how his name is glorified. Why? Is it because he's an egomaniac? No...it's because he knows the true condition of our hearts. If we are honest with ourselves, the reason that we typically run towards words like forgiveness, mercy, grace etc. is because we are sinners and those words bring us comfort. But God is Holy, He is Just and He is Righteous. Why do we find it so easy to disregard God's command for us to "Be Holy as [He] is Holy" (Lv. 20:26) when His Holiness is an equal part of God's character to his love, mercy, grace and forgiveness.

I believe we do a serious disservice to ourselves and others (both inside and outside the church) when we fail to acknowledge that the thing which God loves most is not us, but is instead his own glory. God alone is great and he alone deserves honor, glory and praise...and I believe that as Christians and as a church we need to start putting the same kind of significance, reverence and exaltation towards His word and His Name that he does.

Psalm 138 (ESV)

Give Thanks to the LORD:

I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart;
before the gods I sing your praise;
I bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness,
for you have exalted above all things
your name and your word.
On the day I called, you answered me;
my strength of soul you increased.
All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O LORD,
for they have heard the words of your mouth,
and they shall sing of the ways of the LORD,
for great is the glory of the LORD.
For though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly,
but the haughty he knows from afar.
Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
you preserve my life;
you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
and your right hand delivers me.
The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;
your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands.


For His Glory,

Jason

Biblical Interpretation and Why it Matters

I wanted to share some thoughts on biblical interpretation. How many of us have been involved in Bible studies where after a passage of scripture is read, the inevitable question is asked, what does that passage mean to you? While I commend the effort to study God's word, the Bible should not be approached this way. The Bible is not filled with subjective truths that can be finagled and twisted to mean whatever we desire for it to mean. Faithful interpretation of the scriptures doesn't ask the question, what does this passage mean to me...but instead asks the question...what does this passage mean and how can/should I apply this truth to my life.

We get into some serious trouble when we evaluate and interpret scripture based on our own feelings and/or our own inner-voice. We must be willing to admit that even our best efforts to interpret scripture based on our own thoughts and opinions are still subject to the simple fact that we are sinners. Pride, selfishness, sin, and many other things will always be working against us, trying to lead us to see things in scripture that simply are not there. To call good what God has called evil and to call evil what God has called good (Isaiah 5:20).

Because the timing of this subject is relevant, I'd like to use yesterday's passing, by the Minnesota State Senate, of the same-sex marriage law. Now, while I do commend the diligence and dedication of those who fought for their right to marry who they please, as a Bible-believing Christian I was not pleased with the results of yesterday's vote. I was saddened not only because as a state, society and culture this is where we find ourselves (morally speaking) but also because many of the arguments being leveraged yesterday by supporters of this bill were being passed off as biblical. We cannot fool ourselves. This battle, while it was painted as a human/civil rights discussion was clearly about the sinful desires of a secular world versus what God has called good (Genesis 1:31) and what he has called sin (Romans 1:26-27). While not all of you will agree with me on how serious yesterday's vote was for our society and our church...it was heartbreaking to hear how people in support of this bill continued to leverage twisted and out of context scripture as well as their Christian faith as the reasons why they must vote yes. 

And then, I thought about how the vote yesterday affects me as an individual and also how it will affect us as a church body. No doubt there are people within our body who affirm the work that was accomplished yesterday in the Senate and what will inevitably be passed by Governor Dayton in a matter of days. But what concerns me most in all of this is, how have these Christians moved towards this conviction, in light of what scripture clearly says about homosexuality? The only thing I can think of is that either these people don't understand how to rightly handle (interpret) scripture...or worse yet, they simply don't care. While there is very little that we can do about the second option, there is plenty that we can do about the former. We can ensure that we are rightly interpreting scripture..and we can also encourage others to do the same.

Why Does it matter?

The results of November's Marriage Amendment as well as the vote last Thursday (house) and yesterday's vote (senate) are a clear reminder that there is a battle going on for our minds. The church has clearly lost the influence it once had on the culture, but what is even more alarming is that it seems the church is also losing its influence on its own people. While God has given the world his infallible and inerrant scripture to be our guide...if we are not rightly handling (interpreting) the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15) then our efforts to be a faithful and obedient church will always fall short of glorifying God. Only when we are willing to submit our lives and our leadership to the absolute truth of God's Holy and revealed word, will we be able to faithfully reflect God's image and his gospel to a world and a people who desperately need to know and receive both.

When (we interpret Scripture by focusing) on our inner voice, we risk losing the original voice of Scripture, the historic anchor that has given the church its foundation and faith, and the uniqueness of a moment of historical revelation without parallel to anything we may experience. And evaluating our own experience risks confusing what is subjectively true for me with what is objectively true. Truth (does not) reside in my own temporal experience (but rather in the correct interpretation of the Scriptures.) | Gary Burge

For His Glory,

Jason

Our Feelings vs. God's Truth

“My feelings are not God. God is God. My feelings do not define truth. God’s word defines truth. My feelings are echoes and responses to what my mind perceives. And sometimes―many times―my feelings are out of sync with the truth. When that happens… I plead with God: Purify my perceptions of your truth and transform my feelings so that they are in sync with the truth.” | John Piper

God's Approval is Infinitely More Important Than the World's

"The church at Ephesus faced a culture characterized by immorality. We, too, live in a culture tolerant of [immorality]. It is popular to be open-minded to many types of sin, calling them personal choices or alternative lifestyles. But when the body of believers begins to tolerate sin in the church, it is lowering the church's standards and compromising its witness. Remember that God's approval is infinitely more important than the world's. Use God's Word, not what people around you are willing to accept, to set the standards for what is right or wrong." | Bruce Barton

The Essence of Male and Female Corruptness

"The essence of sin is self-reliance and self-exaltation. First in rebellion against God, and then in exploitation of each other."

So what is really described in the curse of Genesis 3:16 is the ugly conflict between the male and female that has marked so much of human history. Maleness as God created it has been [distorted] and corrupted by sin. Femaleness as God created it has been depraved and corrupted by sin. The essence of sin is self-reliance and self-exaltation. First in rebellion against God, and then in exploitation of each other.

So the essence of corrupted maleness is the self-aggrandizing effort to subdue and control and exploit women for its own private desires. And the essence of corrupted femaleness is the self-aggrandizing effort to subdue and control and exploit men for its own private desires. And the difference is found mainly in the different weaknesses that we can exploit in one another.


The Different Weaknesses Exploited in One Another

As a rule men have more brute strength than women and so they can rape and abuse and threaten and sit around and snap their finger. It's fashionable to say those sorts of things today. But it's just as true that women are sinners. We are in God's image, male and female; and we are depraved, male and female. Women may not have as much brute strength as men, but she knows ways to subdue him. She can very often run circles around him with her words and where her words fail, she knows the weakness of his lust.

If you have any doubts about the power of sinful woman to control sinful man, just reflect for a moment on the number one marketing force in the world—the female body. She can sell anything because she knows the universal weakness of man and how to control him with it. The exploitation of women by sinful men is conspicuous because it is often harsh and violent. But a moment's reflection will show you that the exploitation of men by sinful women is just as pervasive in our society. The difference is that our sinful society sanctions the one perversity and not the other.

(Note: There are societies that do just the opposite.)



John Piper - Manhood and Womanhood: Conflict and Confusion After the Fall

The Importance of Equipping Men to Shepherd Their Families.

What better way to multiply the personal ministry of the Word than by equipping dads to pray and read the Scriptures with their families...How many of our families would be well fed if we merely gave some simple suggestions to their shepherds?

Witmer, Timothy Z. (2010-02-04). Shepherd Leader (p. 150). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.

We Serve an Almighty Master

"We serve an almighty Master...If our Lord does but stamp His foot, He can win for Himself all the nations of the earth against...every foul error. Who is he that can harm us if we follow Jesus? How can His cause be defeated? At His will, converts will flock to His truth as numerous as the sands of the sea...Wherefore be of good courage, and go on your way singing [and preaching!]" | C.H. Spurgeon

More is at Stake Than We Know

I encourage you to be like a dolphin in the sea of our egalitarian, gender-leveling culture. Don’t
be like a jellyfish. The ocean of secularism that we swim in (including much of the church) drifts
toward minimizing serious differences between manhood and womanhood. The culture swings
back and forth as to whether women are mainly sex objects or senior vice presidents. But rarely
does it ponder the biblical vision that men are called to humbly lead and protect and provide, and
women are called to come in alongside with their unique gifts and strengths and help the men
carry through the vision.

I pray that you will be stirred up by Ruth and Boaz to pursue mature manhood and womanhood.
More is at stake than we know. God has made marriage the showcase of his covenant love
where the husband models Christ and the wife models the Church (Ephesians 5:21–33).

John Piper - Pursue Mature Manhood and Womanhood

The Pursuit of Holiness

As The Journey class I'm involved in quickly comes to an end, we are each being challenged to find our personal mission statement moving forward. Looking back over the past (7) months since this class started, there is very little doubt what God has been up to in my life. I'm thankful for the ability to clearly see his work in me and the direction he is challenging me to go, in faith, moving forward.

The topic that God has laid on my heart this week is the concept of personal holiness. Now to many, if not most, the idea of holiness comes with a somewhat of a sour taste. Many of us have run into people who strive for holiness via human mechanisms which reek of pride, legalism, self-righteousness and personal morality. However, pushing all those sinful concepts aside...it is still clear in scripture that as Christians each of us have been called to be holy. Look at these verses:

For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. | Leviticus 11:44 (ESV)

but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, | 1 Peter 1:15 (ESV)

These verses show us that God commands and expects us to be holy as he is holy. So, knowing what we know about our own sinfulness...how are we to live into this command? Jerry Bridges has a wonderful book called "The Pursuit of Holiness" which I think is a recommended read for every Christian. In this book he spends a great deal of time helping readers to understand that the Christians ability to be holy comes only through God's provision. However, he also goes on to show that while God does provide the way (through faith in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit) for our holiness, each Christian still bears the responsibility of living out the holiness that God calls us to.

[God] makes provision for our holiness, but He gives us the responsibility of using those provisions. | Jerry Bridges

Far too often, Christians take the easy way out. Yes, we are all sinners...that's a rudimentary understanding to our faith...and our need for Christ...but as Christians we are sinners who have been saved by grace, transformed by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit and are liberated from the bondages of sin in order that we may live our lives in such a way as to rightly reflect the image and the glory of God. The sad reality for man of us is that we are far too easy on ourselves when we sin. Sin is not something we should simply shrug off in our lives and it is certainly not something that we should ever make friends with as if it was nothing more than a mark or blemish on our otherwise decent-looking physique. We make war against our sin in order that we may be holy as God is holy.

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” | (Romans 8:12-15 ESV)

As Christians, we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit and therefore we have the ability to pursue holiness and to "put to death the deeds of the flesh". Through Christ, we are no longer debtors to sin, but are now debtors to God. Is it not time that we start living fully into this freedom and stop using grace as the perpetual excuse for why we continue to fail? Is it not time that we equip and encourage the body of believers at Harbor to surrender their excuses and live unto Christ? Can we not live out, in all areas of our lives, 1 Cor. 10:31? Yes, we will still continue to need God's grace for the rest of our lives...but grace is no excuse for laziness, apathy, indifference and lack of zeal. God has rescued us from self-loathing and sloth he has rescued us from the bondage of sin and he has called us to make war with sin in every capacity (i.e. pride, worldliness, laziness etc). We have been set free that we may show our community and the world, through our personal witness, that Christ has restored for us the ability to bear God's image and reflect God's glory as we were originally created for. (Gen. 1:27)

Holiness, for the Christian, is a choice. We can either choose to live into the freedom which Christ has provided us...or we can choose to allow sin to win the battles in our lives. God calls us to holiness, but this holiness will not come without a fight...and we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling and we must "do our best to present ourselves to God as one who is approved" (2 Tim. 2:15). Either way, we must acknowledge that personal holiness is not something that will fall into our laps or come easily. We must pursue it...and in our pursuit, God will bless our faithfulness and obedience.

People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated. | D.A. Carson

This is something that Jonathan Edwards understood very well. He wrote a list of "resolutions" to which he made a covenant with God to live by. If you have time, I'd encourage you to check out the following link to see the things which he resolved to do, as a Christian. They are amazing examples of what we can choose to be, if we are willing to stop selling ourselves short and instead hold ourselves and each other accountable to the holiness which God demands from each of us.

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/articles/the-resolutions-of-jonathan-edwards



For His Glory,

Jason

A Boy’s Life with Unisex Scouts | Public Discourse

He uses words too. “When you’re a man,” he says, introducing duties sometimes, and sometimes glories. “A real man has integrity,” he says. “Good men stand by their words.” “A boy makes excuses, but a man admits his fault.” “A boy thinks it’s brave to be reckless. A man knows the difference.” Sophisticates may snort. Let them, till they see what kinds of men their sophisticated sons have made.

A Boy’s Life with Unisex Scouts | Public Discourse

Three Lies Porn Will Tell You

Statistically speaking,over 50 percent of the men reading this post have had exposure to pornography recently...Here are the three lies porn will tell you.

Read the article here: http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/whole-life/3-lies-porn-tells-you

His Grace Sufficiently Covers Your Sins

Every Man is a Missionary

Every man is a missionary, now and forever, for good or for evil, whether he intends or designs it or not. He may be a blot radiating his dark influence outward to the very circumference of society, or he may be a blessing spreading benediction over the length and breadth of the world. | Thomas Chalmers

Sanctification

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. 

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 (ESV)

Sanctification, literally means "to set apart" for special use or purpose, that is, to make it holy or sacred. Therefore, sanctification refers to the state or process of being set apart, i.e. made holy. This is a work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian. Paul, in the passage above, is reminding the church of Thessalonica that God is purifying for himself a people. That Jesus is making for himself a holy and purified bride.

Theology Matters

"Nothing can be rightly known, if God be not [rightly] known; nor is any study well managed, nor to any great purpose, if God is not studied. We know little of the creature, till we know it as it stands related to the Creator..." | Richard Baxter

Why Theology Matters (to all of us):

The word theology comes from two Greek words, theos (God) and logos (word). From them we can see that theology is the study of God and his attributes, using the scriptures as the source of this truth. If God is the supreme being in all the universe, is it not of utmost importance for us to know him as much as we can? We invest time into things which hold significance for us. I remember when Anna and I first started dating....I wanted to know everything about her. I wanted to know her favorite color, her favorite candy, her favorite songs....the food she liked the people she liked...There was never a point where I felt like I knew too much information about her. As we've grown in our relationship, that hasn't changed. I want to know as much as I can about Anna, because I love her. The same holds true for Elijah and now Piper. I find pleasure in knowing all that I can about them, because I love them.

However, for some reason, when it comes to theology, people often times get squirmy and uncomfortable. There seems to be a negative association with the word theology, when in all actuality it simply means the study of God...which should be the one thing that we are most interested in.

The Bible tells us that God is:

• Omniscient (all-knowing, 1 John 3:20) 
• Omnipresent (existing everywhere, Psalm 139:7-12) 
• Omnipotent (He accomplishes whatever He desires, Jer. 32:17,27) 
• He is eternal (Psalm 90:2) 
• Holy (Isaiah 6:3), 
• Merciful (Psalm 67:1) 
• Gracious & Good (1 Pet. 2:3) 

This is just a small example of the wonderful riches we can discover about God, by studying his word and the more we (rightly) understand about God, the more our heart's affections will grow towards him. So the question is....are we being faithful in our efforts to study God's word?

What's the point of Theology:

The ultimate goal of Christian theology isn't simply to gain knowledge so we can boast in our own intelligence and wisdom. The goal is to learn about God, His nature, and His will, and how they apply and relate to us. When we rightly understand how big God really is will in turn we will be brought to an understanding of how small we really are. Or to say this a bit differently  the more we learn about God from his scriptures, the more our hearts will be humbled. Also, if faithfulness to God is our real aim, then we must make sure that we understand what the bible says God expects from us?

The Authority of Scripture as it relates to Theology:

The key to rightly knowing God is to rightly understand the inspiration and authority of scripture and how to rightly handle it. We cannot know God, or what he expects from us if we don't study the scriptures to discover these things. The bible has been given to us, by God, as a gift which contains these truths.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 tell us:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

We are doing ourselves no spiritual service if we are not using the bible as our reference point to all matters of faith. As we see in the verses from 2 Timothy, all scripture is profitable for knowing God and helping us line our lives up with what he has called us to be and do. We study God's scripture so we can grow in holiness (1 Pet. 1:15-16), obedience (James 1:4) and faithfulness (Heb. 6:1)...and "that [we] may be complete, [and] equipped for every good work". Without a devotion to the study of scriptures, we set ourselves up to be led astray by false teaching and false understandings of God and his will for our lives. Our emotions start to drive us towards actions that are not godly and we start to become influenced by things that were never meant to guide and direct us. Things like our emotions, our culture, mysticism and philosophy...which are under the same curse of sin that we are. Only God (and his word) can perfectly guide us towards holiness, obedience and faithfulness and therefore we must study the scriptures to ensure we are rightly handling the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15).

"In space, astronauts experience the misery of having no reference point, no force that draws them to the center. Where there is no "moral gravity" – that is, no force that draws us to the center – there is spiritual weightlessness. We float on feelings that will carry us where we were never meant to go; we bubble with emotional experiences that we often take for spiritual ones; and we are puffed up with pride. Instead of seriousness, there is foolishness. Instead of gravity, flippancy. Sentimentality takes the place of theology. Our reference point will never serve to keep our feet on solid rock. Our reference point, until we answer God's call, is merely ourselves. We cannot possibly tell which end is up." | Elizabeth Elliot 

It is my prayer that each of us will understand the importance of theology. I pray that the Holy Spirit will convict our hearts to study God's scriptures and make it crucial part of our very existence I also pray that he will bless our studies and will allow us, like David, to faithfully and honestly say...

"On the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and on your wondrous works, I will meditate." (Psalm 145:5 ESV)

Other Quotes on Theology:

"Theology is a serious quest for the true knowledge of God, undertaken in response to His self-revelation, illumined by Christian tradition, manifesting a rational inner coherence, issuing in ethical conduct, resonating with the contemporary world and concerned for the greater glory of God." | John Stott

"Questions of who God is and of what He is like can never be considered irrelevant to the practical matters of church life. Different understandings of God will lead you to worship Him in different ways, and if some of those understandings are wrong, some of those ways in which you approach Him could be wrong as well." | Mark Dever

"We're all theologians. The question is whether what we know about God is true." | Josh Harris

For His Glory,

Jason

Obedience is the Pathway to Holiness

Romans 8:12-13

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Pastor John Piper had a two-part sermon about (10) years ago that hit me hard. Often times I find myself traveling back to those sermon to listen to it again and remind myself of one of the things that I believe Christians should constantly be working towards, namely killing the sin that still lurks in our hearts and lives. (If you are interested you can find the sermons -- HERE)

Here are some of the take-aways that I've been thinking about over the past week.

What Is This Putting to Death of Sin?

The answer is that you suffocate the sinful deeds of the body. You cut off the life-line, the blood flow. Deeds of the body come from somewhere. Jesus said, "The things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. (19) For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. (20) These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man" (Matthew 15:18-20). Sinful deeds have a life line that must be cut.

In other words, there is a condition of the heart that gives rise to the "deeds of the body." It's a heart issue. We must cut off the hands and gouge out the eyes, not literally – that would do no good – but with that kind of violent heart-work. You kill the bad fruit by severing the bad root.

What's the bad root of "the deeds of the body"? You can see it in Romans 8:7. "The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so." The root of "the deeds of the body" that have to be killed is the flesh that is hostile to God and unwilling and unable to submit to him. Verse 12: "If you live according to the flesh you will die." Flesh is the great enemy here. And it's an enemy because it is insubordinate and hostile to God. It doesn't like God and does not want to be told by him what to do.

So to kill "the deeds of the body" that this enmity produces, you have to cut the life-line. Pinch the air pipe. Stop the blood flow. Deeds must be killed before they happen by severing the root of hostility and insubordination that rejects God.

If you try to survive as a Christian in any other way than "by the Spirit," you will not survive. You will die. Until you believe that life and fighting sin is war – that the stakes are your soul – you will probably just play at Christianity with no blood-earnestness, no vigilance, no passion no wartime mindset. (HERE)

We may learn hence, that we are never secure from the greatest sins, till we guard against those which are thought the least; nor, indeed, till we think no sin is little, since every one is a step toward hell. | John Wesley

Paul tells us again in Romans:

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. | Romans 12:2 (ESV)

These are not passive words from Paul.  This is a call to action.  "Be transformed by the renewal of your mind". But how does this really happen?  The answer is wrapped into the source of the command. Christians are transformed by the renewal of their minds which takes by living and abiding in the word. With the Holy Spirit's help, it is the responsibility of every Christian to be Holy (1 Peter 1:16).  Sin, therefore, for Christians is a choice and we are responsible and accountable for avoiding sin.

Obedience is the pathway to holiness, and the Holy Spirit gives us the ability and capacity to be obedient.

God's word must be so strongly ingrained into our hearts and our minds that it becomes the dominating force behind the choices that we make. If we are not filling our minds with the truth (the Bible) how can we expect to make good decisions when the moments of temptation come?  If the word of God is the sword of truth how will we be able to use it as it's intended (an offensive weapon) if we don't keep it close to our hearts and meditate on it day and night?

For His Glory,

Jason

We Choose Love...Because Love Wins.

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. | Romans 12:19-21 (ESV)

When we are wronged by others responding with crossness comes easy. When our wives yell at us, it's easy to be harsh with them in return. These are the natural ways in which our flesh desires to respond, but in doing so...a seed of sin is planted in our hearts...and that seed will begin to fester and grow into bitterness, resentment and hatred in our hearts.

This is ultimately what Paul is attempting to get us to understand here, when he says, "love your enemies". We choose love, because love wins. We choose to respond in humility, because humility overcomes. When we choose evil or sin, we are "overcome" by that choice and it leads to our destruction. We are robbed of the joy we would have otherwise received from God if we were to instead respond as Christ responds to us, in love.

We choose love, because love wins.

For His Glory,

Jason