Archive for January, 2011
Gauging Self-Righteousness in Conflicts
Posted by thetenthleper in Community, Marriage and Singleness on January 27, 2011
“How we respond when we think we’ve been sinned against can reveal self-righteousness,” writes Dave Harvey. He defines self-righteousness as “a sense of moral superiority that appoints us as prosecutor of other people’s sinfulness. We relate to others as if we are incapable of the sins they commit.” Mr. Harvey is talking about the importance of being merciful in the context of marriage and how our own self-righteousness undermines our ability to be merciful to our spouse. He gives a few questions for believers to ask themselves to see if they are suffering from self-righteousness when encountering a conflict. Again, the context is marriage, but the principles transcend into all relationships, from you best friend Roberto to that weird guy Sven you met at that one party who has a weird laugh and collects novelty coffee mugs. Shoot, to all the people in your life that you’re just down-right better than. So to gauge your sense of self-righteousness in the context of all interpersonal relationships in your life, ask yourself the following:
- Am I self-confident that I see the supposed “facts” clearly?
- Am I quick to assign motives when I feel I’ve been wronged?
- Do I find it easy to build a case against someone that makes me seem right and him or her seem wrong?
- Do I ask questions with built-in assumptions I believe will be proven right? Or do I ask impartial questions- the kind that genuinely seek new information regardless of its implications for my preferred outcome?
- Am I overly concerned about who is to blame for something?
- Am I able to dismiss questions like these as irrelevant?
(Questions from Dave Harvey, When Sinners Say “I Do”- Discovering the Power of the Gospel for Marriage)
“…[Love] keeps no record of being wronged.”
1 Corinthians 13:5 (NLT)
“…in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.”
2 Corinthians 5:19 (ESV)
The Joyful Impossibility of Ministry
Posted by thetenthleper in Devotions & Meditations on January 18, 2011
“I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe…”
-Ephesians 1:16-19
Through Scripture, God has been crazy-encouraging me over the past months and year. As I’ve started to see increasing victories over sin in my life, I’ve had an increasing desire in my heart to share with others what I’m learning about how to mortify sin so that they too might experience victory and joy. Through my church I lead a community group consisting of myself and three other guys. They’re a pretty obvious outlet for me to impart some of what God has been sharing me, and I have the burden to do so. Very recently though, that burden became almost a discouragement. I began to feel completely insufficient to reproduce in their hearts the comfort that God has been producing in mine through Scripture. “What can I do to make sure they get it? How can I help them to understand everything they have in you?”
The answer was pretty obvious and liberating: I can’t do anything. What was even more liberating was to remember that Paul, the Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson of Christianity, felt this same burden in his letters to those whom he wrote to. He felt the burden to help them grow. He could “water” them, but only God could give the growth. His powerlessness to produce growth in believers’ lives forced him to focus on the one who could give that growth, hence prayers like the one in Ephesians 1 listed above.
Whether we’re talking about believers or non-believers, all we can do for them (all we were ever meant to do for them) is to preach the Gospel faithfully. We aren’t meant to make them believe it. We aren’t meant to make them take truths into their hearts that would free them from so many of sin’s lies. Only God can grant the spiritual wisdom and insight needed for people to grow in their knowledge of him (not just knowledge about him). Only God can flood their hearts with light so that they can understand the hope he’s given to believers. Only God can help them understand the depth of the power he has worked in believers by bringing them to spiritual life, which is the very same power that rose Christ’s body from the grave. In other words, only God can help believers to understand just how much of a miracle it is for them to be saved. And only God can truly help believers appreciate everything he’s given to them in bringing them to salvation.
It is right for Christian workers to feel a deep burden for those they minister to (see 2 Corinthians 11:28). But it’s also pretty nice to know that the growth we desire to see in others’ lives is not something we can produce. That relieves a lot of undue pressure and leaves us only with the pressure of doing things we can control: preach the Gospel to them, comfort them, teach them, rebuke them, encourage them, and pray for them. How they receive this stuff is outside our control. Taking on God’s responsibilities will only burn a Christian out. Even our own responsibilities will wear us out, but we can rest knowing that by pursuing God’s agenda in our lives and the lives of others, our work will never be in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58) There is no failure in preaching the Gospel. The only failure is in failing to do so. So do your part and preach, and then pray and wait for God to do his.
(See also Paul Tripp’s article Parenting: The Joyful Impossibility for similar thoughts from a different perspective.)
Practical Theology- An Introduction
Posted by thetenthleper in Counseling on January 13, 2011
“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”
John 17:17
“and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 8:32
I recently wrote an entry in which I talked about how I am starting to read Scripture with a renewed seriousness, asking myself if I really believe what it is I read there. I talked about how by consciously choosing to trust that what God says about me is true, the Bible has started to come alive in fresh and comforting ways I’ve never really known before. For example, when I feel sorry for myself, I take comfort that in God’s eyes I’m a blessed man because my sins are forgiven (Psalm 32:1-2). When I feel like God must hate me for all the ways I fail him each day, I remember that because of Christ’s work on the cross, God does not condemn me (Romans 8:1). When I feel like I have to prove myself to God or others, God’s Word reminds me that I am fully justified and accepted before God (Romans 5:1), and therefore I have nothing to prove.
This is “practical theology.” Practical theology takes the truths we confess and makes them applicable to all areas of our lives. It answers questions like:
- How is God’s sovereignty and goodness relevant to you while you’re stuck in traffic on the way to an important meeting?
- How is Christ’s ascension into heaven to sit at the Father’s right hand relevant to you when your desire to look at pornography is overwhelming?
- How does a proper understanding of your accepted status before God (justification) help you to fight loneliness and depression?
- How does God’s promise to never leave or forsake you help to dismantle anxiety?
- How is God sending his own Son to die for your sins relevant to your struggling marriage and/or friendships?
The degree to which Scripture is relevant to circumstances like the ones listed above is the degree to which our theology is practical. And if it’s not practical, it is not true theology. Ed Welch says that the “only true theology is applied theology. If it’s on the shelf, it’s unglodly.” As Jesus prays in the verse above, truth is meant to sanctify us. And since God’s word is the truth referred to here, the truths found in the Bible are given to transform us. If they fail to do that, it is because we have failed to truly grasp them.
If truth is what transforms us, then what kills us and fuels sin in our lives are lies. Tim Chester writes that “[s]inful acts always have their origin in some form of unbelief. Behind every sin is a lie.” When I first read that sentence, it seemed almost too simple. But after reading Chester’s dissection of it, I think he’s absolutely right. We may say we believe something (confessional faith), but that may not be exactly what we believe in practice (functional disbelief). The distance between our confessional beliefs and our practical beliefs is indicative of the number of lies we’re believing. For example, I may confess that God is in control of all things and that his purposes for me are good. But as Chester observes, if I get caught in a traffic jam and start getting angry, I’m demonstrating that I don’t honestly believe those things deep down. How can I get angry with my circumstances if I believe that one who is in complete control of all things is the same one who loves me deeply? Take a minute and think about the tremendous implications of truly believing God’s complete power over all things and his love toward you. Seriously. It’ll do wonders for your faith to realize that God’s not trying to screw you over.
I believe that the lack of a practical theology is killing many Christians, especially the ones like me who have heard Bible truths so often that we’ve become numb to them. The phrase “God loves you” is boringly familiar instead of a truth of immeasurable comfort. The promise that “God is with you” feels about as impactful as a lucky rabbit’s foot than a truth which decimates anxiety and worry. But I have personally experienced the transforming power of stopping at these Biblical truths and swallowing them rather than passing by the all-too-familiar verses. I am experiencing the freedom that comes from digging up the lies that lead to my sinful behavior and replacing them with truths from Scripture. If sinful behaviors are merely the symptoms of lies we believe deep in our hearts, it’s very likely that the Bible passages which give us freedom from those behaviors will on the surface look almost irrelevant to our sin struggles, because they will address the lie and not the behavior itself. For example, I’ve found a treasure-trove of ammunition for battling lust not from Matthew 5:27-30, not from Job 31:1, and not from Proverbs 5, but from Psalm 32:1-2 (among others). What possible relevance do these two verses have for fighting sexual temptation? Another entry is coming soon devoted entirely these two verses and their implications, but briefly I’ll say that it comes down to where you’re getting your sense of identity. Historically, my heart has been a breeding ground for lustful thoughts when I feel very negative about myself. Even if I knew lust was wrong, I didn’t care. It’s hard for a person with a negative sense of identity to care about what will benefit them because…what’s the point? Enter Psalm 32:1-2, where I’m reminded that my greatest need is salvation, and because I’ve been given it I’m a blessed man, not a victim. Enter Psalm 84:11, where I’m reminded that God’s not withholding anything from me. Enter Ephesians 1:3 and 2 Peter 1:3-4, where I’m reminded that not only is God not a withholding God, but that he gives and gives and gives to me. Suddenly I realize I’m a rich, blessed man, without a lick of condemnation against me (Romans 8:1). Suddenly I start to feel how precious I am to God. And since people have an instinctual need to protect what is precious, the desire to pollute myself weakens, while the desire to preserve my value in my Savior’s eyes grows. And that is how you beat sin: by enjoying God more than it.
God glorifies himself in the mercy and joy he gives to undeserving sinners like you and me. He gives us his Word (the Bible) in order to give us truth, and by doing so, to sanctify us. This means that transformation is unattainable apart from being in God’s Word. To have a theology that’s practical, one must first have a theology. Studying theology and doctrine is not reserved for those in the Church that have the spiritual gift of teaching. It’s not for the elite. It’s not on one end of the Christian spectrum with “social involvement” on the other. The “conflict” between focusing on doctrine or focusing on social issues is the result of a theology that’s not practical and is therefore, in the words of Ed Welch above, ungodly. We need a theology which yields results.
This is the first of many entries which will deal with this subject. In closing though, I’d encourage you the reader to read Scripture, pause, and ask yourself if you truly believe what you’re reading. Believe it and let it sink deeply into your heart. That’s the beginning of a harvest right there.
Truths to Be Governed By
Posted by thetenthleper in Devotions & Meditations, Marriage and Singleness on January 11, 2011
This weekend I started a list called “Truths to be Governed By.” That list has the potential to be really long, and due to time constraints I only popped out two truths. The list was meant to be shared with my girlfriend for the purposes of making sure that we are maintaining a biblical perspective of our relationship, but as these truths transcend that context and should dominate all kinds of relationships, I thought I’d share.
Truth #1: Jesus is coming back, and we should get more excited about that than anything else.
1 Peter 1:13 has encouraged me a lot over the past couple of years: “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.” Set your hope on Christ’s return, not on graduation from school, not on finding the perfect job, and not on getting married. Hebrews 9:28 says that he is coming back “to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” Are you more excited about this than anything else? If not, what is it you want to do before he returns? (That’s another way of asking “What are the idols in your life?”) I’m ecstatic about getting married one day, but I should be more ecstatic about the return of Jesus. And when he returns, marriage as we know it (which is a metaphor for Christ and his bride, the Church) will cease to be. As I told my girlfriend, we should be longing for a world to come in which she and I won’t be married. One of the great ways any two Christians can love each other is to help whet each others’ appetite for Christ’s return so that it becomes their foremost hope and desire.
Truth #2: The ultimate marriage will take place when Christ returns, so we should be preparing more for that marriage than for a marriage with each other.
Over and over, we are exhorted as Christians to be ready for Jesus’ return (Matthew 24:42, 25:1-13, 1 Thessalonians 5:6, Revelation 16:15). My girlfriend and I are preparing for a potential marriage by getting to know each other better and asking questions relevant to making a wise decision on the matter. But again, marriage between man and woman is a shadow of the reality of the coming marriage between Christ and his Church. As good and important as it is for her and me to be asking questions concerning parenting, lifestyle, and finances, we should be exerting more time and energy into preparing for THE marriage. Sanctification is God’s will for his children (1 Thessalonians 4:3). We will all eventually be married, and pursuing sanctification (growing to look more and more like Christ) is the way to prepare for that.
A Successful Life, A Faithful Life
Posted by thetenthleper in Devotions & Meditations on January 6, 2011
“Be clear about God’s definition for success in ministry. It has little or nothing to do with the size of someone’s ministry or with having more political influence or being hip or trendy or traditional or non-traditional or being whatever kind of church happens to appeal to you. A successful ministry is simply this- a faithful ministry, faithful to Jesus Christ in life and doctrine, and faithful in safe-keeping and living out his idol-destroying gospel.”
Philip Ryken
Every Christian has a ministry, and thus this quote is relevant to all. But I was thinking how applicable this statement is to just life in general. If you want to live a successful life, you must look at what God says is a successful life. It has little or nothing to do with how many people you know, how cool you are, whether you’re lower-class, middle-class, or upper-class. It has nothing to do with how many places you’ve traveled to. It has nothing to do with how funny you are, how tall you are, how attractive or not you are. A successful life is simply this- a faithful life.
To paraphrase Ryken: if you are a believer in Christ, you must be clear about God’s definition of a successful life, not your surrounding culture’s definition. If you aren’t clear about that, you will be miserable in your faith. The very promises God has given to comfort you will be ineffective in doing that. God’s promises are given according to God’s perspective (eternity). Unless you adopt that same perspective, his promises won’t be of much use to you. The blessings you get from reading his Word will be minimal. Reading about our treasure in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21) will seem cute, but will fail to give us any true longing for heaven. Reading about how God will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5) will either mean very little to us or it will make us angry when he doesn’t keep us out of difficult circumstances, when it is instead meant to give us a deep sense of joy and strength amidst anything this life can throw at us. And his promise to complete the work he began in us (Philippians 1:6, 1 Corinthians 1:8-9, 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24) will seem more like assurance that we won’t end up in Hell rather than a promise that he will help us destroy the sin in our life that so easily entangles us now.
Adopt God’s perspective (‘cuz after all, he has the best vantage point) on life and success (see John 17:3), and his Word will comfort you like crazy. And remember that for everything our culture defines as successful, God offers a superior version.
God wants you to…
…be rich! (Matthew 6:19-21, 1 Timothy 6:18, Proverbs 10:22)
…be debt-free! (Psalm 32:1-2, Colossians 2:13-14)
…be attractive! (Proverbs 31:30, 1 Peter 3:4, Isaiah 62:3)
…have a great family! (Mark 3:31-35)
…have lots of friends! (1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4:15-16)
…have a great and successful job! (Matthew 28:18-20)
…have the perfect marriage! (Revelation 21:9, Ephesians 5:31-32)
I’m not naive. I know what it’s like to read how God wants you to have those things, look up the Scripture references and get disappointed to find that the riches we’re talking about are heavenly riches, or that the marriage God wants you most focused on is Christ’s marriage to his Church. It just doesn’t seem as real as the riches we know or the kind of marriage we’re used to. But I also know what it’s like to get over that disappointment and get excited about these things. Ask yourself: which one is the metaphor? Is Christ’s marriage a metaphor for human marriage or the other way around? Is the body of Christ (the Church) a metaphor for your family, or your family a metaphor for the body of Christ? Identifying the metaphor is a huge step in getting God’s perspective.
Again, do this and God’s Word will begin to explode with comfort. And then success will begin to be seen for what it really is: faithfulness, first to the God who loved us at great cost to himself, and then to each other.
“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”
1 John 5:3
Insights in Ephesians- 1:4, “Chosen”
Posted by thetenthleper in Election/Predestination, Insights in Ephesians on January 4, 2011
“just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and unblemished in his presence.”
Ephesians 1:4
Fun fact: This is my first blog post ever with a self-translated header verse. That’s right, the version of Ephesians 1:4 you see above you is from the “New North American Scott Dickson Translation 21st Century Version: Revised Updated Edition” (NNASDT21CV:RUE), destined to make the “New American Standard Bible” look like Rob Lacey’s “Word on the Street” translation, and available in so many shapes, sizes, and cover textures so as to make Crossway’s “English Standard Version” catalog look BOR-ing. I’m especially proud of the “Keep Them From the Evil One” edition for ladies, which houses a mace compartment.
[Insert impeccably smooth transition here.]
The idea behind the word exelexato which is translated “he chose” is that of choosing something out of a group, rather than choosing a group in its entirety. One reference book I consulted when translating this verse says that this word “indicates the rejection of some and acceptance of others…” So the choice God made “before the foundation of the world” is selective rather than all-inclusive.
Yeah, this touches on the in-no-way-controversial doctrine of election. That’s where this is going. There’s a lot of controversy over what sense God has chosen us in Christ. I’ve heard explanations given saying things to the effect that God’s chosen that we should be saved only by coming to Christ in faith, or that he’s chosen everybody but we can choose to get off the train so to speak. But what the text is saying here is that God has chosen a people out of the whole human race (and not the whole human race) to be holy and unblemished in his presence.
He did this “in [Christ]” as opposed to choosing us in ourselves. John Calvin notes that “if we are chosen in Christ, it is outside ourselves. It is not from the sight of our deserving, but because our heavenly Father has engrafted us, through the blessing of adoption, into the Body of Christ. In short, the name of Christ excludes all merit, and everything which men have of themselves; for when he says that we are chosen in Christ, it follows that in ourselves we are unworthy.” By being chosen “in him”, we are only ever saved by being united to Jesus and having him as our representative. Just as every human being is a sinner based on our representative Adam, Christ came to redeem a people from fallen humanity by becoming a new, perfect representative for them. Anyone can, by putting their trust in him, be grafted into him and saved.
Finally, God chose some in Christ “before the foundation of the world.” I’ve heard this explained away by saying that God looks down the corridor of time, sees whether or not we’d respond to his offer of salvation, and chooses or doesn’t choose us based on what he sees. The problem with this view is that it makes God’s choice determined by what man does or doesn’t do, when the Bible makes clear that God’s choice is 1) based entirely on his own good pleasure, and 2) is the cause of whether a person responds to him or not. The phrase “before the foundation of the world” means “from all eternity.” “Its force is that God’s choice of them was a free decision not dependent on temporal circumstances but rooted in the depth of his nature. To say that election in Christ took place before the foundation of the world is to underline that it was provoked not by historical contingency or human merit, but solely by God’s sovereign grace.” (Andrew Lincoln)
So from all eternity, God chose to save some. I haven’t really addressed the whole dilemma of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility, but that isn’t my aim here. For that I’ll direct you to an entry I wrote a while back. And on that note I’ll conclude by pointing out that by bringing this up, Paul’s goal isn’t to start a theological debate within the body of Christ. Rather he is taking this truth and using it to praise God and give thanks to him. He doesn’t try to work out all the subtleties and difficulties of this admittedly difficult doctrine. He praises God for the truth of it though, and so should we. Election is to be a source of gratitude and comfort for the body of Christ.
How Great is our God?
Posted by thetenthleper in Devotions & Meditations on January 3, 2011
“Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”
Hebrews 13:15
“And I want life in every word to the extent that it’s absurd.”
The Postal Service
It’s worth stating up front that this entry has entirely no affiliation with the song “How Great is our God” which has been to Christian radio what No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak” was to mainstream radio in the 90s. It is rather inspired by a “game” a friend of mine invented relatively recently which I’ve come to enjoy. I put quotation marks around “game” because it’s actually more of a spiritual discipline. It’s simple, though: At any point, my friend may come up to me (or I to him) and completely out of the blue ask the question “How great is our God?” To this the other person must tell the interviewer a truth about God that is worth celebrating. I love this because it is an on-the-spot reminder of all that God has done to be with his children, of all he is doing to grow them in Christ-likeness, and all he is doing in bringing spiritually dead people to life all over the world. It’s a celebration of who he is.
I was recently looking back at an entry I wrote in my journal on December 2, 2004. Here’s what this college sophomore was thinking: “Prayers of request must never exceed prayers of thanksgiving. Genuine followers of Christ will never find their needs greater than their possessions.” I’m not so naive to think that we don’t have many, many needs to lift up to the Lord. But the most desperate need any person will ever have is to have their sins forgiven and be made at peace with God. He who has that is extremely wealthy. Those who have experienced salvation have been given everything they need to grow in godliness and experience life (2 Peter 1:3), and have been given “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3). C.S. Lewis wisely wrote that he “who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only.”
When we realize that such a desperate need has been so mercifully and abundantly met in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection (Romans 4:25, 8:32), the default state of our hearts should increasingly be worship. I’ve been in so many prayer meetings that have revolved around how crappy a person’s circumstances are. We listen to each other whine about how difficult work is and say “Yeah man that sucks. Let’s pray it gets better.” rather than remind them that 1) they at least have a job, and 2) no matter what happens, Jesus is still on the throne and they will spend eternity with him. It’s said that nothing unites like having a common enemy. But for the redeemed people of God, that’s not good enough. We are united in remembrance of the fact that we are all enemies of the God who created the universe, and of the fact that in this state he sent his Son to reconcile us to himself. Thus, the basis for Christian community is not what we lack but what we have been given. Practical needs, problems, and difficulties can and should be addressed among believers in Christ, but only in the context of the cross of Christ.
I think the attitude that drives those negative prayer meetings is the fruit of a heart that doesn’t dwell on the gospel’s implications. If we truly let the fact that we’re blessed people (Psalm 32:1-2) sink into our hearts, praise should always be on our tongues. I love my friend’s question because with it he is taking the initiative to talk about God with me for no other purpose than to praise him. In my experience, that just doesn’t happen much. For example, for me to talk about theology with someone often has more to do with debating finer points of doctrine than it does celebrating the crucial points of doctrine that we agree on. Discussing worship music is more about discussing methodology of worship services than about talking about (or even singing together!) the songs that we love to sing to our God.
There’s a wonderful scene fairly early on in John Bunyan’s classic, The Pilgrim’s Progress, where the main character Christian who had become a Christian earlier on (spoiler alert) comes to a house populated by fellow believers. Bunyan describes their dinner in this way: “All their conversation at the table was about the Lord of the Hill: such as what He had done, why He did what He did, and why He had built that house.” My dinners aren’t usually like this. They may be void of any crude joking or gossiping, but they’re also void of any active celebration of what God has done and why he did it. I don’t often start a God-centered discussion with someone for the sole purpose of giving God praise. But as Hebrews 13:15 above reminds us, if we are truly people who have been bought with the blood of Christ and have been given his Holy Spirit, praise should be a dominant characteristic of our lives.
Let this be a resolution that you make, not for a new year but for every new day: to give life in every word you speak to others by actively celebrating God simply for who he is and what he’s done on your behalf. Remind yourself and others daily that he who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all will certainly shower us with much lesser gifts. You can never exhaustively answer the question “How great is our God?” So play the game. It’ll always be fresh.
“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”
-Colossians 4:6
“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
-Ephesians 4:29
(See also Psalm 34:1,3, Ephesians 5:3-4, Proverbs 10:11,21, John 7:38)
