“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

“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)

“…’”Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?”‘”
-2 Kings 1:3

King Ahaziah, laying sick in his bed, commanded messengers to go consult the god of Ekron about whether he would recover or not.  The angel of the LORD then came to Elijah, commanding him to rebuke the king for turning to other gods.  Elijah then met Ahaziah’s messengers and delivered the message.

Idolatry may take many forms.  It’s been rightly stated by many preachers that the lack of golden calves and and the like does not exempt our culture from the sin of idolatry.  Anything can supplant God in our hearts.  Yet it can be difficult to determine when something exerts more control on us than God, especially in seeking counsel over something.  An important question we should frequently ask ourselves is this: “Who do I run to for counsel?”  Additionally, “When do I run to them for counsel?”  For even acceptable sources of counsel can be idolatrous when we turn to them before God.

We must be quick to run to God for counsel.  By all means, make use of the saints God has surrounded you with.  It is commanded after all (Proverbs 15:22 and pretty much all of Proverbs).  But at the beginning of the need, go to God.  Acknowledge him in everything  (Proverbs 3:6).  Then go to his people.  The go to God once more.

The following is from Charles Spurgeon’s exceptional devotional Morning and Evening. The theme has to do with the righteousness of Jesus and how that righteousness is now counted as our righteousness. This is such a basic doctrine to the Christian faith, but it has been on my mind a lot lately. I feel like floodgates have been opened and the implications of that truth are suddenly pouring down on me, some of which I shared in another entry.  But without further ado, I give you he who is dubbed “The Prince of Preachers” and a man who has had tremendous influence on my spiritual formation.

January 31
Morning

“The Lord our righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6)

It will always give a Christian the greatest calm, quiet, ease, and peace, to think of the perfect righteousness of Christ. There are some who are always talking about corruption and the innate evil of the soul. This is quite true, but why not go a little further and remember that we are “perfect in Christ Jesus?” Surely, if we call to mind that Christ is made unto us righteousness, we will be of good cheer. Even though distresses afflict me, Satan assaults me, and there may be many things to be experiences before I get to heaven, those are done for me in the covenant of divine grace. There is nothing wanting in my Lord. Christ has done it all. On the cross, He said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). If it is finished, then I am complete in Him. I can rejoice with unspeakable joy and full of glory, “not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Philippians 3:9). When the believer says, “I live on Christ alone; I rest on Him completely for salvation; and I believe that, however unworthy, I am still saved in Jesus,” then there rises up as a motive of gratitude this thought- “Will I not live for Christ? Will I not love Him and serve Him, seeing that I am saved by HIS merits? “The love of Christ constraineth us” (2 Corinthians 5:14).

February 11 of this year saw record snowfall in the Dallas area.  As a native Texan who has spent all but six years of my life in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, I must say that it was quite the experience.  It literally snowed all day, from several hours before I awoke to the time I fell asleep.  It has become impossible for me to look at freshly-laid snow and not think of my sins being made “white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18).  When it is fresh, it is so spotless and pure.  I don’t know of anything in nature that just looks so clean.

There is something so beautiful about purity.  We are naturally drawn to that which is without blemish.  It’s humbling to think that this naturally-occuring picture of purity is God’s metaphor to describe his people and what he will do with them.  The distance between us and our sins is said to be as far as the east is from the west, indicating utter separation (Psalm 103:12).  The Bride of Christ, the Church, is said “‘to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’” and that “the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.” (Revelation 19:8)  We must remember how such purity comes to be.  We are not in this final, unblemished state yet.  We will be, but even now the best people you and I know still sin.  But what every believer in Christ must constantly remember is that God counts them as spotless.  The most pure, spotless, and therefore beautiful human being to ever walk this earth was Jesus Christ.  And through his sacrifice on our behalf, everything he is is now ours.  God looks at us and sees Christ.  There is nothing to damn in us, because there is nothing to damn in Jesus.  We are credited with being as righteous as he is.  Every blessing in Scripture that is conditioned upon righteousness is a blessing we now possess as a result of being joined to Christ.

Christ, our spotless Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7, cf. Exodus 12:5), is our righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).  So to say that our sins have been made white as snow is to testify that Jesus is white as snow; totally pure, and thus uniquely able to die in our place and make us right with God (Romans 5:1).  When we look on the snow that covers the ground, may we be reminded not only of the peace we now have with God because our sins have been removed from us, but let us pursue that thought further and be reminded of the perfect man who loved us at great cost to himself in order to secure for us a place in the coming new earth which will be without blemish, defined by purity and perfection.

Finally, let’s consider one other thought.  In the same breath in which he says that the distance between our sins is the distance between the east and the west, David says that the distance between heaven and earth is equivalent to the vastness of God’s love toward us.  Love shines brightest in the most inconvenient circumstances.  It is an act of love to go a few miles across town for someone.  But that act is magnified if I were to travel half-way across the country for them.  It is an act of love to sit down with someone and spend time with them, but that same love can be made more visible if I were to clear everything off my schedule for that person and sacrifice many things in order to be with them.  Similarly, the distance between us and our God is vast and far beyond our ability to comprehend, and it is precisely the immensity of this distance which should demonstrate to us the immensity of his love for us.  True love inconveniences itself for the sake of the beloved.  It goes great distances out of great love for great reward, and our great King is not only no exception to this rule, he is the pinnacle reality of it from which every other act of love is but an exemplary shadow.  He emptied himself (Philippians 2:1-11), eyeing the prize (Hebrews 12:2) which is you and me (Isaiah 53:11, Romans 8:28-30, Leviticus 20:26, 1 Peter 2:9), so that in our rescue God would be glorified (John 15:8, Ephesians 1:6,12,14).  Even in human relationships, we don’t doubt the love of those who have sacrificed much for us.  How much more should we then rest in the love of God, who has traveled the farthest possible distance to make us his own?  He has fallen upon this earth from above and has left fields of purity in his wake.

Snow likewise comes from above and falls to earth, and newness is what it leaves behind. It is purity from above.  As we observe fields of white and marvel at them, let us be reminded to marvel more intensely at the even more beautiful sight of sinners made clean by the grace of God.  May we look around and see in each other reason to praise our great God. In settings we find ourselves in with other believers, may we look upon them and see something more beautiful than freshly-laid snow. And for those we know who do not know the beautiful news of Jesus, may we pray diligently for snow to fall on them as it has on us.

“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
-Psalm 51:7

“‘For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.’”
-Isaiah 55:10-11

“Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.”
-Proverbs 11:4

“The wicked earns deceptive wages, but the one who sows righteousness gets a sure reward.”
-Proverbs 11:18

“In the path of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death.”
-Proverbs 12:28

These three verses emphasize the definite reward of righteousness.  This is something we must constantly be reminded of, for while the full payoff for righteousness is still to come, the full payoff for worldliness can be had now.  It is a natural part of the Christian life to see the world prospering and to wonder if pursuing righteousness is even worth it (see Psalm 73).  But God is frequently reminding us in his Word that it is.  We must look to the end of all things.  We must look upon this world not with natural but spiritual eyes.

Righteousness is true wealth, for it delivers us from wrath (Proverbs 11:4).  Wickedness gives what appears to be a good reward, but the reward of righteousness is definite and lasting (Proverbs 11:18).  Living righteously gives life and moves us out of death (Proverbs 12:28, John 10:10).  Sowing to the Spirit means reaping eternal life (Galatians 6:7-8).

“…the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might”
-Ephesians 1:19

In his commentary of this passage, John Calvin writes “And certainly the wonderful power of God is displayed when we are brought from death to life, and when, from being the children of hell, we become the children of God and heirs of eternal life.  Foolish men imagine that this language is sheer exaggeration; but the godly, who are engaged in daily struggles of conscience, easily see that there is not a word here that is not perfectly true.”

I absolutely love what Calvin says.  To the world, coming to Christ is a matter on cognizance, a mental adherence to him.  But the Christian knows the depths of God’s regenerative power.  C.S. Lewis well said that a man does not know how bad he is until he has tried very hard to be good.  As Calvin states, the believer is “engaged in daily struggles of conscience.”  He lives with the battle between spirit and flesh and has great insight into the futility he has to obey God on his own power.  Thus, his coming to Christ, obeying him, and living for him can only be attributed to “the immeasurable greatness of his power” toward him who believes.  Understanding the extent of sin’s damage on us helps us to understand where all our righteousness comes from: above, not from within.  Faith, then, must never become something we take for granted, but rather it must be seen as the free gift that God has given, a miracle to be thankful for every day.  Our willingness to obey and and the power to do it comes directly from God.

“for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
-Philippians 2:13

“‘Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.  If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.’  [The Pharisees] answered him, ‘You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?’  And they cast him out.”
-John 9:32-34

For the believer, this passage gives an indispensable reminder.  Reading it, I was struck by the forgetfulness of the Pharisees of their own sin, and the pride which stemmed from that forgetfulness.  Every believer has something they can teach another believer (Ephesians 4:15-16).  Grace has levelled the playing field.  While it may be obvious that a new believer has much to learn from a PhD. seminary professor, what is not so obvious is the inverse need.  The professor needs the new believer.  At the very “least,” their testimony of how he came to faith in Christ will glaze the professor’s eyes with the simple, beautiful truths of the Gospel and produce thankfulness in his heart towards God, and encouragement that God is moving.

The healthy, worshipping Christian life is one that is very mindful of sin.  God’s love is demonstrated in the context of sin (Romans 5:8), so to worship him necessitates that same context.

“Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.”
-Psalm 32:1-2

I must meditate frequently on the sin God has brought me out of and of the sins I currently struggle with, and be thankful for their atonement through Jesus and for the life to come that he has purchased for me.