5 Things to Avoid in 2010

If you feel like 2009 was a rough year, you are not alone. A good number of believers have experienced trials, tribulations, and testings this past 12 months. Much of what tried our fellow brothers and sisters could have been avoided by watching our heart more carefully. Please, I am not discounting the will of our sovereign God. Understanding and holding to the sovereignty of God does not relieve us of the responsibility that falls to us to do or not to do various things.

So, the first thing one would think of in order not repeat some of these tribulations, trials, and/or testings is make sure we avoid making our situation worse by making some common mistakes. In particular it might make a better year if we avoid the following:

1. Thinking more highly of ourselves than we should (Romans 12:3)


2. Setting our affections on things below (Colossians 3:2)


3. Bad company (I Corinthians 15:33)


4. Satisfying the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16-26)


5. Failing to vigilantly guarding the heart (Proverbs 4:23)



What say ye? What would you add to this list?

The Closed Door

“When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’” (Luke 13:25 ESV)

These are very disturbing words. I read these words this morning and they disturbed me. They are word of absoluteness and finality. We are only too aware of how short the time is before that great and final judgment of humanity. We who are believers know that our lives and sin have already been judged in Christ at Calvary. Yet, there are so many who will be shut out when that door is finally closed.

As patient as God has been, there is coming a day when His long-suffering will end. The “door” of mercy shall be closed forever. The throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16) will one day be replaced by the throne of judgment (Revelation 20:11) and multitudes will stand outside of grace.

We need to work while the day is yet day. The night is coming. It will soon be too dark to work the work of Christ. The banquet hall is being filled as we speak, but we cannot forget that one day, the master will close the door. This passage serves to remind us to have a right evaluation of the time – we need to constantly redeem the time.

Holiness

“Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”

I have been thinking of a theme for 2010 and had yet to settle on one. As I thought on this last night and this morning during my devotional time with the Lord, it came to me:

Holiness! Holiness will be my theme for 2010.

It is my prayer that during 2010 that by God’s grace and His effective working in my life that I would be made more holy in my practical daily living. I know that God looks at me through His unique and one-of-a-kind Son and sees me as He sees Him. In other words I am already convinced of my positional holiness in Christ. I simply know that my daily living can be further tuned for the glory of God and the good of His people.

2009 was a year of grace for me. I love grace. I thank God for grace. However, even I know that grace no matter how undeserved and no matter how freely given does not alleviate me from my responsibility to grow in holiness. “Be Holy for I am holy” is a command and not a suggestion.

The amazing thing is that as I respond to Christ’s command to be holy as He is holy, I am still swimming in the pool that is filled with grace. I have the unfathomable privilege of delighting in God. Psalms 37 even commands me to delight in God. I want to delight in the things that God delights in – and one of those things God delights in His holiness.

I am already convinced this will be an impossible journey through this new year if I depend upon my own resources to “be holy.” I am equally convinced that I need the endless supply of God’s grace to enable me to consistently be motivated to serve Him.

What is my plan? Well I have begun to assemble my “tools,” to re-read and meditate through again this year. For starters I am going to re-read:

Bryan Chappell’s Holiness by Grace

Jerry Bridges’ The Pursuit of Holiness

R. C. Sroul’s The Holiness of God

J. C. Ryle’s Holiness

I am also planning on conducting a bible-wide study during my devotions on the subject of holiness. If you have further suggestions of some good books on this subject please let me know what they are.
I don’t know what to expect as I prepare for this journey this year. I know that there is not a vaccine, formula, kit, liquid, gas, or any components that will automatically make me holy. Remember, I have read Bridge’s book before and I already know three areas that I will have to revisit and allow the Lord to take to my hear - the sharp edged sword of his Word deftly maneuvered by the hand of His Holy Spirit:

1. My attitude toward sin can be more self-centered than God-centered

2. At times I can misunderstand what it really means to “live by faith”

3. I fail at times to take some sin as seriously as I need to

So my prayer for 2010 will be:

“So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus..” (Romans 6:11 ESV)

The Leavening Agent of Hypocrisy

“In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” (Luke 12:1 ESV)

Jesus opens chapter twelve with an extremely potent and penetrating warning to his disciples in regards to the Pharisees. If you remember Jesus had been invited to dine with a Pharisee. The Pharisee became very indignant when he observed that Jesus did not perform the customary ritual of washing his hands prior to eating.

Of course you remember the scathing indictment that Jesus directed at his host. Knowing his hosts most inner thoughts he accused him of cleaning the outside of his “cup” while leaving the inside full of greed and wickedness. Jesus continued with his condemnation by pointing out the hypocritical and strained accuracy of tithing mint along with every herb while ignoring the much weightier matters such as justice or the love of God. If that wasn’t enough he accused the Pharisee, his host, of being nothing more than an unmarked grave that contaminated common people as they unknowingly walked across them.

This indignant invective proved too much for a lawyer who was in attendance. He advised Jesus that by charging the Pharisees with these accusations, he was also insulting the lawyers. This was one time this lawyer should not have given up the right to remain silent. Jesus turned and with righteous indignation lambasted the lawyers. He characterized them as those who load up the common people with rules and regulations that they don’t even keep themselves.

Naturally after this dinner party turned painfully strained, the Pharisees and lawyers joined forces in an attempt to provoke Jesus into some form of condemning speech. This leads us to the events contained in verse one of chapter twelve.

“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. We don’t have to wait very long to discover what Jesus meant by “leaven.” Jesus warned the disciples and any of those in the crowd who might be listening to guard against hypocrisy.

It is so easy to put on a mask and present one version of ourselves to our friends or family while “hiding” another version behind the mask. Listen to J.C. Ryle:

“Sound protestant and evangelical doctrine is useless if it is not accompanied by a holy life. It is worse than useless: it does positive harm. It is despised by keen sighted and shrewd men of the world, as an unreal and hollow thing, and brings religion into contempt.”

Let me share five things with you, if I may that will help each of us guard our heart against the sin of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

1. The principles of hypocrisy are deeply rooted in our human nature. The roots sprout from our hearts. They must be watched for at all times and even violently ripped from our hearts. We must develop a defense that includes a constant reminder to ourselves of this ever present danger.

2. We must develop a heart to treasure our walk with God that supersedes the deceitfulness of sin. We cannot merely sweep the house, put things in its place by developing religious attitudes or actions. We must by God’s grace desire him more that those things that would supplant him in our affections.

3. We must develop a fear – a deep, holy, and reverential adoration for God that is greater than our desire for the accolades of men. Fearing God comes at a great price: denial of self, death of self, and the continuous following of our Lord.

4. We must remember that leaven is a very small agent and it takes very little to do its job. Leaven, like hypocrisy works from within, secretly and silently by releasing waste by-products that actually “flavor” products such as bread. For example, In sourdough breads, the flavor is further enhanced by various lactic acid bacteria (lactobacilli) or acetic acid bacteria (acetobacilli). A very tiny agent of hypocrisy can work silently and secretly within our lives by “flavoring” our attitudes and actions by the “waste by-products” left behind.

5. We need to constantly be on guard and regularly ask God to make us aware of any hypocrisy at work in our lives. We need to immediately confess this great sin to our Lord, agreeing with God that hypocrisy is sin, express a desire for absolute forgiveness, and claim by faith His absolute forgiveness based on the finished work of atonement of His Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

May we by God’s grace declare 2010 a hypocrisy free zone!

A Year of Time. . . .

…Though even thinking on the subject of time may prove discomforting, it is not a bad idea—especially at the beginning of a new year.

As we look into 2010 we look at a block of time. We see 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes, 31,536,000 seconds. And all is a gift from God. We have done nothing to deserve it, earn it, or purchased it. Like the air we breathe, time comes to us as a part of life.

The gift of time is not ours alone. It is given equally to each person. Rich and poor, educated and ignorant, strong and weak—every man, woman and child has the same twenty-four hours every day.

Another important thing about time is that you cannot stop it. There is no way to slow it down, turn it off, or adjust it. Time marches on.

And you cannot bring back time. Once it is gone, it is gone. Yesterday is lost forever. If yesterday is lost, tomorrow is uncertain. We may look ahead at a full year’s block of time, but we really have no guarantee that we will experience any of it.

Obviously, time is one of our most precious possessions. We can waste it. We can worry over it. We can spend it on ourselves. Or, as good stewards, we can invest it in the kingdom of God.

The New Year is full of time. As the seconds tick away, will you be tossing time out the window, or will you make every minute count?

 . . . Steven B. Cloud, Pulpit Helps, Vol. 14, # 2

Us for them – them against us!

In yesterday’s post I made reference to a remarkable piece of scripture in I Peter 2:11-12. The main idea of this passage is almost too fabulous for words.

Peter wrote to believers in five provinces who were experiencing persecution. We do not have much information concerning this persecution, either internally from Peter’s letter or externally from historical sources. It does not seem to be an official governmental persecution from Rome or the surrounding Roman officials. It may have been local and engineered by the Judaizers.

What do know is the persecution was great enough to cause some to doubt their decision to leave Judaism and declare their allegiance to Christ. It was severe enough to prompt Peter to write his letter of encouragement. Listen again, as Peter writes in I Peter 2:11-12:

“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” (ESV)

These believers in the midst of severe persecution and hardship are to remain faithful to Christ and to conduct their daily lives in such a manner that the beauty of their profession shines visibly in such a manner that Christ in them is made beautiful and attractive. As a matter of fact as they live in such a manner Christ will be made so attractive that on the day of their judgment they will give the glory to God.

Why do I mention this again? On Wednesday’s I have chosen to pray for those who are in authority. Paul told Timothy to pray for all those who are in authority. (I Timothy 2:1-7) Paul gives us a “grocery list” of things to pray for them. I have posted this list before but let me do once more:

• That we may live a quiet & peaceful life characterized by godliness & fear

• That we may freely share the gospel & evangelized every creature

• That government would be a terror to the wicked & a blessing to the good (Romans)

• That they would exercise their God-given power with the utmost of wisdom

• That they might be drawn to Christ by the HS & experience the blessing of salvation

The next two things weren’t really specified by Paul. I developed them as a result of coming to the understanding of God’s sovereignty concerning government and my response.

• That we would be thankful for God’s wisdom & provision in providing us with government and government officials even when they oppose Christ

• That we would trust God implicitly as He in His sovereignty works out His will and purpose in and through local, state, federal, and global governments

There is the reason for today’s post. As I was praying for those in authority – from the President, our Governor, down to our local mayor and city council it dawned on me how the evangelical community views government: us (meaning evangelical Christians) against them (meaning all government rules, regulations, and restrictions against us.)

It is not us against them! That is what Satan would love for us to think! With that mentality we can become both disobedient to God and distracted from the real deal. You say how?

• First, we become disobedient because we do not pray for them as we are commanded

• Second, we become disobedient of them because we begin to speak evil of them

• Third, we fail to pray for, work towards, and otherwise evangelize them for Christ

• Fourth, we develop the mindset that we can disobey government because it opposes the cause of Christ – (not saying that at times we must disobey in order to obey God)

• Fifth, we lead others astray into hate, disgust, disdain, rather into love, patience, suffering, etc.

So, if it is not us against them, what is it? It is US FOR THEM – THEM AGAINST US!

It doesn’t matter whether they are the President, the Governor, the Mayor, the Senator, or a mere councilman they all have an eternal soul. They have been either specifically raised up or allowed by God’s sovereign will to their respective place of office. They are no different from a middle class housewife in the suburbs who needs redemption to the drunk and homeless “bum” at the local rescue mission who needs redemption.

I guess this is coming on the heels of my devotional readings in Luke 12. I have spent the last three weeks in my morning devotions in Luke 12. The chapter concluded today with the illustration given by Christ of the man who was being dragged before a judge concerning an unpaid debt, probably a tax bill. Christ said that man should settle while even on the way to court with the accuser, lest the judge after hearing the case turns him over to the officer of the court, who in turns books him in prison. As we know you could not come out of debtor’s prison until every last penny of the date had been paid.

That was a warning to the Jews in the crowd that Christ had been addressing since chapter one. After all he taught them he concluded with that illustration. The man represented the crowd, in reality the Jewish nation, the accuser represented Christ, the judge represented God, the debt represented sin, and the prison represented hell. The man, those in the crowd, if they did not settle their spiritual accounts with God the judge; they would be cast into hell and would not come out until their “debt” had been paid.

What does that passage do to you? It gives me the chills. I causes me great grief for those who “are on their way to the judge” and don’t even know it. It impacted me this morning. As I meditated on that passage and then began to pray for those in authority it dawned on me how many believers (and so called believers) view government. It isn’t hard to deduce this, it isn’t a difficult stretch – just read, watch, listen, and pay attention to what they blog, write, say, and do that is captured by the media.

Many believers view government as us against them. It is not to be that way. It is to be us for them as they are against us. We need to pray that the Holy Spirit might move in their hearts that God perhaps might grant them repentance before it is too late and they are thrown into prison from whence they will never exit.

As 2009 ends tonight at midnight and 2010 begins at 12:01 AM lets decide to make an impact on those around us including government officials by first, changing our attitude against them, second, by praying for them biblically and fervently, and thirdly, by conducting our lives in such a manner that the beauty of Christ is made visible and attractive for them to truly see. Let them give God the glory on the Day of Judgment!

What say ye?

The Purpose of our Lives

What is the purpose of our lives? I know most of my readers would simply quote the Westminster Catechism which says: “To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” Of course that is a correct answer. Unless John Piper is on to something when he rewords the catechism a bit and states says: “To glorify God by enjoying Him forever,”

Our goal, our mission, our purpose is to glorify God. Thomas Watson put it this way, “Our life’s end is to glorify God.”

We are to magnify and reflect the glorious nature of our Majestic God. I always cringe when I hear some say that they want to “bring glory to God.” I think that most times I know what they really mean. Let me say at the outset, that we cannot bring glory to God nor can we make him any more glorious than he already is and has always been.

We cannot add to nor can we diminish God’s glory. He is as glorious as he has ever been and ever will be. God is an unchanging God. He is absolutely immutable. Therefore, our purpose as individual believers or the purpose of the church is not to make God any more glorious.

Our life long pursuit is to magnify the glorious nature of God. How do we do this?

Well John Piper gives an illustration of how we are to do this. He states that we must magnify God like telescopes. He says, “Magnify him, but not like a microscope. You know the difference between two kinds of magnification, don't you? There's telescope magnification and microscope magnification, and it's blasphemy to magnify God like a microscope. To magnify God like a microscope is to take something tiny and make it look bigger than it is. If you try to do that to God you blaspheme. But a telescope puts its lens on unimaginable expanses of greatness and tries to just help them look like what they are. That's what a telescope is for. “

Our job, what a horrible choice of a word – our opportunity, our responsibility, and our life mission is to magnify God’s character by making visible the unimaginable expanses of greatness in God’s character as our lives serve as telescopes.

How do we do this? Peter caught a vision of this as he wrote to the Christians in Asia Minor. Listen to him in I Peter 2:11-12:

“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” (ESV)

The word that Peter used for honorable is the Greek word kalos. It be translated a number of ways, but it carries the idea of “ beautiful, handsome, excellent, eminent, choice, surpassing, precious, useful, suitable, commendable, or admirable.” Another way to understand this word is to say something is beautiful to look at, or it is shapely, and magnificent.

Peter is suggesting that his readers, who by the way are undergoing a tremendous amount of persecution to live their lives in such a way that their daily conduct could be considered good, or excellent in its nature and characteristics, and therefore well adapted to its ends.

Peter wants his readers to live their lives even under the most trying and difficult of circumstances in such a way that it makes the character of God stand out to these pagan people. But as the character of God is displayed in these believers lives it will be so attractive or admirable (the character of God not their lives) that the pagans will to “telescope” God’s character on the day of judgment.

With 2009 just two days away from being over and 2010 ready to begin, what is your goal for this coming new year? What will your purpose be for the next 365 days? Let me challenge you to regardless of the circumstances by God’s grace to conduct your life in such a way that it reflects and reveals the magnificent character of our God so that even the pagans will give Him glory on the day of judgment.

What Say Ye?