I am needy

I heard John Piper use this phrase not too long ago.

Yet, as I was reading Psalm 119:33-40, it became very clear how needy I truly am.

Some of the phrases the Psalmist uses in this section are in the form of requesting from God something that the psalmist realizes he cannot do unless God works in him "both to will and do for His good pleasure." This, I believe, reveals the psalmist's realization of his neediness for God.

That we all truly need to be completely yielded and dependent upon God is more apparent everyday for me--not my own intellect, my own wisdom, my own traditions, my own common sense, my own skills, not my own mind--but God the Holy Spirit.

Listen to the phrases...

"Teach me..."

"Give me..."

"Make me..."

"Incline my heart..."

"Turn away my eyes..."

"Establish your word..."

"Revive me..."

I read those and realized afresh and anew how needy I am for God the Holy Spirit to do a grand work in me, that I am weak, helpless, timid, lost without him.

Jesus said in John 15: "apart from me you can do nothing". I'm not a Greek scholar by any means, but I'm pretty sure that nothing means nothing.

Have we realized our neediness for God in all of life?

Suffering

The subject of suffering (various types) has been on my heart for quite some time--from the passing of my mom last summer to the physical suffering of my dad right after Christmas to the personal struggles that just come from living life.

Psalm 42 has particularly spoken to me concerning this reality of life--specifically the mental and emotional suffering we all endure from time to time.

I encourage you to spend some time meditating on this Psalm. It sheds much light on the "Christians should not suffer" teaching that is so prevalent in the wealth, health, and prosperity movement of our day.

Hebrews 5:8-9 says "though He was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And having been perfected, he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him."

Jesus, the son of God, suffered not only for us on the cross, but he suffered to show us how to suffer within the sovereign providence of God as he conforms us to the image of his Son.

As Blackaby says, some things can only be learned through suffering.

If suffering were not a part of the normative Christian experience, why did Paul say in Philippians 3:10 "that I may know Him and power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death"?

In suffering, for whatever reason, we are able to identify with Jesus more so than in times of prosperity and all things going well.

In a series of blog posts, Mark Driscoll will be sharing what God has been teaching him from his studies over the past months.

Here is the link for his posts: http://blog.marshillchurch.org//author/mdriscoll/

I hope these will be of good instruction to you and for you.

God bless (which does not mean no suffering).

Here is

Series through Acts - Missional Christians

I read this today from resurgence.com. It summarizes the entire series about being a "missional community of believers."

In our book, Total Church, Steve Timmis and I argue for two core principles that should shape the life and mission of the local church: gospel and community. The content of our ministry is the gospel. It’s a word: gospel means good news. So being gospel-centered means being word-centered. And it’s a word to be proclaimed: gospel means good news. So being gospel-centered means being mission-centered. That’s the content of ministry. The context is always the Christian community. Ministry is not an event, still less a performance. It takes place in and through the shared life of the Christian community. So whether it’s evangelism or social involvement or children’s work or apologetics or pastoral care or training, these two principles shape what we do: gospel-centered and community-centered.

Ordinary Life
Here’s another way of thinking about it. One of the catchphrases we use to capture our vision is “ordinary life with gospel intentionality” or “ordinary people doing ordinary things with gospel intentionality.” In other words, what we do is ordinary life together: household chores, trips to the movies, meals, neighborhood volunteering. But running through all these activities is a commitment to speaking and living the gospel. We pastor one another at the kitchen sink. We evangelize by talking about Jesus over a meal.

Those are two good paragraphs. Let them sink in as we are about the "Father's business" (Luke 2:49).

Between Two Worlds

When you click the link, scroll down and listen to John Piper as he exhorts the President of the United States. Wow!


Between Two Worlds

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Loving God

The foundational and central theme of all stewardship is the great commandment.

Found in Deuteronomy 6:5, it says, "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, and strength."

Jesus quotes this in Matthew 22:34-40.

The implication of Jesus' words is the reality that there is no sphere of life that is not touched by this command to love God.

It is therefore, priority one, for Christians, to love God supremely, definitively, and exclusively in and through all spheres of living.

Here are several questions to help us apply this principle to our often compartmentalized lives:

1) How can I handle material possessions in a way that demonstrates that Jesus is my greatest treasure?

2) How can I handle money in a way that demonstrates that Jesus is my greatest treasure?

3) How can I exercise my spiritual gifts in such a way that demonstrates Jesus as my greatest treasure?

4) How can I discipline, take care of, and dress my body in such a way that demonstrates my devotion to Jesus above anything else?

5) How can I serve, love and lead my family to demonstrate that Jesus is my greatest treasure?

6) (for husbands) How can I love, serve, and sacrifice for my wife as Christ loved the church so that it demonstrates that Jesus is my greatest treasure?

7) (for wives) How can I submit to and show respect for my husband that demonstrates my devotion to Jesus?

8) How can I think rightly and biblically in such a way that demonstrates Jesus as my greatest passion?

It is my prayer that these questions (and others that come to mind) will help us exercise faithful and biblical stewardship in every area of life from the foundational reality of loving God supremely and exhaustively with our whole person.

Stewardship

We begin this week a series of messages on the subject of stewardship. We plan to cover a variety of subjects through this series over the next two months (February and March).

1 Corinthians 4:1 and 2 states "let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful."

We have all been given one life to steward or manage--one life to present as a living sacrifice to God as holy and acceptable to him.

Being a faithful steward requires a starting point found in v. 1--as servants of Christ. How we manage life and those things that make up life within the parameters and priority of being a servant of Jesus will determine the degree of faithfulness of our stewardship.

To the degree that we manage our families, our time, our minds, our bodies, our emotions, our money, our spiritual gifts as a servant of Jesus Christ is the degree by which our faithfulness is measured.

One day, we will all give account, myself included, of our stewardship because everything we have has been gifted to us by God as managers.

2 Corinthians 5:10 says that "we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad."

There will be a day of accounting for all of us. Does that frighten us, bring joy to our heart, or motivate us toward faithful stewardship of all we are and all we possess?

Yes, but one life to live--how will we live it?

May we live in such a way that we hear "well done, good and faithful servant."

All praise to Jesus!

Pre-, Mid-, Post-, or Pre-wrath

Many have differing views on the rapture (or, even if there is one).

In recent years, after studying the different views and writing a paper on them, I have come to the conclusion (so far at least) that the church will go through the tribulation, either all the way (post-trib) or up to the sixth seal (Revelation 7; pre-wrath) being supernaturally protected by the power of God through the tribulation rather than taken out of the tribulation

As I have been studying the "signs" (plagues) in Exodus for Pharaoh, it dawned on me that this is a possible model for how God might protect the church during the tribulation period.

During the fourth plague, the text says that "in that day I will set apart the land of Goshen in which my people dwell, in order that you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the land."

My thoughts on this are preliminary, but isn't it at least possible that this provides some idea of God's supernatural protection of the church during the tribulation?

Just a thought.

I'm sure someone has thought about this before. It just hit me while studying this week.