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darthtatertot
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Name: Kenny
Country: United States
State: California
Metro: Los Angeles
Birthday: 3/26/1988
Gender: Male
Interests: a lot of things, i suppose.
Expertise: i'd have to say i'm an authority on the star trek continuum.
Occupation: Student!
Industry: Student!
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
3/5/2003
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| I want to share...that I have been supremely blessed by my brothers and sisters over the past few days. I read Kevin's blog and Tiffany's blog tonight...and was very humbled and encouraged by them in my own relationship with God. The many update emails from Harvesters abroad challenge me as well. Not only that, but back in LA, Aaron Mori's spiritual insight is so valuable. And even baby sister gave me very good and God-glorifying advice last night (the fact that that surprises me reveals my pride).
It's tempting to compare my prose-writing to these other bloggers and feel discouraged. It's also tempting to place them on too high of a pedastle, and say "I struggle with sin too much to contribute to this conversation." It's also tempting to say "Time for me to write a blog because I'm hella godly too!" I want to avoid all of these extremes...but I do believe that God has taught me something the past few days that I want to contribute, as a means to worship him.
I've been reading "When I Don't Desire God" by John Piper. And the most recent chapter on prayer has been very eye-opening. I still struggle with the place of prayer in my own life. I was confronted by my spirit yesterday as I was praying for a certain thing. "Wait...why am I praying for this thing, when I'm supposed to be 'satisfied in God alone'? In fact, how can I justify praying for a gift that would bring me happiness?" I struggled to understand the purpose of prayer in this regard. But then I looked down at the page and found a most amazing answer:
"And the great purpose of prayer is to ask that - in and through all his gifts - God would be our joy...ultimately every gift should be desired because it shows us and brings us more of him."
This has been blowing my mind and my idea of prayer. If I pray for anything for myself, the ultimate purpose should be for my own estimation of God's worth and value to increase. If I desire X, I should desire X because having X will show me more of God and lead me to love him more.
There is no exception, in terms of my prayers for myself and my own desires.
John 16:24 - "Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." My joy shouldn't stop at the receiving of the gift I asked for. My reaction of joy shouldn't be "YES I GOT X!" It should transform and evolve into joy in God as a result. My reaction should be "YES, GOD IS AMAZING BECAUSE HE CHOSE TO GIVE ME X SO THAT I WOULD KNOW AND LOVE HIM MORE!" Obviously, the second exclamation would not happen word-for-word in such a way...
Psalm 90:14 - "Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days." That's not a prayer for a carefree and trial-less life. It's a prayer that my satisfaction and joy would come from the love of God alone.
I sense that I'm scatter-brained. But I think that I understand much more now why God allows me to pray for certain things, and why I can desire certain things. I had to examine my motives for praying for that certain thing mentioned above. I realized that I hadn't considered my motives, really, I just knew that I wanted that thing. But the instruction of the Holy Spirit through this book and these passages has truly expanded my understanding of prayer, and increased my desire to do it.
The end goal of a prayer for myself cannot and must not be the receiving of X. But if I desire X, I should desire it inasmuch as it will cause me to know God more and to love God more.
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| "Osteen reflects the broader assumption among evangelicals that we are saved by making a decision to have a personal relationship with God. If one's greatest problem is loneliness, the good news is that Jesus is a reliable friend. If the big problem is anxiety, Jesus will calm us down. Jesus is the glue that holds our marriages and families together, gives us purpose for us to strive toward, wisdom for daily life. And there are half-truths in all of these pleas, but they never really bring hearers face to face with their real problem: that they stand naked and ashamed before a holy God and can only be acceptably clothed in his presence by being clothed, head to toe, in Christ's righteousness.
"This gospel of "submission," "commitment," "decision," and "having a personal relationship with God" fails to realize, first of all, that everyone has a personal relationship with God already: either as a condemned criminal standing before a righteous judge or as a justified co-heir with Christ and adopted child of the Father. "How can I be right with God?" is no longer a question when my happiness rather than God's holiness is the main issue. My concern is that Joel Osteen is simply the latest in a long line of self-help evangelists who appeal to the native American obsession with pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Salvation is not a matter of divine rescue from the judgment that is coming on the world, but a matter of self-improvement in order to have your best life now."
- Michael S. Horton
Hmm. I, too, have the tendency to slip into a gospel that is focused on my initiative, rather than God's initiative.
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| I tend to learn similar things again and again. I must admit that part of the reason for this is that I don't learn the first time. But also, the same great truth will come to me by differing means at differing times.
Today, before I put on my cross necklace, I had been confronted with the fact that I am still a sinner who rebels against God and has so much to learn in terms of simple obedience. So as I picked up the necklace, a feeling I have felt before rushed through me - "I don't want to put this on." I have not obeyed or lived for Christ today, and I feel like a hypocrite wearing that symbol around my neck. Of course, I'm fine putting it on if I haven't seen or felt any big sins in my life that day.
But as I hesitated, holding the tiny metal cross, shaped like nails tied together, in my palm, I realized once again that this time - when I feel more aware and guilty than ever - is just as good a time as any, if not a better time, to wear that necklace. On those days when I feel almost worthy of putting that necklace on (or at the very least like I am an obedient servant of Christ) I know that I am most often blinded by my pride. And (in light of my post below, from May) in those times I fail to realize that when I break one part of God's law - even if it's "merely" an evil thought toward someone else - I am culpable for breaking his entire law.
Additionally, when I wear the cross, I declare my own insufficiency and my own utter dependence upon Christ as my righteousness before God and as the basis for my relationship with my Creator and Author of Salvation. The cross is the center of the gospel - and if I am to truly appreciate the cross, I must be aware that I can never please God outside of my reliance on Christ's power.
So I proudly wear this cross around my neck. Proud not because I've been a "good Christian" today, proud not because I've even done my best to obey Christ today, but proudly declaring my insufficiency and my dependence upon Christ for my salvation, and truly for all things in life.
I just made this connection - I think that I now know better what Paul means when he says "But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ..." (Galatians 6:14). I boast in the cross - not that I have achieved or accomplished any justification or sanctification, but I boast that my God is powerful and just, yet "mighty to save", longsuffering, slow to anger and abounding in love, gracious and merciful - even toward one such as I, the chief of sinners.
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| "It's easy to let ourselves off the hook by saying, these sins are not as bad as the flagrant ones of society. But God has not given us the authority to establish values for different sins. Instead, he says through James, 'Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for [is guilty of] all of it' (2:10). That Scripture is difficult for us to understand because we think in terms of individual laws and their respective penalties. But God's law is seamless. The Bible speaks not of God's laws, as if many of them, but of God's law as a single whole. When a person commits murder, he breaks God's law. When a Christian lets corrupting speech...come out of his mouth...he breaks God's law." - Jerry Bridges, Respectable Sins
Before this explanation, I don't think that James 2:10 made sense to me. To be honest, it still seemed kind of weird that when you broke one of God's laws, he blamed you for breaking all of them. But if we understand God's standard not as a set of laws, but as one LAW (and, to my knowledge, it's always referred to in the singular throughout the Bible), then the passage makes sense.
It seems that one breaks that law whenever one is not holy. And obviously...we're never perfectly holy.
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| Thanks, I'm glad you guys read and were blessed by the quote from last time. :) Here's another one from the same book...!
"Don't buy the lie that cultivating condemnation [over your sin] and wallowing in your shame is somehow pleasing to God, or that a constant, low-grade guilt will somehow promote holiness and spiritual maturity.
"It's just the opposite! God is glorified when we believe with all our hearts that those who trust in Christ can never be condemned. It's only when we receive His free gift of grace and live in the good of total forgiveness that we're able to turn from old, sinful ways of living and walk in grace-motivated obedience."
- CJ Mahaney in Living the Cross-Centered Life
This has been the most freeing truth that God has taught me in my Christian life. I hope that if any of my brothers and sisters who are reading this are struggling with self-condemnation, that you would take these words to heart, and that you would also look at Romans 8:1 (and that whole chapter). As Christians we're not called to have a raincloud over our heads all the time.
1 Peter 1:8-9 - "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls" | | |
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