“For until men recognize that they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by his fatherly care, that he is the author of their very good, that they should seek nothing beyond him—they will never yield him willing service. Nay, unless they establish their complete happiness in him, they will never give themselves truly and sincerely to him.” - John Calvin
Posted in Sticky on June 11, 2010 by Harry
Good Works and Faith from Tabletalk Magazine
Posted in Trust, Works on May 29, 2012 by Harry
PSALM 37:3 “Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.”
Conformity to the character of God, insofar as creatures are able, is our goal as believers, and the Holy Spirit is the agent chiefly responsible for this work of sanctification (Rom. 8:1-17; Eph. 5:1). As we follow His leading and the transformation of our minds by God’s Word, the Spirit bears in our lives fruits such as joy, peace, patience, and kindness (Rom. 12:1-2; Gal. 5:22-23). Goodness and faithfulness are also fruits of the Spirit’s work, as we see in Galatians 5:22 and today’s passage.
Biblically speaking, goodness involves both the external act and its internal motivation. God measures us not only by how we obey His law but also according to the intent of our hearts (1 Sam. 16:7). Thus, a deed is fully good only when it is motivated by a desire to please the Lord. Moreover, remember that our Savior had harsh words for those who acted holy but not for the right reasons (Matt. 23).
Fallen people are unable to do what is good according to this standard (Rom. 3:10-11). Measured by the relative standards of sinful creatures, we can say that unbelievers do civic good and other commendable things, such as loving their children. Nevertheless, because fallen people do not do these things out of a love for Christ, such deeds are ultimately splendid vices. Only believers, because we are redeemed by Jesus and have been granted the Holy Spirit, have the ability to do what is good in an ultimate sense. Sin, however, remains in our lives until our glorification (1 John 1:8-9), so our best works are still tainted by impure motivations. Thanks be to God, the Spirit does work in us to purify our motivations (Titus 3:4-7), making us more willing to do the right things for the right reasons.
Faith is another fruit of the Spirit in our lives (Gal. 5:22). But when the Apostle refers to faith, he speaks not merely of “believing in God.” Paul also calls us to “believe God.” Believing in God is not that remarkable — even demons do that. What the Lord wants is a people who trust in His promises alone (James 2:14-26).
Every time we sin we show disbelief. To transgress God’s law is to show that we do not consider evil to be evil and do not fear the Lord’s promised wrath. To flee sin, on the other hand, is to show faith in God as the ultimate standard of good and to believe His promise that righteous men and women will prosper (Ps. 1).
We will continue to sin until we are in the direct presence of God, so there will always be occasions when we disbelieve the Lord and transgress His law. Our need for perfection has been met in Christ, and He alone is the One in whom we will stand before the Father unafraid. In the meantime, the Lord desires faithfulness form us, namely, an effort to know His law, love His law, and repent when we fail to do His law.
- From the May issue of Tabletalk Magazine (Ligonier Ministries)
Harry Reeder: Cultural Narcissism and a Titanic Lesson
Posted in Culture on March 4, 2012 by Harry
“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21
In the inky darkness of April 15, 1912, the Titanic, billed as “the ship that even God could not sink,” plunged into the icy waters of the North Atlantic, its hull split in two. Amazingly, the lost consisted of men from every imaginable station and season of life, including some who were multi-billionaires. The lifeboats were overwhelmingly populated by women and children from every sphere of society. These phenomena became irresistible subjects of analysis in the media and even in the academy during the ensuing days. The critically acclaimed and highly publicized movie Titanic (1997) attempted to re-create this historical event. The film, billed as a technological and cinematic success, was a factual failure, inaccurately portraying the narrative of that fateful night.
The revisionist script attempted to present the disaster as an example of “class warfare.” A tawdry, adulterous love story between a woman of soci¬ety and a lower-class immigrant was invented for the movie. There was also a fictional portrayal of the cultural elite oppressing the lower classes in the bowels of the ship, enabling them (as the privileged) to escape in the precious few lifeboats.
Actually, the filmmakers missed a great opportunity. On that floating microcosm of opulence, consumerism, and elitism, an amazing event transpired. Men of power and prestige sacrificed their lives for women and children of the lower class, many of whom were indentured servants, day laborers, and domestic workers. On this flotilla of self-absorption, self-sacrifice became a prevailing virtue during a crisis moment, and the powerful chose death that the powerless might receive life.
The analysis in the following days persistently asked the obvious question: “Why?” The answer, almost universally acknowledged — even by the agnostic and secularist — was the undeniable influence of Christianity. The Christian virtue of self-sacrifice for the well-being of others and the biblical imperative for men to lay down their lives for women and children were chosen instead of self-preservation. These virtues triumphed in the context of real life-and-death choices on the Titanic. Could the same permeating virtues be propagated in today’s culture, which is marked by self-absorption, self-gratification, and self-exaltation? Scripture and history say yes. Yet, Scripture and history also say that such gospel-driven transformation will not happen in this world until it has taken hold in Christ’s church.
The contemporary culture flounders in a sea of narcissism, yet the contemporary church is likewise floundering in the exaltation of self and the supremacy of personal idolatry. Many churches (and, therefore, their members) long ago abandoned the gospel call “not [to] be conformed to this world but [to] be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom. 12:1-2). The church no longer shapes the world because it is being shaped by the world. Today’s church cannot suppress, much less transform, the disastrous effects of narcissism in the culture because narcissism is unsuppressed and flourishing within its own ministerial borders. The evidences of self-absorption within the church are undeniable and on the verge of going viral.
The contemporary church, in an effort to be relevant and connected, has in many cases become irrelevant and disconnected by accommodating itself to the demanded cultural narcissism. Today’s church, instead of speaking the true gospel message in terms the culture understands, has been seduced and intimidated into modifying the gospel message according to what the culture approves. Thus, we insist on the supremacy of personal musical genre preferences in worship. Our children exist to achieve academic and athletic honors in order to promote our parental pride. Marriage partners, instead of being the subjects of our sacrificial love, have become objects to be used then discarded. Our careers are instruments for conspicuous consumerism instead of opportunities to create wealth and gather resources for the needy. Our local churches are viewed as religious “specialty shops” for life’s challenges. Gospel preaching has been perverted into self-esteem therapy or pep talks, coaching us to worldly success or, even more astonishing, redefining the love of Christ in terms that preclude His displeasure with the impenitent self-centeredness in our lives. Our pursuit of personal happiness and gratification has superseded God’s call to be holy and magnify His glory. The first question of our new catechism is now, “What is the chief end of God?” The answer: “To love me and make me happy.” Our conformity to the world and our loss of the clear gospel call to follow Christ and to die to ourselves and our sins have rendered believers and the church thermometers of the culture instead of thermostats within the culture.
There is a titanic lesson to be learned from the Titanic. During a moment of crisis, a virtue that is alien to fallen humanity permeated the collective culture on the Titanic. Sacrifice prevailed instead of narcissism because the gospel call to self-denial formed the lives of believers throughout society. A watching world had been affected as they observed Christ followers, imperfectly yet intentionally, embrace the gospel blessing: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).
Christ’s church proclaims a gospel message that is vibrantly clear and non-negotiable: Come to Christ, the One who denied Himself, laid aside the riches of glory, and humbled Himself for death on a cross in order that we might be rescued and given life eternal. This Christ, who freely receives you by faith and repentance, calls you to follow Him and to die to self that others might be rescued through you. What an extraordinary and amazing act of God’s love for us. Yet, it was not done first to exalt us, but to humble us and to kill us so that we might exalt the One who will exalt us at the right time. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). The narcissism of the world can be suppressed and even transformed, but it must first be confronted in us as we, who are saved by grace, say no to the world’s deceitful call of self-worship and yes to Christ’s liberating call of self-denial. This is a liberation that will allow us to make much of Christ, who did much to save us.
- From March 2012 Tabletalk Magazine from Ligonier Ministries
Burk Parsons: Theological Narcissism
Posted in Theology on March 4, 2012 by Harry
According to Greek mythology, Narcissus was a hunter from Thespia renowned for his beauty. His enemy, Nemesis, lured the arrogant Narcissus to a pool of water where he gazed at his own reflection and became utterly infatuated with the image in the pool, not realizing it was his own reflection. Enraptured with himself, Narcissus could not escape the beauty of his own reflection and eventually died.
We are all like Narcissus. We are infatuated with ourselves — obsessed with our own image. However, we’re not satisfied merely to bask in our own importance, we want everyone around us to be as enamored with us as we are with ourselves, and, what’s more, we want God Himself to be so taken with us that He makes all His thoughts revolve around us as if we were the center and ultimate end of all His plans. Our self-centeredness is the heart of our pride and the foundation of our rebellion against God. We not only want to know as God knows, we want to inform God in what He knows.
Just as our archnemesis deceived our first parents, so we, too, often fall prey to his schemes when we ignore God’s law, negotiate our selfish desires with God, compromise His truth, rationalize oursin, and then attempt to hide from Him by closing our eyesand pretending He doesn’t see us. In our natural arrogance, we are easily lured by our self-seeking hearts to look inward — at our wisdom, our accomplishments, our possessions — instead of fixing our eyes on God alone. Our narcissistic self-preoccupation constantly draws our eyes from the Creator to the creature, from God to self. As a result, we begin to develop our own personalized theology, making for ourself a god in our own image, fashioning him to be everything we thought we ever wanted in a god — a god who loves whom we love and hates whom we hate, a god who is sovereign over all the good things in our lives but helpless and ignorant of all the bad things that happen to us, a god who serves us at our every beck and call as if he were our own personal cosmic bellhop in the sky who comes grovelling at the slightest ring of a bell.
Such individualistic theology is, by nature, non-covenantal, non-familial, and non-ecclesiastical. It’s a theology centered around what makes sense to me, what seems fair to me, what makes me happy, and what makes me feel good about myself. Simply put, self-centered theology sees man as big and God as small.
But God, in His sovereign love for us, fixed His eyes on us as His Bride, condescended to our weakness and self-centered arrogance, dwelt among us, lived for us, served us, and gave Himself for us — and He did it all for our eternal good and His eternal glory.
- From March 2012 Tabletalk Magazine by Ligonier Ministries
David Murray: Brandwashing and Biblewashing
Posted in Bible, Evil on March 4, 2012 by Harry
You may not know it, but you’ve been “brandwashed,” probably multiple times, especially if you’ve shopped at whole foods market. Martin Lindstrom made time’s 2009 “world’s most influential people” list partly due to his book buyology: truth and lies about why we buy. His latest book, brandwashed, highlights “the tricks that companies use to manipulate our minds and persuade us to buy.” Lindstrom is a fan of Whole Foods and loves their produce, but in a recent Lifehacker column, he used the company as an example of the “many strategies retailers use to encourage us to spend more than we need to — more than we want to.” Consider these examples from Whole Foods’ New York City store:
- The escalator brings us straight into a realm of freshly cut flowers, immediately priming us to think of freshness, a suggestion that we carry with us subconsciously as we shop.
- The prices for the flowers, fresh fruit, and vegetables are scrawled in produced; the “slate” is plastic; the prices set at the chain’s Texas headquarters; and the “chalk” is indelible.
- The stacked “crates” of melons are actually one large cardboard box that has been designed to reinforce the idea of “rustic old-time simplicity.”
And Whole Foods is just one example.
BRAINWASHING
Try to imagine how much you’ve been shaped by a lifetime of “brandwashing.” Frightening, isn’t it?
However, the effectiveness of commercial “brandwashing” should highlight our vulnerability to something far more insidious and evil — spiritual brainwashing. If retailers’ marketing strategies are so successful in taking our cash from us, how much more successful is the far less obvious and yet far more powerful priming and seducing we are continually experiencing at the hands of the master marketer, the Devil.
Day after day, in both our conscious and subconscious minds, the Evil One is brainwashing us with multiple covert and overt messages. Do you question his power or doubt your own weakness? Well, consider the experiment conducted by illusionist Derren Brown, who set out to prove just how susceptible we are to the thousands of signals we are exposed to each day.
Brown invited two advertising creatives to visit his office to discuss some marketing ideas. On their journey across town, Brown arranged for carefully placed clues to appear surreptitiously on posters and balloons, in shop windows, and on t-shirts worn by passing pedestrians. When they arrived, the two creatives were given twenty minutes to come up with a campaign for a fictional taxidermy store. Brown also gave them a sealed envelope that was only to be opened once they had presented their campaign. Twenty minutes later, they presented and then opened the envelope. Their plans for the taxidermy store were remarkably similar to the ad campaign that Brown designed, with an astounding 95 percent overlap.
If Derren Brown can do that to advertisers, think what the Devil can do to you. What’s the solution?
BIBLEWASHING
God has provided His Word to protect and purge us from the Devil’s brainwashing. The Bible helps us see the existence of diabolical brainwashing. It gives us a second sense, an ability to discern, a faculty of seeing that enables us to distinguish reality from perception.
The Bible also teaches the easiness of brainwashing. It explains and demonstrates how weak and seducible we are. That’s painful and humbling. But at least it puts us on the alert; it shows us our need of outside help.
The Bible analyzes the elements of brainwashing. It uncovers a number of the Devil’s strategies, both by numerous descriptions and by fearful examples. It helps us detect his first advances before he gets a foothold in our minds.
The Bible underlines the evil of spiritual brainwashing. We don’t just risk losing a few dollars as a result of succumbing to a marketing technique. We risk losing our own souls. The stakes could not be higher.
The Bible shows the way of escape from the Devil’s brainwashing. When we hear the world’s cry, “Conform! Conform! Conform!” we turn to our Bibles and read not only “do not be conformed” but also “be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). In fact, if we read the Bible with faith and prayer, our minds will be so renewed that we can eventually say with the Apostle Paul: “We have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16).
- From December 2012 Tabletalk Magazine
The Depth of Our Sin (from Tabletalk)
Posted in * Favorites, Sin on February 6, 2012 by Harry
ROMANS 3:9-18 “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (vv. 10-12).
Try as we might, it is very difficult for human beings to come to grips with the fact that we do not deserve heaven. The average person, perhaps even the average professing Christian, is likely to say God should let him into heaven because he tries his best to be good and do the right thing. We have an innate tendency to believe we will get into heaven as long as our good works outweigh our bad deeds.
Of course, in comparison to someone like Adolf Hitler, most of us could be described as “good,” relatively speaking. However, God does not measure our goodness or righteousness by a relative standard but by the absolute standard of His own character and law. As we have seen, this standard is perfection, which is why Paul can look at the world and say that no person is righteous even if we see unbelievers do noble and honorable things from time to time (Rom. 3:9-12). Moreover, Jesus tells us quite explicitly that we “must be perfect, as [our] heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). God will not grade on a curve — we can pass His test and enter heaven by our works only if we never disobey Him (Gal. 5:3). If we commit only one “minor” transgression while we walk the earth, we have fallen short of infinite perfection and deserve an infinite judgment. This is the state in which all natural-born descendants of Adam find themselves (Gen. 8:21; Isa. 64:6-7; Matt. 13:40-42; Rom. 3:23).
Christ alone has met God’s standard of perfection (1 Peter 2:22), and that is why we can be considered the righteousness of God only if we are in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus shows us in the Sermon on the Mount that righteousness means conforming to God’s law both in its letter and in its spirit (Matt. 5:21-26), and we have failed in this task miserably. If we think that we have kept the Lord’s commandments, let us read Christ’s call never to put anyone or anything before Him (Matt. 10:37). To consider this command honestly is to realize that none but Christ have followed God so perfectly.
Born in sin, we cannot keep the law of God with our heart, soul, mind, or strength. The fallen nature we inherit from Adam (Rom. 3:9-18; 5:12-21) keeps us from wanting to serve Him of our own accord. Only Jesus, by His Spirit, can change this.
God does not grade on a curve. Two good deeds do not make up for one bad one. Any way we slice it, there is nothing we can do to make up for not meeting God’s standard of perfection. Let us remind ourselves of that fact daily, that we might continually believe in the gospel. Only the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us by faith alone, fulfills the Lord’s standard and guarantees us eternal life.
- From Ligonier’s January 2012 Tabletalk Magazine
The Convicting Spirit
Posted in Holy Spirit with tags Prayer on December 29, 2011 by Harry
Thou blessed Spirit, Author of all grace, and comfort,
Come, work repentance in my soul;
Represent sin to me in its odious colors that I may hate it; Melt my heart by the majesty and mercy of God; Show me my ruined self and the help there is in him; Teach me to behold my creator,
his ability to save,
his arms outstretched,
his heart big for me.
May I confide in his power and love,
commit my soul to him without reserve,
bear his linage, observe his laws, pursue his service, and be through time and eternitv,
a monument to the efficacy of his grace, a trophy of his victory.
Make me willing to be saved in his way,
perceiving nothing in myself, but all in Jesus:
Help me not only to receive him but
to walk in him,
depend upon him,
commune with him,
be conformed to him,
follow him,
imperfect, but still pressing forward,
not complaining of labor, but valuing rest,
not murmuring under trials, but thankful, for my state.
Give me that faith which is the means of salvation,
and the principle and medium of all godliness;
May I be saved by grace through faith,
live by faith,
feel the joy of faith,
do the work of faith.
Perceiving nothing in myself, may I find in Christ wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption.
- From “The Valley of Vision, A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions”
The Discipline of Learning by Donald S. Whitney
Posted in * Favorites, Discipleship with tags Discipline on December 4, 2011 by Harry
The Christian life begins with learning – learning the gospel. No one is made right with a God about whom he knows nothing. No one is made right with God unless he learns about Him and His message to the world, a message of good news called the gospel. To know God, people must learn that there is a God (Heb. 11:6), that they have broken His law, and that they need to be reconciled to Him. They must learn that God’s Son, Jesus, came to accomplish that reconciliation and that He did so by means of His sinless life and His death on the cross as a substitute for sinners. They must learn of His bodily resurrection and their need to repent of their sins and to believe in Jesus and what He has done. Apart from people learning these things, “How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?” (Rom.10:14).
Intentional learning is implied in Jesus’ offer in Luke 9:23: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” So from the very start of discipleship, to follow Jesus implied learning from Him, for as did Peter, John, and the others, anyone would certainly learn from Jesus if they would follow Him. But Jesus is even more specific about learning from Him in Matthew 11:29: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” To accept the yoke of a disciple of Jesus means to commit to a lifetime of learning about Jesus and from Jesus.
To emphasize learning as essential to following Jesus is not advocacy for egghead Christianity. Like Jesus, we want both a heart for God and a head for God. Remember that the Great Commandment emphasizes loving God both with all the heart and with all the mind, as well as with all one’s soul and strength (Mark 12:29-30). As R.C. Sproul once wrote, “Burning hearts are not nourished by empty heads.” God’s truth — which must be learned — is the fuel for the spiritual fire that flames in the Christian heart.
LIFELONG LEARNING
The Christian life not only begins with learning, it proceeds through a process of lifelong learning. This includes deeper discoveries of intimacy with God, an ever-growing grasp of the Bible and its doctrines, a greater awareness of our sin, an increased knowledge of the person and work of Christ, further implications of what it means to follow Him, and more. A mature understanding of these things does not come quickly or without effort. Simply put, it is impossible to grow into a Christlikeness one knows nothing about. By the Spirit’s power, we must learn what Christlikeness means and how Jesus wants us to follow Him. We learn this through the Bible, of course, but it involves learning nonetheless.
Those whom the Bible considers wise and intelligent understand this. According to Scripture, “The wise lay up knowledge” and “An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge” (Prov. 10:14; 18:15). So the primary measurement of wisdom and intelligence is not your IQ or GPA but whether you pursue knowledge, that is, whether you discipline yourself to continue learning the things of God throughout your life.
INTENTIONAL LEARNING
A hunger to learn the Word of God, the ways of God, and the will of God expresses a hunger for God Himself. Those who love God long to be taught about Him and from Him. That doesn’t mean all Christians are to manifest an affinity for learning exactly the same things and in identical ways. But it is true that apathy toward learning the things of God is a mark of those who do not know God.
We are blessed to live in a time when the means of and opportunities for expressing a love for God through learning greatly exceed our ability to take advantage of them. But all these profit little if a person doesn’t pursue them. This is why learning must always be a discipline, for a person can be surrounded by wisdom and knowledge yet live without their riches if he or she does not possess the discipline to learn them.
Thus, learning is indeed a gospel-driven spiritual discipline; those who are not exerting themselves to learn the things of God will gain spiritual and biblical knowledge only by accident or mere convenience. By contrast, intentional learners will seek to learn the things of God and will do so individually as well as with the church, disciplining themselves to learn from those who are gifted by God and recognized by the church as teachers.
- Article is from November 2011 Tabletalk Magazine
- Dr. Donald S. Whitney is senior associate dean of the school of theology and professor of biblical spirituality at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
- He is also founder and president of the Center for Biblical Spirituality
