∞
Confessional Finger Pointing
It is usually easier to see how much more someone else needs forgiveness than we do. Everyone needs a Savior, we say, and that’s especially true for everyone else. We are really glad for this regularly scheduled confession because Lord knows how much that guy over there needs it.
There are at least two errors with confessional finger pointing, not equally obvious but equally problematic. On the surface, it’s obviously a problem because humility does not mean counting the sin of others as more significant than our own.
∞
Using Bad Words
Most of us shy away from using the word “magic” for much the same reason we prefer to offer providential blessings rather than wish to someone “good luck.” Magic doesn’t make us think of a Maker of magic; it removes the power from a Person behind the power. So we avoid terms such as magic and mystical. Instead of using bad words with a good reason, we use good words without thinking much of it, including words such as “spiritual.
∞
Thankful for Conviction
There is no app to download for any smart phone that proves if a person has been born of the Spirit or is walking in the Spirit. There’s no buzzer, no siren, no spinning light that shows the Spirit’s presence in an individual’s heart. So is it possible to know? Yes.
One signal, not the only one, but one signal of the Spirit’s work is conviction of sin leading to confession.
∞
Failing to Breathe
One of the ways we know if we’ve been born again is our attitude those who sit around the Lord’s table with us.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. (1 John 5:1)
This meal of communion is only for Christians, those who are born again, and Christians are those with a particular affirmation and with personal affection.
∞
One Sign of Being Born
According to the apostle John, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God” (1 John 3:9).
In other words, no one stays the same after the new birth. Being born of God is like being raised to life from death, being transferred from darkness to light, being delivered from slavery to freedom, being released from guilt to peace, being cured from blindness to see sin for what it is and hate it.
∞
Check In to Build Up
Singing to Build Up ➔
Greg Gilbert on the ministry of making melody:
I think we ought to encourage every member of our churches to sing every song in the service with gusto, even if they don’t particularly resonate with the song. Every Christian has a certain set of hymns and songs that deeply resonate with them—the melody, the words, an experience they had when they first heard it—and our natural tendency is to give those favorites everything we’ve got…but then sort of check out when the next song is one we don’t particularly like.
∞
Clearly Outrageous
On Women, Divisiveness, and Hobby Horses ➔
A new post from Rachel Jankovic on the joy that’s possible when we differentiate principles from methods. The principle here applies to much more than mommas pushing their favorite idols techniques. It creeps into any corner where someone says something that’s “clearly outrageous.”
Do not get caught up in method camps and chisel away at the number of saints you can fellowship with every time you read a new article about that thing that has become the most important thing.
∞
Talking with Our Mouths Full
We are witnesses of the Light. We see Him by faith, not by eye-sight, but that’s okay because we call men to spiritual sight in the Light.
As witnesses we proclaim the Logos, the Light, the Lord. The apostle Paul said, “as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26).
How is it that we are proclaiming? We usually think about proclaiming in verbal terms, with words and stuff.
∞
Gloppy Gratitude
We impress no one by pointing out all the things that are wrong or incomplete. We live in a fallen world, so complaining about all the fallen things is easier than shooting fish in a barrel, it’s like breathing air while shooting fish in a barrel. Everyone does that.
Not everyone can or will give thanks for things in this sin ridden world. But the world is still God’s world, full of barrels and breaths, and He is making something of us in it.
∞
The Right Banquet Hall
God has prepared a banquet table and all who eat at the Lord’s table share not only His gifts, but also His very life. The bread at this banquet is unlike any other bread. The Father “gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:32b-33).
The bread is heavenly but it’s not manna, it’s a Man.
∞
Wait No More
There are many ways to adopt and/or care for widows and orphans. There are so many, actually, that many people who desire to do something may not know where to start. Here is one opportunity.
Right now, there are approximately 130,000 kids in US foster care. There are 10,000 kids in the Washington state foster care system and between 1,000 and 1,500 of those kids have no legal parents and want to have them, meaning, they want to be adopted.
∞
Ruined Appetites
We won’t receive the food of His holy Word if we are full of sin. We must acknowledge and abandon sin before we’re free to feed on Scripture, and feeding on Scripture is necessary if we hope to grow in salvation.
Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation– (1 Peter 1:1-2, NAS)
∞
Even Harder to Find
We may recognize it when we meet it, but we may not meet it very often.
Spiritual authority is hard to pin down in words, but we recognize it when we meet it.
It is a product compounded of conscientious faithfulness to the Bible; vivid perception of God’s reality and greatness; inflexible desire to honor and please him; deep self-searching and radical self-denial; adoring intimacy with Christ; generous compassion manward; and forthright simplicity, God-taught and God-wrought, adult in knowingness while childlike in its directness.
∞
Not an After-Creation Thought
When the Word created grain and grapes on day three, was He thinking about the glorious purpose that He would give bread and wine around a table some 4000 years later? When the Logos created man on day six, breathing life into his flesh and blood, did the He consider then how He would soon (in light of eternity) take on flesh Himself and spill His own blood for sinful men?
∞
No Successful Cover-Ups
Among his collected proverbs, Solomon teaches us a few things about the wisdom of confession.
Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper,
but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. (Proverbs 28:13)
First, attempts to conceal one’s sin ultimately fail because God already knows. Someone may ask how that observation comes from this verse. Here’s how. God’s fixes the truth in His universe that sin concealers cannot be a prosperers.
∞
A Faith Increasing Ordinance
Communion is a faith increasing ordinance, not a doubt increasing one.
When we come to the Lord’s table, if we are thinking correctly, we remember our sin. But staring at our sin nourishes doubt. When we look at the bread, we are encouraged that the debt our sin incurred is no longer outstanding. There would be no bread unless another’s body had taken our judgment. We eat because Christ paid the penalty in full and we are forgiven.
∞
ETP as ePub
I received an email today from Lulu informing me that they converted my self-published book on Ecclesiastes into ePub format. It’s already available at the iBookstore for $4.99.
As always, hard copies can still be ordered from my storefront on Lulu and, as of today, the print price is only $9.50 (Lulu’s cost to print). Not only that, but now you can download the PDF for free.
∞
Attitudinal Sins
What kinds of sins should we confess? What kinds of sins separate us from fellowship with God? What kind of sins did Jesus die for? The answer is the same for all three questions: all sins, every kind of sin, each sin.
I ask what kind of sins we should confess because a certain strain of defensiveness infects our hearts. This breed of defensiveness reasons and speaks about “attitudinal” sins in a way that suggests, or even asserts, that sins of attitude are untreatable.
∞
Attached to Strings
When Jesus said, “To whom much is given, much is required” (see Luke 12:48), what was He talking about? In context, He certainly meant that those with great responsibilities should take great diligence in fulfilling those duties. In principle, He also meant that those with many resources should be great in sharing those resources. We received freely, we ought also to give freely. But is that all that is required from us with many blessings?
∞
Soul-sucking Mastery
The cross causes offense. It scandalizes the heart and, in particular, it scandalizes religious hearts. It displeases “good” people who thought they could please God by their good works. It also angers unrighteous people who don’t like that their Maker is holy and that He judges creatures according to His standard. It disturbs civilized people who don’t want to be troubled with blood and death.
The cross offends because our sin offends God.