Too Much or Too Little
June 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Lar,
I like your idea of a Monday Meditation. I plan to weigh in with a few words as the week progresses. For now I wanted to offer a short random musing type post in regards to life balance. It has something that I struggle with consistently.
My tendency is to venture to one of two extremes. Doing too much or doing too little. And usually I go back and forth. I have a season in which I overdo everything and then get burned out. Naturally, being burned out, I tend to shut down and not want to do a thing. Mentally, emotionally, physically, it’s as if something within me says, “Enough.” And won’t let me go any further.
I see this consistently playing professional basketball. I know that my body can only take so much. If I push too hard, too long, injury is soon to come. My body says “Enough” and forces me to rest. The same rings true mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
So the key seems to be careful reflection with the help of the community regarding what to do and to what extent. Seasons of life can oftentimes be difficult to understand. Oftentimes, by the time I understand how I should function in the season I am in, that season is soon over. Wisdom is needed. A balance must be struck. A sweet rhythm of work and rest must consistently be pursued.
I trust I am not alone. I would encourage each one reading to reflect upon their season of life and how they might best maximize the use of the time because the days are evil.
In pursuit of faithfulness,
Joe
Monday Meditation
June 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Joe,
I am off to Hilton Head for a week and will probably be blogging very little (if at all). But I wanted to begin a new tradition on the Seeking Him blog, which I’m calling Monday Meditation. I have noticed that on the World Magazine blog they take a passage of Scripture every Saturday and people post comments on their thoughts regarding that passage. So I’m hoping to stir some encouraging conversation as people share their insights about a passage of God’s Word each week. Our first passage is this one from Hebrews 1:
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
Leave a comment, friends, and share your thoughts about how this passage ministers to you today.
Have a good week,
Larry
Preaching to Unbelievers
June 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
My sister once heard a friend preach and said, ‘He made me feel bad.’
Is that a proper response for an unbeliever?
Around the Blogosphere, 6/28
June 28, 2008 | 3 Comments
Got six seconds to spare? Abraham Piper shares a video revealing a resemblance between the preaching style of his son, and that of his dad.
Twelve daggers of conviction from the DG blog.
Tim Keller on the importance of the doctrine of hell.
Men, whether you are a pastor or not, I think this is a good challenge from the 9 Marks guys: 30 ways for pastors to love their wives and families. May God give us grace to read AND apply!
The Gospel and Art, from CJ Mahaney’s blog.
It’s wonderful to hear stories of how God is at work around the world.
Two Views of Finances
June 27, 2008 | 1 Comment
My dad just made this post on his blog about the Law of Savings, according to Brian Tracy.
While I want to make it clear that I am NOT opposed to saving a percentage of income, I think an interesting exercise is to insert the word ‘tithe’ every time you read the word ’save.’
Sounds to me like Brian Tracy got his view of finances straight from the Word of God…only he replaces the word ’serve’ with the word ’self’.
A dark exchange, to be sure.
‘Respectable’ Sins
June 26, 2008 | 3 Comments
Today I will be finishing up a book called Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. Bridges’ aim is confront many of the sins that people in the Church seem to tolerate in themselves, while they groan about the more obvious sins of our society (like drug abuse, abortion, homosexuality, etc.).
Here’s the list of respectable sins that Bridges confronts in his book: Ungodliness (which Bridges defines as living one’s everyday life with little or no thought of God, His will and His glory), Anxiety and frustration, Discontentment, Unthankfulness, Pride, Selfishness, Lack of self-control, Impatience and Irritability, Anger, Judgmentalism, Envy and Jealousy, Sins of the Tongue, and Worldliness.
So here are my two questions for everyone:
Of the list above, which respectable sin catches your eye as one you need to read up on and put to death?
What other respectable sin does Bridges NOT mention that you think would be beneficial to address in a book such as the one he wrote?
Leave some comments, and I’ll share my answers as we converse about this.
Larry
Answering a Fool
June 25, 2008 | 3 Comments
Has anyone else ever been…perplexed by these two verses back to back in Proverbs 26?
4 Answer not a fool according to his folly,
lest you be like him yourself.
5 Answer a fool according to his folly,
lest he be wise in his own eyes.
So how exactly should we respond to a fool in his folly? We believe the Bible does not contradict itself, right? So how should we understand the tension in these verses?
Leave a comment and let me know what you think,
Larry
A Call to Rest
June 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Lar,
Great job keeping up with the blogging as of late. I have been more than a little scattered lately and know that I have been taking on too many things. And trusting in completing those things rather than in the Savior. My various functional gods have certainly left me worn out and rest has been difficult to come by. But I read something tonight that helped me gain much needed perspective. It didn’t change everything right away. Still hasn’t, but it served as a needed exhortation to trust in Jesus Christ and not in what I do (or, as has been much more accurate as of late, what I fail to do).
It’s a poem I wrote about 2 years ago, entitled, “A Call to Rest.” I wrote another poem designed to be read in the morning about 2 months prior to this one (entitled, “A Call to Battle”). It’s a good one, I believe, but after consistently failing to embody all that I exhorted myself to in the first, I felt compelled one night to write the following words. I am glad that I did. For even though I had to answer ‘No’ (more or less) to every question I posed, I was greatly encouraged by the final exhortation. When down, it is good to be reminded of good news!
This day is now in closing,
It is prime-time to reflect:
Did you fight for joy in Jesus
Or live just like the rest?
Did you heed the call to battle?
Fight the fight of faith?
Walk by God the Spirit?
Struggle by His grace?
Did you pursue His glory
Or chase after your own?
Did earthly comforts capture you
Or joys of your heavenly home?
Did you wait upon His Person?
Seek His will and word?
Stretch your heart unto the nations
Who’ve never seen nor heard?
Did you embrace the trials,
No matter large or small
And see God in the details
Working good within them all?
All this is to ask simply,
Were you faithful with your lot?
Did the beauty of your Savior
Shine bright or did it not?
No matter your honest answer,
Think one thing before you rest:
If your hope is all in Jesus,
He’s now your righteousness.
Let no boasting rise within you,
Save in the cross of Christ,
And no sorrow overtake you,
For Christ is now your life.
This day is done and over,
What you missed, God only knows,
Throw your head upon the pillow,
Trusting Christ—your soul’s repose.
Social Justice and the Gospel
June 23, 2008 | 1 Comment
Earlier today Josh Harris posted this quote from Mark Dever on his blog:
“The world will always applaud us for doing these kinds of things (social action/social justice). They will never applaud us for doing evangelism. So there is every pressure on us to sort of ‘make nice’ with the world around us and do whatever we can get the world’s respect. …I’m just warning your generation: If you look at the generations before you–your grandparents and great-grandparents–they tried this, they went down the path where they were all about social justice and what they did was lose the gospel. And the next generation? Their churches were gone anyways so nobody was doing social justice out of them.”-Mark Dever, Boundless Show podcast #19 (audio clip taken from 25:39-28:14 markers).
Upon reading it, I just couldn’t resist…I had to leave a comment. I rarely comment on other blogs, but felt strongly that I had to on this one. Here’s what I wrote:
Josh,
While I have a great deal of respect for Dever, I have to disagree with his statement here (and I hate to do that because I know he is A LOT smarter than me!).
I do agree that the Church needs to work hard to protect the Gospel of Christ crucified and risen for sinners. I agree that we need to preserve its centrality in the mission of the Church. And I agree that simply doing social work is NOT the Gospel. But it seems to me that Dever goes a bit farther than I am comfortable with.
Just because ‘our grandparents’ generation worked hard for social justice and ended up losing the gospel, that does not mean that we have to do the same. It means we need to learn from their mistakes, while still striving to obey the multitude of commandments in both testaments about ‘doing justice’. I am glad that Dever exhorts individual Christians to involve themselves in works of justice, but I don’t see why we should view the biblical commands to pursue justice as being only for individuals, and not the Church as a whole.
I know that Dever is seeking to guard the Church from a common mistake that many emergent Christians are making in this area, but from what I am reading, it seems to me that Dever is tipping the pendulum too far in the opposite direction.
I think a more balanced approach is taken by Tim Keller in his book Ministries of Mercy, especially chapter 7 on Word and Deed. I don’t think he could rightly be accused of ignoring or minimizing the centrality of the Gospel in the mission of the Church, but he sees mercy ministry as a part of the Church’s calling, inseparable from its call to herald the Gospel through the proclaimed word. If you’ve not checked it out, I highly recommend it.
Thanks for your blog and other ministries, and for leading countless young people in adopting a ‘humble orthodoxy’.
Larry
I’m curious: what does the rest of blog nation think about this?
Carson on Redeeming Culture
June 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
This quote from DA Carson has been floating around a few blogs I frequent, but I’ve not posted it here:
Redemption terminology in the NT is so bound up with Christ’s work for and in the church that to extend it to whatever good we do in the broader world risks a shift in focus. Not for a moment do I want to deny that we are to serve as salt and light, that exiles may be called to do good in the pagan cities where Providence has appointed them to live (Jer 29), that every square foot of this world is under Christ’s universal reign (even though that reign is still being contested), that the nations of the world will bring their “goods” into the Jerusalem that comes down from above.
But many of those who speak easily and fluently of redeeming the culture soon focus all their energy shaping fiscal and political policies and the like, and merely assume the gospel. A gospel that is merely assumed, that does no more than perk away in the background while the focus of our attention is on the “redemption” of the culture in which we find ourselves, is lost within a generation or two. At the same time, I worry about Christians who focus their attention so narrowly on getting people “saved” that they care little about doing good to all people, even if especially to the household of God.
Getting this right is not easy, and inevitably priorities will shift a little in various parts of the world, under various regimes. Part of the complexity of the discussion, I think, is bound up with what the church as church is responsible for, and what Christians as Christians are responsible for: I have argued that failure to make this distinction tends to lead toward sad conclusions.
Thoughts?
Hope in Hardships from Samuel Rutherford
June 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Recently along with my morning Bible readings, I have been reading short passages of the book The Loveliness of Christ, by Samuel Rutherford (thanks Gino!). Yesterday I enjoyed this quote:
I find it most true, that the greatest temptation out of hell, is to live without temptations; if my waters should stand, they would rot…Grace withereth without adversity. The devil is but God’s master fencer, to teach us to handle our weapons.
This Week Around the Blogosphere
June 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Joe,
I think several months ago I had mentioned the idea of posting some links from other blogs to keep people busy over the weekend. I have gotten away from that, but hopefully beginning today I will try to do that more consistently.
A heart-breaking, but inspiring, testimony from Dennis Rainey on the death of his new-born granddaughter this week.
Some summer reading suggestions from Tim Keller.
Jon Bloom from Desiring God writes about the difference between Jesus and Buddha on happiness.
Randy Alcorn with an important post about a late-term abortion survivor, and her comments on Barack Obama. It is disheartening that the age demographic which most supports Obama (18-30) is the very same demographic that is most opposed to abortion.
Joe Carter (no, not that awful baseball player who ended the last serious chance of the Phillies winning the world series…or was that Mitch Williams?) has six thoughts about Jesus that are worth checking out.
Chuck Lawless, dean of the school of missions, evangelism and Church growth at Southern Baptist Seminary, has a good article on setting goals regarding evangelism.
Hopefully these links will help if/when Joe and I get lazy here on the blog this week!
Larry
The Decrees of God
June 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Lar,
I am reading one chapter of A.W. Pink’s The Attributes of God each morning. I commend to everyone the practice. Here is a good quote from Edwards from chapter 2.
“Whether God has decreed all things that ever come to pass or not, all that own the being of a God, own that He knows all things beforehand. Now, it is self-evdient that if He knows all things beforehand, He either doth approve of them or doth not approve of them; that is, He either is willing they should be, or He is not willing they should be. But to will that they should be is to decree them.”
Jonathan Edwards
Finally, a 22-word Post!
June 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Jeopardy, Jerry Bridges-style:
Answer:
Vile, ugly, odious, malignant, pestilent, pernicious, hideous, spiteful, poisonous, virulent, villainous, abominable, and deadly.
Question:
What is sin?
A Timely Resource
June 20, 2008 | 1 Comment
Joe,
Along the lines of the post I made yesterday regarding piety and the pursuit of public good, check out this book by Steve Mosma called Healing a Broken World. I am reading it on Crossway’s site right now and have been impressed with what I’ve read so far. It speaks of how to be involved in the political process in a truly Christian way, with some critiques of the way ‘the religious right’ has handled things.
I’ve only read 33 pages so far, but this looks to be a book that can be helpful for those who long for their personal piety to have the salt and light influence on our society that Christ has called us to live out.
Larry
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