Today in Blogworld 07.13.15

Mike Leake

When to Cover, When to Confront

This is always a difficult question to answer. Ray Ortlund really only exposes the difficulty—but realizing there are options and wisdom calls for each is a big step.

The Singing Church and the Songs We Sing

I appreciate what my friend Sam has done here.

5 Lies Preachers Believe

I especially appreciate #5. Some congregations “Amen” just as a way of habit…others won’t shout “Amen” no matter how stirred up they are. Playing for an “Amen” I think has more to do with my own insecurity than has to do with whether or not people are engaged.

Don’t Put God in a Box

Cessationism isn’t necessarily putting God in a box.

Maybe tents should come with a “watch your step” sign. Of course these little guys would need it to be in picture form:

Five Reasons For Temptations and Four Snares of the Devil

Mike Leake 2 Comments

God hates sin.

God is powerful and can conquer any sin in the human heart.

We are weak and frail and prone to failing when tempted. 

Nothing Satan does happens outside of God’s sovereign care.

All of these, I believe, are taught in the Scriptures. And when you put them together one can wonder why in the world does the Lord permit believers to be tempted? They are as Newton said, “in their very own nature, grievous and dreadful”, so how in the world does a good and loving God use them for His good end.

John Newton outlines for us five ways the Lord uses temptation for His good purposes:

  1. To keep us from greater evil. God will often permit us to be be exposed and even fall by lesser snares to keep us from falling into a much larger pit.
  2. To show His glory in supporting us under trials which we could not sustain on our own. If Christians just had a cake walk to glory then it wouldn’t show the awesomeness of the Lord’s ability to keep a spark going in such horrendous circumstances. (See here)
  3. Our conformity to Christ means we’ll participate in His sufferings. These temptations are an element of human suffering. This is part of what Christ suffered in becoming man and He calls us to participate into His sufferings. Temptation is part of it.
  4. Through temptation we are conformed into the image of Christ in our ability to empathize with others. Christ endured temptation and is able to have sympathy with His suffering brethren. So too our suffering humbles us and causes us to pity our fellow man in their trials and suffering.
  5. It mortifies self-righteousness. If we weren’t at times confronted with sin that we in ourselves can’t conquer then we’ll be tempted to self-righteousness. When we realize our depravity we realize our utter inability to produce fruit on our own and our complete dependence upon the Vine.

But even though the Lord uses temptation to grow us we should not deny the fact that a ravenous lion uses temptations and trials with the aim of destroying us and debasing God. To this end we should be aware of these four snares of the devil when we are in the midst of strong trials and temptations:

  1. Satan will labor to hide God’s designs. He’ll keep us from seeing God’s smiling face in the midst of a great tempest.
  2. Satan will work to cause us to utter impatient speeches which only hurt our hopes. Newton notes that when Job started to complain his misery only got worse. We often begin a downslide into depression by giving ourselves permission to give full vent to our frustrations.
  3. Satan puts evil thoughts in the believers heart and mind and then convinces him the thoughts are all his own. “It is not always easy, nor is it needful, exactly to draw the line between the temptations of Satan and our own corruptions”.
  4. Satan attempt to drive us from the throne of grace. “By discontinuing prayer, we give the enemy the greatest encouragement possible; for when he sees for then he sees that his temptations have the effect which he intends them, to intercept us from our stronghold”.

Newton, I believe, wants his readers to understand that Satan’s chief aim when trials and temptations come is to get us to become confused about God’s character and to leave off our spiritual duties. It is only in the word, prayer, and being with other believers that we will be able to once again see God for who He is. And so if he can shut us off from these he can continue to convince us of his lies about God’s character.

So, by all means don’t quit praying or reading Scripture even if for some foolish reason you become convinced that the Lord doesn’t want to meet with you in this season. Because of Jesus the throne of grace is always open. The door is opened because of His completed work not because of your present obedience, nor will it shut because of your disobedience.

Photo source: here

Today in Blogworld 07.10.15

Mike Leake

Don’t Take Down the Fence

Here is great advice from Chesterton. It’s used in this article to discuss SSM, but I believe its also great advice for a new pastor like myself.

Gurnall on Heroic Impulse

I always love the Puritans, this is no exception.

Pastor, You Should Share the Pulpit

These are great reasons to let other people preach on occasion.

A Biblical Case for Church Membership

John Samson gives a good biblical case for church membership.

This girl likely weighs the same as a duck (hopefully you get that Monty Python reference):

A Call To Action In A World On Fire – Part 4

Nick Horton

At the end of first letter to the Corinthians the Apostle Paul gives a five-pointed charge to the church. This series examines those charges and seeks their application to us today. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here.

“Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.” (1 Cor. 16:13-14)

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Children raised in orphanages can receive all the necessary physical care for life. They can be fed and have their diapers changed regularly. Medicine will be given if they fall ill. Yet, if they are otherwise left to their own in their cribs a horrifying thing happens. Up to a third of them will die. Why? Is it some unknown illness or sudden infant death syndrome? Are they not actually being cared for?

What researchers found is that in the absence of love, the loving and constant touching of a parent, a child has a 30% chance to die. The children die from lack of love.

What is love?

No, not a horrendous yet sickeningly catchy Hattaway song. Sorry about that. Can you articulate an answer to the question? Hollywood seems to say it’s amazing first dates and fairy tale weddings wrapped up in sexual desire. I often wonder if their view of love is more inline with infatuation and lust.

Many will say love is total acceptance of another regardless of who they are or what they do. Our culture says that love is tolerance. Must we accept and tolerate everything to love someone, though? Can we not love someone while not accepting or condoning all of them?

Does God love us in this totally accepting way, tolerating our sin and accepting it? Jonathan Leeman says that “God’s love is not unconditional, it is contra-conditional. Contrary to what we deserve he loves us. He loves us on the condition of his Son. Through Christ the love of God is secured for us.” Contrary to what we deserve, and contrary to what the culture says, God loves us despite us being.. well.. us. He loves us because of his Son. Dr. Leeman continues, “God’s love is given to sinners on account of Christ, but this love is not shorn of its holiness. It is holy and it creates holiness.”

So what?

Love is God centered.

Paul wraps the previous calls to action in this final command. We are to be watchful, to stand firm in our faith, the act like men, and to be strong. Yet we are to do these things in love. This is why the nature of love is so important. If it’s Hollywood love our motives are self-centered and focused on personal happiness or pleasure. Yet if our view of love is God-centered, we can attempt to love as he loves.

Leeman says “God’s love offends because the greatest object of God’s love is God, not us.” That sentence points to our problem with sin and rebellion. We do what we want as the object of our own love, rather than focusing on God and his love to obey him. The gospel from which we benefit from in ways words cannot illuminate is God centered. God sent God to satisfy the wrath of God in order to glorify God in his great mercy and grace. Make no mistake, the Gospel is good news because God is gracious and merciful.

We redeemed sinners benefit from the riches of God’s grace in his salvation of all who repent and believe in him. We have emancipated from our slavery to sin. We have been set free to serve God with joyful hearts.

Go, in love.

How do we do everything in love? We do things for another and not for ourselves. That another we do it for is God. We don’t do all things to seek his approval, but because as redeemed believers we have his approval. The Holy Spirit indwelling us empowers us to serve God. The joy that comes from peace with God leads to glad service to him.

We can disagree with others, in love. We can serve others, in love. We can sacrifice time, money, and ambition, in love. We can be good husbands, wives, men, and women, in love. We can work hard, in love. As love is God-centered, our actions must be done for his glory.

We watch for his return because we love him.

We stand firm in the faith, diligently reading his word and learning who he is, because we love him.

We act like men and are strong because we love him.

We do all things in love because we love him.

 

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)