Never A Moment

Mike Leake 1 Comment

If you are in Christ, there has never been a time in your life when Jesus was not fighting for your eternal joy in Him.

Let that sink in.

If I’m not careful truths like this one will stay up in the clouds and never touch my Monday. I’ll crank up Third Day and sing this with all my heart:

And just to be with you I’ll do anything,
there’s no price I would not pay, no
And just to be with you I will give everything.
And I would give my life away.

My mind will immediately go to the Cross and everything that the Lord Jesus has done to bring peace and reconciliation. I’m comfortable rejoicing in the truth that God did not spare His Son but gave him up for us all. It’s the other part of that verse that I have a hard time believing—“how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

That “all things” hits your lowest valley and your highest mountain. It touches your Monday and causes delight on Sunday. If God does the big thing—he’ll fight for your joy in the little things too. That “all things” is why I can say with confidence that there has never been a time in your life when Jesus was not fighting for your eternal joy in Him.

Jesus’ fight for our joy in Luke 6

I read Luke 6 with a different set of eyes the other day. Here is Jesus arguing with the Pharisees. Nothing new. I’ve read that a thousand times. But every other time that I’ve read this I’ve assumed that the argument is merely about truth. As if the Pharisees believe that 2 + 2 = 5, and because that’s dumb Jesus corrects them.

Truth is certainly an issue in Luke 6. The Pharisees have the Sabbath all messed up. They’ll neglect serving a suffering person on the Sabbath thinking that such a thing makes the Lord smile at their dedication. Silliness.

But this isn’t merely a truth issue. This is about the rancid fruit of error and the sweet freedom that comes with truth. When Jesus is arguing with the Pharisees in Luke 6 it isn’t fundamentally to change their minds. Jesus argues with the Pharisees in Luke 6 because it is part of his fighting for our eternal joy.

I doubt it was fun for Jesus to argue with these stubborn religious leaders. He knew that such an argument, combined with the many others, would end with his being nailed to a piece of wood and left gasping for air. But he does it anyways.

Jesus doesn’t only come to earth and die on a cross. He comes to earth, argues with Pharisees, and dies on a cross. He fights with them about the Sabbath because he is fighting for our eternal joy. He wants us to get it—even in the here and now—that Jesus is our only rest.

Jesus will do (and has done) whatever is necessary to give you and I eternal joy to the fullest. That is why I say there has never been a moment when Jesus was not fighting for your eternal joy.

Today in Blogworld 09.02.14

Mike Leake

Calling this “Today” in Blogworld is a bit untrue. During my blogging hiatus, there were still some quality articles that I would like to draw to your attention. So, I’m going to play catch up this week.

This Demon Only Comes Out By Prayer and Prozac

A family doctor considers the helpfulness and unhelpfulness of a phrase like “It’s a chemical imbalance”.

A Fall From Grace And A Need For Grace

There were many things posted after Acts 29 announced they were parting from Mark Driscoll. The response from Barnabas Piper was one of my favorites. Also I appreciate these words from Aaron Armstrong and Tim Challies.

26 Ways to Provoke the 1 Peter 3:15 Question At Work

These are very practical and helpful suggestions.

Celebrity and credibility

This is so good: “A few short-term, sudden or stunning achievements, reported or even real, are no substitute for long-term labours of proven worth”.

If you find yourself in a dangerous situation (especially as a musician) you might try some of these sweet ninja moves:

Pray For Your Husband: 31 Day Challenge–Day Twenty-Nine

Nikki Leake 1 Comment

Day Twenty-Nine: That he would approve what is vital

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11 ESV)

When Paul prays for the Philippians he prays that they would have a love that keeps growing. But it is not any type of love–it is a love that is rooted in knowledge and discernment. Such a grounded love, says Paul, will lead them to approving what is excellent. Another way to say this is that Paul is praying that they would approve what is vital–and this approving will lead to their blamelessness. It is not as difficult for us to choose the really good thing from the really bad thing. What is more difficult is choosing the best thing from a choice of pretty decent option. Today let’s join Paul in his prayer, and pray for our husbands that they would approve what is vital.

Lord, my husband will be given many choices today. Some of these choices will be easy and others will be between equally valid options. Yet, we know that there are some things that are more vital than others. Stir up my husbands heart in such a way with your grounded love, that he would choose the things that are vital. Help him to live a focused and concentrated life with a single-minded pursuit of your glory. Give him the strength to do this in a very distracted and distracting world. Amen. 

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Nikki Leake is the wife of Mike and mother of two adorable children. She enjoys decorating, soul-food, elephant-petting, and worshipping Jesus.

Glory – Longing For Home (YWS week 34)

Nick Horton 3 Comments

richardsibbessmallWelcome to a year of reading Richard Sibbes together! The reading plan for the entire year can be accessed here. I encourage you to stick with us, allow yourself time to read, and soak in the riches of this gifted and prolific Puritan preacher. You will be edified and encouraged.

If you have trouble with how Sibbes used words, check out the Lexicons of Early Modern English for definitions from the period.

Summary/Engagement

Calling and glory. Some confuse the two with each other, assuming that calling is glory. They glory in work, in a job well done, or the mere title afforded by a position. This is weak glory. This is the glory of man, cheaply attained, and rests on the shoulders like gaudy and fake party jewelry. If your glory is in such a weak calling, then surely you have your reward now.

But what of the Christian’s calling? Are we called merely to title and comfort now to enjoy the benefits of a now once-dominant cultural stance? Is all that we strive for a cheap foil wrapping on hard candy? Fancy looking yet cheap. Sweet, satisfying for a moment, but either slowly worn down or crushed in seconds. Have we been called to prestige in the church and the respect of peers? Is it merely to soothe our conscience as we smile our way to hell, clutching our sins tighter than the Christ, assuming we have him because we know his name yet do not know him?

“Many may know Christ in a sort, but not apprehend him. What is my knowledge, but so much the more misery to me, if I apprehend not Christ?”

No, the calling of the Christian is Jesus Christ himself. We seek nothing less than God to the detriment of our former self. Yes, we celebrate the death of the old man, and live with heads bowed under the cross where Jesus bore the wrath of God for our sins. This is glory. The God who loves us and created us, atoned for all who would believe, and calls them to himself. Our calling is not cheap imitation glory. Our calling is the very glory and righteousness of Christ draped on our broken bodies with a beauty so pure I ache to think of it.

We are called to him. We are called to glory. Where is this glory?

“It is heaven, the proper seat and mansion of all glory, where Christ is.”

Application / Further Discussion

We talk of heaven and glory but we don’t dwell long enough on it. We sinners, we broken and hurting ones, talk very little of the very place where we will no longer sin, be broken, or hurt. Think on that for a moment.

“And so here [heaven] we shall have a happiness beyond that estate of Adam’s innocency; for at the best all he received was but a possibility to stand if he would, but we shall receive an impossibility ever to fall again.”

Adam had a possibility not to fall, but in Heaven we shall receive an impossibility ever to fall again. Ever. What a glorious thought! We all struggle with sin every day. Every single day we are reminded of our depravity and rebellion against the God who formed us and gave us breath. Sins, lusts, desires, idols. We pursue things with great urgency yet have so little concept of what is to come. Christian, you are bound for glory.

For all the talk of heaven that we do, stop and consider it. Consider that we will behold our God face to face. Consider that we will experience unbroken, intimate, sweet, and reverential worship of our God and King. Consider that sin will be removed along with its impurities, deformities, defects, and temptations. Forever. Consider that we will no longer experience heart ache and sorrow as we so deeply and darkly do now. Justice will have been accomplished, sin punished, and our lives redeemed.

Have you considered Heaven being a place of rest? Work will no longer weary us. The curse will be lifted. Worry, fear, doubt, shame; all gone. We will live in perfect peace with the God of peace. Whether I run, walk, crawl, or slide, when the Lord calls me home I will arrive to rest so deep, relief so complete, joy so full that I almost burst now to think of it. Not for a little bit of time, but forever. Eternity. A thought too big to grasp. And even bigger, this calling and election of the Christian is sure. We have already won. So fight, brothers and sisters, strive to enter that rest, because in Christ we have already won.

“No man, we know, how base soever, even the greatest coward that may be, but he would fight, if he were sure, to overcome. What cowards then are we. Every one of us would be reputed stout and valiant; where, then, is our valour, whenas every barking of a dog, as I may so call them, or every touch of a fly, makes us deny our master? Oh, the shame of our profession; what is this temporising but to draw to lukewarmness, and so to denial, that we are ashamed in this or that company for these and these causes of our profession! Well, remember, if we deny him, he will deny us; if we be ashamed of him, he will be ashamed of us, Mat. 10:33. In this case, what shall, what can we answer him at that great day?”

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Last week, we read The Knot of Prayer Loosed.

Next week, we read A Christian’s Portion.