Under His Care

I rejoice that I am not in control,

but that, by virtue of being in union with the Gracious Savior,

I am under the care of Him who is

too wise to err,

too kind to injure,

too tender to crush,

and too sovereign to fail.

(This is an adapted paraphrase of a puritan prayer from The Valley of Vision, pg. 43).

 

Obstacles OR Opportunities?!?

Every Christian is commanded to share the Gospel with others (Matthew 13:51-52; 28:16-20; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:45-49; John 20:21).

Most Christians know this and have at least some desire and commitment to do this, however we also have many obstalces that distract us from our mission.

One of satan’s biggest and best weapons which he uses to distract us from our mission of evangelizing the world is busyness and preoccupation with our own lives. 

When we experience the countless little ”necessities” of life, the innumerable entertainments screaming out for our constant attention, the good and important activities and events (including church services and programs and service projects), and especially the big and painful situations in our personal and family lives (such as job losses, physical ailments, money problems, relationship difficulties, or other inconvenient and uncomfortable circumstances), we too often veiw them as obstacles that overwhelm and sidetrack us.

This renders us useless, at best.

Yet if we look at how the Apostle Paul handled his own personally painful situations in such passages as Philippians 1:12-ff, I believe that we will be convicted and encouraged.

Philippians 1:12 –

I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me [his completely unjust imprisonment for sharing the Gospel] has actually served to advance the gospel

Do you see this?  If you read the rest of the context (vv. 13-18 specifically) you will see that Paul viewed his negative circumstances not as an obstacle to fulfilling his God-given mission, but rather as another opportunity that the Sovereign Lord has given to him for the advancement of the Gospel.

How do you view your circumstances?  Do you see only or mostly obstacles?

May we pray that the Lord would help us to see the opportunities for Gospel-advancement in every situation (good or bad) that He brings our way.  And may we give thanks in everything, asking Him to bless us by working through us for the spread of the Good News unto the growth of His Kingdom and the glory of His Name!

 

Family Worship Guide

Here is an EXCELLENT website with extremely practical help in leading your family in the worship of our worthy Triune God everyday! Please check it out!

 

A Passive-Aggressive Husband’s Confession

The Holy Spirit enlightened my mind last night through my wife.

Whenever my wife and I have a “big” or “serious” argument, which is quite rare for us, she tends to be more emotional and therefore aggressive.  She is hurt and/or feels an injustice has taken place, which leads to her anger.  Her anger leads to her emotionally charged words directed at me.  Her goal is to make me feel the pain or frustration that she feels (to a lesser degree, an equal degree, or a greater degree).  She is aggressive in her attempt to achieve this.

I, on the other hand, am more of a “thinker” than a “feeler”.  I tend to be more reserved and calm in my approach.  Often what happens, however, is that I let her angry words produce anger in me, and I respond accordingly.  I have always blamed her for this, since I am the one who is seeking to be calm and use less emotionally charged words (at least initially).

But, becasue of God’s gracious answer to my prayer for wisdom and insight, I learned something last night.  I learned that we have the same goal in an argument.  I am hurt or feel an injustice has occurred for which I am angry and I want her to feel the weight of her sin against me.  I want her to feel the pain that I feel for what she said, did, or didn’t do to me (to a lesser, equal, or greater degree).

Just because I don’t pursue that end aggressively (at least not at first), does not mean that I’m not pursuing it.  I tend to be passive-aggressive; that is, I seek the same thing she seeks (pain for the other person) in a calm, cool, and collected way.  She comes barging in the front door, whereas I come sneaking in the back door.  Both of us seeking to accomplish the same thing.

I have been ignorantly arrogant and self-deceived about this for a long time (Jeremiah 17:9-10).  I always try to get her to leave her emotions out of the argument, as if my passive-aggressive way of achieving a wicked end is better than her aggressive way.  The problem is not so much the mode of operation, but the intended goal of our operations.  It is sinful to seek to hurt another person, especially one’s own spouse (Ephesians 5:15-33; I Peter 3:1-7), no matter what the approach may be.

What makes this so evil for me is that not only do I seek the same sinful end as she, namely, to make the other person feel the same pain we feel, and not only do I often revert to the aggressive method of achieving this end (using harsh words and childish gestures and mean faces), but I also seek to make her feel worse about being the main and/or first aggressive one and myself feel better about being the passive-aggressive one.

For these sins (of purposefully seeking to hurt my bride (whom I love and have promised to protect) with my mean and mean-spirited words, of dishonoring my wife and more than that, the God who gave her to me, and of my self-deceiving arrogance), I repent with a heavy and sad heart, humbled in my shame and guilt.  I fall at the feet of Jesus, my (the only) Savior, yet once again, calling out to Him in faith for mercy to cleanse me, save me, forgive me, and change me for His glory.

 

The Gospel and Social-Action

This has been on my heart lately, so when I read the following post (and the two links on “part 1 and part 2″), I just had to post it here. 

(The following is a highjacked post from JT.)

Matt Harmon offers ten theses (part 1, part 2) on the kingdom of God and social justice, and explains what he means by each.  Go to the posts to see each thesis briefly unpacked. Here are the theses:

1. We must learn from church history.
2. We must allow biblical and theological convictions to shape our engagement in social action.
3. We must not collapse the already/not-yet tension.
4. We must recognize that evangelical engagement with these issues will take different forms within different political, cultural and social contexts.
5. We must prioritize proclamation of the gospel without neglecting social action.
6. We must realize that our actions are not self-interpreting.
7. We must recognize the trend towards increasing social action and decreasing evangelism within the church.
8. We must think through and articulate the connection between specific social action and the gospel.
9. We must not allow people’s physical needs to blind us or them to their even greater spiritual needs.
10. We must recognize the challenges that come with working with others of different beliefs.

Here are three summary points that I’d like to add:

1. “The Gospel plus deeds of love adorns the Gospel.
Deeds of love without the Gospel adorn us.”  (I believe this was said by DJP.)

2. In order to guard ourselves against falling into the social-gospel movement, we must love the Gospel more than the fundamentalists and we must love the community more than the emergents… we must be more committed to and passionate about doctrine than the “conversatives” and we must be more committed to and passionate about engaging and connecting to people than the “liberals”.

3. We will be entirely ineffective if we are either different and uninvolved OR involved and yet not different.  For if we are the former, we will have something to say, but no one to say it to, and if we are the latter, then we will have an audience, but no message of weight or power.  We must have something to say AND someone to say it to.