Tag: Discipleship

Preach the Gospel to Yourself

On By BrianIn Miscellaneous1 Comment

How can we grow up in Jesus?  Part of the answer is that we need to preach the gospel to ourselves.  We need to constantly remind ourselves of what God has done for us, of the many blessings of salvation that should change the way we live.  In Romans 12:1 we read, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God….”  These words mark a huge transition in the book.  Everything before these words deals with God’s mercy in giving us a great salvation.  Everything after these words deals with how we should live in response.  It is because of the gospel that we should now live differently.  And so we need to preach the gospel to ourselves.  Let me take just two elements of the gospel to illustrate this point.

Remember the cross so you don’t want to sin.  Part of the God’s mercy is that he became a man and took the judgment we deserved for our sins upon himself on the cross.  Consider all that our Savior endured because of our sins.  The whipping.  The beatings.  The mockings.  The crown of thorns pressed into his head.  The nails piercing his hands and feet.  The agony hanging on the cross.  As we consider what he endured to pay for our sin, how could we have any desire to sin?  When the temptation to sin looks so alluring, place the picture of Jesus hanging on the cross next to the temptation, and the temptation will lose much of its tempting power.  As we consider the cross, it motivates us to live for him.  We remember the cross so we don’t want to sin.

Consider your new life that means you don’t have to sin.  In Romans 6, Paul talks about the reality that we have died to sin and been raised to a new life in Christ.  We are no longer slaves to sin.  And so he tells us in verse 11 to “consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”  He has already established that we have a new life.  In verse 11 he wants us to consider this reality.  To think about it.  To remember it.  He wants us to preach the gospel to ourselves.  We have a new life.  God has enabled us to say no to sin.  We don’t have to sin anymore.  Too often we hear people say (and we might say ourselves) after sinning, “Well, I just couldn’t help it.”  But if we are true Christians, we have been given a new life.  We can help it.  In the face of temptation, remind yourself that you are no longer a slave to sin, and you don’t want to act like a slave anymore.  You can say no.  We consider our new life to remind us that we don’t have to sin.

Remember the cross so you don’t want to sin.  Consider your new life that means you don’t have to sin.  Preach the gospel to yourself.

Quotes to Ponder

On By BrianIn PASSION Quotes1 Comment

The difference between believing that God is gracious
and tasting that God is gracious is as different as
having a rational belief that honey is sweet
and having the actual sense of its sweetness.
– Jonathan Edwards

 God is love (I John 4:8) and God is holy (I Peter 1:16). 
He is neither more loving than he is holy, nor more holy than loving. 
God’s love is holy, and his holiness is love.  He is holy love and loving holiness.
– Michael Wittmer

 Those who do not fear God do not live in the reality of God.
– Gary Thomas

 God’s chief gift to those who seek him is himself.
— E.B. Pusey

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

How To Watch the Olympic Games – David Mathis (via Desiring God)
Why would the Christian Scriptures mention the games? To help us upgrade our two weeks of Olympic watching by opening our eyes to what they have to say about God, the gospel, and the Christian life. 

You might also be interested in this interview video of Olympian Gabby Douglas at Valley Church in Des Moines. (via Chris Brauns)

And then, how do we deal with conflict?  Here is a helpful trilogy of posts:
3 Ways We Must Handle Conflict, Conflict: When Desires Become Demands,
Conflict: Recognize, Repent, Refocus, Replace – Robert D. Jones (via Crossway)
While my initial desire might be legitimate, it becomes sinful when it grows into a demand. And when it becomes a demand and you don’t meet it—and of course you can never meet every demand of my selfish heart—I then judge you in my heart and condemn you. In the final step, my internal judgment produces some outward expression of punishment toward you. I might yell at you, speak sarcastically about you, gossip about you, or avoid you.

Prayerlessness – Nancy Leigh DeMoss (via Tim Challies)
As God opened my eyes to this matter of prayerlessness, I asked Him to let me see it from His point of view. Here is what I wrote in my journal one day when God first began to deal with my heart.  Convicting stuff!

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!

Acts Articles – Jesus 03C

On By BrianIn Book of Acts

In Acts 3, Peter gives us an incredible description of Jesus from many angles.  He is the Rejected and Suffering Servant.  He is the Holy and Righteous One.  He is the Author of Life.  Today, I want to briefly consider two more descriptions of Jesus and our response.

First, Jesus is the Prophet Moses Foretold in v22-23.  Back in Deuteronomy 18:15-19, Moses spoke of another prophet who was to come to whom the people must listen.  Peter declares Jesus is the one Moses spoke of.  And so we must, as Moses warned, listen to him.  Are you listening?

Second, Jesus is the Offspring Who Brings Blessing in v25-26.  Back in Genesis 22:18, God had promised Abraham that in his offspring all the families of the world would be blessed.  And in Jesus indeed have the nations found great blessing.  Peter mentions just some of them in Acts 3:

  • Jesus blots out our sin (v19).  On the cross he bore our sins that they might be washed away.
  • Jesus turns us from our wickedness (v26).  He not only removes the penalty for sin, but also the power of sin.  Where before we walked in sin, now we follow him.
  • Jesus brings time of refreshing (v20).  This may refer to the Holy Spirit who now dwells within us.  Truly the presence of the Lord refreshes us – a foretaste of the day when we will dwell with God forever.
  • Jesus will restore all things (v20-21).  One day when Jesus returns, there will be a new heavens and earth without suffering, sin, or death.

Jesus is the Prophet to whom we must listen.  And he is the source of many blessings for us to enjoy!

Acts Articles – Jesus 03B

On By BrianIn Book of Acts1 Comment

In Acts 3:15, Peter portrays Jesus as the Author of Life.  He is the source of life.  Again we have this indication that Jesus is God, for of course God is the source of life.  He gives physical life, as he gave physical healing to the lame man earlier in Acts 3.  He also gives spiritual life; we can find spiritual healing in him.  Let’s apply this truth to ourselves today.

Jesus gives us life.  He gives us spiritual life, abundant life, eternal life.  As Jesus makes clear in John 17:3, eternal life is knowing the Father and His Son.  Eternal life is to have a relationship with God.  This is what makes us different from the rest of the world.  We have a real relationship with our Creator.  The rest of the world is spiritually dead – separated from God.  But Jesus gives us spiritual life, a relationship with himself. 

What a privilege!  The more we grasp this truth, the more we ought to cultivate this relationship.  We should want to grow in this relationship.  God has given us a book to know him better.  And we can speak to him at any time.  Jesus has given us life – a relationship with him.  Are we cultivating this relationship or squandering it?

Quotes To Ponder

On By BrianIn PASSION Quotes

The most important question we can ask about any habit or action or behavior:
Does it contradict the gospel?
– John Piper

An idle life and a holy heart is a contradiction. 
– Thomas Brooks

Patience!  Patience!  You are always in a hurry, but God is not.
– C.H. Spurgeon

He who often thinks of God will have a larger mind
than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe.
– J. I. Packer

Acts Articles – Jesus 03A

On By BrianIn Book of Acts

In Acts 3:14, Peter portrays Jesus as the Holy and Righteous One. 

He is the Righteous One:  Once again we find an echo from Isaiah 53, this time verse 11, where the suffering servant is referred to as the righteous one.  Other echoes come from Isaiah 32:1, Jeremiah 23:5, and Zechariah 9:9 which all predict that the coming Messiah King will be characterized by righteousness. 

He is the Holy One: That Jesus is the holy one suggests that Jesus is to be understood as God, for we see such references to God in Isaiah 40:25, 43:15. 

He is the Holy and Righteous One: The title in general speaks of his perfection – he is holy and righteous.  This again echoes from Isaiah 53, where verse 9 speaks of the suffering servant having done no violence and having no deceit in his mouth.  Peter later will echo Isaiah 53 in I Peter 2:22 where he says Jesus committed no sin, nor was their deceit in his mouth.

So Jesus is the Messianic King.  Jesus is God.  Jesus is without sin.  Two applications for today:

First, Jesus is our King and God to whom we owe our total allegiance and worship.  We are to obey him in all things.  It doesn’t matter if we feel like it.  It doesn’t matter if we want to obey.  It doesn’t matter if we think Jesus is right or not.  Regardless of our feelings, wants, and thoughts, we must obey.  We must submit.  And we must worship.  Worship includes submission, but then goes further to include praise and honor.  We must offer up our praises to our great God.  We must live for his glory.

Second, Jesus is our righteousness.  He lived a perfect life.  We don’t.  We fail to give Jesus our total allegiance and worship.  But the good news is that his perfect life is attributed or accounted to us.  II Corinthians 5:21 speaks of this miraculous exchange where the Suffering Servant bore our sins, and we now bear the righteousness of the Holy and Righteous One.  In Christ, we change clothes.  He takes my filthy dirty rags upon himself, and he gives me his pure white robe to wear.  So now when God looks at us, he doesn’t see our sin, he sees only the perfection of Christ.  He sees us righteous.  What a glorious truth!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points2 Comments

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Thirsty – Julie Van Meter
Our physical needs are great.  We need water to rain down on our thirsty land.  But more than that, we need to go to the well to visit Jesus, where we can drink deeply of the “living water”, and we will never be thirsty again.

Help Me Love What I Ought – Thomas A Kempis (via Trevin Wax)
Grant me, O Lord, to know what I ought to know, To love what I ought to love, To praise what delights you most, To value what is precious in your sight, To hate what is offensive to you.

Worth Weeping For – Kevin DeYoung
If we truly want our hearts to break for things that break the heart of God, we will weep to see the word so badly handled and so boldly broken in our day.

Puddleglum’s Lesson – Chris Brauns
Christians should obey God even when it looks as though obeying him will make our lives more difficult.  We must trust God’s word, rather than how we think things will turn out.

Seven Proven Weapons in the Fight for Holiness – John Piper
We all need to have a small arsenal of general promises ready to use whenever fear or craving threaten to lead us astray.  Here are a few of my most proven weapons….

Killing Sin Through Personal Prayer – J. I. Packer (via Desiring God)
As blooms of sin break surface and I recognize them, I am called to — indeed deep down in my heart I want to — go into action with this prayer procedure for draining the life out of them. And I think this is a discipline every Christian has to wake up to right at the beginning of the Christian life and continue with as long as we are in this world.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshipping the Lord together with your local church!

Acts Articles – Jesus 03

On By BrianIn Book of Acts

In Acts 3:13-18, Peter portrays Jesus as the Rejected and Suffering Servant with clear echoes of Isaiah 52-53.  He begins in v13 by saying that God glorified his servant Jesus, an echo of Isaiah 52:13 where the servant will be high and lifted up and exalted.  Peter goes on to show how Jesus is the rejected servant delivered over to Pilate and denied by the people of Jerusalem, as Isaiah 53:3 depicts Jesus as the rejected servant who is despised and rejected.  Peter shows Jesus as the suffering servant in v18, and Isaiah 53:4-8 depicts the suffering of the servant as he stricken, wounded, crushed, oppressed, and afflicted.  And so Jesus is the rejected and suffering servant from Isaiah 52-53.  Two thoughts for us today:

First, Jesus can identify with our suffering:

Have you been despised?  So was Jesus. 

Have you been rejected?  So was Jesus.

Have you known sorrow and grief?  So did Jesus.

Have you been afflicted?  So was Jesus.

Have you been wounded?  So was Jesus.

Have you been crushed?  So was Jesus.

Have you been oppressed?  So was Jesus

Have you been stricken?  So was Jesus.

Have you suffered?  So did Jesus.

Have you known pain?  So did Jesus?

And when you face death.  Jesus faced it too.

He is not distant, untouched by our infirmities. 
He has been there.  He knows.  He cares. 
He endured it all for you.  And so now we endure it all for Him.

Second, Jesus bore our sins in our place:

He is the suffering servant who was wounded for our transgressions and crushed for iniquities.  The Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all.  He died for our sins.  The big sins that make us cringe.  The small sins we deem insignificant and yet are disgusting in God’s eyes.  He bore all of our sins on the cross to remove our guilt so we could go free.

Quotes To Ponder

On By BrianIn PASSION Quotes

Selfishness seeks its own private happiness at the expense of others.
Love seeks its happiness in the happiness of the beloved.
– John Piper

Self is the most treacherous enemy, and the most insinuating deceiver in the world.
Of all other vices, it is both the hardest to find out, and the hardest to cure. 
– Richard Baxter

Men have dreamed of finding the fairy pleasure in the dark forest of sin. 
Carnal joys have danced before their eyes as temptingly as the mirage in the desert,
and they have pursued the phantom forms to their misery in this world,
and to their eternal ruin in the next.
– Charles Spurgeon