Thoughts from the Valley

I wanted to share this part of a prayer called "Pride" in the amazing little book, The Valley of Vision:

"Help me to see myself in thy sight, then pride must wither, decay, die, perish. ... As water rests not on barren hill summits, but flows down to fertilize lowest vales, so make me the lowest of the lowly, that my spiritual riches may exceedingly abound. ... If I fail let me hide myself in my Redeemer's righteousness..."

The last line is essential for living the Christian life and a real joy releaser! The word "if" conveys confidence in God's answering his prayer by supplying him the power he needs to fight pride, while his acknowledging Christ's righteousness shows that his confidence in the face of pride is not in his performance, but in Jesus' performance--a perfect life and a perfect sacrifice, both of which are his by faith!

I know my only hope in the face of my own pride is that Jesus died for it and I'm forever standing before God in His righteousness, not my own.

Sin, War & Exuberance

Becoming a Christian, awakens a person to a war they didn't know was going on before they became a Christian, and one that they find themselves right in the middle of.

To help in this end, I give you this quote by Ed Welch, from pg. 102 of John Piper's When I Don't Desire God to encourage you and give you the attitude you'll need to survive and thrive in this war:

"...there is a mean streak to authentic self-control. ... Self-control is not for the timid. When we want to grow in it, not only do we nurture an exuberance for Jesus Christ, we also demand of ourselves a hatred for sin. ... The only possible attitude towards out-of-control desire is a declaration of all-out war. ... There is something about war that sharpens the senses ... You hear a twig snap or the rustling of leaves and you are in attack mode. Someone coughs and you are ready to pull the trigger. Even after days of little sleep or no sleep, war keeps us vigilant."

I hope that gives you insight into the double-sided attitude needed to fight sin: an overwhelming hatred for sin, and an equally overwhelming exuberance for Christ, which only comes to us through the Spirit's work on our hearts as He glorifies Jesus in the pages of His Word.

Worship, Pastoring & The Savior

Here are some highlights from my Bible reading today.

A psalm of worship...

Psalm 67

0 A Psalm. A Song.
1 God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us-- Selah.
2 That Your way may be known on the earth, your salvation among all nations.
3 Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You.
4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy; for You will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth. Selah.
5 Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You.
6 The earth has yielded its produce; God, our God, blesses us.
7 God blesses us, that all the ends of the earth may fear Him.

...a mission statement for pastors...

"We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me" (Colossians 1:28-29).

...and to exalt the Savior.

Jesus "is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross" (Colossians 1:15-20).

What if Jesus Had Never Been Born?

If you haven't seen read this yet, please take a few minutes to read this short meditation on the question What Would Not Be If Jesus Had Not Been Born? here.

Before I go to bed tonight, I think I'll spend a few minutes meditating on this question in my journal. If you have any you'd like to add, please take a second to leave it in a comment below. Merry Christmas!

Jesus is NOT your Homeboy

This is another in a long line of examples in our culture that trivialize the least trivial Person, by any standard, who's ever existed. No one needs to debunk Christianity through dialogue and debate anymore. Today, it's simply overlooked as insignificant because it's Founder is no longer seen as the One before whom "every knee should bow" (Phil 2:10) as Lord and King of the Universe. He is just another in a long line of pop culture icons that have their "day in the sun" before being put on the shelf while they wait to be reinvented. No wonder God rests so inconsequentially upon a Christianity who thinks we honor Him when we market Him like a commodity and consume Him like a product. What happened to witnessing with our lips and our lives, not with our t-shirts and tattoos?