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.

Thoughts from the Valley

I wanted to share this part of a prayer called "Spiritual Growth" in The Valley of Vision:

"Give me a tender, wakeful conscience
that can smite and torment me when I sin.
May I be consistent in conversation and conduct,
the same alone as in company,
in prosperity and adversity,
accepting all thy commandments as right,
and hating every false way.
May I never be satisfied with my present spiritual progress..."

Ch 2: Desire vs. Delight

I read this sentence, and it is SO true for me. I see this in me and I think about it all the time, and it makes me just sick of myself. Dr. Piper writes:

"We kick ourselves that our cravings for lesser things compete with God as the satisfaction of our souls. ... We know that we have tasted pleasures at his right hand, and that our desires for them are pitifully small compared to their true worth" (28).

I LONG for the day when this will no longer be true of me, when what I know is truly valuable in my mind (God) will match what is actually valuable (God) in my whole being--my emotions and will seamlessly acting in perfect harmony with my mind.

Until then (which will probably only happen at death), I'm still praying for this grace while being SO thankful that God even awoke a taste in me for Him.

Thoughts from The Valley

I read this in a collection of Puritan prayers called The Valley of Vision today and had to share it here:

"Give me intenser faith in the eternal verities, burning into me by experience the things I know ... Grant me to know that I truly live only when I live to thee, that all else is trifling" (235)

I need these reminders constantly, daily.

I thank God for this book, and the riches compiled therein.

Chapter 1: Why I Wrote This Book (Pt 3)

I had to give this quote from C.S. Lewis. Read it carefully and apply it to your desires for and satisfactions in God:

"Provided the thing is in itself right, the more one likes it and the less one has to 'try to be good,' the better. A perfect man would never act from sense of duty; he'd always want the right thing more than the wrong one. Duty is only a substitute for love (of God and of other people), like a crutch, which is a substitute for a leg. Most of us need the crutch at times; but of course it's idiotic to use the crutch when our own legs (our own loves, tastes, habits, etc.) can do the journey on their own!" (C.S. Lewis: Letters to Children, 276).

I am reading this book because I want "a joy in Christ that is so deep and so strong that it will free me from bondage to Western comforts and security, and will impel me into sacrifices of mercy and missions, and will sustain me in the face of martyrdom. ... The key to endurance in the cause of self-sacrificing love is not heroic willpower, but deep, unshakable confidence that the joy we have tasted in fellowship with Christ will not disappoint us in death" like the Christians in Hebrews 10:34 (20, 21).

My heart screams "Yes!" when I read this, yet my experience feels like it mirrors the blind man who tries to ride a dead horse that he doesn't know is dead. He commands it, and kicks it, and yells, yet it goes no where. That is often how my heart feels inside me, and I want that so desperately to change.

I want to "truly experience...the unsurpassed worth of Jesus with so much joy that [I] can say, 'I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord' (Phil 3:8)" (21).

This is the only kind of experience that is worthy of the Savior!

Chapter 1: Why I Wrote This Book (Pt 2)

Dr. Piper wrote this book to answer the questions "How do you get a desire [for God that] you don't have and can't create?" or "How to you turn the spark into a flame?" (15). And, I'm not going to lie, that's why I wanted to read this book.

I am not interested in superficial, wishy-washy, half-in half-out, luke warm devotion to God. I'm just not and when I think and feel and live that way I hate myself. I really want God to use this book as a catalyst to begin something deep and lasting and real in my soul.

I want so badly to be the person Jonathan Edwards describes who sets no limit on his religious appetites and endeavors "by all possible ways to inflame their desires and to obtain more spiritual pleasures" because one's hungering for the Trinity and holiness "can't be too great for the value of these things, for they are things of infinite value" (17). When it comes to desiring God, balance, or as Edwards puts it "temperance," is not a virtue.

Chapter 1: Why I Wrote This Book (Pt 1)

Honestly, we're reading this book because we don't desire God like we should, and we don't feel good about it.

We're convinced God is the object most to be desired because He is infinitely desirable, but in my most honest moments, I don't think about Him that way, I don't feel about Him that way and I don't act that way towards Him. I join my name to the list of those who do not desire "God with the passion he demands" (13).

This gets worse because God the Most Desirable does not leave the finding of joy in Him as an option I can take or leave. "Rejoice in the Lord always" is a command!

But between me and my full satisfaction in God stands my indwelling sin "by making other things look more desirable" and "by making me think I am pursuing joy in God, when, in fact, I am in love with his gifts" (14).

As a result, I agree with Piper that in light of this almost insurmountable struggle a "manageable, duty-driven, decision-oriented, willpower Christianity now seem[s] easy, and real Christianity ha[s] become impossible" (14).

Sadly, if I'm honest with myself I want knowledge and status and comfort and security more than God. And, I not only feel like I don't have a desire for God, but I feel like I don't have the power to give it to myself.

This is a very real reality for me. One I recognize and struggle with, and desperately want changed. That's why I'm looking so forward to reading this book. Piper says he wrote it "to be of help to believers and unbelievers who are seeing some of the radical heart-changes demanded by the Bible in the Christian life--especially that we must desire God more than anything" (15).

Thankfully, this struggle is "almost insurmountable," and it's almost because we serve a God for whom "all things are possible" (Mark 10:27). In this reality is my only hope. Heart transformation is God's sovereign, gracious work, and one that I remember saying "Pray all night if you don't have it."

Augustine on Pride

In the midst of his wrestling with God in his Confessions, Augustine makes this priceless statement about pride:

"By my swelling pride I was separated from You, and my bloated cheeks blinded my eyes" (VII.11).

Can't you just picture an obese man who's eyes squint under the pressure coming up from his inflated cheeks?

Pride not only separates a person from God, but it blinds him to God, blinds him to the separation and blinds him from the fact that it's precisely his pride that has caused this separation.

Sin, Death and Joseph (Gen 38, 39)

I made the following observations about sin and death, and sin's consequences while reading Genesis 37-39 today.

Concerning sin and death, the Bible says people die because of their sin:

"Er, Judah's firstborn, was evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord took his life" (Gen 38:7).

Onan "was displeasing in the sight of the Lord; so He took his life also" (Gen 38:10).

Now, this is not the only reason people die, but this is one of the reasons. And, this is not just the Old Testament as 1 Corinthians 11:30 and 1 John 5:16 say the same thing: God, the One who "puts to death and gives life" (Deut 32:39), kills people because of their sin.

And, concerning sin, it's consequences and how to fight it, remind yourself of Joseph and Potiphar's wife:

"Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. It came about after these events that his master's wife looked with desire at Joseph, and she said, 'Lie with me.' But he refused and said to his master's wife, 'Behold, with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge. There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?' As she spoke to Joseph day after day, he did not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her" (Gen 37:6-10).

Joseph fought sin by filling his mind with what sin is (namely, a "great evil"), who its against (horizontally Potiphar, and vertically God), and it's consequences (vv. 8-9, also horizontal and vertical). As a result, he kept himself from being anywhere near where this sin could take place (v. 10). The truths of verses 8-9 motivated him to take the action he did in verse 10.

Also, despite being aware of the horizontal benefits Potiphar showed him, the bottom line for Joseph was he refused to sin because he'd be sinning against God. Sadly, I don't think of that reality until after I've sinned.

Clear Your Schedule & Listen

While passing out flyers today for my dad's business I've been walking from house to house listening to the message below by Dr. Paul Tripp (author of Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands) from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary's 2007 Theology Driven Ministry Conference.

I told my friend just now that listening to them has been like having someone cut open my chest to allow the light of God's Word to shine on my heart and I've been getting filleted.

1. Your Walk with God is a Community Project (Tripp)
2. Progressive Sanctification and the Anti-Social Nature of Sin (Tripp)
3. The Pastor's Role in Sanctification (Ferguson)
4. Colossians 3:1-17 (Ferguson)
5. Sanctification in the Middle of the Messiness of Relationships (Tripp)
6. Looking in the Mirror: James 1 (Ferguson)
7. Playing in the Box: Romans 7 (Tripp)

If you click on the message's name you can listen instantly, and if you press Control and click your mouse on the link (or Right click if you have a PC), you should be able to start downloading it (if it doesn't, let me know). If that doesn't work, click here to subscribe to the podcast, or click here and scroll down to March 26th and you'll see the conference audio.

I've listened to the first two of Dr. Tripp's four messages so far, and I've also included the messages from Dr. Sinclair Ferguson to have the full conference. The last two were given in the same venue at the same time, but for a reason I don't know they weren't part of the conference.

I hope you're as challenged and rebuked and encouraged and grateful for the Savior as a result of these as I have been.

The Enemy Within: Chapter 13

This final chapter in The Enemy Within is about the role of faith, or trusting God, in the fight all Christians face against their sinful flesh.

Lundgaard summarizes the book by saying that everything he's talked about so far--meditating on the Cross, watching out for sin, filling our emotions with heaven, using every means of grace, renewing our first love for Christ and hungering for God's glory--will not kill the flesh at the moment of temptation unless these things "are combined with faith" because faith is "the only thing that destroys the flesh" (142).

We often forget in our fight against sin that along with being my responsibility kill my raging flesh it is God's work too, as seen in this important verse: "...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil 2:12-13 ESV).

Sanctification (= becoming more holy, more like Christ) is a synergistic activity where I "work out my salvation" and God "works in" me. Also, notice that God works "both to will and to work for his good pleasure." So, the wanting to do God's will and the activity of actually doing God's will both come from God.

The parts of this chapter that help me most and gave me great comfort in my fight against sin came from two passages in Hebrews.

First, Christ is not powerless, but fully able to help me when I'm being tempted: because Jesus "suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted" (Heb 2:18 ESV). I need to believe this in the midst of temptation, and my trusting this is seen when I look to Him.

Second, I can't fight sin on my own. In fact, I deserve to be overtaken by sin every time, but when I'm being tempted I can "draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb 4:16 NASB).

The daily challenge I took away from this chapter is one C.J. Mahaney has modeled so well, that is, I need to "Look to Christ's death for power. ... Apply his blood to your filth. Do this every day" (147, italics in original). I know. I can take some of C.J.'s suggestions from the end of Living the Cross-Centered Life and incorporate them into my daily routine.

Also, we are not alone in our fight against sin. When your lust "grabs you by the throat" (147) remember that you have the empowering presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit who is the means by which we "put to death the misdeeds of the body" (Rom 8:13). I'm not powerless in the face of temptation, but have the omnipotent power of God in me to give victory.

In the end, it looks like each Person of the Trinity has devoted Himself to my holiness, giving me comfort and evoking praise in this on-going, life-long, never-ending battle to put sin to death in my heart and life because it's "God's pleasure not only to rescue you from hell, but to glorify you with Christ by making you like him" (149).

Therefore, the chapter and book both end with this final call: "In every victory lift your hands to heaven and give thanks--rejoice with a grateful heart in your Deliverer. He is faithful. Soli Deo gloria" (149). Amen.

Hell's Eternal Torments

With the passing of my beloved grandpa last month, death has forced me to look at it again. Contemplating eternal life in heaven has also made me ponder its contrast: eternal death in hell.

Since I know of no one better at describing heaven and hell, I turned to Jonathan Edwards for guidance and he did not disappoint. He gave a riveting exposition of the verse "These shall go away into everlasting punishment" (Matthew 25:46) in "The Eternity of Hell's Torments." Click here to read the whole thing. What follows is a brief summary of his sermon.

He argues that eternal punishment does not contradict either the justice or mercy of God saying "that sin is heinous enough to deserve such a[n eternal] punishment, and such a punishment is no more than proportionable to the evil or demerit of sin. If the evil of sin be infinite, as the punishment is, then it is manifest that the punishment is no more than proportionable to the sin punished, and is no more than sin deserves."

He says the reason so many cannot accept the biblical notion of eternal punishment is because it "is so contrary to the depraved inclinations of mankind, that they hate to believe it" and because we have a very low view of the gravity of sin, thinking eternal punishment is totally disproportionate for what we think sin is. Do I really think sin deserves eternal torment, that God would be unjust for limiting the torment in any way?

This punishment is clearly and always described as the intensest of misery, terror, anguish, despair and pain that never ever ends, ideas which completely rule out annihilation or a hell that ends. In fact, if eternal punishment is not eternal, than there's no textual basis for claiming eternal life is eternal since the same word is used for both states in Matthew 25:46.

In eternal punishment "God means to manifest his peculiar abhorrence of [human] wickedness," making it "a very mean contemptible testimony of God's wrath towards those who have rebelled against his crown and dignity."

Because we swim in sin, we don't think is so bad, but hell eternal reminds us that sin is deadly serious because it is an infinite offense against an infinite God, and an infinite offense deserves an infinite punishment. Since infinity can never be exhausted so hell's torments will never be exhausted.

Therefore, Edwards marvels at the madness of those who "prefer a small pleasure, or a little wealth, or a little earthly honor and greatness, which can last but for a moment, to an escape from this punishment." He wonders "How strange is it that men can enjoy themselves and be at rest, when they are thus hanging over eternal burnings: at the same time, having no lease of their lives and not knowing how soon the thread by which they hang will break."

Let these words of Edward's concluding appeal sink in:

"Do but consider what it is to suffer extreme torment forever and ever: to suffer it day and night from one year to another, from one age to another, and from one thousand ages to another...in pain, in wailing and lamenting, groaning and shrieking, and gnashing your teeth - with your souls full of dreadful grief and amazement, [and] with your bodies and every member full of racking torture; without any possibility of getting ease; without any possibility of moving God to pity by your cries; without any possibility of hiding yourselves from him; without any possibility of diverting your thoughts from your pain; without any possibility of obtaining any manner of mitigation, or help, or change for the better."

And this:

"After you shall have worn a thousand more such ages, you shall have no hope, but shall know that you are not one whit nearer to the end of your torments." ... "The damned in hell will have two infinites perpetually to amaze them, and swallow them up: one is an infinite God, whose wrath they will bear, and in whom they will behold their perfect and irreconcilable enemy. The other is the infinite duration of their torment."

Thankfully, after all that bad news, Edwards leaves his hearers with the gospel:

"flee and embrace him who came into the world for the very end of saving sinners from these torments...there is a Savior provided, who is able and who freely offers to save you from that punishment...[Christ] is accepted of the Father, and therefore all who believe are accepted and justified in him. Therefore believe in him, come to him, commit your souls to him to be saved by him. In him you shall be safe from the eternal torments of hell." ... "through him you shall inherit inconceivable blessedness and glory, which will be of equal duration with the torments of hell. For, as at the last day the wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment, so shall the righteous, or those who trust in Christ, go into life eternal."

The Enemy Within: Chapter 12

One of the assumptions of The Enemy Within is that if a Christian knows the schemes / methods of his "enemy" (i.e., his sinful flesh), he will have victory over it. In this chapter, Lundgaard exposes our flesh's scheme of peace, specifically that our flesh can trick us into thinking we have peace with God after we've sinned when we really don't.

This is the Christian, like me, who "when their consciences are pricked by their sin, they too quickly declare their own inner peace before God has done his work in them" (133).

When there are sins in my life that I put off dealing with, my flesh tricks me into thinking they're dealt with because "Jesus died for all your sins," or "You confessed this so move on," or "God loves me," when, deep down, my conscience is screaming "This has not been dealt with!" So, how do I respond? In the exact ways this chapter outlines.

First, I speak the gospel to myself, then think I have peace when I don't because I don't hate the sin I'm speaking the gospel to. It's a sin I really don't want to be rid of. True hatred for sin is seen when "your heart weeps with self-hatred" (136) for the offense it is against God, not for the consequences that sin brings.

Second, I gain a fake, temporary peace when I have to argue Scriptures against my feelings of guilt, and the guilt still doesn't go away. No matter what I know is true about my sin, the feeling that I'm still guilty doesn't leave because I also know I need to do more than confess and repent of my sin for the true peace to come.

In other words, I can speak the gospel to myself about the sin I've committed against a person, ask God to forgive me for the sin, commit to turning from it completely, but still not have peace. Why? Because I know true peace will only come when I confess to and ask forgiveness from that person. Only then the peace I get is peace from God.

Lundgaard writes that this kind of peace not only won't last, but it "doesn't give sweetness and contentment to the soul" and it ultimately "doesn't change your life" (138).

The peace given to the Christian after he sins is from God when it lasts. It is a peace that seasons the soul, making it sweetly rest in God. It is a peace that ignites lasting change concerning that sin.

This, and only this kind of peace has lasting effects because this is the only kind of peace that comes from God, not our own deceptive, scheming, con-man hearts.

The Enemy Within: Chapter 11 (Pt 2)

The result of studying God rightly is that He gets much larger is our vision of the world and life. Consequently, as God gets larger, we can't help but get much much smaller. In other words, we learn about ourselves by contrasting who we are with who God is.

Sadly, the seeker and emergent movements have become very adept at keeping God from their people. They exaggerate God's love to such a radical extent that the god they speak of barely resembles the God revealed in the Bible. The reason they do this, I think, is that the true God makes us feel deeply uncomfortable, which is one of the last emotions these kind of churches want people to feel.

In fact, this is the difficulty we face when we are seeking to kill our sin. Killing sin is done by seeing God. Seeing God makes us feel uncomfortable. Therefore, we don't kill our sin because we don't want to feel bad.

The decision is between killing sin in ourselves or feeling bad about ourselves. The humiliation that comes from seeing God clearly is "strong medicine" that withers and gives us hope against sin (128).

This is the reality behind 2 Corinthians 3:17 "we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another."

However, when we behold God's glory the Christian's response is to fear God. This, too, is an unwanted feeling in all human beings. However, when we avoid the fear of God we, again, keep ourselves from another means of fighting sin because "sin can't breathe in an atmosphere of fear and reverence before God. It suffocates. Can you imagine your lust cheery and prosperous when you are on your face before a holy God?" (131).

The Enemy Within: Chapter 11 (Pt 1)

Since my grandpa Hoover has cancer I am slightly familiar with the concept behind Mr. Lundgaard's opening illustration. The question: How do we fight and beat the sin in our hearts? The answer he gives is "See God." Seeing God is like chemotherapy or radiation as "the soul sees what God is like in his glory, sees what it is like in its sickness, and buries its face in the dirt. Then the healing starts. God's radiating majesty kills the rotten marrow of sin and replaces it with humility. A heart humbled by God's terrible majesty can begin its recovery and grow strong. Sin can't thrive in a humble heart" (128).

In other words, maturing Christians, Christians who are fighting sin, are Christians who study theology. They are Christians who know God. I tell my students that it's not a question of whether or not I do theology or whether or not I am a theologian. The moment you say "God is _______" you're being a theologian. Therefore, the question is not "Am I a theologian?" The question is "Am I a good one?" And "good" is measured by NOTHING else than does what I believe about God match the Bible.

Practically, this means we have to not only read but meditate--which for me means journal and blog--on the passages of the Bible that most reveal God's majesty / glory / holiness, i.e. Genesis 1-2, Exodus 3, 12-15, 19-20, 32-34, Leviticus 10-11, Deuteronomy 6-10, 28-30, Job 38-42, Psalms 93-100, Isaiah 6, 40-66, Ezekiel 1-11, Daniel 2-4, Joel, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Matthew 10, 23-25, Luke 13-14, Acts 5, Romans 1-3, 2 Corinthians 5, Hebrews 10, Revelation 2-3, 6-19, etc.

We have to spend concentrated times in these and other passages, not just skimming them to say we did it, but really slowing down, reading and thinking about the implications of what we read, even writing them down because "if we want to put sin to death in our hearts, we have to swallow the strongest doses of God's terrible majesty we can" (128).

This also means that we should be reading theology books, and if we do so rightly, these books will help us fight sin. It also means we need to go to churches where we hear sermons that glorify God in His "terrible majesty." This is the goal of preaching, to set God before people, which in turn transforms them (2 Cor 3:18).

The Enemy Within: Chapter 10 (Pt 3)

My friend and I meet once a week to talk about this book, and I gain so much from our time together. I especially look forward to how he's going to describe the interaction he has with the text as Mr. Lundgaard or Mr. Owen or both have an uncanny knack for describing the human soul's interaction with sin.

We've talked often about how white hot the love for Christ was in the days soon after being saved. Prayer came easy as we were able to focus without rabbit trails distracting us. Bible reading was a joy as new discoveries were made daily. Times at church were so rich that we looked forward to it each week. Fighting sin and hating the world came much easier. God was tangible, real, almost touchable in the things He'd do to demonstrate His existence and love.

This may be a bit of exaggeration, but this is how we remember our early days as Christians and others we've talked to agree there's a special grace God gives new converts.

When we talk, we look back longing to get back to those days because prayer is difficult, Bible study seems dry, church is routine and fighting sin is hard with God seeming far away. After interacting with the material in the previous post on The Enemy Within I can see why this happened in my life. I actually should spend a lot more time comparing those 7 buckets of ice water to my life because if I look close enough, I think all 7 would apply in one way or another to me.

And, it is the imagery of forsaking one's first love that makes me think Jesus' words from Revelation 2:4-5 are talking about people like me who remember the heights from which I have fallen with Him and need to repent, doing the things I did when I first became a Christian or face worse judgment in my life.

This is why I'm so glad chapter 10 ends with a short section on 'Falling in Love Again.' I wish it went into more detail, but the gist is that if you heed the warning of vv. 4-5 above the blessing is that fellowship will be renewed with Christ, and that you can't heed that warning without making a consorted effort to "murder the flesh" (121).

On that note, another friend of mine made a very insightful observation about pride. I want to kill my pride so much. I hate pride with a passion and the numerous ways it sneakily and obviously expresses itself. I want it dead until someone says something that wounds it. Then, I protect it with a vengeance. I should want everyone to wound my pride constantly. The more attacks the better, but I don't really or else I'd welcome criticism and confrontation in my life rather than avoiding it. Something to chew on.

The Enemy Within: Chapter 10 (Pt 2)

The Christian's sinful flesh hates God, and it knows the Christian does not. So, rather than trying to get the Christian to hate God (which is impossible), it rather "dumps seven buckets of ice water on our first love" (115).

The buckets carry ice made from seven rancid pools that form in our hearts.

1. Ice of Corrosion -- The flesh applies it's acid to our love for God by slowly, but deliberately "enticing us to lay aside spiritual duties one by one," by "making us think we can get by with a little less prayer, shorter and fewer private devotions--until he at last convinces us that ee can get along without talking to God at all" (116-7).

2. Ice of Formality -- When we must worship God, "the flesh will make our religion into a formal affair," sapping the life out of it because a religion with the fear of God coming from our entire being becomes a stench in His nostrils (116).

3. Ice of Distraction -- The flesh loves it when we're more passionate about political or social causes, music, hobbies than we are about God who "never lift their eyes about the cause to see the Christ" (117).

4. Ice of Domestication -- The flesh hates it when we hate sin so its goal is to make us think sin is no big deal, forgetting that "unrepentant and cherished sin douses the fire of first love" (117).

5. Ice of Knowledge -- Theology is not optional in the life of the believer. In fact, everyone is a theologian because everyone has something to say about God. The issue is not "Are you a theologian?" but "Are you a good one?" meaning does what you say about God match the Bible. Well, on this question for knowledge the flesh loves it when we treat the Bible like a textbook. If we're like that before God's word, leaving our time in it unchanged, the flesh has "snuffed out the wick of [our] first love" (118).

6. Ice of Independence -- If the Christian starts to sing "I Did It My Way," the flesh has drenched your first love.

7. Ice of Neglect -- The flesh will do everything to keep you from private prayer and Bible study. My favorite quote in the book: "The person who calls himself a Christian, who says he loves God, yet does not seek his company and delight in it, can't be a true lover of God. His own flesh has deceived him" (118-9). Your flesh will reason say, like mine does everyday, "you listened to that sermon," or "you sang that song," or "you watched that TV preacher," or "you did family devotions so you don't have to read and pray." Or, it will trick you into thinking "I'll pray more after the big test has past" when there's always another test another activity another thing. If you've made a habit of listening to it when it speaks, you've lost your first love.

Lundgaard ends this section with these chilling, thought-provoking, soul-searching words: "You may make a great show of love and faith at church...[but] if there is no priviate communion between you and Jesus--freqent and deep communion--then your religion is worthless. You've lost your first love. You stand at the end of Jesus' finger, aimed at your face with his threat: 'You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place (Revelation 2:4-5)'" (119-20).

Next, we'll see what we should do to rekindled the passion in our hearts for Jesus after the flesh douses it with one of these 7 ice buckets.

The Enemy Within: Chapter 10 (Pt 1)

So far, we've seen what sin is and how it works. Now, in the next couple posts, we'll see what sin does.

In chapter 7 of his gospel, Luke recounts when a women anointed Jesus' feet and dried them with her hair at the house of a Pharisee. The point of this event is given in verse 47 "For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little."

Lundgaard comments that Jesus "meant that her great love, which spilled over with tears and tenderness for him, flowed from a clear sight of how much she had wronged God, and how much he had pardoned her" (113-4).

In other words, if the flame of my love for God is going down it's because my awareness of my sin is also going down. By contrast, her "love for [Jesus] was heated white hot by this fan: a sense of how much God had freely forgiven her in Christ" (114).

Therefore, in its battle against God's Spirit in us, the flesh "dumps seven buckets of ice water on our first love" (115)...which we'll look at next time.

The Enemy Within: Chapter 9 (Pt 3)

I ended the last entry with the thought from Kris Lundgaard that every bit of "the deception and temptation we've been discussing [in previous posts] has one intent: to convince the mind that this sinful act is somehow 'good' for the soul so that the affections hunger for it, and the will chooses it" (103).

This is the scheme, the method, the procedure your flesh is working on you to do what it, not God, wants. Therefore, it fights like hell to keep you ignorant of what its doing--that's one of the reasons why true prayer and Bible study are so hard.

Now, what're some of the specific tactics the flesh uses to lie us into thinking sin is good for us?

1. Twisting Scripture -- The flesh has you focus so much on what the Bible says about God's love (cf. John 3:16; 1 John 4:8) that He becomes a doting grandfather who will always forgive, rather than a holy God who holds us accountable for our actions as an act of love.

2. Double Standards -- The flesh makes you believe you're case is special, you're sexual immorality is OK because "We love each other," and "What is marriage, but just a piece of paper?" and "If it makes me happy it can't be that bad." Your embezzlement is OK because "I can't pay my bills" or "Corporations are evil anyway" or "I deserve this for all the mistreatment."

3. Keeping You In The Dark -- The flesh fools us in the specific areas where we're ignorant of God's Word: the father who relinquishes teaching his kids the Bible (Deut 6:4-9) to the youth pastor. Therefore, study God's Word daily so that you obey the command to "find out what pleases the Lord" (Eph 5:10).

4. Don't Worry About It -- You should hate and repudiate the flesh when it whispers "This sin isn't that bad--you don't need to go to all that trouble against this little thing. Other Christians, even great saints in the Bible, have committed far more grievous sins than yours, yet God forgave them. Don't worry about it--everything will work out okay in the end" (106).

Bottom-line: What am I doing to kill this enemy within your soul? Am I apathetic to it's schemes? Do I care that it hates God and wants my actions to reflect that hatred more than anything? Am I indifferent to those treasonous desires against the Lover of my soul? Or, do I care more about the Super Bowl?