In July 2008, One of my favorite bloggers Mark Altrogge (Pastor and Song writer) posted an entry on his blog about “the prayer of a pimply-faced 14 year old”. Nine years later that prayer was answered and David Altrogge married Sarah (read the entry it is a great entry). The thing that struck me most is the last line of this blog entry “If you’d like to see a video of the first kiss visit Evidences of Grace” (which is another blog). How cute, right?
I ventured over to the other blog and something else caught my eye about these two “Sarah and David had never kissed each other or anyone else for that fact before today. Their very first kiss was today at the altar. How incredible.”
How incredible, indeed. Here are two people who lived out God’s commands. This summer I had the honor to be at a wedding of two people who are very dear to me, who lived out their lives in obedience too.
There is a beauty in their obedience. There was a God glorifying beauty in the first kiss between husband and wife. The first kiss between my two friends is something that I will remember for a long time because the results of their obedience ended up in something so God Glorifying.
Why am I talking about this, you wonder? What does this have to do with anything? What do I know about marriage?
I know nothing about marriage and am finding out that I know even less about love.
What I do know about is the results of sin. I don’t know who reads my blog, not sure if anyone does. But if you are someone at the cross roads between obedience and living for yourself or if you are questioning God’s commands about purity, here are some things to think about.
I didn’t go down the road of obedience, I went down the road of living for myself. My first kiss was to a girl some 25 years ago and I have been with others too, who either despise me or hopefully just have forgotten about me.
Five years ago God claimed me as His own. God calls us to purity and holiness. The battle rages within me as much as I want to be pure and holy, the false promises of the world keep trying to tempt me. The seduction of the pleasure of sinful sex is extremely powerful
Though it is possible that I will get married and it will be a beautiful God glorifying marriage. I will always have the echo of my past memories in my head trying to destroy what marriage is suppose to be and trying to make it into the image the world portrays.
Albert Mohler, in 2004 gave a talk about “The Seduction of Pornography and the Integrity of Christian Marriage” (available in a manuscript and audio form) to the male students of Boyce College. I am stealing the quote from the infamous Justin Taylor. See the contrast between one who believes and lives by the worlds lies or lives by the command for sexual purity:
I encourage young guys in particular to read it and listen to it.
Here is an excerpt, where he talks about two pictures of male sexuality:
The first picture is of a man who has set himself toward a commitment to sexual purity, and is living in sexual integrity with his wife. In order to fulfill his wife’s rightful expectations and to maximize their mutual pleasure in the marriage bed, he is careful to live, to talk, to lead, and to love in such a way that his wife finds her fulfillment in giving herself to him in love. The sex act then becomes a fulfillment of their entire relationship, not an isolated physical act that is merely incidental to their love for each other. Neither uses sex as means of manipulation, neither is inordinately focused merely on self-centered personal pleasure, and both give themselves to each other in unapologetic and unhindered sexual passion. In this picture, there is no shame. Before God, this man can be confident that he is fulfilling his responsibilities both as a male and as a man. He is directing his sexuality, his sex drive, and his physical embodiment toward the one-flesh relationship that is the perfect paradigm of God’s intention in creation.
Mohler then asks us to consider the picture of another man:
This man lives alone, or at least in a context other than holy marriage. Directed inwardly rather than outwardly, his sex drive has become an engine for lust and self-gratification. Pornography is the essence of his sexual interest and arousal. Rather than taking satisfaction in his wife, he looks at dirty pictures in order to be rewarded with sexual arousal that comes without responsibility, expectation, or demand. Arrayed before him are a seemingly endless variety of naked women, sexual images of explicit carnality, and a cornucopia of perversions intended to seduce the imagination and corrupt the soul.
This man need not be concerned with his physical appearance, his personal hygiene, or his moral character in the eyes of a wife. Without this structure an accountability, he is free to take his sexual pleasure without regard for his unshaved face, his slothfulness, his halitosis, his body odor, and his physical appearance. He faces no requirement of personal respect, and no eyes gaze upon him in order to evaluate the seriousness and worthiness of his sexual desire. Instead, his eyes roam across the images of unblinking faces, leering at women who make no demands upon him, who never speak back, and who can never say no. There is no exchange of respect, no exchange of love, and nothing more than the using of women as sex objects for his individual and inverted sexual pleasure.
By logical consequence, he achieves sexual gratification at the expense of women who have been used and abused as commodified sex objects. He may imagine a sex act as he fulfills his physical pleasure, but he almost certainly does not imagine what it would mean to be responsible for this woman as husband and accountable to her as mate. He can sit in his soiled underwear, belching the remnants of last night’s pizza, and engage in a pattern of one-handed sexual satisfaction while he “surfs the net” and forfeits his soul.
Here’s the point:
These two pictures of male sexuality are deliberately intended to drive home the point that every man must decide who he will be, whom he will serve, and how he will love. In the end, a man’s decision about pornography is a decision about his soul, a decision about his marriage, a decision about his wife, and a decision about God.
Pornography is a slander against the goodness of God’s creation and a corruption of this good gift God has given his creatures out of his own self-giving love. To abuse this gift is to weaken, not only the institution of marriage, but the fabric of civilization itself. To choose lust over love is to debase humanity and to worship the false god Priapus in the most brazen form of modern idolatry.
You can read it and listen to it online.
If you are struggling with sexual sin or any sin. Find a trusted Christian brother and bring the issue out into the light and through God’s mercy and grace, and your discipline you can become the man God wants you to be.
What would happen if you went up to one of the more profane entertainers and ardent atheist and gave them a bible. If you know the person hates everything you believe in. Do you think it would be a waste of time? Is it worth the effort? Or would you just go looking for someone easier to go talk to.
One day someone gave Magician and Atheist Penn Jillette a bible. This video has been floating around for a while, but it once again challenged me when I was asked if I was going to invite my parents and sister’s to our ELQ (which is like alpha). Hear his reaction from his own mouth and be challenged by his words.
Here is what he said:
“I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a heaven and hell, and people could be going to hell, and not getting eternal life or whatever. And you think that it’s not really worth telling people this because it would be socially awkward. And atheists who think that people shouldn’t proselytize, just leave me alone, keep your religion to yourself. How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize, how much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible, and not tell them that. I mean, If I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you and you didn’t believe it that that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you, and this is more important than that.”
One of my favorite books that I have ever read on the Christian Life is “The Discipline of Grace” by Jerry Bridges. One of these days I need to sit down and do a book review explaining why I think this book is so good and helpful. As I am reading through this book for the fourth time, I am doing a book study with a friend, I was really struck by this quote. I think this really gives some very practical advise on how to live by the gospel.
To live by the gospel, then, means that we firmly grasp the fact that Christ’s life and death are ours by virtue of our union with Him. What He did, we did. This is the only sense in which we can understand Paul’s bold statements in Romans 8: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1); “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31); and “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies” (Romans 8:33).
These statements by Paul are objective truths; that is, they are truth whether we grasp them or not. So often, however, we find it difficult to believe them. Because of our frequent failures before God, we do feel under condemnation, we do not feel God is for us but rather must surely be against us, we do think He is bringing charges against us. At such times we must preach the gospel to ourselves. We must review what God has declared to be true about our justification in Christ.
Justification is a completed work as far as God is concerned. The penalty has been paid and His justice has been satisfied. But it must be received through faith and must be continually renewed in our souls and applied to our consciences everyday through faith. There are two “courts” we must deal with: the court of God in Heaven and the court of conscience in our souls. When we trust in Christ for salvation, God’s court is forever satisfied. Never again will a charge of guilt be brought against us in Heaven. Our consciences, however are continually pronouncing us guilty. That is the function of the conscience. There we must by faith bring the verdict of conscience into line with the verdict of Heaven. We do this by agreeing with our conscience about our guilt. but then reminding it that our guilt has already been borne by Christ.
I have not written in my blog for a long time. There have been a few reasons for that lack of writing. None of them good.
The biggest reason is that I have been lazy. It takes time and effort to write.
When I sin, I feel like I have no right to write anything especially about God’s Word
Intimidation. I am privileged at my church to study and work with people who have great minds, who sometimes listening to them makes my head hurt. I think that I have to write and think on their level. I am not smart enough to be the next John Piper, CJ Mahaney, or Craig Muri.
I might be wrong about something and someone will think less of me. I have people who I admire and respect read this blog and do not want to be looked at as stupid.
So why do I blog?
It started off with the fact that I use to like to write and every once in a while I was able to write coherently.
It helps me think through things.
It is a way, maybe just maybe I can reach out to someone.
Why start again this year?
Help me think through new Biblical and life concepts that I am learning. Reading and studying through the Bible and trying to live a holy life it is not enough to just read and listen, you need to interact and wrestle with the text from the Bible and try to integrate concepts into your life.
Help me learn to communicate more clearly.
To possibly learn from others. Instead of being wrong, I will get a chance to learn.
My goal is to write at least two blog entries each month. With the hope of doing blog posting at least once a week. I am hoping that as I write I am able to wrestle and learn things that will help me become closer to the image of Christ. My hope is through His help that I am able to write things that are God glorifying.
Today is the first day of a New Year. It is all shiny and new. It is a new beginning. How appropriate it is to start reading the bible from the beginning.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.”
(Genesis 1:1-4 ESV)
God calls the light out of the darkness and so begins the shaping of the world. After the six days of creation the world was all shiny and new. It was pure uncorrupted and undamaged, kind of like the year seems to us as the calendar turns from December 31 to January 1.
As I read this morning the first three chapters of Genesis, I wanted to luxuriate myself in the Creation Story and the newly God created earth. I really struggled to start reading chapter 3 of Genesis. I wanted to read more about what it was like to live in Eden and to be able to walk in the garden with God, to live in the newness of the world.
I am always surprised how quickly the fall comes in the Bible. It seems that as soon as man was created we fell. First two chapters talking about God creating the world and mankind, the very next thing is our pride got better of us. It seems that paradise wasn’t enough for us.
The same will happen with our shiny New Year. Suffering, tragedy and sin will start invading and corrupting our new year, if it hasn’t already started happening.
If I ended here this would be a very depressing blog post…
Genesis is the beginning of the Bible, but not necessarily the beginning of the story. The story begins in eternity past with an all knowing, sovereign God knowing full well, what will happen when he created the earth, and created man in His image. This sovereign God knowing exactly what he is going to do.
The fall is not the ending of the story, but the beginning. The fall is one of the most important events of the Bible, but in some ways it is just the back story of what is to come both in the Bible and the world. The fall is the beginning point of a story of How God is going to save and redeem His people and His creation.
The world may seem like it is in chaos and completely out of control, but there is a God who is in perfect control of everything. This year as I read through the Bible I pray that I will get to know more of who God is (Exodus 34:6) and be assured by both the things he has done and the things (John 3:16*) he has promised to do (Micah 7:8-9*)
*There are numerous examples of who God is, what God has done, and what he has promised. I just chose the ones in my thoughts today.
This last Sunday Pastor Craig preached a sermon called “From Death to Life“ (I am a little disappointed I have not seen any increase of traffic to my website because of his sermon). The text he was preaching from was 1 Peter 4:1-6. His main points was ”Arm yourself with the intention to suffer, understanding that it is inevitable. To do so is to make a decisive break with sin, imitating the thinking of Christ“.
He asked and answered several questions in this sermon such as:
What is the way of thinking we are to imitate Christ in regards to suffering?
Christ accepted suffering as part of being in the flesh.
Christ accepted suffering as the consequence of holiness.
Christ accepted suffering as doing the will of God.
He asked another question which was very pragmatic. He asked ”Why does it have to work this way?“ Why do we as Christians have to suffer, why is suffering inevitable for Christians?
Paraphrasing Pastor Craig’s answer (even typing on my computer I am not fast enough to keep up with him), he said ”When holiness touches a fallen world there is a violent reaction, there is push back, there are sparks of friction.” They are polar opposites.
With that answer is it at all surprising when Holiness personified (Jesus) touched the world that people reacted the way they did? Jesus was hated by the world but He was never polluted or stained by it.
So again why do we suffer (stealing from my notes again)?
We suffer because we choose God’s will and we inherit suffering.
We suffer because human beings hate holiness unless we embrace holiness
If we have been called (Romans 8:30) and we have chosen to follow God’s will, we will be transformed from the depraved lawless idolaters (1 Peter 4:2) to being holy and blameless, conformed into the image of his son (Colossians 1:22; Romans 8:29). The metaphors that describe this process in the bible is anything but fluffy bunnies, comfort and ease.
God knitted us together in the womb to make us the way he wanted us (Psalm 139:13-14). He once again takes up His tools to reshape and transform us into a holy image of His Son. One of His tools of choice is our suffering. God orchestrates our suffering to transform us as the master potter uses a clay knife and potter’s wheel (Isaiah 64:8) or as a metal smith uses a a refiner’s fire (Malachi 3:2-3) or furnace and files to forge and shape metal. (See Proverbs 17:3; Isaiah 48:10; 1 Peter 1:6-7; Titus 2:14)
God uses suffering to purify us from the world. Unlike Jesus we do get polluted and stained by the world. God needs to scrape, file and burn off the sludge of our sin and worldliness. That process hurts. We were born of the world and have always lived within it. Now God is scraping the worldly and sinful things that we have come to depend upon to replace it with His holiness, grace and love.
As God continues to work on me I am beginning to understand why both Peter and Paul see their suffering as a gift and are able to rejoice in it.
Thank you Lord for letting me suffer through my depression and bringing me from death to life. I pray that you continue to teach us all how to trust you especially in our suffering.
We talk often about the still soft voice of God. In 1 Samuel 3, Samuel, for the first time was addressed directly by God. God called Samuel three times and if it wasn’t for his teacher Eli’s discernment Samuel may not have answered (1 Samuel 3:1-10 ESV). The encounter with God was definitely not a meet and greet. God just promised to “do a thing to Israel that will make the ears of anyone who hears about it tingle”. On top of that God told Samuel that he is going to punish Eli’s (his teacher) family forever (1 Samuel 4:10-21 ESV).
I am not sure I could imagine what Samuel was feeling at this time. First Samuel just encountered the Almighty God. Second God declared in direct revelation that something profound was going to happen to Israel. Third, he is struggling with the fact that he needs to tell his teacher everything including the punishment of his family.
Eli, demanded and threaten to curse Samuel if he did not tell everything of his encounter of God. I could picture Samuel bracing himself for some sort of profound reaction of grief or anger or something as Samuel shared everything that God said (1 Samuel 3:11-18 ESV).
A teaching moment has come and Eli’s reaction was anything but predictable to me and I suspect Samuel was surprised and awed by it too. Eli said:
““It is the LORD. Let him do what seems good to him.”” – (1 Samuel 3:18 ESV)
I have been thinking a lot about this story in the Bible and how it shows Eli’s trust in the sovereignty of God in a time of struggle. One of the struggle that I have is cyclical depression. Living with depression is a taste of Hell that I hope most will never encounter. When I sink into the bowels of depression, self-pity, hopelessness, anger and despair. I strike out towards God and everyone around me. I am angry and frustrated that though I believe in God, he allows me to suffer through these bouts of depression. I am angry because I know that he can cure the depression without effort. He can sanctify me. He can transform me in a second.
And yet God chooses not too. God chooses not to end suffering, mine and others. At first glance (and yes, second, third, fourth, three hundredth glance) that is a hard thing to swallow. Then you encounter texts like in 1 Samuel 3:18 where you see Eli is facing the disappointment in his sons who are dishonoring the priest and more importantly God and facing the inevitable death of not only his family but himself and yet has complete faith in the Lord.
Eli did not have the promises of the New Testament. He did not have the promise of Romans 8:28. Though he had a relationship with God which we will not have on this side of glory.
God will do what is good to Him. Thankfully what is good in His eyes is always good for us in His purposes.
I pray that we all are able to face our lives with the complete trust that Eli had in the Lord.
I was reading today in the Wall Street Journal a story about how the army is dealing with the increasing number of suicides that are taking place, the article is called “A General’s Personal Battle“ (This is on the Wall Street Journal site and I am not sure how long they will let non-subscribers read the story). What struck me about this story was the last two small paragraphs of the story.
Gen. Graham wasn’t a physically affectionate man before Kevin’s suicide. Today, he makes a point of hugging every father he meets who has lost a lost a child to combat or suicide.
“Men grieve differently,” he says. “But I still remember someone hugging me after Jeff’s death and just whispering, ‘Let me take a little bit of that pain off of you.’ ”
We are suppose to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2). Here in this story is how one man, one hug, affected this General and changed his whole outlook.
Isn’t bearing one another’s burden offering to take a little bit of the pain and help give it to God? This looks to me as an example of how we are suppose to help bear one another’s burdens.
In my insomniac state, I was thinking about a question that Paul asks in Romans 6 that just stuns me. In the little bit of research I have done the commentators don’t say much on it. Maybe someone will have some thoughts.
“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.”
(Romans 6:20-21 ESV)
Earlier Paul states that either we are slaves of sin, which leads to death or of obedience which leads to righteousness (Romans 6:16 ESV).
Several thoughts come to me about this:
Most unsaved people do not know that they are slaves.
Since you do not know you are a slave, they think they are free, no authority, no consequences.
When we receive the holy spirit, we finally realize we are slaves.
Yet we willingly go back to the slavery of sin, because of the immediate gratification.
What stuns me about the verse above is that Paul asks the perfect question, you have been living this life full of pride, greed, selfishness, lust (just name your sin) and what have you gotten from it other than shame?
What stuns me is that I now have been saved from the shame, guilt, punishment and death of my sinful life style and yet I crave to go back to my sin.
I am just thinking about application here.
If I want to complain about something… What fruit will that produce?
If I want to lust about something… What fruit will that produce?
If I want to gossip about someone… What fruit will that produce?
It is a question that I need to pray to God to bring in front of my face in every aspect of my life!
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