Convicting Grace

As Paul Tripp points out in his helpful little devotional Whiter than Snow, "We all have a perverse capacity to be comfortable with what God says is wrong."

God's response is to bring conviction and though painful at the time is meant to warn us, protect us and restore us, as Tripp describes,

"God's loving hammer of conviction is meant to break your heart, and the pain of heart you feel is meant to alert you to the fact that something is spiritually wrong inside of you. Like that warning signal of physical pain, the rescuing and restoring pain of convicting grace is a thing worth celebrating." Whiter than Snow, 35

Perhaps you are feeling the pain of conviction, God has used His Word or a faithful friend to point out sin, rejoice today that God is working and pouring out grace to protect you and use this conviction to help you trust and reflect His Son in greater ways. It is God's heart that we grow to see conviction, even though it is painful at times, as true gift from His hand.

Do you really think you are the worst sinner you know?

Some people have asked in coming to City Church and Sovereign Grace about our application of the doctrine of sin and what this means in terms of how we view ourselves. It is the conviction of City Church that we follow Paul's example in describing himself as the "chief of sinners" [1 Timothy 1:15]

What does this mean practically and how does this play out? Listen to the discussion linked as CJ has a very helpful interaction with another pastor wrestling with this concept. Perhaps you have some of these same questions, I pray this blog and video help provide clarity.

Doing Life Together

In thinking about our desire for and pursuit of our biblical fellowship, this quote though from a marriage book, clearly and practically describes the Bible's view of care and what we pray is experienced in our care groups,

"Christian fellowship is an expression of both love and humility. It springs from a desire to bring benefit to others, coupled with a sense of personal weakness and need. It has a double motive - the wish to help, and to be helped; to edify, and to be edified. It has a double aim - to do, and to receive, good. It is a corporate seeking by Christian people to know God better through sharing with each other what, individually, they have learned of him already."

J.I. Packer quoted in Love that Lasts

The effects of the Gospel

A New Year [I know it's January 20th but it's been a crazy month so far] and a new resolve to the blog.

As we walk through our series in Pierced for our Transgressions together, the hope is that it would lead to two major results among us. First, that we would love Jesus more and more as we come to a greater understanding of what He has accomplished on the cross. Second, that it would lead to a greater witness as we recognize our call and the joy in telling people this great news.

As we think about the second result, Ligon Duncan in a blog a few months back realized that a purposeful pursuit of and teaching about the gospel should lead to the following characteristics being lived out among the congregation,

1. That your whole congregation would be able to articulate the Gospel, personally, in a compelling and understandable way;
2. That your whole congregation would understand the importance and necessity of their lives, their prayers and their participation in Gospel witness;
3. That your whole congregation would deeply care about conversions (and I would lay stress here, that we are talking about real conversions, not numbers; disciples, not decisions; changed lives, not merely prayed prayers);
4. That your whole congregation would earnestly and regularly pray for conversions, talks about their own conversions and the conversions of others, and put a priority on people coming to know God; and
5. That your whole congregation would be excited about the Gospel itself, and not simply about a method of sharing the Gospel, or a training program.

I pray as we go through this series together, that these characteristics would increasingly mark our people and bear fruit in our lives and draw others to know Him through us, for His glory.

Waiting on Answers to Prayer

I don't know about you, but perhaps there have been times when there were requests we made to God again and again and we wondered if He is ever going to answer. Prayers for the salvation of a loved one, requests for help or even victory in overcoming a recurring sin have been uttered again and again with no seeming response from our Heavenly Father. Recently, I have been reading Steve Miller's book, C.H. Spurgeon on Spiritual Leadership. In the book, Miller highlights the different aspects of Spurgeon's leadership. The first chapter describes Spurgeon's commitment to prayer personally and for ministry and I was particularly caught by these two quotes,

"Frequently the richest answers are not the speediest...A prayer may be all the longer on its voyage because it is bringing us a heavier freight of blessing. Delayed answers are not only trials of faith, but they give us an opportunity of honouring God by our steadfast confidence in Him under apparent repulses."

"God's answers have never come too soon nor yet too late."

Be encouraged today that if there are prayers that have been uttered 10, 100 or 1000 times, God has heard and He will answer in His perfect time and in His perfect way. He simply calls us as His children to trust Him and to call out to Him in dependence.

Avoiding Extremes in Missional Thinking

Recently, Justin Taylor posted this excerpt from Tullian Tchividjian's upcoming book, Unfashionable

"There’s a major difference between having a tribal mindset and a missionary mindset. The highest value of a tribally minded person is self-protection. They ask questions like: Since I feel the safest around those who are just like me, how can I protect myself from those who are different than I am? So they intentionally surround themselves with people who think the way they think, like the things they like, and despise the things they despise. As a result, they live with a sense of superiority, looking down on those who are not like them (for half my life I was convinced that surfers like me were far cooler than anyone on the face of this earth).

In contrast to a tribal minded person, the highest value of a missionary minded person is not self-protection but self-sacrifice. A missionary minded person is a person that exists, not primarily for himself but for others. She is a person that is willing to set aside personal preferences in service to those whose preferences are different than hers. Missionaries are people who are willing to be inconvenienced, discomforted, and spent for the well-being of others. The Gospel of Jesus Christ demands that we be missionary minded, because the gospel is the story of God sacrificing himself for others."

Here from my cheap seats is the problem in dividing the two groups and talking in extremes. First, the Bible talks at length about our necessity to be connected to other Christians. Jesus says that others will know that we are His disciples if we have love for one another, this meaning primarily other disciples [John 13:35]. Paul agrees saying in Galatians 6:10 that, "as we have opportunity to do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith."

We are called to be tribal in gathering around ourselves other believers for our encouragement, support and in loving them we display our Savior to the watching world. However, there should be no sense or thought of superiority because it by grace expressed through the Cross that Christians can experience relationship with one another and reflect the love to which we are called. And when this happens, Christians should realize the call and joy to share this great message with those around them that don't know this.

It really is about avoiding extremes in this discussion and really it's about being a tribal missionary. Tribal in being connected first to the church [the tribe] for instruction, encouragement and support and then being a missionary in going out everyday realizing the joy of sharing about the tribe and how to get connected to it through the Master.

Sweet and Sour Words

My wife and I had the opportunity to go and hear one of our favorite artists at Prospect Park on Saturday night [essentially for free, what a blessing!]
This woman is not a Christian, but is a great songwriter that writes and sings great stories. She is a rather unassuming and gentle singer, sweet really. But here is the lesson in opposites, this sweet singer who sings with a soft voice between songs would fill the void with profanity laden discussions. While it was disappointing, it brought to mind this verses,
"From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water." [James 3:9-12 ESV]
The humbling reality is that as I considered those verses, it struck me that my tongue still needs much work. How often do I pray and thank God and then speak in a harsh tone to my wife? I need to be aware of the battle of sweet and sour words coming forth from my mouth and recognize that I need Jesus to help me guard my tongue, day by and moment by moment so that I am pouring out fresh words instead of salty ones.
The question today is how is our tongue doing?