John Calvin on Psalm 12

From verses 1-2 on how Christians are called to be a reflection of the truth

"We who would act truthfully, therefore, must be like a mirror, in which the uprighteous of our hearts may be clearly seen."

From verses 5-6 and the value of God's Word

"The illustration of silver, though far below the dignity of so great a subject, is appropriate to our limited and imperfect understanding. Yet we rarely set sufficient value on the Word of God, and in our futile thinking we can even obscure or efface the brightness shining in His promises."

Getting Angry at Myself part 2

Continuing the theme from the previous post, the second way that self-anger can play out in our lives and what it can reveal is

2. The person who is angry at himself may not see or be willing to acknowledge the depth of his own sinful nature.

A few quotes again from Robert T. Jones to help us see how this works. First, in our thought process when we get angry at ourselves, we can be thinking,

"I still can't believe that I-I, a good moral person, I, the great I - actually did such a dastardly thing.", Uprooting Anger, 133

As Jones then wisely points out, this thought reveals,
"Your self-anger may simply be the result of naively believing that you are better than you are really are." Ibid, 133

Sometimes when I get mad at myself, I will hear myself say that I should have known better, but to say that can reveal that I think I can do well enough on my own. My failure reminds me of my need for God's strength again, His enablement and a reminder of my need for the forgiveness Christ provided through His death and resurrection. When I sin, it reminds me again that I'm a sinner, and instead of thinking that I should have known better, I can rest in one who not only knew better but did better, He lived perfection and gave that perfection to me through His death.
My self-anger reveals that I'm worse than I thought but the cross shows me that it can be and is better than I could have hoped for.

Getting Angry at Myself

I am going through the book Uprooting Anger by Robert T. Jones, and yesterday I came to the chapter about getting angry at ourselves. I was tempted to skip over this chapter because on the surface I didn't think this was an issue in my life. Thank God that He prompted me to go through this chapter, because it has convicted and confronted me about many areas of my life where this self-anger is at work. Over the next couple of days, I will share the lessons from the chapter on where this struggle can creep in.

Today, the first instruction

1. The person who is angry with himself may simply be expressing his inability or unwillingness to grasp and receive God's forgiveness.

Jones describes that this can happen when, "I'm mad at me because, while my conscience tells me I deserve punishment, in my unbelief I do not see God's judgment and forgiveness concurrently poured out on me." Uprooting Anger, Robert T. Jones, 131.

Later, he says also that, "Perhaps the person [struggling with self-anger] has not gripped the scope and depth of God's forgiving grace and power." Uprooting Anger, 131.

Let me play out how this can work. We sin, we get angry at our spouse or our roommate or a co-worker and then later become convicted of our sin. However, instead of turning to the cross, remembering the forgiveness and grace to obey purchased there, we beat ourselves up, thinking we should have known better and so there is something I need to do to be better next time. Without bringing the cross into view though, this battle and self-anger will repeat itself because there is nothing I can do in myself to remedy the problem and the guilt that ensues from self-anger will lead me away from the only sure remedy, Jesus as I focus more on myself.

If there is a sin we committed today or one that we committed recently and we are walking around angry at ourselves, condemning ourselves that "it" happened again, might we remember the true remedy for sin, the remedy that takes guilt and judgment away, Jesus Christ.

Dying to Serve

"We can imagine no higher degree of perfection than that which is here set before us. To take patiently whatever God sends, - to like nothing but what God likes, - to wish nothing but what God approves, - to prefer pain, if it please God to send it, to ease, if God does not think fit to bestow it, - to lie passive under God's hand, and to know no will but His, - this is the highest stand at which we can aim, and of this our Lord's conduct in Gethsemane is a perfect pattern.

"Let us strive and labour to have 'the mind that was in Christ' in this matter. Let us daily pray and endeavour to be enabled to mortify our self-will. - It is for our happiness to do so.

Nothing brings us so much misery on earth as having our own way. - it is the best proof of real grace to do so. Knowledge, and gifts, and convictions, and feelings, and wishes, are all very uncertain evidences. They are often to be found in unconverted persons. But a continually increasing disposition to submit our own wills to the will of God, is a far more healthy symptom. It is a sign that we are really 'growing in grace, and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ."

JC Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Mark, from Mark 14:32-42

We learned from Sunday's message that true living consists in serving others. Whenever we find that hard, let us not forget Gethsemane and that Jesus humble obedience in that moment is our great example but also forms the basis for our ability to serve Him and others.

He who finds a wife

Proverbs 18:22

He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord

9 years ago today, the Lord provided me with a good thing, a great thing in my wife Melanie and I have been blessed by favor from the Lord through her consistently through these last nine years.

It is amazing and humbling that Mel has joyfully followed me as we have trusted the Lord through what my calling and ministry life would look like. I am doing what I love and feel called to do, and she is giving up desires, dreams, lovingly and joyfully to follow a sinner like me.

She regularly prays for me, shares how God is using me to teach her and care for her.

She is patient with me as I learn to trust God and grow in being a more godly husband to her and for her. She does an amazing job caring for our daughter, caring for the ladies in our church and is an example to me in numerous ways.

I am convinced that when we meet our Savior one day, there will be many more crowns awaiting her for the sacrifices she has made through these 9 years and for the simple and yet joy filled ways she has served and followed the Savior.

I am blessed she is in my life and I am blessed to call her my wife.

His Presence in our Troubles

"We make a mistake when we measure our potential to deal with difficulty by the size and duration of the problem. We should be measuring our potential according to the size of God's provision and the promise of his eternal presence. Even in the deepest difficulty, we are never without resources. We are never alone." Timothy Lane and Paul Tripp, Relationships a Mess Worth Making, 40

This quote is given within the context of understanding relational issues and struggles we will face but it holds equally true in all the difficulties of life.

Whatever struggle, burden, trial or hardship we are facing, I pray you remember that God's presence and promises go with you in the midst.

Closing the Gap

We live in an information age and in many ways it is a blessing. With the click of a button, we can download sermons, order great theological books and end up on blogs [like the one you are reading right now]. All of these tools can be helpful as they give us more information, more insight in the Christian life that we are called to live. But James 1:22 warns us of the problem that can happen when we simply become information gatherers

"But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."

So what are we to do? How do we avoid being hearers only. Well, one thing we do at church is provide the context called care groups. Care groups are a mid-week meeting that allows us the opportunity to digest and walk through the sermon together. And really, this is how I would describe the care group context, it is helping us close the gap between theology and practice. Because again being in an information age, the problem is not more information. No, instead it is learning in community to apply what we already know and in doing, help us to be doers of the Word and not hearers only.

Because as Iain H. Murray in describing John Calvin's [which is really James 1:22 at work] understanding of doctrine said,

"Truth is only rightly believed to the extent that it is embodied in life." taken from John Calvin, A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine and Doxology, xvi

Or again as Calvin said himself in his Institutes,

"We have given the first place to the doctrine in which our religion is contained, since our salvation begins with it. But it must enter into our hearts and pass into our daily conduct and so transform us into itself so as not to prove unfruitful." [Instititues 3.6.4]

Care groups are simply one of those contexts that help doctrine pass into daily conduct and close that gap from information to practice.