Heart of Love

The heart of a mother never changes.  It starts the day she finds out she is carrying around another soul inside of her (or the day she picks up her adopted child) and it continues on the rest of her life.  She loves that little being more than her own life.  She nurtures, nourishes, protects and provides for that being.  She cannot, should she even desire to, turn off those traits when that little being becomes full grown.  She longs to be part of that life and to help that life fulfill his/her God-given potential.  But alas, the world as it is today is not conducive to a life intertwined.  Our children grow up to live as independent a life as possible, moving from place to place, separated, self-reliant and unconnected.  And ironically, we encouraged them to do so.  We cheered them on when they learned to walk, first rode a bike, went on a sleepover, learned how to drive and then went away to college.  What were we thinking?  If I could do it all over I wouldn't let them do any of those things.  Well, that's probably not true.  Okay, it's not true at all.  Sigh.

So this morning I went on my daily walk only to witness two little children at the end of their driveway waiting for the school bus to pick them up.  Why did it have to be a little first grade girl and her big brother probably in the 3rd or 4th grade?  Why did it remind me of my two babies waiting for the bus together (who are now 30 and 33 yrs old!)?  And why did I start bawling like a fool all the way home (and praying no one saw me)?  Why do I miss my children so much and why do I hate living far enough away from them that I can't be part of their lives on a daily/weekly basis?  Why does it hurt some days beyond what I think I can bear?

Because the heart of a mother never changes.

This reminded me of another heart that is filled with unconditional love for His children. And that no matter how much my heart aches over the separation between myself and my children, it's only a fraction of what God feels being separated from His children.  His heart ached so much He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to be the sacrificial Lamb so that we could once again come home to Him. And He waits, patiently, for every one of His children to make that journey - not willing to cut the time short and miss even one of His own. Praise the Lord, hallelujah!!!  That's the heart of our Father - and it never changes.

To Those Who Wait by Bethany Dillon

I am waiting on You,
I am waiting on You.
You say You’re good to those who wait.

My heart’s discouraged,
So I come to You expectant. 
You say You’re good to those who wait. 

Lord, today You know what I need to do,
But You can do more in my waiting than in my doing I could do.
So I won’t run anymore.
I’m waiting on You.

Oh, wretched man that I am!
Free me from my distractions.
You say You’re good to those who wait. 

Then confession and repentance
Find me in the quiet.
You say You’re good to those who wait.
Now I know You’re good to those who wait.

Lord, today You know what I need to do,
But You can do more in my waiting than in my doing I could do.
So I won’t run anymore.
I’m waiting on You.

Oh, my soul,
Wait upon the Lord.
Keep your lamp filled with oil.
Oh, my soul,
Be not deceived!
Wait for Him.
Don’t be quick to leave.

Lord, today You know what I need to do,
But You can do more in my waiting than in my doing I could do.
So I won’t run anymore.
I’m waiting on You.

Questions about Abortion and Life

by Damon Parker

To say that talking about abortion is like opening a can of worms may be the greatest understatement of all time. There is so much emotion and ideology attached that once the word abortion is uttered the lines of defense are instantly drawn, the trenches dug, and everyone settles in for war. To try to ask people to see things from other points of view, or even acknowledge the other side may have a decent point or two, is to stand in no-man’s land with machine gun fire coming from both sides.

Yet, that is what I want to do.

Now, I definitely have a stance. I have really strong beliefs. But I do try to see and hear others.

So what I pose here are just some thoughts and questions. I am not pretending that some of them aren’t slanted. They are. I am not saying that I have all the answers. I don’t. But I wish that instead of blindly defending what we think, we would at least allow a question or two to seep in.

Please use this to simply think. If reading one of these questions or thoughts makes you want to instantly stop reading, or convinces you that I am in some other camp that you want no part with then slow down. Think. Why did that push your buttons? Too often we claim to be willing to listen, to be open-minded, to legitimately look at things from other perspectives, but when push comes to shove we quickly dismiss even a thought-provoking question if it differs with our own views. Just take it in. Think.

And please don’t assume that you know my answer to all of these questions. Some of them I don’t even know what my answer is.

If the reason for allowing abortion is that “it is a woman’s body, and she has the right to do with it as she wills”, then shouldn’t prostitution be legal? What about me selling my kidney to someone who needs a transplant?

We have a huge movement in our country to do things naturally. Eat organic, be at one with nature. Yet, many women who wouldn’t dare darken the doors of McDonald’s take birth control pills that dramatically alter what their body naturally does. Why is one okay but the other is not? And then how “natural” is abortion?

Can we please find better language for all this stuff? I read a blog post (written by a woman) that I felt was pretty even-handed in its approach to the Planned Parenthood videos. Yet, the comments were brutal, mean, and one even claimed that the writer was part of a war on women. Seriously? Just because someone is pro-baby doesn’t make them anti-woman does it? Do we have to paint each other into a corner because we are afraid if we actually listened to one another we might learn something or maybe even have to change? If all you can do is chant for your side (whichever that is), and paint the other side as evil, then maybe that is a huge part of the problem?

Let me ask a question to those who are pro-life: What are you doing besides voting and complaining to be a part of the life-giving solution? Are you adopting kids? Fighting for justice? Seeking ways to help the poor and suffering? Trying to stop wars and violence?

Let me ask a question to those who are pro-choice: If someone truly believes that a murder is being committed, what do you expect them to do? I mean, if I knew that someone was going to murder your mother, wouldn’t you want me to do everything in my power and then some to stop it? If someone believes abortion is murder, would you think much of them if they just did nothing?

I hear some people make the point that if the “conservative ” camp cares so much about life, then why aren’t they doing more to stop wars, domestic violence, the death penalty, etc…? You know what; I think that is a pretty good point.

I hear some people make the point that if the “liberal” camp cares so much about stopping something like the death penalty, why don’t they care more about abortion since for every 1 person executed in the United States there are around 25,000 abortions? You know what; I think that is a pretty good point.

I am pro-life. Let me explain. I am for senseless killing to stop, whether it is done with a gun, a grenade, an electric chair, or a scalpel. There is far too much people killing people in this world.

I am pro-choice. Let me explain. I believe that one of the first things God gives people is freedom. They get to choose to even do stupid stuff. We can choose to do things that hurt us or our relationships, or we can choose to do things that bring joy and peace. But we all have the right to choose. However, my personal belief is that rather than defining abortion as the moment of choice, it would be more honest to look at all the choices we make that lead up to that moment.

Finally let me say, I follow Jesus. He is the Lord of Life. Therefore, I stand for life and dignity anywhere I can. But that does not mean that I hate or disparage someone who has an abortion. No, I treat them with love and dignity as well. I just hope that we can all move beyond the idea that we have to hate the other side, as well as come to a place where someone can think what we are doing is completely wrong, but we don’t interpret that as hate. It is the only way this discussion can ever move forward.

Every Child A Wanted Child

from Pythiastheology......................

Planned? Parenthood by Damon Parker

(This is the first in a series of posts about children, parenting, and abortion.)

With so much in the news about Planned Parenthood, I wanted to speak to something that rarely gets talked about. I do this not as a pastor or citizen, but rather as a father. And what I want to talk about is not federal dollars or hidden cameras or even abortion. No, I want to talk about slogans.

Planned Parenthood’s slogan for years was “Every Child A Wanted Child”. Which sounds great. Who thinks it wouldn’t be a better world if every child that was born was greeted with joy and expectation? I love to hear someone get so excited over the little one they are about to bring into the world. And I know how important it is, what a difference it makes, for a child to be loved by people who are ready and capable.

Where I differ with Planned Parenthood, and to be honest with many people including other Christians, is how to get there.

We have become convinced that a baby should come when we say so. We use pills and condoms and iuds and shots to wait for (in our opinion) the perfect moment. When we finally have it all together. When we have just the right partner, the right job, the right financial situation. And yet…that is not how it works.

I have yet to meet a single person who claims that when they had their first child, no matter when, they were truly ready.

How do you actually prepare for the late nights with a colicky baby? Yes, we may mature as we get older (some people definitely do not!). But, while we can promote growth and self-discipline, that is not what people mean when they say they are ready for a child (or for another child).

No, what we mean is typically this: I have a feeling that says I am now ready for a baby.

Many things may or may not play into that feeling. Financial situation, marital status, age, employment and a myriad of factors that are impossible to quantify. Yet, people with no money in the bank will want a baby, and those with millions may say they are not ready. There is no factor that is magic. Because we are talking about a feeling.

So, on the one hand we seem to be waiting for a very specific feeling that says “I am ready”. But there is another side as well.

There is a logic that says that giving people access to birth control actually reduces abortion. And it makes sense. Without the birth control Planned Parenthood helps provide, some of those women would probably get an abortion.

But we have to think deeper. What if our reliance on birth control has led us to the false belief that whatever I do sexually, there shouldn’t be consequences? What if the fact that we feel like we can control when we get pregnant, leads us to believe we should completely control that whole process? Therefore, of course abortion is an option, because our mentality is that we shouldn’t have to deal with a pregnancy we don’t want. I don’t have that feeling that I am ready for a child, so…

Maybe we have more abortions, because our sexual behavior requires no maturing. What if our reliance on avoiding pregnancy while still having the pleasure of sex, is part of what keeps us immature? Think about it. The birth control industry teaches us that we should enjoy this intimate act, but we shouldn’t have to deal with a single consequence. I should be able to have sex whenever and with whomever I want without cost. We think we can make sex “safe”, but we are fooling ourselves. There is nothing “safe” about it. But, one of the things we have put to great risk by believing sex can be without consequence is our own spiritual and emotional growth.

So, the way we have sex does not require or foster maturing. And since we are not maturing, we simply wait for a feeling that tells me the time is now.

What if there is another way, a different path?

A Road Less Travelled

I must really love kids. At least that is how some people see it. They assume that having a large family means that was the goal. Others think we are crazy, or that we belong to some type of cult that worships pregnancy (I actually laughed out loud writing that.)

But the truth is much stranger.

You see, I don’t have seven children because seven times my wife and I determined that we were ready. Sure, we talked about that. Living in a society where people constantly talk about ready or not ready, or how they are “trying”, or that their youngest was an “accident”, you can’t help but think that way. But that has not been our determining factor. No, the reason we have seven kids is because…

See, you really want to know.   I find this all the time. People will talk with me who are obviously flabbergasted. They can’t even imagine a reason. It is so far removed from our cultural expectations. Because we have all bought in. We may frown upon abortion, but we do believe that we know best when it comes to the exact right number and timing of children.

And that is what my wife and I have given up. We have determined that actually, we may not know best. That our “feeling” shouldn’t be the all-determining factor. That our selfishness is too great. That for every child to be wanted requires us to want whatever child comes our way.  And that wanting any child is a spiritual discipline.

That doesn’t mean I look down on someone who doesn’t have children or doesn’t want children or uses birth control. I don’t. But I do believe that most people I know have never thought outside that box. Birth control is assumed. What would happen if we no longer assumed?

It certainly doesn’t mean I look with disdain on a teenage mom, or a college student who has an abortion. No. In fact, they have my utmost sympathy. They are being dragged through a culture that has taught them only one way to think: Have sex when you want-get pregnant when you want. For millennia sex and pregnancy were intimately connected. You can’t suddenly unplug them and not expect something to happen.

As a kid, my family would often go and eat Mexican food. After filling up on chips, salsa, nachos, refried beans, enchiladas and everything else, we would be very slowly making our way out of the restaurant when my father would say, “ooh, I am not ever doing that again.” And yet, a few days later, there we were once again filling up on chimichangas and tamales. If we could have taken a pill that would undue or shield us from the consequences of that meal, we probably would have. After all, we would have eaten Tex-Mex every day if we had the money and the stomach for it. Luckily, no such pill exists. Otherwise, I would never eat a vegetable or a salad. Tex-Mex all the time for me. Which would be horrible for me.

Anytime we divorce the normal consequences of an action from that action we are incentivizing behavior. That is what we are doing with birth control. It incentivizes sex on the front end, and may create a culture where abortion seems reasonable on the back-end.

So, in response to the outrage and counter-outrage about the Planned Parenthood videos, I am not calling for people who are having abortions to stop. I am calling for us to consider something much bigger. What if we changed our entire outlook on children? What if we decided to want every child? What if we looked at the tight bonds that exist between marriage, sex, pregnancy and family and held them up not simply as nice ideals but as real possibilities?  What if we fostered the idea that “every child a wanted child” isn’t just a slogan, it can be a reality?

Are we at least willing to consider that there might be another way?

(Next Week: The way we talk about children and how it influences our choices)

Damon Parker | August 12, 2015 at 9:51 am | Tags: Children, Family, Gospel, Love, Parenting | Categories: Abortion, Choices, God, Gospel, Love, Parenting, Politics, Pregnancy | URL: http://wp.me/p3IHF1-8J

thank you

Joy Comes With The Morning

Read 2 Samuel 7:1-29

There is much content here but the point I would like to make has to do with David's response to God's denial he would build the Temple.  He was not in despair - nor was he angry - he was grateful.  David's prayer rejoiced over the promise of future blessings and also acknowledged God's sovereignty.

Shouldn't that be our response to the disappointments of our day?  Not that we shouldn't feel the sadness that comes as we watch God's values, our country and Constitution being decimated - we wouldn't be human if our hearts weren't broken. But when we fix our eyes on the One who has already declared victory and saved us from eternal damnation, how can we feel anything but gratitude and joy?

Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints,

and give thanks to his holy name.

For his anger is but for a moment,

and his favor is for a lifetime.

Weeping may tarry for the night

but joy comes with the morning.

Psalm 30:4-5

R.C. Sproul on Suffering

In our age we think in terms of public relations.  We are afraid people might not care for God if the truth were known about his relationship to suffering.  Better to shield God from accusations that he is not loving and kind by making him impotent in the face of suffering. Better to comfort the afflicted with the idea that God is in his heaven full of sympathy, wishing the suffering would just go away but unable to make it happen.

The Puritans understood what we so often miss in our suffering, that the route to comfort (and , of course, the route to truth) is not to separate the suffering from the sovereignty of God but to recognize just how tightly bound they are.

The goodness of God does not preclude him from allowing suffering or pain.  If anything, the difficult question is not how God could allow us to suffer but how he could allow us, who rebel against his majestic authority every day, who repay our Maker with incessant revolt, ever to experience pleasure. There is no logical problem of pain for sinners, only a problem of pleasure. The puzzler is why God would allow pleasure in the lives of we who hate him and do not obey his commands.

Suffering doesn't just come because God sends it after we sin, but sin will always lead to suffering, because to sin is to act against our best interests. But we mustn't conclude we can measure the sinfulness of a person by the degree of his or her suffering. Did Job deserve what he went through? No, he didn't. Job deserved far worse. Job's plight fell well short of what was due him, eternal damnation. Job was a sinner in the sense that all but Jesus are sinners. And all sinners deserve eternal damnation.

So as we look at the problem of suffering, we must keep in mind not only that we never suffer more than we deserve but also that our suffering does not serve as a barometer of sin.

excerpts from Almighty Over All, R.C. Sproul

We Christians in the West Are Soft

We who name Christ as our King and are immersed in western civilization and culture have little concept of what it means to suffer for "Christ's name's sake." Our church buildings are beautiful and comfortable, our worship services are moving and meaningful, and our lives run like clockwork. Think back to how you felt the last time the lights went out during a storm. Were you irritated? Lost? Or do you remember your reaction the last time your 4G phone service went off-line? Were you frustrated? Perplexed? When our greatest discomforts in life revolve around electricity and electronics instead of challenges to our faith and discipleship of others, we American Christians have become too soft. Don't misundersand: This softness isn't a moral dilemma for us; it is simply a meaningful description of us. We didn't ask to become soft, our culture has made us soft.

This is why a knowledge of history, geography, and current events is so important. When Christian kids in the west feel the greatest disappointment for them during the holidays is in not getting just the right number or kind of gifts, then we are doing a disservice to them by not helping them become interested in the world at large and the world of the past. For many centuries, Christians have been persecuted, tortured and killed for their faith in Christ. Sadly, Voice of the Martyrs tells us that more Christians have been killed or martyred in the last century than in all of the previous centuries combined. We don't know about this because it doesn't happen in the west. That's why it is important for us to open the eyes of our kids to the world outside of modern western civilization. When the Burleson kids were growing mom and dad read to them Fox's Book of Martyrs during our morning devotional. It made their cereal and oatmeal more difficult to eat as we read, but is sure helped them understand that many Christians have not lived as cushy of lives as we.

Today, I was moved by reading a letter from Pliny the Younger to Roman Emperor Marcus Trajan. Pliny was the governor of Bythinia in northwest Turkey in the early second century, and he considered Emperor Trajan his best friend. The letter, written about AD 111, vividly describes to Trajan how Pliny deals with the Christians in Bythinia, people Pliny considered enemies of the Roman Empire for their refusal to ascribe deity to the Roman Emperor and say, "Caesar is Lord."

Pliny writes,

"I have asked them if they are Christians, and if they admit it, I repeat the question a second and a third time, with a warning of the punishment awaiting them. If they persist in avowing themselves followers of the one they call Christ, I order them to be led away for execution; for, whatever the nature of their admission, I am convinced that their stubbornness and unshakable obstinacy ought not to go unpunished...

The sum total of their guilt amounts to no more than this: they meet regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately amongst themselves in honor of Christ as if to a god, and they also bind themselves by oath, not for any criminal purpose, but to abstain from theft, robbery and adultery...

This has made me to decide it was all the more necessary to extract the truth by torture from two slave-women, whom they call deaconnesses. I find them to be nothing but a degenerative sort of cult carried to extravagamt lengths."

Next time you complain about the carpet in your auditorium, or the comfort and style of the chairs that you sit in at church, or the lack of funding for your special church programs, remember those two Christian deaconnesses from Bythiania and the torture they endured so that Pliny could get to the truth about this cult called Christianity. Those two women endured something you may never face in your lifetime, but we can sure learn from them. Christianity to them was life, not convenience. The only thing that will harden us up in the west without facing persecution ourselves is a vocal acknowledgement that much of what we get attached to in church are those things that are comfortable and make us feel wonderful instead of those things that are missional and make us very purposeful.

God vs America?

The original idea of democracy comes from the Greek societal concept of a polis (“city” or “city-state”), which was developed under the assumption that humankind could rule itself autonomously.

Free market capitalism added fuel to the fire of man’s search for individual significance, and a proliferation of this worldview went global at a truly astonishing pace. Pride in our tremendous abilities had become a contender for the souls of men on the world’s stage through a Darwinian-based ideology of its own.

In our efforts to be a tolerant people, Christians have allowed ourselves to be delegated to the backseat of the bus.  And while we are told we must not give a voice to our beliefs lest that be considered intolerant, there is no similar message being doled out to the militant secularists or the radical Islamists.  And so they take the opportunity handed to them on a silver platter and use it to their advantage.

With its irreligious, amoral veneer, militant secular humanism may have won the most “converts” of all;  and there appears to be no end in sight.  In terms of numbers, secularists, non-religious people and atheists come in third place, just behind Christianity and Islam, accounting for 16 percent of the world’s population (approx.  1.1 billion).  It offers no system of moral absolutes. It is a relativistic paradigm that attempts to develop morality from the situation at hand, relative to the needs and wants of the individual perspectives involved.   

To those who do not believe in good and evil, the actions of suicide bombers and Holocaust –deniers do not register for what they are.  They naively reason there must be valid social factors motivating this behavior. Poverty is the most common explanation this rationale has to offer. When everything is relative to circumstance, there is always a way of justifying any action, however heinous. 

They (militant secularists) ridicule or dismiss as extremist any who refuses to throw in the towel on absolutes and join them in their relativistic, “anything goes” malaise.

Christians must use the democratic platform for freedom of expression to speak the truth in love – at every opportunity living out their faith, being salt and light in the culture and manifesting godly character in government, media, the arts, religious settings, education, business and finance.  Jesus admonished His followers to be a light on a hill and not to hide or retreat (see Matthew 5). America was founded by Christian believers to be that “city on a hill.”  Yes, such activity will be attacked and ridiculed by the other two houses (radical Islam and militant secularism).  The battle for the minds and souls of citizens will be unremitting, requiring tremendous sacrifices of times, resources and energy. In the end, we have the sure hope that truth will eventually prevail.

Christians must give up our false idol of America and instead use the opportunity God has given us to spread His gospel by speaking the truth boldly.  We have no problem waving the American flag, raising banners that speak of patriots and freedom yet fall short of thanking our God in the public square.  We are bold when it comes to speaking out for our country yet timid when it’s time to speak about our God.  Have we developed an unhealthy pride in America?  Our God is a jealous God (Ex 34:14) and will not tolerate false idols.

Perhaps we Christians have been lulled into complacency by the lifestyle we cherish so much.  Perhaps we have become lazy and unwilling to sacrifice.  Are we so comfortable that we no longer desire to seek God’s will for our lives but instead do the minimum and tell ourselves that is enough – that He doesn’t require anything more?  Would God have asked so much of our forefathers and so little of us?  How we love to quote Washington, Lincoln, Franklin, Adams, Jefferson and the rest, yet dishonor the sacrifices they made by doing so little to keep the vision they had from God alive today.

It’s time to stop blaming everyone else – the radical Islamists, the illegal immigrants, the militant secularists, the feminists, the humanists, politicians – for our lack of commitment.  We have been given opportunity after opportunity – chance after chance – and yet, like God’s chosen people, we throw them away.   Start today by praying for hearts that will repent and beg God for mercy.  And then pray every day that we would once again be the light of the world – the city on the hill that cannot be hidden (Matthew 5:14).

Seek his will in all you do,

And he will show you which path to take.

Proverbs 3:6

Brown type from Robert Stearns No, We Can’t

The Cost

excerpts from MacArthur's "The Starting Principle of Discipleship" . . . . . . . .

If you want to follow Christ, you want to be a Christian, do you?  Here’s the message.  Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him. 

Do you hear that in the contemporary gospel?  Do you ever hear that?  Do you ever hear that in a message given by a television preacher or an evangelist?  Do you ever hear anybody say that?  Do you ever hear anybody stand up in a crowd and say, “If you want to become a Christian, slay yourself, deny yourself all the things that yourself longs for and wants and hopes for, be willing to die and slavishly submit in obedience to Jesus Christ”?  That doesn’t sell.  That’s not smart marketing.  It just happens to be the truth. 

So what do you want to do?  Get someone artificially converted?  That’s the popular way.  Give people the illusion they’re saved when they’re not so that some day when they face Christ they’re going to say, “Lord, Lord,” and He’s going to say, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.”  The gospel has to be the gospel.  You want to follow Me then?  The principle is, it’s the end of you if you want to follow Me.  It’s the end of you.  You don’t exist anymore.  Paul said it this way.  “For to me to live is - ” what? “ - Christ and to die is - ”  I’ve learned how to be abased and how to abound.  I’ve learned how to have things and not have things.  It doesn’t matter.  If I live I live to the Lord.  If I die I die unto the Lord.  What’s the difference? I’m the Lord’s.”  That’s the attitude. 

Men want glory.  They want health.  They want wealth.  They want happiness.  They want all their felt needs met, all their human little itches scratched.  They want a painless life.  They want the crown without the cross.  They want the gain without the pain.  That’s how people think.  That’s not God’s interest.  The author of our salvation, according to Hebrews 2:10, was made perfect through suffering, and so are we as well taken through the crucible of suffering.  And where we suffer, first of all, is in the death of all hopes, all ambitions, all desires, all longings, all needs that are human.  That’s the point.

So you want to be a Christian, it’s not easy.  You’d think it was easy.  Today, if you want to be a Christian, pray these little words.  Pray this little prayer, and you’ll be a Christian.  It’s not easy to be a Christian.  Let me show you some things.

Matthew 7:13.  This is, again, the teaching of our Lord.  Matthew 7:13, Sermon on the Mount, familiar words, verse 13, “Enter by the narrow gate.”  First of all, become a Christian, you’re going through a narrow gate.  The idea of narrow here means “constricted.”  I mean, it’s one of those things that you have to kind of go through.  It’s very, very tight.  You can’t carry anything through it.  You come through with nothing.  “There is a wide gate, but it leads to destruction.”

There’s a wide religious gate, and people are going on with all their baggage, and all their self needs, and all their self esteem, and all their desire for fulfillment and self satisfaction, and all of that.  They’re going on there, but it doesn’t go to heaven, it says “heaven” but ends up in hell.  And many go that way.

But there is also, verse 14, this very small, narrow gate and it leads to eternal life, but notice this, “Few are those who find it.”  And the idea is it’s hard to find.  And I agree that it’s hard to find.  It’s especially hard to find today.  You can go to church, after church, after church, after church, after church and never find it.  It’s a very narrow gate. 

It’s hard to find and it’s hard to get through.  Why?  Why is it so hard to find and why is it so hard to get through  Answer, because it’s so hard to deny yourself.  So hard.  That’s the reigning reality in human fallenness, that man is the master of his own soul, the captain of his own faith, that man is the monarch of his own world, that man is king and to say he has to slay himself, deny himself, that’s too much to swallow.  You preach a gospel that doesn’t include that and people will flock around to get out of hell into heaven.  You start preaching the true gospel that calls for total and absolute self-denial, the recognition that you have nothing of which you are worthy, nothing of which you can be commended, nothing in you that needs to be salvaged.  But rather you’re willing to slay everything you are, all your hopes, dreams, ambitions for the sake of the pearl, for the sake of Christ and you’re coming on God’s terms.  That’s not easy.  It’s hard, first of all, to find that truth and it’s even harder once you’ve heard it to submit to it because man worships himself.  He’s his own god. 

What we need to be telling people is not “come to Christ and you’ll feel better about yourself,” is not “Jesus wants to meet whatever your needs are.”  Jesus doesn’t want to meet your needs, your worldly, earthly, human needs.  He wants you to be willing to say, “I will abandon all the things I think I need for the sake of Christ.”

And then Jesus told those two parables in Matthew 13:44-46.   He said there was a man who found a treasure hidden in a field and he saw the value of the treasure and he sold everything for the treasure.  Then he said there was a pearl of great price, that the man found the pearl of great price, he sold everything to get the pearl.  It’s the selling everything that is the essence of salvation.  It’s I give up everything, I deny myself, I offer my life both in terms of death, if need be, and in terms of obedience in life.  This is the message of the gospel.  So when you go to preach the gospel, that’s what you have to say. 

Now, you say, “But people aren’t going to buy that.”  Well wait a minute, people aren’t going to buy that, of course not, unless the Spirit of God is working in their hearts, right?  Unless the Spirit of God is doing the work of conviction, and the Spirit of God is awakening the dead heart, and the Spirit of God is generating faith, and then that’s the only true message that connected with the work of the Spirit will produce true salvation.  Don’t reinvent the gospel to suit you.  That’s what’s being done today. 

Love or Law?

Satan has effectively used a very clever device to silence the law which is needed as an instrument to bring perishing men to Christ.  He has suggested that the law and love are irreconcilable enemies; they are opposites.  If they are in conflict, men will obviously choose love and spurn law; for no one would dare to despise love. Thus, the Wicked One has declared that love is independent of law and contrary to it.

Precisely the opposite is declared by Holy Scripture.  Law and love are mutually affinitive. Jesus plainly taught that the law was urging men to nothing but love. The righteous commandments may be summarized as:

Thou shalt love the Lord they God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. And thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matt 22:37-40

The law is neither more nor less than an elucidation of the demands of love.

In the same manner our Lord defined love by reference to the law. The repetition on this point is striking. 'If ye love me, keep my commandments' (John 14:15). 'He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me' (John 14:21). Love cannot be expressed without the guidelines of law, and law cannot be kept spiritually except by the motivation of love.

Chantry, Today's Gospel

Man's Prayer Room

God Himself is here, in this inner room. The angels are here. This room opens out into and is in direct touch with a spirit space as wide as the earth. The horizon of this room is as broad as the globe. God's presence makes it so.  The tide of prayer sweeps quietly, relentlessly day by day.

This is the true Christian life. This man is winning souls and refreshing lives in far-off lands and in nearby places as truly as though he were in each place. This is the Master's plan. The true follower of Jesus has as broad a horizon as his Master. Jesus thought in continents and seas. His follower prays in continents and seas.

There comes to this man occasional evidences of changes being wrought, yet he knows that these are but the thin line of glory light that speaks of the fuller shining. And with a spirit touched with glad awe that he can help God, a heart full of peace and yearning, and a life fragrant with an unseen Presence he goes steadily on his way.

from Quiet Talks on Prayer by S.D. Gordon

The Thing We Don't Do

By ANDRÉE SEU

Issue: "Street theater," Sept. 30, 2006

Forgiving is the hardest thing you will ever do. That's why most people don't do it. We talk about it, cheer for it, preach on it, and are sure we've practiced it. But mostly the illusion of having forgiven is that the passage of time dulls memory. The ruse will come to light with hair-trigger vengeance when fresh offense hurls in to empty out the gunnysack of half-digested grievances.

I asked a few people if they'd ever forgiven anyone, and what it felt like. They gave me answers so pious I knew they'd never done it. I am at the present moment in the maw of temptation, and I can tell you there is nothing exalted about this feeling, this one-two punch to the gut that comes when you even contemplate forgiving, which is as far as I've come.

At first I decided I would forgive the person-and never speak to him again. This felt pretty good, but I saw the dissimulation in it at once. I alternately toyed with going to him to "tell him his fault" (Matthew 18:15), which is my biblical right, so there. I had the decree of rebuke written up in my head, a document of fastidious and plenary detail-all for his own good. A smarmy satisfaction accompanied the plan, so I nixed it. For now.

In C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce, a woman confronted by an angel about forgiving her husband says, "Well, I have forgiven him as a Christian." The phrase is meaningless. She then bulimically seethes for pages about his wrongdoing and her longsuffering.

Keeping one's mouth shut is commendable, and more than I have managed in the past. It will work as long as I don't go near a phone or e-mail. But I am reminded that "Absolom spoke to Amnon neither good nor bad" for two whole years after the rape of his sister Tamar, and it ate him alive till in the end he killed the man.

O my brothers, you cannot imagine the exquisite verbal retaliations I have hatched in the idle hours, each more perfect than the last: theologically impeccable, legalistically faultless, poisoned prose polished to a lethal point. Must I now relinquish these? Must I kill the little darlings? Are they not to see the light of day? Such a waste.

Forgiveness is a brutal mathematical transaction done with fully engaged faculties. It's my pain instead of yours. I eat the debt. I absorb the misery I wanted to dish out on you, and you go scot-free. Beware the forgiveness that is tendered soon after injury; be suspicious. Real forgiveness needs a time lag, for it is wrought in private agony before it ever comes to public amnesty. All true acts of courage are thus done in secret.

Pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Church in Manhattan shares the following letter from a man who once had to forgive a woman:

"I forgave her and it took me a whole year and I had to forgive her in small sums over that whole twelve months. I paid those sums whenever I spoke to her and kept myself from rehashing the past. I paid them whenever I saw her with another man and refused self-pity and rehearsal inside for what she'd done to me. I paid them whenever I praised her to others when I really wanted to slice away at her reputation. Those were the payments but she never knew them. However, I never knew her payments, but I know she made them. I could tell."

And now the unthinkable: not only to forgive but seek the good. Nature abhors a vacuum and Jesus admits of no middle ground between hate and love. Pray for him.

When you were a child you thought like a child, that pain was something to flee. Now in the adulthood of faith, suck up your hundred denarii, because someone took your ten thousand talents upon Himself (Matthew 18), and like a lamb led to slaughter and a sheep before its shearers was silent (Isaiah 53:7). He did not retaliate but "continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly" (1 Peter 2:23). Be so awash in the ocean of His love, my soul, that the shortcomings of all human loves will, more and more, seem but a trifling thing.

Andrée Seu

Andrée is the author of three books: Won't Let You Go Unless You Bless Me, Normal Kingdom Business, and We Shall Have Spring Again.

Sermon: Psalm 51, A broken and contrite heart

by Matt Slick

"Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. 2     Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.     3     For I know my transgressions,And my sin is ever before me.     4     Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge.     5     Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.     6     Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.     7     Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.     8     Make me to hear joy and gladness, let the bones which You have broken rejoice.      9     Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. 10     Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.     11     Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.     12     Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit.     13     Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You.  Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation;  Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.  15 O Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare Your praise.  16 For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering.  17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.  18 By Your favor do good to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem.  19 Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, In burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then young bulls will be offered on Your altar."

Being king must have gone to David's head.  He may have thought himself above even the Law of God.  He set aside all his morals, scruples, and ethics to follow the way of his selfish desire.  He looked with lust on Bathsheba as she bathed; he had her brought to his palace and engaged in an adulterous alliance with her.  Then when she told him she was pregnant, he tried to cover his sin by having her husband Uriah brought home from battle for some R&R.  Uriah refused the luxury of sleeping at home, so David had him abandoned in the front lines of battle where he was slain.

This was no sin of impulse.  David wasn't just caught up in circumstances beyond his control.  He planned and plotted to carry out his sin, and he put great effort into concealing it.  This Psalm reveals David's folly and restoration.  It is the Psalm of the changed heart.  David's story could be told and retold under a hundred different scenarios.  Maybe this Psalm relates your own story.  This morning let me relate a situation that parallels and illustrates the universal process of spiritual recovery.

When he was just 19, Al Johnson had joined two other men in robbing a Kansas bank.  The case was closed after the two other criminals were killed in an auto crash and were mistakenly identified by bank officials as the robbers.  Al felt sure he would never be caught.  He married a Christian girl and even pretended to be a Christian.  She knew nothing of his past crime.  Then someone sent him a tract in the mail entitled, "God's Plan of Salvation."  Reading it, he noticed the Bible verse that said, "whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."  The realization struck that salvation was for him.  He could be forgiven and his conscience set free.  The guilt of his crime accused him, the cowardice of hiding his crime shamed him.  He realized his guilt and hated it.  That is the first step in having a changed heart.  David took it, and so must we.  What is the first step to a changed heart?

1. CONTRITION: V17:  "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise"
   1. David spoke of a broken and contrite heart.  The word for "contrite" means
      1. To be bowed down with the awareness of our spiritual bankruptcy.
      2. That our inner spirit is crushed with a sense of its guilt.
      3. That we have a genuine and deep sorrow for our rebellion against God and a determined desire to do differently.
   2. A contrite heart
      1. Does not seek to rationalize or explain or excuse or defend or justify sin.
      2. Does not try to fool God or others or self.  It recognizes that God demands truth and honesty.
      3. Does not mean merely feeling bad or remorseful about sin!
      4. Does not seek to blame circumstances or other people or God for our own failure.
         1. Remember Adam saying, "The woman YOU gave me handed me the fruit and I ate it.  Eve pointed to the serpent and said, "He deceived me and I ate."  He blamed God and Eve; she blamed the serpent.
         2. Can't you just hear David doing something like that?  Blaming God or blaming Bathsheba: "Lord, if you hadn't made me king I wouldn't have been walking on the palace roof in the first place.  And besides, did you see what she wasn't wearing?"
         3. Maybe we do the same thing: "Well, Lord, if you were married to this jerk, you'd cheat, too!"  Or "It's not my fault; the boss is so cheap I have to steal from the company to survive!"  Or, "If I didn't have such terrible neighbors, I wouldn't lose my temper as much!"
   3. A contrite heart recognizes that sin is:
      1. A spiritual crime since it is a violation of God's laws.
      2. An offense against all that is decent and moral and right.
      3. Rebellion, disobedience, and stubbornness of heart.
   4. When we become aware of our sins, iniquities and transgressions and are contrite, we need to know that
      1. God isn't interested in empty apologies.
      2. God doesn't want cheap promises or resolutions.
      3. God cares nothing for our efforts to balance evil with a little more good.
      4. God desires a broken and contrite heart which is the true sacrifice of one who determines to turn from sin, to forsake sin, and to abandon it.

Al Johnson became convicted of sin, was contrite, humbled his heart and decided to truly forsake his sin and to follow Jesus Christ.  When he did, his life changed.  He stopped a lifelong habit of lying and cheating.  And after much thought and prayer, he confessed his crime.  His confession made television newscasts and newspaper headlines.  Honest acknowledgment of sin is an essential in our own lives, too; and it was another step in David's reclamation.  What is the next step in having a changed heart?

1. CONFESSION: verses 3, 4:  "For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me.  4 Against Thee, Thee only, I have sinned, And done what is evil in Thy sight, So that Thou art justified when Thou dost speak, And blameless when Thou dost judge."
   1. There are two sides to his confession:
      1. He confessed to himself: "I know, I am acquainted with, and recognize my sin! I cannot deny it or escape it or forget it.  The memory haunts me, the devil accuses me, the sin taunts me; and it is always before me."
      2. He confessed to God: "Against You only have I sinned."
   2. Along with his admission of guilt is a confession of God's correctness and justice in judging him for his sin.  David makes no plea for indulgent lenience or permissiveness, no claim that God is being too hard on him, and no appeal for a light sentence.  Simply put, it is, "I am wrong; you are right!"
   3. Genuine confession demands:
      1. A right estimate of sin.  It is not a mistake or a slip or mischief.
      2. A right attitude to sin.  A loathing, a disgust, a disapproval.
      3. A right conduct regarding sin.  A forsaking of and a determined renunciation of sin.
   4. This brings us to the cross of Christ.
      1. At the cross, we do not hide our sins but confess them and trust the Savior to wipe them away.
   5. Solomon said, "He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion." Proverbs 28:13.  To confess demands the honesty of:
      1. It was Isaiah who said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, . . . " Isaiah 6:5.
      2. It was Peter who fell at Jesus' feet and said, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" Luke 5:8.
      3. The publican smote his breast and prayed, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner!" Luke 18:13.
      4. Paul who declared "It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all." 1 Timothy 1:15.

Al Johnson, convicted of sin, converted to Christ, went and tried to make things right with the state by confessing his crime.  As it turned out, under a Kansas statute of limitations, he was set free.  There was no penalty that could legally attach to him for his crime.  David experienced something even better than that.  And there is something even better for the Christian.  There is forgiveness, justification, salvation.  Let's consider, then, the last step in having a changed heart:

1. CLEANSING: verses 7, 9, 10:  "Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. . . 9 Hide Thy face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities.  10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me."
   1. David recognized the filth and grime of his sin and wanted to be cleansed of it.
      1. He said, "Purge me, purify me, and wash me."  The words he uses imply a thorough scrubbing.  One pictures an old time mother with her child at the sink scrubbing him until his skin literally shines and squeaks.
      2. He said, "Blot out my iniquities."  It is the image of erasure where a mark is totally obliterated, wiped away, and removed.
      3. He said, "Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me."  David knew the inclination of one's heart to evil.
         1. He knew that "every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."Genesis 6:5.
         2. He knew that "The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick."Jeremiah 17:9.
   2. It was not David's desire, nor God's intent, to gloss over or to wink at or to indulge sin. Sin had to go.
   3. It is not while we indulge or excuse or conceal sin but when we have experienced God's cleansing, that we can know the joy of His salvation.
   4. Sometimes we have door-to-door salesmen trying to sell us some "Miracle Cleaner" that will remove everything from berry stains to tattoos.  Never works!  But God has a cleanser that never fails: "the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin."  1 John 1:7.  All sin, all times, all people, always.

Conclusion

In a sense, the statute of limitations had cleansed Al of all punishment.  Yet, although he was beyond the scope of law to punish him, he still chose to repay his share of the stolen funds to the bank.  In time he became the manager of a service station, the father of three admiring children, and an outstanding Christian layman.  But he didn't do that alone.  David couldn't do it alone.

Someone once said, "Man cannot cope with guilt alone.  I don't care how many worship services you attend or good deeds you do, your goodness is insufficient.  You can't be good enough to deserve forgiveness . . . No one.  Not you, not me, not anyone.  Quit trying to quench your own guilt.  You can't do it.  There's no way.  I don't care how bad you are.  You can't be bad enough to forget it.  And I don't care how good you are.  You can't be good enough to overcome it.  You need a Savior."  And, for those who come to Jesus Christ in contrition and confession, He is that savior.  Will you come to Him?  Will you ask Him to cleanse your heart?  Will you allow Him to transform your life?  Will you experience the salvation He, and He only, can provide?  This is the moment to decide as you ask Him to change your heart.