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Pentecost

Saturday, May 18th, 2013

“When the day of Pentecost came they were all together in one place…All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:4) The effect upon Peter was startling. This disciple, who had denied His Lord with oaths and curses, stood up with the eleven and preached the first great evangelistic sermon of the Christian faith. About three thousand inquirers were added to the church that day. The only explanation was that the Holy Spirit, promised by Jesus (“you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you” Acts 1:8) had transformed Peter and used his personality and gifts to reach the multitudes with such convicting power that they were cut to the heart and repented and were baptized and asked to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for themselves.

This incident, and every other one recorded, shows that the Filling of the Holy Spirit is for service. In each instance, the infilling was followed by strong action. The Filling of the Holy Spirit was not, is not, will not be given merely for private spiritual experience, but always for service.

Not only was the Apostle Peter filled on the day of Pentecost: they were all filled. John and James and Andrew and Phillip and Thomas and Bartholomew and Matthew and James and Simon and Judas and Matthias, all apostles; also James and Joses and Judas and Simon, the brothers of Jesus; and Mary the mother of Jesus, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and Mary of Magdala, and Mary of Bethany, and Martha, and Joanna, and Susanna, and Salome, and other women who had been with the Lord in His ministry; a score of these who were filled were named for us, but a hundred others remain unnamed. The filling of the unnamed disciples is an encouragement to every humble Christian who might be tempted to think that the power from on high is for only ones whom God intends to exalt to leadership.

The Apostle Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit again, some days later. The filling of the Holy Spirit has a direct relationship with immediate service. There appear to be times of relaxation and rest in between times of being filled with power. The fullness of the Holy Spirit is under the sovereignty of the Spirit rather than the impulse of the believer.

The book of the Acts of the Apostles chronicles the acts of the Holy Spirit in the lives of people like Stephen, Philip, Saul of Tarsus, and others as they are filled with the Spirit. The filling of the Holy Spirit is given for preaching, for witnessing, for defense, for evangelism, for missionary work, for discernment, and for martyrdom.

What is the experience of the Filling of the Holy Spirit like? The Holy Spirit has been described in terms of fire, wind, water, and other natural elements, so it is possible to have an experience of the Spirit as consuming as a forest fire, as bending as a hurricane, or as gentle as a well of water bubbling up from the depths like a river.

What is the evidence of the Filling of the Holy Spirit? There is the extraordinary power of the proclamation of the Gospel resulting in the conversion of many people. But there is also the evidence of the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. When a Christian is filled with the Holy Spirit, his heart is full of love, full of joy, full of peace, full of patience, full of kindness, full of goodness, full of faithfulness, full of gentleness, and full of self-control. When these qualities are absent then you know that the person is not filled with the Holy Spirit.

There is also the evidence of the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues and interpretation. These are supernatural gifts, not just natural talents. No one person possesses all of them. The Holy Spirit apportions the gifts to each individually as He determines the need.

What actually is the Filling of the Holy Spirit? The Apostle Paul tells us: “Do not get drunk with wine…instead be filled with the Spirit.” (Ephesians 5:18) When a person gets drunk they lose control of themselves: a quiet man can become rowdy, a mean man can become generous, a decent man can become indecent, a cautious man can become reckless: and people excuse him by saying that he is not himself, he is intoxicated. The filling of the Holy Spirit is God-intoxication; not fanaticism, but the possession of the person’s faculties by the Holy Spirit of God, so that he is led to behave as God would want him. The fruit of the Spirit is the very opposite of extravagance or fanaticism.

How does one seek to be filled with the Spirit? Jesus told his disciples: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, but how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.” (Luke 11:13) “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Luke 11:9) An asking, seeking, knocking Christian will soon find out for himself what stands in the way of his being filled with the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we are led to seek forgiveness, and to surrender our lives anew to God.

I ask for the Spirit to fill me every morning. I know how empty I can be. I know how full of myself I can become. I know how difficult it is to produce the fruit of the Spirit. “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing.” (Romans 7:19) It is only the Spirit of God who lives in us, who can enable us to do that which is good.  I am powerless of myself to help myself. I cannot do it on my own. The more I try in my own strength, the more I fail. That is why the filling of the Spirit is so crucial.

God cannot fill us with his Spirit if we are full of ourselves. We need to be aware of our own need enough, aware of our own deficiencies enough, and want to become a better person enough, that we will ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

“Lord I am a child that has no knowledge, so teach me;

And blind and see not the way, so lead me:

And weak, most weak to choose rightly, so supply your power:

And love myself too well, so show me, give me love, true love, fill me with your Spirit.”

Eric Milner-White

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Self-forgiveness

Saturday, May 4th, 2013

Recently I came across the term “self-forgiveness.”  In counseling circles it has to do with loving ourselves, forgiving ourselves for not being perfect, and not judging ourselves. The premise is that we cannot forgive others and love others unless we truly forgive and love ourselves. It is the result of accepting our mistakes and failures. To be able to say “I behaved thoughtlessly, unkindly, foolishly etc. and I forgive myself for not being perfect” could be the biggest – and most healing – act of all. For when you can forgive the imperfection in yourself, it’s a lot easier to forgive them in others.

I must admit that I am troubled by this counsel. It reminds me of the 1973, “I’m OK, You’re OK” book by Thomas Harris of  Transactional Analysis fame. Self-forgiveness is an attempt at self-salvation. It teaches that our own guilt, sense of shame, conscience, can be eradicated by our self-acceptance and self-affirmation. If that were true then we have no accountability. We can be our own judge and jury as to our own acquittal.

What do we do with Jesus’ teaching that we are to strive to be perfect (Matthew 5:48)?  What do we do with the forgiveness of sins that Jesus brought to us? What do we do with the concept of redemption – that Jesus died on the Cross, at great cost, to purchase our freedom from condemnation? If we can forgive ourselves what need do we have of a Savior?

The Christian Gospel is that in Christ we find forgiveness for our sins. “In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” (Ephesians 1:7,8) “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) When we have received that forgiveness in Christ, through repentance and faith, we do not need to forgive ourselves – we have been forgiven. It is a matter of receiving that which God has done for us by his grace in the redemption of Jesus on the Cross. To say that we need to forgive ourselves is tantamount to denying the work of Christ on the Cross and becoming our own Savior. It is to trivialize the cost of redemption.

We do not need to forgive ourselves in order to love others. We ask for forgiveness for our own sins, as we forgive the sins of others in the words of the Lord’s Prayer. We recognize that as we have been forgiven, we extend that forgiveness to others.

The counsel to forgive yourself as the deepest act of forgiveness is an attempt to do an end-run around God. It is the desire to heal oneself without seeking the healing of the Cross. If we wish to be forgiven we must seek it where it is truly to be found, not in ourselves, but in the Good News of Jesus. “Son, your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2:5) “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven – for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little….Your sins are forgiven.” (Luke 7:47,48)

What do you think? What is your experience of forgiveness?

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The Gospel Coalition

Saturday, April 13th, 2013

Last week I attended the Gospel Coalition Conference in Orlando. The GC was co-founded by Don Carson, research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, and Tim Keller, Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. Plenary speakers included John Piper, Colin Smith, Crawford Loritts, Kevin DeYoung, Stephen Um, Gary Millar. In addition there were 58 workshops and focus groups covering all aspects of Christian. Worship music was led by Keith and Kristen Getty and their band. The theology represented was generously Reformed. There were 4,500 registrants, most of them younger than I. There were many young couples with babies! They came from forty-three countries. Sessions were being simulcast and translated into six different languages. I attended workshops led by Tullian Tchividijian on How Suffering Sets you Free, John Yates on Growing into the Leader You Wish You Were, and Tim Keller on A Biblical Theology of Revival.

Eight plenary sessions were devoted to the biblical exposition of the Gospel of Luke. They were inspiring and filled with content and application. I was impressed by the substance of the messages as well as their personal authenticity. They were models of preaching as biblical truth through personality.

In their introduction to the conference Tim Keller and Don Carson wrote that they prayed and hoped that the series on Luke will encourage pastors to preach from the Gospels as well as the Epistles.

The bookstore was a wonder to behold. I have never seen so many publications by speakers and theologians. I exercised great restraint but came away with some treasures to read and digest over the next few months. You can learn further about The Gospel Coalition from their website: www.thegospelcoalition.org.

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A Maundy Thursday Meditation

Saturday, March 16th, 2013

“Jesus knew that the time has come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.” (John 13:1)

What a way to describe your last night? When we die we leave this world and go to the Father. It is a journey from here to the presence of the Father. It is to leave the troubles and trials of this world and to enter into the loving embrace of our heavenly Father. As a father, I would welcome my children with open arms and rejoice in their coming to me. Jesus said, “Enter into the joy or happiness of your Master.” There is nothing to fear, for we are going to someone we know and love and trust, the one who has taken care of us in our infancy and childhood, and is always there when we need him. When my children were little and I returned home each day from work, they would see me and rush out into the front driveway to jump into my arms. We are still God’s children when we are old and tired. We still long to go to the Father.

On this last night before he goes to the Father Jesus leaves us his legacy.

First of all, he leaves us a legacy of humble service. He loved his own who were in the world and showed them the full extent of his love. He began to wash his disciples’ feet. He showed them an example of how they should behave to one another. How do we wash each others’ feet today? By noticing their needs and doing something about them. By taking an interest in those around us and being willing to humbly serve them. By listening to their troubles. By being a friend in need. I am aware that each  congregation, and every church member can follow Christ’s example by seeking to serve our neighbors.

Secondly, he leaves us a legacy of true worship by breaking bread in his memory, by giving thanks for our redemption, by instituting a continual remembrance that binds us together as a church community and with him. “Do this in remembrance of me.” We are one body and one spirit. He is our host, our source of salvation and sustenance, the bread of life and the wine of
rejoicing. We eat and drink around his Table. He keeps us together, centered on his death and resurrection until he comes and takes us to the Father. We enjoy a foretaste of the heavenly banquet, the wedding supper of the Lamb that was slain and with his blood purchased us for God from ever tribe and language and people and nation, who has made us a kingdom of priests to serve God. We join the angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven who sing glory around the throne of God.

Thirdly, he leaves us a legacy of the promised Holy Spirit, who will be his continuing presence and empowerment in our lives.  The Holy Spirit will teach us  all things necessary for salvation and will remind us of everything Jesus has said to us through the written word of the apostles. The New Testament is the legacy of the Holy Spirit to us – the divinely inspired words of Jesus. It is the last will and testament of Jesus written to equip us for every good work.

Fourthly, he leaves us a legacy of prayer. He prays for his people, for those he will leave behind, and for those who will come after them, that they may be one, that they may be sanctified, that they may grow in grace and numbers. He prays for himself, that he will do God’s will. The legacy of prayer ensures that our communication with Jesus continues. Our communion with him is not broken by his departure from us. He is still listening to us and interceding for us.

Fifthly, leaves us a legacy of how to die. He surrenders himself to the events of his departure from this world without losing his dignity and destiny. He is taken by the powers of this world but is not intimidated by them. He submits to embarrassment and suffering. He dies in pain and discomfort. Leaving this world is not always easy or smooth. But he knows where he is going – to the Father.

He leaves us this legacy. Let us learn from it. To humbly serve one another. To worship together around his Table and the throne
of God.  To receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and his written Word. To practice prayer for ourselves and for others, for those who come after us. To learn how to die well.

This a legacy that we can treasure, and that will continue to pay dividends over the course of our lifetime.

 

 

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Ash Wednesday

Wednesday, January 30th, 2013

Ash Wednesday, and the season of Lent which it begins, calls us to pause and reflect on the significance of our lives. If, we are to remember that we are but dust, and to dust we shall return, what is the meaning and purpose of this life between birth and death?

In  his novel, Revolution Road, made into the award-winning movie starring Leonardo de Caprio and Kate Winslett, Richard Yates, portrays a young couple who are trying to find themselves, and be something special, rather than just be caught up in a mindless suburban family life, or a the anonymous corporate life in New York City. They want to follow their dreams of going to live in Paris, but events transpire to prevent them. Tragedy ensues as they settle for the safe option. In all the discussion about finding their true selves, there is no mention of God or his will for their lives. There is no faith, no sense of purpose or divine destiny.

In contrast to them, Thomas Merton chose another route. He left the rat-race and entered into a monastery, and became a world-renowned writer of more than 60 books of poetry, meditation, philosophy and social criticism. Here is his take on our meaning and purpose.

“Each one of us has some kind of vocation. We are all called by God to share in His life and in His Kingdom. Each one of us is called to a special place in the Kingdom. If we find that place we will be happy. If we do not find it , we can never be completely happy. For each one of us, there is only one thing necessary: to fulfill our own destiny, according to God’s will, to be what God wants us to be.

Why do we have to spend our lives striving to be something that we would never want to be, if only we knew what we wanted? Why do we waste our time doing things which, if we only stopped to think about them, are just the opposite of what we were made for?

We cannot be ourselves unless we know ourselves. But self-knowledge is impossible when thoughtless and automatic activity keeps our souls in confusion. In order to know ourselves it is not necessary to cease all activity in order to think about ourselves. That would be useless, and would probably do most of us a great deal of harm. But we have to cut down our activity to the point where we can think calmly and reasonably about our actions. We cannot begin to know ourselves until we can see the real reasons why we do the things we do, and we cannot be ourselves until our actions correspond to our intentions, and our intentions are appropriate to our own situation. But that is enough. It is not necessary that we succeed in everything. A man who fails well is greater than one who succeeds badly.

We cannot be happy if we expect to live all the time at the highest peak of intensity. Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.

Music is pleasing not only because of the sound but of the silence that is in it: without the alternation of sound and silence there would be no rhythm. If we strive to be happy by filling all the silences of life with sound, productive by turning all life’s leisure into work, and real by turning all our being into doing, we will only succeed in producing hell on earth.

If we have no silence, God is not heard in our music. If we have no rest, God does not bless our work. If we twist our lives out of shape in order to fill every corner of them with action and experience, God will silently withdraw from our hearts and leave us empty.

Let us, therefore, learn to pass from one imperfect activity to another without worrying too much about what we are missing. It is true that we make many mistakes. But the biggest of them all is to be surprised at them: as if we had some hope of never making any.

Mistakes are part of our life, and not the least important part. If we are humble, and if we believe in the Providence of God, we will see our mistakes are not merely a necessary evil, something we must lament and count as lost: they enter into the very structure of our existence. It is by making mistakes that we gain experience, not only for ourselves but for others. And though our experience prevents neither ourselves nor others from making the same mistake many times, the repeated experience still has positive value.

We cannot avoid missing the point of almost everything we do. But what of it? Life is not a matter of getting something out of everything. Life itself is imperfect. The relative perfection which we must attain to in this life if we are to love as sons of God is not the twenty-four-hour-a-day production of perfect acts of virtue, but a life from which practically all the obstacles to God’s love have been removed or overcome.

One of the chief obstacles to this perfection of selfless charity is the selfish anxiety to get the most out of everything, to be a brilliant success in our own eyes and in the eyes of other men. We can only get rid of this anxiety by being content to miss something in almost everything we do. We cannot master everything, taste everything, understand everything, understand everything, drain every experience to its last dregs. But if we have the courage to let almost everything else go, we will probably be able to obtain the one thing necessary for us – whatever it may be. If we are too eager to have everything, we will almost certainly miss even the one thing we need.

Happiness consists in finding out precisely what the ‘one thing necessary’ may be, in our lives, and in gladly relinquishing all the rest, For each one of us, there is only one thing necessary: to fulfill our own destiny, according to God’s will, to be what God wants us to be.”

(Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, pp.125-131)

May you this Lent, find out precisely the one thing necessary for you, so that you may be what God wants you to be, and so fulfill your own destiny.

 

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My Annual Reading List

Tuesday, January 1st, 2013

(Highly Recommended in bold)

 

DON’T SING SONGS TO A HEAVY HEART: How to relate to those who are suffering, Kenneth C. Haugk, 2004

WHAT SHALL WE SAY? Evil, Suffering and the Crisis of Faith, Thomas G. Long, 2011

KIERKEGAARD: An Introduction, C. Stephen Evans, 2009

APING MANKIND: Neuromania, Darwinitis and the
Misrepresentation of Humanity, Raymond Tallis, 2011

A WINDOW TO HEAVEN: When Children See Life in Death, Diane
M. Komp, M.D. 1992

A HOLY TRADITION OF WORKING: Passages from the Writings of
Eric Gill, 1983

GODLY AMBITION: John Stott and the Evangelical Movement,
Alister Chapman, 2012

DIARY OF A SOUL, Pennar Davies, 2011

WHY JESUS? Rediscovering His Truth in an Age of Mass
Marketed Spirituality, Ravi Zacharias, 2012

THE RESURRECTION OF MINISTRY, Andrew Purves, 2004

MOVE: What 1,000 Churches Reveal About Spiritual Growth,
Greg Hawkins & Cally Parkinson, 2011

WHAT THEY DIDN’T TEACH YOU IN SEMINARY: Lessons for a
Successful Ministry in Your Church, James Emery White, 2011

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED: A New Psychology of Love,
TraditIonal Values and Spiritual Growth, M. Scott Peck, 1978

EXCELLENCE IN PREACHING: Studying the Craft of Leading
Preachers, Simon Vibert, 2011

CHRIST AMONG THE DRAGONS: Finding our Way Through Cultural
Challenges, James Emery White, 2010

A MIND FOR GOD, James Emery White, 2006

RETHINKING THE CHURCH: A Challenge to creative Redesign in
an Age of Transition, James Emery White, 2003

A SEARCH FOR THE SPIRITUAL: Exploring Real Christianity,
James Emery White, 1998, 2008

LIT! A CHRISTIAN GUIDE TO READING BOOKS, Tony Reinke, 2011

THE SEARCH FOR COMPASSION: Spirituality and Ministry, Andrew
Purves, 1989

THE LAST ENEMY: Preparing to Win the Fight of Your Life,
Michael E. Wittmer, 2012

WRITTEN IN TEARS: A Grieving Father’s Journey Through Psalm
103, Luke Veldt, 2010

THE WIZARD’S TALE, Frederick Buechner, 1990

THE FORGOTTEN TRINITY: Recovering the Heart of Christian
Belief, James R. White, 1998

HANNAH COULTER: A Novel, Wendell Berry, 2004 (A masterpiece)

ERRATA: An Examined life, George Steiner, 1997

AM I CALLED: The Summons to Pastoral Ministry, Dave Harvey,
2012

FATAL PARTNERS: War and Disease, Ralph H. Majors, 1941

THAT DISTANT LAND: The Collected Stories, Wendell Berry, 2004 (Superb)

THE BLOOD OF HEROES: The Alamo, James Donovan, 2012

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY: with an inquiry into the causes of its inefficiency, Charles Bridges, 1830. (A Classic)

THE FACE OF GOD: The Gifford Lectures, Roger Scruton, 2012

HOLINESS: its nature, hindrances, difficulties and roots, J.C.Ryle. (Superb)

THE INTOLERANCE OF TOLERANCE, D.A. Carson, 2012

MIRACLES, The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts, 2 volumes, Craig S. Keener, 2011

ANIMAL FARM, George Orwell, 1944

HEALING: The Three Great Classics on divine Healing, ed. Jonathan L. Graf, DIVINE HEALING: Andrew
Murray, THE MINISTRY OF HEALING: A.J. Gordon, THE GOSPEL OF HEALING: A.B.
Simpson. Gordon’s is the best, balanced and biblical.

EXPOSING MYTHS ABOUT CHRISTIANITY: A Guide to Answering 145 Viral Lies and Legends, Jeffrey Burton Russell, 2012. (Excellent)

A FREE PEOPLE’S SUICIDE: Sustainable Freedom and the
American Future, Os Guinness, 2012

UNBROKEN: A World War II story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption, Laura Hillenbrand, 2010

LIFE OF THE BELOVED, Henri Nouwen, 1992

KNOTS UNTIED, J.C. Ryle

POLITICS FOR CHRISTIANS: Statecraft as Soulcraft, Francis J.
Beckwith, 2010

OUR FIRST REVOLUTION: The Remarkable British Upheaval The Inspired America’s Founding Fathers,
Michael Barone, 2007. (Terrific)

DEMONIC: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America, Ann
Coulter, 2011

THEIR BLOOD CRIES OUT: The Worldwide Tragedy of Modern
Christians Who Are Dying for their Faith. Why It is Being Ignored. Why the
Silence. What we Can do, Paul Marshall with Lela Gilbert, 1997

WATER FROM A DEEP WELL: Christian Spirituality from Early Martyrs to Modern Missionaries, Gerald L. Sittser, 2007. (Rich inspiration)

THE NEARLY PERFECT CRIME: How the Church Almost Killed the Ministry of Healing, Francis MacNutt,
2005. (Excellent)

POWER THROUGH PRAYER, E. M. Bounds. (A Classic)

THE DISENCHANTMENT OF SECULAR DISCOURSE, Steven D. Smith, 2010 (Important)

BAD RELIGION: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, Ross Douthat, 2012 (Essential Reading)

THE EXPLICIT GOSPEL, Matt Chandler, 2012

THE HOBBIT, J. R. R. Tolkien, 1937

DEEP AND WIDE: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend, Andy Stanley, 2012 (Andy’s story of starting Northpoint Ministries)

KILLING THE BLACK DOG: A Memoir of Depression, Les Murray,
2009

GLORIOUS RUIN: How Suffering Sets You Free, Tullian Tchividjian, 2012. (Excellent)

ATHEIST DELUSIONS: The Christian Revolution and Its
Fashionable Enemies, David Bentley Hart, 2009 (Rips the façade off the
arguments of the new atheists)

THE SERVILE MIND: How Democracy Erodes the Moral Life,
Kenneth Minogue, 2010 (Important critique of the welfare state)

THE SECOND COMING: A Novel, Walker Percy, 1988

C.H. SPURGEON: AUTOBIOGRAPHY, Vol.1 The Early Years, Vol.2 The Full Harvest, 1897 and 1973. (Inspiring,
informative, Challenging.)

MEDITATIONS FROM A MOVABLE CHAIR, Andre Dubus, 1999. (Profound)

LIBERTY AND CIVILIZATION: The Western Heritage, ed. Roger
Scruton, 2010 (Culturally and Politically Informative)

THE DEAN’S WATCH: A Novel, Elizabeth Goudge, 1960 (My third reading of a favorite book that warms my heart)

NO MAN IS AN ISLAND, Thomas Merton, 1955

 

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Thomas Merton on Suffering and Sin

Tuesday, December 11th, 2012

A society whose whole idea is to eliminate suffering and bring all its members the greatest amount of comfort and pleasure is doomed to be destroyed. It does not understand that all evil is not necessarily to be avoided. Nor is suffering the only evil, as our world thinks.

If we consider suffering to be the greatest evil and pleasure the greatest good, we will live continually submerged in the only great evil that we ought to avoid without compromise: which is sin. Sometimes it is absolutely necessary to face suffering, which is a lesser evil, in order to avoid or to overcome the greatest evil, sin.

What is the difference between physical evil – suffering – and moral evil – sin? Physical evil has no power to penetrate beneath the surface of our being. It can touch our flesh, our mind, our sensibility. It cannot harm our spirit without the work of that other evil which is sin. If we suffer courageously, quietly, unselfishly, peacefully, the things that wreck our outer being only perfect us within, and make us, as we have seen, more truly ourselves because they enable us to fulfill our destiny in Christ. They are sent for this purpose, and when they come we should receive them with gratitude and joy.

Sin strikes at the very depth of our personality. It destroys the one reality on which our true character, identity, and happiness depend: our fundamental orientation to God. We are created to will what God wills, to know what he knows, to love what he loves. Sin is the will to do what God does not will, to know what he does not know, to love what he does not love. Therefore every sin is a sin against truth, a sin against obedience, and against love. But in all these three things sin proves itself to be a supreme injustice not only against God but, above all, against ourselves.

No Man Is An Island, p.83f.

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What is your reason for praising the Lord?

Saturday, November 17th, 2012

What reasons do you have for praising the Lord this Thanksgiving?

Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits –

Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,

Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,

Who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

(Psalm 103)

What is the takeaway for being a Christian? Are you a praising follower of Jesus? If you were asked why you were a Christian what would you say? Do you have a testimony you can share? “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have.” (1 Peter 3:15) What reasons do you have for praising the Lord? These are mine.

I want to live for the highest and best purpose I can in the years God has given me on this earth. I don’t want to waste my life. God who created me has the highest and best purpose for my life. He knows what is best for me. I trust him. He has given me the  unearned, undeserved, gift of faith in him.

“He has blessed me with every spiritual blessing in Christ. He chose me in him before the creation of the world, to be holy in his sight. In love he predestined me to be adopted as his son through Jesus Christ. He lavished on me all wisdom and understanding.” (Eph.1:3-10)

I am a miserable sinner who needs redemption: forgiveness and transformation. God loved me so much that he came in Jesus to die for my sins and to give me his empowering Spirit. He has given me his written Word, the Bible to reveal himself to me, to teach me, rebuke me, correct me, guide me equip me, train me in righteousness, and nourish my spirit. He has given me his family, the Church, to encourage and support me in my journey.

He has never let me down, even though I have let him down on many occasions. He has blessed me with a wonderful wife and family, and many friends. He has given me the privilege of communicating his Gospel for nearly fifty years. I have never lacked opportunity to serve him and others. He has given me a rich intellectual life, and a love of books, through the world of authors. He has generously provided for me wherever I have lived. He has prepared a place for me in his holy city, the new Jerusalem. No one can snatch me from his hand, nothing can separate me from the love of Christ. Eternal life in his kingdom is an exciting adventure. Do I have enough reasons for praising the Lord? Do you? What is your testimony?

 

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E. M. Bounds

Saturday, October 27th, 2012
I have recently been re-reading E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer. I read it when I was young and it had a great effect upon me. It is a small book of great power. Reading it again has blessed me to such a degree that I ordered his Complete Works on Prayer and am hungrily devouring it chapter by chapter each morning in my devotional time. I recommend it highly. Since I did not know much about Bounds I found the Wikipedia article on him illuminating. He married a lady from Washington, Georgia and spent his last years there writing his books. Here is the article. Read his books. They will electrify you and nourish your prayer life.
Edward McKendree Bounds
E.M. Bounds

Edward McKendree Bounds (circa 1864)
Born (1835-08-15)August 15, 1835
Died August 24, 1913(1913-08-24) (aged 78)
Occupation Methodist minister; evangelist; revivalist; author; army
chaplain; lawyer
Religion Methodist Episcopal Church, South
Spouse(s) Emma Elizabeth Barnett (m. 1876-1886); Harriet Elizabeth Barnett
(m. 1887-1913)
Edward McKendree Bounds ((1835-08-15)August 15, 1835 – August 24, 1913(1913-08-24) was a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church South and author of eleven books, nine of which focused on the subject of prayer.
Shortly after his father’s death in 1849, Edward, his eldest brother (Charles), and several other relatives joined a wagon train and traveled to Mesquite Canyon in California in hopes of making a fortune in gold mining. After four unsuccessful years, they returned to Missouri and Edward studied law in Hannibal, Missouri. He became the state’s youngest practicing lawyer at age nineteen.[4] Although apprenticed as an attorney, Bounds felt called to Christian ministry in his early twenties during the Third Great Awakening. Following a brush arbor revival meeting led by Evangelist Smith Thomas, he closed his law office and moved to Palmyra, Missouri to enroll in the Centenary Seminary. Two years later, in 1859 at the age of 24, he was ordained by his denomination and was named pastor of the nearby Monticello, Missouri Methodist Church.[5][6]
Civil War Chaplain
E.M. Bounds did not support slavery. But, because he was a pastor at a congregation in the recently formed Methodist Episcopal Church South, his name was included in a list of 250 names who were to take an oath of allegiance and post a $500 bond. Edward saw no reason for a U.S. Citizen to take such an oath, he was morally opposed to the Union raising funds in this way, and he didn’t have the $500.[7] Bounds and the others on the list were arrested in 1861 by Union troops, and Bounds was charged as a  Confederate sympathizer. He was held with other non-combatants in a Federal prison in St.Louis for a year and a half. He was then transferred to Memphis and released in a prisoner exchanged between the Union and the Confederacy.[8]
He became a chaplain in the Confederate States Army (3rd Missouri Infantry CSA).[9] During the Second Battle of Franklin, Bounds suffered a severe forehead injury from a Union saber, and he was taken prisoner. On June 28, 1865, Bounds was among Confederate prisoners who were released upon the taking of an oath of loyalty to the United States.[10]
Pastor and Author
Upon his release as a prisoner of the Union Army, he felt compelled to return to war-torn Franklin and help rebuild it spiritually, and he became the pastor of the Franklin Methodist Episcopal Church, South. His primary method was to establish weekly prayer sessions that sometimes lasted several hours. Bounds was regionally celebrated for leading spiritual revival in Franklin and eventually began an itinerant preaching ministry throughout the country.
After serving several important churches in St. Louis and other places, south, he became Editor of the St. Louis Christian Advocate for eight years and, later, Associate Editor of The Nashville Christian Advocate for four years. The trial of his faith came to him while in Nashville, and he quietly retired to his home without asking even a pension. His principal work in Washington, Georgia (his home) was rising at 4 am and praying until 7 am. He filled a few engagements as an evangelist during the eighteen years of his lifework. While on speaking engagements, he would not neglect his early morning time in prayer, and cared nothing for the protests of the other occupants of his room at being awakened so early. No man could have made more melting appeals for lost souls and backslidden ministers than did Bounds. Tears ran down his face as he pleaded for us all in that room.[11]
According to people who were constantly with him, in prayer and preaching, for eight years “Not a foolish word did we ever hear him utter. He was one of the most intense eagles of God that ever penetrated the spiritual ether. He could not brook delay in rising, or being late for dinner. He would go with me to street meetings often in Brooklyn and listen to the preaching and sing with us those beautiful songs of Wesley and Watts. He often reprimanded me for asking the unconverted to sing of Heaven. Said he: ‘They have no heart to sing, they do not know God, and God does not hear them. Quit asking sinners to sing the songs of Zion and the Lamb.’”
E.M. Bounds died on August 24, 1913 in Washington, Georgia.
Further reading
King, Darrel D. “E.M. Bounds  (Men of Faith)”, Bethany House, 1998.
Dorsett, Lyle W. “E. M. Bounds: Man of Prayer”, Zondervan (September 1991) (ISBN-10: 0310539315)
Bounds, E.M. “The Complete  Works of E. M. Bounds on Prayer:

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God in our life

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012

 

Reading Charles Spurgeon’s Autobiography I came across this memorable vignette that is as true today as when it was penned 150 years ago.

“The life of Jonah cannot be written without God; take God out of the prophet’s history, and there is no history to write. This is equally true of each one of us. Apart from God, there is no life, nor thought, nor act, nor career of any man, however lowly or however high. Leave out God, and you cannot write the story of anyone’s career. If you attempt it, it will be so ill-written that it shall be clearly perceived that you have tried to make bricks without straw, and that you have sought to fashion a potter’s vessel without clay. I believe that, in a man’s life, the great secret of strength, and holiness, and righteousness, is the acknowledgment of God. When a man has no fear of God before his eyes, there is no wonder that he shall run to an excess of meanness, and even to an excess of riot. In proportion as the thought of God dominates the mind, we may expect to find a life that shall be true, and really worth living; but in proportion as we forget God, we shall play the fool. It is the fool that says in his heart, ‘No God,’ and it is the fool who lives and acts as if there were no God. In every godly life there is a set time for each event; and there is no need to ask, ‘Why is the white here and the black there; why this gleam of sunlight and that roar of tempest; why here a marriage and there a funeral; why sometimes a harp and at other times a sackbut?’ God knows, and it is a great blessing for us when we leave it all in His hands.”

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