Delighting In My Sons

Here I am at Grandpa's and Grandma's house again enjoying the 110 degree heat, air-conditioned trailer, beautifully manicured yard, pool, and more than all that--watching my sons have the time of their lives.  

Toby became so daring in the pool.  Last summer he wouldn't have touched the pool.  Now his Grandma somehow had him leaping with all his might into the pool into her arms.  By the end of the day he had completely abandoned his fears and was doing spin jumps into the pool.  The look on his face was sheer priceless and to top it all off, every time Chase would watch Toby jump in he would shout, "ya Pobey ya!" We are so blessed to have the joy of muti-generational family.  I see it function every summer we retreat to Grants Pass.  

This got me thinking about the wisdom that is scattered throughout the scriptures regarding Fatherhood in proverbs.  Proverbs 3:11-12 says, "My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline  or be weary of His reproof, for the Lord reproves him who He loves, as a father the son in whom he delights."

Before a father is ever commanded to discipline his children he is commanded to delight in them.  Practically this means that most of his time is spent enjoying his children, being playful and affectionate with them, singing songs and telling stories with them, enjoying them so those bonds are built, and love and affection begin to grow. 

Ted Tripp author of Shepherding A Child's Heart, has mentioned how this process is like "tying strings".  Every time we love them and delight in them we tie a string to their heart.  Every time we tear them down or step on the sensitive little hearts we cut two strings.  Damaging words have far greater impact than encouraging words have.  This is why "tying strings" is so important.  When discipline is needed we have already delighted in them.  

Gracious Concealment

God points out to Moses that his goodness + sovereignty= His glory. (Exodus 33:19) I take great comfort in knowing God can do whatever in the world He wants to because He is good.  Not just good but goodness. But then God says, "you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live."(Exodus 33:20). 

This is gracious concealment.  There was as much grace in that concealment as there was in the manifestation. This is not like concealer by "cover girl".  When makeup wears off it can reveal that "da barn does need paintin." Not so with God. God's barn needs no painting, it's just that God knows we were born in a barn and that we need baby steps in order to fully appreciate who He really is. If we knew how depraved we really are, we would die.  

Remember brothers and sisters, that when God does not tell us everything we would like to know, there is as much grace in His withholding info as there is in any of His gracious revelations to us. Sometimes when I read the scriptures I wish I knew more background and context in the lives of the saints but I am realizing there is as much grace at what He has not put into the Bible as in what He has put there.  Some people spend all their time trying to come up with something new that no man has ever seen before in the scriptures.  They go too far beyond what is written and focus on fern seeds all the while there are fatty elephants standing before them(C.S.Lewis). There is a point to which we may go and no further.  Happy is the dude who accepts this.  What has God revealed to us today?  Are we content to walk in that revelation obediently, or do we say "not until I know more about such and such?"      

Condemnation?

Are you allowing condemnation into your life? Ask yourself the following questions.

-Do you relate to God as if your on some kind of permanent probation, suspecting that at any moment He is going to drag you by the hair back into disfavor.  

-When you read scripture , does it reveal the boundless love of Jesus or merely intensify your condemnation?

-Are you more aware of your sin than you are of God's grace given to you through the cross?  

Don't buy into the lie that wallowing in your shame is somehow pleasing to God, or that constant low-grade guilt is going to produce holiness in your life.  

Here's how we beat condemnation.  Confess our sin to God.....then believe in Him.  (1 John 1:9)

Many want to wallow in their shame and this is arrogant, proud, and downright self-righteous.  The way we overcome sin is by being too busy admiring the glorious Savior.  I have never beat sin by looking at the sin.  Telling someone to focus on their sin is like telling someone to drive on the freeway without taking their eyes off the rearview mirror.  

Sovereignly Gracious; Graciously Sovereign

Moses said, "Please show me Your glory," and God said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name 'The Lord' and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy."  Exodus 33:18-19

There are two characteristics of God given to us by God Himself to Moses.  One, He is good. Two, He is sovereign.  I have heard it said by a unbeliever that "I know I'll be good to go because if God is real God is good." However, that person has only understood a piece of God because He is also sovereignly just.  Spurgeon has said, "This stirs up your carnal pride, does it not? Men want to be somebody.  They do not like to lie down before God, and have it preached at them that God can do just as He wills with them."  

Now put the two characteristics together and you have goodness and sovereignty-this reveals God's glory.  If you take sovereignty alone you will not understand God.  These people are a gloomy bunch.  We must put the two together.  God is good and God is sovereign.  Spurgeon said, "God is not grace alone He is sovereign grace.  He is not sovereign alone He is graciously sovereign."  

When God caused a piece of His glory to pass before Moses, Moses saw that His glory was sovereign goodness.  God can and will do everything He wills to do and we can trust it will be perfectly good.  

The Cry of The Damned

Something has been moving me all week.  "MY GOD MY GOD WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME."  This is what John Stott calls "the cry of the damned."  That is what a person, utterly separated from God, feels in the pathos.  As Jesus entered the garden he became so distraught that He sweat great drops of blood.  This is not like the Jesus I know who bids demons to the outer abyss by His authority, carries the children in His arms, and calms the storm with a single sentence from His lips.  Why all the sudden at the juncture of His mission and mandate is He flailing and crashing and burning out?  Jesus said, "Father if at all possible let this cup pass from me."  What cup is He talking about?  It's the cup of the fierceness of the wrath of the God Almighty-- who only the one separated by God is worthy to drink.  That would be Russell Johnston's cup.  That was my cup.  He drank my cup down to the last dregs.  The language the Old Testament uses for that cup is scorching sulfur and fire, topped off by hurricane winds.  Jesus downed that for me in a single shot. It started in the garden as He sought strength by solitude and prayer only to have silence thrust into His face. The normal rhythm of hearing from His Father for the last 33 years of His sinless life was not working.  He knew it was coming as He told His disciples over and over again what manner of death he would die and what manner of life He would rise.  But there in the garden He shuddered for the first time as He felt a feeling so alien--separation from His Father.  Even still the Father sent His angels to strengthen Jesus, to make it through the agony of what lied ahead. As His quivering flesh was pinned the cross of calvary, the culmination was, "MY GOD MY GOD WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME!"  He became sin that knew no sin, so that I may become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Those, however, were not the final words.  The final words were, IT IS FINISHED!!!   

 All hail, all hail to Jesus the savior of my soul!  Jesus is worthy of all praise, and glory for He is the only King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  The wages of sin is death, and as John Piper would say, "the wisdom of God has ordained a way for the love of God to deliver us from the wrath of God, all the while upholding the justice of God." There was only one way my soul could be saved and that was by God laying down his perfect life for my ridiculously unfaithful, unholy, irreverent, blasphemous, self-exalting life.  Are we ashamed of the gospel?  Jesus is worthy of my worship.  Michael Jackson does not belong on a list of names with Jesus.  You've got to be kiddin' me.  He desperately needed the provision of Jesus.    Sigh......  If there is one thing we, the children of God, should be doing, it is to express the glory of God with every fiber of our being.  As prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, there is one thing we should never lack--passion.  I do lack that at times, but thank God for Jesus who has a perfect sanctifying patience.  God give me more passion, for You.  

By the way, I have to commend Michael Jackson because Jesus said, "Would that you'd  be either hot or cold!  So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot or cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16).  Oh, make me more passionate and winsome and definitive!

Deeper Things?

Every so often I will run into believers who claim they have "dove into the deeper truths," and then I will ask them "what deeper truths are those?"  Typically the response is clouded with words such as "meaty" and "stout" and "hard truths", "speaking in tongues" but the bottom line is they have plunged into pride.  How do we go deeper? "Going deeper" is a common punch-line we love to say.  Let me ask this, do you think the truth of the cross is something you've already mastered and now it's time to move on to deeper truths?In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul rebukes the Corinthians for only being able to handle milk and unable to take in meat because they are so carnal.  Many teachers will say the milk is the gospel, and the meat is something else, and I would ask what in the world is the meat then?  It's certainly the gospel being understood in a greater way.  Listen to how Paul warns the Galatian church regarding them moving to "deeper things".  

Galatians 3:1,3 "O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified.....Are you so foolish having begun in the Spirit are you now made perfect by the flesh."

The way we move into "deeper things" is to understand the cross of Jesus Christ in a deeper way.  Am I amazed at Him as if He died yesterday for my sins?  All the scriptures point us to Jesus Christ.  He is the hero, He is the big picture, He is the deep things of God.  It takes the Spirit of God to reveal Jesus to our hearts.  Jesus and His gospel is what we will need every day of our lives until we die, and when people ask us how we are doing we ought to respond "a lot better than I deserve."  You can't go deeper than Jesus. He is the milk and the meat. 

  

Encouragement Goes A Long Way

The theme of Acts 20 jumps out at me in a hurry--encouragement.  From 19:21 we learn that Paul was headed for Jerusalem but kept being slowed down by threats of death--you know the usual.  In 20:16 you see Paul is now hurried for Jerusalem.  All this to say that God in His sovereignty keeps slowing Paul down in order that the Saints would be encouraged.  Paul has to go on a different path than he would have hoped for in order to get to Jerusalem but while he was being slowed down he spent extra time with the churches, wrote the book of Romans, and performed a miraculous healing on a kid who fell three stories out of a balcony window.  What I am learning from Acts 20 is that the ministry of encouragement is absolutely crucial, especially for new believers.  

When was the last time your plans were frustrated.  Joseph after being sold into slavery by his brothers would later rise to second in command over all of egypt wrote this in Genesis 50:20, "But as for you, you meant evil against me but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive."  

God's plan has always been to save many people alive, and He will slow us down and help us learn how to encourage the saints.  

 

Good Kids Music

To Be Like Jesus on iTunes

We had a chance to listen to the new Sovereign Grace CD for kids, To Be Like Jesus, I really enjoyed it--good theology set to good music. It's been good for us as parents and for the kids to be having lyrics like this in our heads:

I don’t always do what’s right
Jesus lived a perfect life
And for sins like mine He died
Teach me to obey Your Word
Help me to put others first
Holy Spirit, change my life

You can download it on ITUNES

Stop Overcomplicating

Paul reminds us by saying, "Now I would remind you brothers, of the gospel I preached to you....for I delivered to you of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins."

When you get into the recording studio to record the songs you think are the best in the world there is a common mistake that a musician can easily slip into--overcomplicating the song.  As soon as you start to nitpick obsessively and forget the overall flow and feel of the song it becomes as stale as your toddlers cereal left under his bed.  

If there is anyone we should be passionate about in this life it is Jesus who died a brutal execution for my behalf because He so loved the world.  Galatians 6:14 says, "far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Am I amazed at Jesus?  That is when the song of my life begins to resonate.  

Here are three areas that threaten to make us stale.  

1.  Emotionalism-- basing my security on how I am feeling rather than seeing Jesus as crucified for my sin.

2.  Legalism--basing my relationship with Jesus on my performance.  

3.  Condemnation--Being more focused on my sin rather than on Jesus and the gospel.  

If you notice all three of these traps prey upon us being preoccupied with ourselves.  It's time to stop looking at ourselves and look unto Jesus the author and perfecter and finisher of the faith He has given.  

Where A Man Belongs

I found this quote from The Resurgence...."Men Bucking The Trend"

John Piper in reference to a cigarette billboard with the slogan, Where a Man Belongs:

"To hell with such lies! Where a man belongs is on his knees beside his wife, leading in prayer. Where a man belongs is at the bedside of his children, leading in devotion and prayer. Where a man belongs is in the driver's seat, leading his family to the house of God. Where a man belongs is up early and alone with God, seeking vision and direction for the family. Men, I challenge you in the name of Jesus Christ our King, be where you belong!"