Soma

As I was rereading Paul Tripp’s Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands (in preparation for Shoreline’s Equipping Class: Community) I came across this and laughed out loud alone in my office (read:closet) because the picture is so accurate.  Thought you might appreciate it.

God is a jealous God.  He loves you too much to make room for other lovers.  He will oppose your proud and self-absorbed living, not because he is against you, but because he loves you…

We should be encouraged by God’s jealousy.  Wives, how would you react if your husband plopped down on the couch, pulled you close and said, “Dear, of all the women I love, tonight I think I love you the most”?  You would not be encouraged.  You would be outraged!  True love is always jealous.

The other day Harper, Addison and I were playing in their room.  Harper had all of his train cars out, and was playing with three of his engines.  In entered his little sister for what would turn into a very predictable scenario.  Addison walked over and pointed to one of Harper’s engines.  I encouraged Harper to share the engine with his sister (especially since he also had two other engines to play with), and he looked at me and said, “But, it’s mine!”

“Aha!  Perfect teaching opportunity!” I thought to myself.  So, I looked back at Harper and said, “I know that this engine was given to you, but it was given to you so you could enjoy it and so that you could share it with others so they could enjoy it too!  Remember, everything is God’s and He has given us these things so that we can share them with others.  So, will you please share at least one of your engines with Addison?”  I was feeling pretty good about my explanation and I was looking forward to Harper handing the toy over because my reasoning had been so precise, and then it came…Harper looked back up at me and said, “But I’m playing with it!”

Now this may sound like a pretty rational rebuttal, because it is, but we are trying to teach our kids that just because you are playing with something doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t stop playing with it in order to share it with someone else.  However, as the words came out of his mouth it hit me…that’s exactly how I sound!

Most of us have been in church long enough that when we think about the giving of our possesions and the sharing of what God has given to us, we would never look back at God and say “But, it’s mine!”  We know better.  We know that everything belongs to God.  We know that everything we have has been given by God.  We know that we don’t actually own anything, but simply have been entrusted with it.  And so we would never say to God, “But, it’s mine!”

However, when we think about actually sacrificing for others and giving money or possesions that would actually alter the way we live (not just giving away the clothes we no longer want), we still hesitate.  When we think about giving away something that would actually cost us, while we may never claim ownership, it’s as if we still look right back up at God and scream, “But I’m playing with it!”

And some how, just like Harper, we feel justified in keeping whatever it is we have, purely based on the fact that we are currently enjoying that money, car, time, jacket, food, etc.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with Harper enjoying his trains (in fact that is the reason why Lara and I have bought them for him…so that he may enjoy them).  But when his sister (HIS SISTER!) walks in the room wihtout any engines, and doesn’t have anything else around to play with or enjoy, I still hope to raise a son who will (eventually, by the grace of God) share with his sister whether he is currently playing with the engine or not.  And while, at three years old and without the Holy Spirit, I do not expect that kind of selfless love to flow out of Harper’s heart, I cannot say the same for my expectation of you, Christian.  You, and I, should be expected to share (or at least expected to be learning to share), whether we’re playing with it or not.

Now, I feel incredibly blessed by how well read (and heard) many Shoreliners are.  We live in an incredible day where the thoughts of great thinkers and the words of great communicators are only a click away.  However, as I read this post (HT: Matty), I was reminded of some of the reasons I am often concerned about the personality driven, pod-cast enabled, book publisher created Christian culture we all find ourselves in.

But, to find out why e-pastors are like porn, you’re going to have to read the post.

I have no idea who David Mathis is, but this morning he piqued a topic that has been on my heart for a while.  He writes:

In Romans 12:13, Paul points out that one effect of God’s mercy on his people is that they “seek to show hospitality.”

Seek. Pursue. Chase after.

They are not merely willing to be hospitable when someone comes to the door or asks for a favor. But they seek to show hospitality. They’re looking for and creating opportunities to be hospitable, not just answering the doorbell.

I’ve often wondered why we think of ourselves as “hospitable” when we do the same exact things that any non-believer would do.  Having a pull out couch (or even an extra bed room) for old friends or family members to sleep on when they are in town is hospitable…but it’s not uniquely Gospel-hospitable.  It is probably a sure bet that the dozen strangers that are sitting around me at Starbucks right now would all be more than willing to let an old friend or a family member sleep at their place if they needed somewhere to stay.  Almost any non-beleiver would.

So, then, what does Gospel-motivated hospitality look like?  I’m not completely sure, but I do know this: it is active and proactive.  Gospel-motivated hospitality means is hospitality that looks like the Gospel.  It is not only inviting people into your home when they ask you if they can, but it is going after people and continually inviting people into your home, into “your space,” proactively looking for an opportunity to use what you have for the glory of God.

When I first started ministry and was told that loving people meant going after them, asking them, seeking them, and proactively finding needs that I could meet it made me feel desperate and a little awkward.  I mean, seriously, if someone had a need they would tell me, right?  The truth is, people aren’t that open…and most of us are quietest when we are in need the most.  That means that to love those around us we need to be proactive, we need to go after people and seek out ways that we can love, serve, and  be hospitable.

Gospel-motivated hospitality results in using our possesions and homes in a way similar to the way God has used His.  He prepared a home for us and then went after us, and drew us in so that He may bless us with all He has.  That is hospitality!

Thought I’d share this little tidbit I came across in my reading this week.  A few months ago I wrote a post about how forgiveness costs something.  Now, I’d like to bring home that point even more powerfully by offering Jay Adams’ definition for forgiveness.  (It’s actually not Adams’ definition, it’s God’s definition that I read most recently in Adams’ book, A Theology of Christian Counseling, but I hate the idea of writing something here that doesn’t’ identify where the thought most recently came from in my life…it feels like plagiarizing…so, there you go).

The truth is, forgiveness is not simply a formality, it is a promise.  It is a promise that God made when He forgave (and forgives) you, and it is a promise that you are responsible to make to anyone you grant forgiveness to.  Forgiveness is a promise that says:

• I won’t bring the matter up to you again
• I won’t bring the matter up to others
• I won’t bring the matter up to myself (brooding or wallowing in self-pity)

That’s what God means when He says “I forgive you.”  Is that what you mean when you say those words?

I told you forgiveness costs something.

In our community group we have begun studying through the book of Ephesians.  Last week we came across Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian beleivers at the end of chapter 1.  After studying through this prayer we each prayed this exact prayer for another person in the group and I began to imagine what could/would happen if we all committed to praying in this vein for each other.  I’m not yet sure the answer, but I can tell you this for sure…it will be exciting!  So, our group committed to pray this prayer for each other even when we’re not together, and in the week since we did that I started to wonder what would happen if we all (all of us who are a part of Shoreline) began to pray this prayer for each other.  In addition to praying for each others’ jobs, relationships, families, illnesses, hearts, desires, temptations, suffering and struggles…what if we all began to pray this way for each other?!  I would challenge you to this end.  Would you pray this (or something like it) for everyone you know at Shoreline?  Would you do so more than once?  Can you even imagine what God is going to do in our hearts and in our communities as all of us petition Him with this prayer?  Here’s Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians (and hopefully your prayer for the Shoreliners):

I do not cease to give thanks for you remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightented, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasureable greatness of his power to us who believe.

Will you bow your heads?

among other things…

Christ’s death provided the basis of our union with God

Romans 6:4-5
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united in a resurrection like his.

Christ’s death freed us from slavery to sin

Romans 6:16-17
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness.  But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.

Christ’s death secured triumph over Satan

Colossians 2:14b-15
He set aside [the legal demands against us], nailing it to the cross.  He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Christ’s death provided an example for us

2 Peter 2:19-21
For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.  For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure?  But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.  For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

Christ’s death resulted in his own ultimate joy

Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Christ’s death absorbed the wrath of God for our sin

Romans 3:23-25
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, which God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.  This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

After our recent series on sex and the gospel (pt 1, pt 2, pt 3), one of my greatest prayers is that the message you heard is the one that Matt Chandler communicated so powerfully at the Desiring God conference (wasn’t there…just caught this clip).  No matter what you’ve done or what has been done to you, no matter how mangled or disheveled you feel like your sexuality is, Jesus wants you.  Jesus wants to redeem you!  Jesus has given everything for you!  On this week where we remember the death and resurrection of Christ, I can think of few less appropriate messages for you to hear than the fact that Jesus wants the rose!

HT: Justin Taylor

Do you really think about yourself as uniquely a man or uniquely a woman?  In a culture that tries desperately to erase the lines that differentiate men from women, we are called to continue to redraw the lines that the world has erased.  Men and women were created equal.  But, men and women were also created different!  As I’ve mentioned before, a great resource to check out is the website of the Counsil on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.  For you women who haven’t taken the time to really consider what it means that you are uniquely a woman and entrusted with unique responsibilities and roles as a result I would suggest starting by simply browsing their site for “womanhood.”

In addition, a difinitive work on the subject that is an absolute “must read” at some point in your life is Grudem and Piper’s Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.  Meredith, who many of you know is currently reading it, and I deeply appreciated the response she posted on her blog.  Especially for you women, it is worth a read (and a consideration!).  It’s not a response that comes from someone who has figured it all out, but it comes from a sweet place of struggle to continually honor God with her life and femininity.  While I don’t believe that John Piper wants her to quit her job, the questions that she is asking as a result of her studies are questions that each and every Christian woman must ask herself before God.

What do I chase after? How do I hone the gifts and passions that God has instilled within me? How can I pursue biblical femininity in my current stage of singleness? And how might that change when I step into the next chapter of life?

The definition of femininity that Meredith is wrestling with is an important (although incredibly counter-cultural) one:

At the heart of mature femininity is a freeing disposition to affirm, receive and nurture strength and leadership from worthy men in ways appropriate to a woman’s differing relationships.

Do you understand your femininity that way?  What makes you uniquely a woman?  And what does that mean for your life now?  What does that mean for your dreams?  What does that mean for your aspirations?  What does that mean for your passions?  What does that mean for your sacrifices?  All good questions.  But questions that only flow from a heart that is willing to consider (and truly consider) Biblical womanhood.