How to Read the Bible

I think most of us would say that we have some room to grow when it comes to our ability to understand what we read in the Bible. Sure, we understand the essence of the message of the Bible, and we can grasp certain things with confidence from any chunk of Scripture we happen to be reading. But we are often confused by the text and we find ourselves in need of help. If this describes you, let me highly recommend a resource I came across yesterday posted on Justin Taylor's blog, Between Two Worlds. It's a compilation of the articles found in the back of the ESV Study Bible on how to read the Bible, and they have put them into a nice handy PDF. Check out the original post here where you can download the PDF. Some of the articles include "Reading the Bible Theologically" (by J.I. Packer), "Reading the Bible in Prayer and Communion with God" (by John Piper), and "Reading the Bible for Personal Application" (by David Powlison). These would be great to pass on to a friend as well, or to read together with your spouse or family, or perhaps to work through with a new believer over a series of meetings.

If You Are Struggling with Sin...

...remember that Jesus hates sin (and your sin in particular), and if you are in Christ today, He has dealt with it and is dealing with it through the cross and the power of the Spirit at work in you. I came across these words from Charles Spurgeon this morning (Owen consistently and sweetly asks at breakfast if we can read Morning and Evening, a wonderful 365-day devotional by Spurgeon that takes about 3 minutes to read together...I think he likes looking up the date for that morning):

"[Jesus] hates wickedness so much that He bled to wound it to the heart; He died that it might die; He was buried that He might bury it in his tomb; and He rose that He might for ever trample it beneath His feet."

How Should We Think about Good Works?

The gospel teaches us that we are saved by the grace of God, through faith, not because of our good works ("For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." -Eph. 2:8-9). So, as those who have been saved by grace through faith (not good works), how should we now think about good works? Paul answers that question in the very next verse in Ephesians ("For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." -Eph. 2:10).

Matthew Henry gives some good help in his commentary on this verse:

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, &c., v. 10. It appears that all is of grace, because all our spiritual advantages are from God. We are his workmanship; he means in respect of the new creation; not only as men, but as saints. The new man is a new creature; and God is its Creator. It is a new birth, and we are born or begotten of his will. In Christ Jesus, that is, on the account of what he has done and suffered, and by the influence and operation of his blessed Spirit. Unto good works, &c. The apostle having before ascribed this change to divine grace in exclusion of works, lest he should seem thereby to discourage good works, he here observes that though the change is to be ascribed to nothing of that nature (for we are the workmanship of God), yet God, in his new creation, has designed and prepared us for good works: Created unto good works, with a design that we should be fruitful in them. Wherever God by his grace implants good principles, they are intended to be for good works. Which God hath before ordained, that is, decreed and appointed. Or, the words may be read, To which God hath before prepared us, that is, by blessing us with the knowledge of his will, and with the assistance of his Holy Spirit; and by producing such a change in us. That we should walk in them, or glorify God by an exemplary conversation and by our perseverance in holiness."

Prayer Struggles

If any of you struggle with prayer (or maybe you don't but you "have a friend who does"), you might find some help in reading an article by David Powlison called "Praying Beyond the Sick List." Here is a representative excerpt:

"It's hard to learn how to pray - for the sick as well as the healthy. How often do we make intelligent, honest requests for something we need from capable, trustworthy friends? Prayer is a lot like that. But somehow when the making of a request is termed "praying" and the capable party is termed "God," things tend to get tangled. You've seen it, heard it, done it: the contorted syntax, formulaic phrasing, meaningless repetition, 'just reallys,' vague non-requests, artificially pious tone of voice, air of confusion. If you talked to your friends or parents that way they'd think you'd lost your mind. But what if your understanding of prayer changes, and if your practice of prayer then changes? What then? What if the prayer requests you make - and the ones you ask others
to make - change?"

By the way, whenever I've struggled in prayer, I've found that it is usually fruitful for me to ask myself, "Why am I finding it hard to pray right now?" That helps me identify the deeper issue and address it in light of the cross of Christ.

Speaking the Truth in Love

This is a good word that I came across today, from Tim Chester's book You Can Change (here), on how we can point others to Christ when they've sinned (of course, it's true for us too):

“What should you do if others confess their sin to you? Speak the truth
in love. Don’t tell them their sin is understandable or
insignificant. That offers no comfort because it’s a lie. But we can
speak words of comfort because we can speak words of grace. Call them to
repent of their sin and to accept by faith the forgiveness that God
offers. ‘You are guilty, but Christ has borne your guilt. You deserve
God’s judgment, but Christ has borne your judgment.’ This is true
comfort. Embody that forgiveness in your ongoing acceptance and
love. But accept people with God’s agenda for change. Explore, if
you can, the lies and desires that lead to their sinful behavior. Together
you may be able to discern the truth they need to turn to and the idolatrous
desires they need to turn from. Be proactive about offering
accountability. That means asking the right question! Ask them how
they’re getting on; ask them whether they’ve sinned again. Be specific –
ask when, where, why, how often. Above all, point them to the grace and
glory of Christ.”

The plants of grace in our hearts

Some wise counsel from John Owen on weeding the garden of your heart today:

“The life and vigor of our spiritual lives consists in the vigor and flourishing of the plants of grace in our hearts. Now, as you may see in a garden, let there be a precious herb planted, and let the ground be untilled, and weeds grow about it, perhaps it will live still, but be a poor, withering, unuseful thing. You must look and search for it, and sometimes can scarce find it; and when you do, you can scarce know it, whether it be the plant you look for or not; and suppose it be, you can make no use of it at all. When, let another of the same kind be set in the ground, naturally as barren and bad as the other, but let it be well weeded, and everything that is noxious [injurious, harmful, unwholesome] and hurtful removed from it – it flourishes and thrives; you may see it at first look into the garden, and have it for your use when you please. So it is with the graces of the Spirit that are planted in our hearts. That is true; they are still, they abide in a heart where there is some neglect of mortification; but they are ready to die (Rev. 3:2), they are withering and decaying. The heart is like the sluggard’s field – so overgrown with weeds that you can scarce see the good corn. Such a man may search for faith, love, and zeal, and scarce be able to find any; and if he does discover that these graces are there yet alive and sincere, yet they are so weak, so clogged with lusts, that they are of very little use; they remain, indeed, but are ready to die. But now let the heart be cleansed by mortification, the weeds of lust constantly and daily rooted up (as they spring daily, nature being their proper soil), let room be made for grace to thrive and flourish – how will every grace act its part, and be ready for every use and purpose!”

Encouragement to put your sin to death today

John Owen reminded me this morning about the encouragement that is available to me in the truth of Galatians 5:16-17: "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh..." As Owen put it, "one main reason why the Spirit and the new nature are given unto us [is] that we may have a principle within us whereby to oppose sin and lust." Let this be a relief and an encouragement to you as you battle against sin today!

"Not to be daily employing the Spirit and new nature for the mortifying of sin is to neglect that excellent succor [assistance, relief] which God has given us against our greatest enemy...His graces, as well as his gifts, are bestowed on us to use, exercise, and trade with. Not to be daily mortifying sin is to sin against the goodness, kindness, wisdom, grace, and love of God, who has furnished us with a principle of doing it."

And one more: "Exercise and success are the two main cherishers of grace in the heart; when it [grace] is suffered to lie still, it withers and decays: the things of it are ready to die (Rev. 3:2); and sin gets ground toward the hardening of the heart (Heb. 3:13). This is that which I intend: by the omission of this duty grace withers, lust flourishes, and the frame of the heart grows worse and worse; and the Lord knows what desperate and fearful issues [outcomes] it has had with many."

Help from (John) Owen

I taught a Sunday school class on John Owen yesterday (he's a Puritan theologian that our family is particularly fond of), and in preparing for the class I started to re-read the first part of his book (or series of books), Overcoming Sin and Temptation, edited by Kelly Kapic and Justin Taylor. It's a fabulous book, and perhaps I'll say more about it as I begin to work back through it. Owen helped me this morning to more clearly see some truths in God's Word about my own sin and about the work of the Spirit within me, and I wanted to pass along a few of his summary statements in his exposition of Romans 8:13: "If you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body you shall live."

• "The choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin" (p. 47).
• "The mortification of indwelling sin remaining in our mortal bodies, that it may not have life and power to bring forth the works or deeds of the flesh, is the constant duty of believers" (p. 49).
• "The vigor, power, and comfort of our spiritual life depends on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh" (p. 49).
• "Indwelling sin is compared to a person, a living person, called 'the old man,' with his faculties and properties, his wisdom, craft, subtlety, strength; this, says the apostle, must be killed, put to death, mortified - that is, have its power, life, vigor, and strength to produce its effects taken away by the Spirit. It is, indeed, meritoriously, and by way of example, utterly mortified and slain by the cross of Christ; and the 'old man' is thence said to be 'crucified with Christ' (Rom. 6:6), and ourselves to be 'dead' with him (Rom. 6:8), and really initially in regeneration (Rom. 6:3-5), when a principle contrary to it and destructive of it (Gal. 5:17) is planted in our hearts; but the whole work is by degrees to be carried on toward perfection all our days" (p. 49).

More to come from (John) Owen...

Weariness and worship

I've been reading a great little book recently called The Ministry, by Charles Brown, a Scottish pastor in the 1800s. Much of what he says applies directly to ministers, but also has relevance for all Christians. I might string together a few great quotes over the next few days for your edification.

This first one jumped off the page at me and got me thinking about its implications not for public worship (which was Brown's intention) but for private worship (personal Bible reading, prayer, meditation on the Bible reading, etc.). In speaking about the inordinate length of some public prayers, Brown cautioned, "When weariness begins, devotion ends." When weariness begins in the worshipper (due to "unduly prolonged prayers"), it dampens a devotional spirit in the worshipper.

Boy is that true in private worship as well, and in all of life. When we are weary and tired, it is so much harder for us to be attentive to God's Word and to be earnest in prayer. We are more prone to be downcast, and to listen to the inner sermon of unbelief rather than the refreshing and reinvigorating truth of the Word. I think we should praise God that our access to Him is based not on our physical or emotional condition, but on the finished work of our great high priest (Hebrews 4:14-16). And when we are weary, we should recognize our heightened vulnerability to fleshly-mindedness, and lean hard into the grace of God for help and strength.

Of Walmart and God's Calling

Our Super Walmart is a crazy place. Mysteriously, it is always crowded. It is a cross-cultural experience. It is a great training ground for virtues like patience and humility.

However, the one time (it seems) that it is not busy is early on Monday mornings, and therefore that is the time that Kristen and the boys typically do the weekly grocery shopping for our family. We usually have our regular morning routine all together, and then I leave for work at the same time they leave for the store (just before 8am). Kristen pulls out, then I pull out, and I follow them out of our court, down Gayton Road about a hundred feet, and then down Blue Jay Lane about a hundred feet, at which time Kristen turns right, and I keep going straight. That moment is often a defining moment in my week.

It's at that moment that I'm often awakened to the fact that we are called by God to do the things we are doing. In God's wise providence, He has called me to be a pastor (among other things), and He has called Kristen to be a mother/homemaker (among other things). She goes right, to Walmart. I go straight, to the church. We go our separate ways, but our ultimate purpose is not separate, but aligned: to glorify and enjoy God through the Spirit-empowered fulfillment of our God-given roles. Both callings, by God's appointment, are vital in the expansion of God's kingdom and are thus significant in His eyes. There are a million implications of this, but I'll leave that to you to think through.

Like I said, that moment is often a defining moment in my week. I'm grateful for it as a continual reminder, because boy do I need it.

Cultivating God-honoring humility

We recently went on a beach weekend with some of the young adults from our church, to Corolla, NC. 24 adults in one house, plus one Owen and one Baxter. It was lots of fun. Here is the group shot we took at the end of the weekend.



I taught 3 sessions on Cultivating Humility, using much of C.J. Mahaney's book, Humility: True Greatness (I highly recommend this book). It seemed to be a fruitful time of learning and discussion (each teaching time was followed by a time of small group discussion/application). C.J.'s handy definition of true, God-honoring humility is this: "Humility is honestly assessing ourselves in light of God's holiness and our sinfulness." Isaiah 6:1-7 is a good place to go in Scripture for this.

I think it can only help us to ask ourselves at any given moment, "Am I presently motivated by pride or by humility?...am I big right now (in my estimation) and God small, or is God big right now and me small?...who is currently at the center of my universe: God, or me?", and to ask the Holy Spirit for the grace and power to change.

Sick, but not destroyed

I've been sick now for a few days, thankfully not with any version of the flu. I usually get pretty knocked out, and a terrible sore throat starts in sometime around the 2nd day (like right now).

One thought/prayer that the Lord has used to help me immensely is this: that I can be more driven and influenced by the Holy Spirit who dwells within me than by my physical body which is experiencing one of the effects of living in a sin-wrecked, fallen world. As unpleasant and sometimes painful as my current experience is (and it is very minor compared to the sufferings of others), because of the victorious work of Christ I can walk by the Spirit and not be downcast in soul because of the infirmity of my body.

I'm sick right now (as perhaps some of you are as well!) because I live in a world of sin, but I am not under the dominion of sin or its effects because of the redeeming work of Christ on the cross for me. As often as I can remember that, and believe that, I can be sick, but not destroyed (2 Cor 4:7-12).

A lesson in trusting God

God taught me a striking lesson earlier this afternoon. I had just come home from work, and Kristen and the boys were not home yet from running an errand (to the park). Sitting in a chair upstairs in our room, I felt overwhelmed by all the things I had on my plate at work (you know the feeling, the unpleasant snowball effect of contemplating many tasks at once while forgetting that they don't all need to be done at once and that God actually does exist). I was mentally and emotionally exhausted, and I just thought to myself, "I can't do this, I don't have it in me right now" (which is a vague way of saying that I was thoroughly spent and did not have the emotional supply I thought was necessary to fulfill my calling as a husband and father to the occupants of the minivan that had just pulled into the driveway).

I called out to God in prayer for help, but I realized something. In asking God for help, I don't think I was actually trusting in Him or leaning upon Him, but rather was trusting in and leaning on the change in emotional status I was anticipating as a result of His helping me. I did not want God, I wanted a particular emotional condition, one that would enable me to be self-sufficient for the rest of the evening. But God's design in that moment, it seems, was for me to realize that He is all-sufficient. My trust is to be ultimately in Him, not in His help. Though it is not biblically improper to strongly desire His help, or a change in emotional condition, or a change of circumstance, etc., if a stronger desire for God Himself is not behind it, then it can be idolatry, and using God as a means of exalting self. This was a good lesson learned, and I am grateful to the Lord for it.

God is better than hamburgers

Tonight we had somewhat of a breakthrough in our family worship time. We typically do this after dinner, though it is sometimes hard to maintain in the midst of a busy week. When we do gather for this time, it usually looks more like Owen and Daddy worship rather than Whole-Family worship, since Kristen is on Baxter and Baxter is everywhere. But tonight, Baxter had a breakthrough experience of content, joyous, and relatively focused participation in family worship. (By the way, our family worship time isn't anything spectacular, just a brief prayer, a hymn that Daddy picks, a reading and explanation of probably 1-2 verses of Scripture, a question or 2 from the kids' catechism, a song that Owen picks, and a closing prayer...maybe 5-10 minutes total.)

The point at which Baxter was most fully engaged was when Kristen and I were asking our 2 boys a series of questions flowing out of the first part of Psalm 119:12: "Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes!" We would say, "Boys, which is better: hamburgers, or God?", to which they would respond "GOD!!!" (Baxter: "GAAAHHH!!!" with right hand raised high pointing to the ceiling [we will eventually straighten out his current view that the presence of Almighty God is centralized in our family room ceiling]).

But as is often the case, what I was saying to our boys actually helped and humbled me a great deal. Which do I think or feel or act-as-if is better: God, or hamburgers...God, or Dairy Queen...God, or Alias (yes, we are watching old seasons...thank you Netflix)...God, or (fill in the blank)? I need to believe the Scriptures that "Your steadfast love is better than life" (Psalm 63:3), and "in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11), and "to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21). Any joyful experience of hamburgers or any other created thing must be a joyful experience of God as the one who gives those good gifts, and whose goodness is displayed continually to us through them. God is better than hamburgers.

Possessive-pronoun Christianity

Martin Luther once said, "The life of Christianity consists in possessive pronouns." In other words, the vitality or essence of genuine Christianity centers around whether you can truthfully and sincerely say, not just "Jesus is the Savior of sinners," but "Jesus is my Savior from my sin" (my being the 1st person possessive pronoun).

This is true for the beginning of the Christian life, which is marked by personal trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ (His life, death, and resurrection as a substitute and representative for sinners). Recognizing that we are willful and active sinners who stand under the terrible wrath of our perfectly holy and just Creator God, we humbly and wholeheartedly entrust ourselves to the only solution to our problem of sin, Jesus Christ and His atoning work on the cross. In receiving and depending upon Him alone for salvation, we are saying, "Jesus is my Savior from my sin and its consequences and its power and ultimately its presence."

This is true also for the continuation of the Christian life, which is marked by continued trust and utter dependence upon God. "The LORD is my shepherd" (Psalm 23:1). "I say to the LORD, 'You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you'" (Psalm 16:2). Etc.

If you are uncertain of where you stand spiritually (i.e., whether or not you are currently standing under the just wrath of God, or whether you are standing under His grace through Christ by faith, Romans 5:1-2), then I encourage you to consider whether you have truly embraced Jesus Christ as your Savior for your sin. Believe in Christ. Receive Him. Come to Him. Entrust yourself to Him. Possess possessive-pronoun Christianity.

If you are already in Christ, then I encourage you to consider the impact of this insight from Luther (really, from God in Scripture) upon your daily living. Do you live like God is your God, like the Lord is your shepherd, like He is your Creator and Redeemer, your sustainer, your provider, your strength and shield, your guide and friend, your highest joy? I encourage you to inject this insight into key spots of your day, such as straightaway when you wake up, when you face adversity, whenever you pray, and when your head hits the pillow at night. In His gracious plan of redemption, God has taken the initiative to make us His people (Jeremiah 31:33), and so should we not make and keep Him our God?

"I am living for _____."

So Kristen and I had an intriguing (and brief) conversation this morning as we were driving in the car with our 2 boys. We had just stopped into Starbucks on our way to the church, where Kristen and Owen and Baxter attend a Tuesday morning women’s Bible study called Wellspring (the boys, being boys, don’t attend…there is a nursery we like to call “Bible study”). Kristen had been the one to go inside to get our drinks (thank you disappointingly-finite gift card!), and she was now telling me about her experience. She made a comment about how interesting it is to see who visits Starbucks at 9:00am on a Tuesday morning (e.g., the post-school-drop-off Moms initiating their to-do list activities with a nice Starbucks treat), and then said, “I wish there could be some kind of ticker above everyone’s head, that says how often they come to Starbucks each week, and how much they spend on coffee, and what they are off to do that morning.” (We make these kinds of comments to each other often, especially when we are driving on the highway, wondering where everyone is going, and what they are doing, and what their story is.) The thought that popped into my mind right then arrested me because it was so challenging to me. I said to Kristen, “I wonder what it would be like if the ticker said, ‘Right now, I am living for _____’.” We kind of sat in silence for a few moments, then made a few comments about how convicting and challenging that is to us, and then I think Owen interjected an unrelated comment and we ended up wondering together about how often firefighters wash their fire trucks (and why).

But isn’t that a good challenge for us to consider? How would you finish that statement, right this very moment? “I am living for _____ right now.” How we fill in that blank cuts right to the heart of the matter. What is it that drives us? What fuels us? What is it that keeps us going? What or who are we living for? Are we ultimately living for ourselves, or for our Creator and Redeemer? This morning, my ticker would have run something like this: “Right now, I am living for the self-focused momentary physical pleasure of a tall Java Chip Frappucino and the anticipation of the satisfaction (however fleeting) of clearing my email inbox so that they are zero unread messages.” I honestly don’t think it went very far beyond that. I was living for myself. (Important nuance: it is not that we can’t thoroughly enjoy a Frappucino as a gracious gift from God and an incomparable but helpful glimmer of the goodness of His character, or that we can’t vigorously apply ourselves to the God-given tasks that we have, laboring diligently as unto Him and not unto men…that just wasn’t the posture of my heart this morning.)

Our merciful God tells us in His Word, in a rich variety of ways, how we should fill in that blank. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). We should be able to say, “Right now, I am living for the glory of God.” And if at any time or in the midst of any task we can’t say that, we should ask the Holy Spirit to convict us of our sin, we should turn to Jesus Christ in full repentance, and we should seek His grace and strength to change us and enable us to live for Him and not for ourselves. We should resolve, along with Jonathan Edwards, “never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God; nor be, nor suffer [allow] it, if I can possibly avoid it.” Our times are in God’s hand (Psalm 31:15); we are not our own but have been bought with a price and so are to glorify God in our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). So, I urge you to ask yourself frequently, “What would my ticker say right now?” And allow God to do His mighty work on your heart and life.