GospelDrivenLife

Living in the Gospel in an age of self-help

In the last year I have become increasingly convinced that the Gospel makes no sense to the natural man.  Not only is it counter-intuitive to the unbeliever but it requires constant reminders to the Christian.  I am so deeply self-help oriented that I quickly move on from the Gospel and God's work to save me -- to myself and my work to improve my life.

Living by faith not fear

I have been responsible for the training of 3 children.  I have also led three churches and served on a team in others.  Any time one bears responsibility and seeks to apply the Gospel and the Scriptures to life, one faces decisions and actions.  To all appearances two people can be doing almost identical things as parents or making identical decisions as leaders -- but their lives can be totally different in heart.  The difference is that one person can obey out of fear.  The other can obey out of faith.  And that is a huge difference.  The difference ties to the interceeding savior.

Our keeping Savior

I have been thinking on Jesus present ministry at God's right hand.  Sad to say, I have almost completely neglected this theme in all my years as a Christian.  Reading Hebrews has helped me see that the Gospel is about the PERSON and WORK of Christ -- and the fruit of his death is his exaltation as the God-man, Savior, Messiah, and Lord.  My Savior stands at God's right hand for me.  But what does that mean?

The Death of Death, 1

Hope is a powerful force in the human heart. When we are full of hope we sense there is meaning to what we are doing and that our labors will not be in vain. Hopelessness is a disease rooted in the belief that life is a waste – or at least our life is, and that nothing we have done or will do will matter at all in the end.

I have been reflecting this week on the root of all hopelessness. It is death. When people look at the brevity of their lives and the seemingly minimal fruit that comes from great effort, they battle with hopelessness. When people see evil triumph over good, they become hopeless.

What is death? Where does it come from? What does Christianity have to do with death?

His Obedience for Us

I have been reading here and there on the subject of Jesus obedience for us.  There is no doubt that Jesus is an enigma to my heart and to the culture in which I live -- or any culture.

Living in the beauty of Christ

A friend asked me to give some further thoughts on the series of posts on the Beauty of Christ.  The question is how to live in this.  They pointed out that people who take their heart sins seriously can end up being sin focused and struggle focused rather than redemption and Christ focused.  One particular form of that is the notion that when we get someone on the "hot seat" and probe their hearts for a solid hour or so, it was been a good meeting.  If they have seen new idols and new sins they had not seen previously, it has been a good meeting.  But if all we do in our meeting is point out grace in each other, that is shallow.

How sad! What does it look like? As I write this I am thinking of how to apply this in my own context first!

The Beauty of Christ, 4

I want to end this series of posts with an analogy. 

Eight years ago I was experiencing some unusual symptoms of something being wrong with my health.  I was losing weight rapidly (something that never happens!  I can eat 1000 calories a day and not lose weight).  I went to an MD and they ran a series of tests.  I wanted to diagnose myself.  The doctor would not hear of it.  He was skilled, I was not.  he directed the testing process.  Each of the tests looked into my body in a way my eyes could not.  They were medically introspective.  A surgical biopsy was necessary to see the depths of what was going on. And the tests/surgery brought a clear diagnosis -- I had multi-focal papillary carcinoma in my thyroid gland.  Or, in simpler terms, I had thyroid cancer.  It is the most treatable form of cancer but it did require treatment.

Now, at the point at which the introspection of my body brought a clear diagnosis, did I ask for more tests, more scans, more surgery?  No I did not.  They did the surgery, removed the gland, treated me with a radioactive substance a few weeks later, and have done regular scans of my whole body at regular intervals since.  I am free of the cancer!

Introspection led to treatment . . . and so it is with the Christian.  Yes, we must introspect to know our hearts, but that journey must be done with the direction of our Great Physician.  I am not able, by myself, to see my heart accurately.  I am not able to, even though I am armed with the doctrine of total depravity!  I must be in a position of faith toward my God to ask him to show me my heart, knowing that this foul cesspool of mixed motives is also magnetic to me -- and I must have help from my savior, or I will be drawn into endless self-contemplation.

I know it is God who leads me to know myself because God the Spirit will always lead me to know my heart in the presence of the cross -- in the light of sin fully atoned for.  He will point out my sin and quickly flood his light onto the Savior. His goal in conviction is not self-absorption but worship of the Savior who died for me and whose blood will change me.

i think Wesley had it right:

Thou, O Christ, art all I want, more than all in Thee I find;
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint, heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is Thy Name, I am all unrighteousness;
False and full of sin I am; Thou art full of truth and grace.

Plenteous grace with Thee is found, grace to cover all my sin;
Let the healing streams abound; make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art, freely let me take of Thee;
Spring Thou up within my heart; rise to all eternity.

The Beauty of Christ, 3

And that brings me to a few more thoughts about introspection . . .

The Beauty of Christ, 2

I am re-listening to Powlison and reflecting on this issue of introspection.  There is no doubt that there is a biblical call to examine our lives but it can so quickly become perverted and self-focused.  What are some additional biblical guidelines?

The cross and injustice

I want to summarize some of what I have been learning from God in 1 Peter.  Most of that is summed up in this idea: do not judge the meaning of your sufferings by how they look now.  Wait until glory.  Fix your hope on that day.