John Owen was the greatest Puritan thinker of the 17th century. He was born in 1616. He was probably the greatest pastor-theologian among the Puritans. He outlived all eleven of his children. The last thing he prepared for publication was called Meditations on the Glory of Christ. It was his dying testimony and his way of preparing for the unspeakably great moment of meeting the Lord face to face. It is a 160-page exposition of John 17:24, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory.” He believed that the secret to personal holiness and enduring all the pressures and pains of this life was “A constant contemplation of the glory of Christ that is made in the Gospels”. He gives us five ways that we can behold the glory and beauty of Jesus Christ. It is well worth your time to practice.
1. Fix it in mind that this glory of Christ in the divine constitution of His person is the best, most noble, useful, beneficial object that we can have in our thoughts and affections.
2. Diligently study the Scripture and the revelations that are made of this glory of Christ in them.
3. Having attained the light of the knowledge of the glory of Christ from the Scripture, or by the dispensation of the truth in the preaching of the gospel, meditates frequently upon it.
4. Let your occasional thoughts of Christ be many, and multiplied every day.
5. See to it that all thoughts concerning Christ and His glory are accompanied with admiration, adoration, and thanksgiving.
Longing to see Christ's precious glory,
Pastor Bill
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
THOUGHTS ON JOHN OWEN AND THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
I have been reading John Owen's wonderful work Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers. I have been humbled in reading his twelfth chapter on Thoughtfulness of the excellency and majesty of God-Our unacquaintedness with him proposed and considered. Owen suggests that the more thoughtful you are about the excellence of who God really is, the more you realize your own distance from Him.
John Owen challenges us to "think greatly of the greatness of God." Oh how little we really know of God! When I contrast what I know of Him in comparison to who He really is I know just enough to be utterly humbled in the little knowledge and understanding that I really have. There is an infinite chasm between my knowledge and who God really is!
Owen says, "We speak much of God, can talk 0f His ways, His works, His counsels, all the day long; the truth is, we know very little of Him. Our thoughts, our meditations, our expressions of Him are low, many of them unworthy of His glory, none of them reaching His perfections."
The apostle Paul says that we are able to "behold the glory of the Lord...as in a glass or mirror" (2 Corinthians3:18 NKJV). What this means is that in the New Covenant , by the sovereign grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, we are able to "see" the beauty, worth, and excellence of the glory of God but infinitely limited "as in a glass".
Yet, in 1 Corinthians 13:12 Paul says, "we see through a mirror dimly...we know in part" (ESV). Jonathan Edwards speaks of God like an ocean. Well, if God is like an ocean, then my knowledge of Him is like a little cup of ocean water. It reminds me of what a know it all I was as a young man. but as I have grown older, I realize how foolish and childish were my notions of God. Owen says, "all our notions of God are but childish in respect to His infinite perfections...we may love honor, believe, and obey our Father; and He accepts our childish thoughts, for they are but childish. We see...but know very little of Him."
Why is it that no matter what we know of God that we know so little of Him? Because it is GOD that we claim to know. Remember Paul praying that we would know the love of God which is unknowable (Ephesians 3:19)? What an amazing paradox, we are called to know what in this life we cannot know. No wonder, He is God, we are creatures; He is immortal, we are mortal; He is infinite, we are finite; He is unlimited, we are limited; He is independent, we are dependent; and so on.
Paul says of God in 1 Timothy 6:16, "who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen." In this light, a wise Christian can only say that as he considers God and all He is and all that He does, he realizes that he knows nothing. Nevertheless, oh how wonderful it is that at least we are able to know something of this unknowable being.
He has revealed Himself in the light of His glory in the face of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:4,6; John 1:14,18). Therefore, we can know, see, understand, and speak about His ways and His works because we can see Him in Jesus. He is not a God who is hidden but rather a God that wants to be seen and savored by His creatures. Though we see Him dimly or limited, we see Him in the illuminating light of the Spirit of God, as Owen puts it "In a saving, soul transforming light, and this is what gives us communion with God." With that knowledge, we can love Him , delight in Him, serve Him, worship Him, believe Him, obey Him, and speak of Him in a soul saving, soul transforming light. Owen concludes that "notwithstanding all this, it is but a little portion we know of Him."
My response to all of this is simply and humbly and lovingly and worshipful and longingly:
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11:33-36)
Longing to know Him more and more,
Pastor Bill
John Owen challenges us to "think greatly of the greatness of God." Oh how little we really know of God! When I contrast what I know of Him in comparison to who He really is I know just enough to be utterly humbled in the little knowledge and understanding that I really have. There is an infinite chasm between my knowledge and who God really is!
Owen says, "We speak much of God, can talk 0f His ways, His works, His counsels, all the day long; the truth is, we know very little of Him. Our thoughts, our meditations, our expressions of Him are low, many of them unworthy of His glory, none of them reaching His perfections."
The apostle Paul says that we are able to "behold the glory of the Lord...as in a glass or mirror" (2 Corinthians3:18 NKJV). What this means is that in the New Covenant , by the sovereign grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, we are able to "see" the beauty, worth, and excellence of the glory of God but infinitely limited "as in a glass".
Yet, in 1 Corinthians 13:12 Paul says, "we see through a mirror dimly...we know in part" (ESV). Jonathan Edwards speaks of God like an ocean. Well, if God is like an ocean, then my knowledge of Him is like a little cup of ocean water. It reminds me of what a know it all I was as a young man. but as I have grown older, I realize how foolish and childish were my notions of God. Owen says, "all our notions of God are but childish in respect to His infinite perfections...we may love honor, believe, and obey our Father; and He accepts our childish thoughts, for they are but childish. We see...but know very little of Him."
Why is it that no matter what we know of God that we know so little of Him? Because it is GOD that we claim to know. Remember Paul praying that we would know the love of God which is unknowable (Ephesians 3:19)? What an amazing paradox, we are called to know what in this life we cannot know. No wonder, He is God, we are creatures; He is immortal, we are mortal; He is infinite, we are finite; He is unlimited, we are limited; He is independent, we are dependent; and so on.
Paul says of God in 1 Timothy 6:16, "who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen." In this light, a wise Christian can only say that as he considers God and all He is and all that He does, he realizes that he knows nothing. Nevertheless, oh how wonderful it is that at least we are able to know something of this unknowable being.
He has revealed Himself in the light of His glory in the face of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:4,6; John 1:14,18). Therefore, we can know, see, understand, and speak about His ways and His works because we can see Him in Jesus. He is not a God who is hidden but rather a God that wants to be seen and savored by His creatures. Though we see Him dimly or limited, we see Him in the illuminating light of the Spirit of God, as Owen puts it "In a saving, soul transforming light, and this is what gives us communion with God." With that knowledge, we can love Him , delight in Him, serve Him, worship Him, believe Him, obey Him, and speak of Him in a soul saving, soul transforming light. Owen concludes that "notwithstanding all this, it is but a little portion we know of Him."
My response to all of this is simply and humbly and lovingly and worshipful and longingly:
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11:33-36)
Longing to know Him more and more,
Pastor Bill
Saturday, June 23, 2007
REFLECTIONS ON THE TASKS AT HAND
"Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses." 1 Timothy 6:12
"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" 2 Timothy 4:7
"No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him." 2 Timothy 2:4
"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." Hebrews 12:1-2
"Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control,lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
"It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. 7Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything." 2 Timothy 2:6-7
"So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church." 1 Corinthians 14:12
"According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw-- each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done." 1 Corinthians 3:10-13
"Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God." Romans 1:11
"But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." Acts 20:24
I am always moved by Paul's mission statement in Acts 20:24, "But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." I am stirred to remember my task and ministry in this life is to be a soldier, a servant, a farmer, a runner, and a builder.
1.We are called to be soldiers under the leadership of the Lord of Hosts. This reminds us that life is war not play.
2. We are also athletes who are running a race, marathon runners for the long haul, not sprinters for the short haul. It is a long obedience in the same direction.
3. We are builders building up God’s Kingdom.
4. We are farmers sowing seeds in God’s field.
5. We are servants set apart and sent out in sacrificial service by the Lord our master and king.
All of these identities remind us that the Christian life is important and we are called to fight, plant, run, serve, and build steadfastly, consistently, and joyfully whether we are in good times or bad times because we know that all this is not in vain. “Therefore, my beloved brother, be steadfast, immovable, always bounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
Going hard to finish my course and ministry while I live,
Pastor Bill
"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" 2 Timothy 4:7
"No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him." 2 Timothy 2:4
"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." Hebrews 12:1-2
"Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control,lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
"It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. 7Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything." 2 Timothy 2:6-7
"So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church." 1 Corinthians 14:12
"According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw-- each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done." 1 Corinthians 3:10-13
"Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God." Romans 1:11
"But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." Acts 20:24
I am always moved by Paul's mission statement in Acts 20:24, "But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." I am stirred to remember my task and ministry in this life is to be a soldier, a servant, a farmer, a runner, and a builder.
1.We are called to be soldiers under the leadership of the Lord of Hosts. This reminds us that life is war not play.
2. We are also athletes who are running a race, marathon runners for the long haul, not sprinters for the short haul. It is a long obedience in the same direction.
3. We are builders building up God’s Kingdom.
4. We are farmers sowing seeds in God’s field.
5. We are servants set apart and sent out in sacrificial service by the Lord our master and king.
All of these identities remind us that the Christian life is important and we are called to fight, plant, run, serve, and build steadfastly, consistently, and joyfully whether we are in good times or bad times because we know that all this is not in vain. “Therefore, my beloved brother, be steadfast, immovable, always bounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
Going hard to finish my course and ministry while I live,
Pastor Bill
Thursday, June 21, 2007
THOUGHTS ON OUR CORRUPTION AND GOD'S MERCY
Every day I find is a battle between failing to realize my corruption before God and my just deserves for such corruption and this other sense of feeling I deserve health, wealth, prosperity, ease, and comfort from God. C.J. Mahaney says that our response to life in the light of our corruption should always be, "I'm doing better than I deserve!" Oh how much do we need a fresh sense of our sinfulness and God's amazing grace, especially when trials and suffering come our way.
A most perplexing theological question is not why bad things happen to good people, but why good things happen to bad people! Considering what our sinfulness must look like in the sight of a most Righteous and Holy God who created us, why are we even still here, alive and breathing? God's amazing mercy is indeed an incredible mystery. Let it sink in and pray right now that God would make it sink that you and I deserve nothing but trouble and persecution and sickness and death and hell. We are, the Bible says, "by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind" (Ephesians 2:3). "All ... are under sin ... and every mouth [is] stopped, and the whole world ... accountable to God" (Romans 3:9, 19). The "wages" of our sin is eternal death (Romans 6:23). We are under the curse of God's law, because "cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them" (Deuteronomy 27:26). Our natural mind is "hostile to God" (Romans 8:7). We are "strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12). We are destined to be cast into "outer darkness where there is "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 8:12; 25:30). If something doesn't intervene, our lot will be in the lake of fire where "the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest" (Revelation 14:11).
Do we realize the terrible threat facing us in our human condition? Do we even less experience amazement over what God has done on our behalf to meet that threat through the atoning sacrifice of redemption by the blood of Christ? Do we assume that we deserve grace and mercy and health and wealth and ease and comfort from God and therefore presume upon it?
Oh how easy is it for us to lose the sense of amazement , surprise, and stunning awareness we deserve nothing yet we are lavished with unceasing mercy. What a difference it makes when we view our afflictions in this light. Think with Jonathan Edwards on your condition:
"How far less [are] the greatest afflictions that we meet with in this world ... than we have deserved.... The greatest outward troubles and calamities that we meet with ... must needs appear very little things to the misery which we have deserved.... A man may meet with very great losses ... his cattle may die, his corn may be blasted, his barn may be burnt down and all the goods consumed, and he may be brought from a comfortable living to a poor, low, stricken state. This is very hard to bear, but alas, how little reason have such to complain if they do but consider how little this is, compared with that eternal destruction that we have been informed of."
Is it any wonder that Paul said to such people, "Do all things without grumbling" (Philippians 2:14)? Ponder how you would react to things if you lived hour by hour in the heartfelt awareness that you HAVE BEEN SAVED from horrible death and eternal suffering, and that, in spite of deserving no help, you are lavished with mercy every day (even in the hard things) and will be made perfectly and eternally happy in the age to come. Then add one more thing to your thinking. The one who saved you had to die to do it, and he is the one Person in the universe who did not have to die. "For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18)
Oh, Christian, know your condition-the misery without Christ and the mercy from Christ. And let he horror from which you have been saved, and the mercy in which you live, and the price that Christ paid, make you humble and thankful and patient and kind and forgiving, you have never been treated by God worse than you deserve. Finally, rejoice in that no mater what comes your way in this life, that you always being treated by God better than you deserve.
Amazed, humbled, repentant, and overflowing with joy,
Pastor Bill
A most perplexing theological question is not why bad things happen to good people, but why good things happen to bad people! Considering what our sinfulness must look like in the sight of a most Righteous and Holy God who created us, why are we even still here, alive and breathing? God's amazing mercy is indeed an incredible mystery. Let it sink in and pray right now that God would make it sink that you and I deserve nothing but trouble and persecution and sickness and death and hell. We are, the Bible says, "by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind" (Ephesians 2:3). "All ... are under sin ... and every mouth [is] stopped, and the whole world ... accountable to God" (Romans 3:9, 19). The "wages" of our sin is eternal death (Romans 6:23). We are under the curse of God's law, because "cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them" (Deuteronomy 27:26). Our natural mind is "hostile to God" (Romans 8:7). We are "strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12). We are destined to be cast into "outer darkness where there is "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 8:12; 25:30). If something doesn't intervene, our lot will be in the lake of fire where "the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest" (Revelation 14:11).
Do we realize the terrible threat facing us in our human condition? Do we even less experience amazement over what God has done on our behalf to meet that threat through the atoning sacrifice of redemption by the blood of Christ? Do we assume that we deserve grace and mercy and health and wealth and ease and comfort from God and therefore presume upon it?
Oh how easy is it for us to lose the sense of amazement , surprise, and stunning awareness we deserve nothing yet we are lavished with unceasing mercy. What a difference it makes when we view our afflictions in this light. Think with Jonathan Edwards on your condition:
"How far less [are] the greatest afflictions that we meet with in this world ... than we have deserved.... The greatest outward troubles and calamities that we meet with ... must needs appear very little things to the misery which we have deserved.... A man may meet with very great losses ... his cattle may die, his corn may be blasted, his barn may be burnt down and all the goods consumed, and he may be brought from a comfortable living to a poor, low, stricken state. This is very hard to bear, but alas, how little reason have such to complain if they do but consider how little this is, compared with that eternal destruction that we have been informed of."
Is it any wonder that Paul said to such people, "Do all things without grumbling" (Philippians 2:14)? Ponder how you would react to things if you lived hour by hour in the heartfelt awareness that you HAVE BEEN SAVED from horrible death and eternal suffering, and that, in spite of deserving no help, you are lavished with mercy every day (even in the hard things) and will be made perfectly and eternally happy in the age to come. Then add one more thing to your thinking. The one who saved you had to die to do it, and he is the one Person in the universe who did not have to die. "For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18)
Oh, Christian, know your condition-the misery without Christ and the mercy from Christ. And let he horror from which you have been saved, and the mercy in which you live, and the price that Christ paid, make you humble and thankful and patient and kind and forgiving, you have never been treated by God worse than you deserve. Finally, rejoice in that no mater what comes your way in this life, that you always being treated by God better than you deserve.
Amazed, humbled, repentant, and overflowing with joy,
Pastor Bill
Friday, June 15, 2007
HOW GOD CAN COMMAND US TO FEEL
"Love one another with brotherly affection...since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart."
(Romans 12:10; 1 Peter 1:22 ESV)
One of the most important discoveries that I have made in regards to Christian living is that the commandments of God are not only about behaviors and desires, but also about feelings and emotions. Once I read Jonathan Edwards Religious Affections I began to understand and experience a whole new dimension to my life. If you have never read this, you are truly missing out on a monumental Christian work. This treatise will not only challenge you in the way you think about your own salvation, but it will challenge you to think more deeply about everything in your life. In many ways, reading Edwards for the first time is like discovering a world which you knew very little about. His thoughts are profound and very much worth the time and effort to understand. Edwards said "True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections."
Paul Webb defines Religious Affections this way:
Religious affections —
have a divine source;
are caused by the nature of God alone, not self-interest;
focus on the beauty of God’s righteousness;
are based on an intellectual understanding of what is Godly;
have a reasonable basis for a belief in the reality of the divine;
are not proud, but humble;
change our inner being;
express the gentle temperment of Jesus Christ;
create a tenderness of spirit;are balanced in expression;move us to be Godly;cause us to be Christ-like.
This helps us to understand the nature of God's commanding us to feel. He commands, "Delight in the Lord" (Psalm 37:4). He commands, "Rejoice in the Lord" (Phil. 4:4). He commands, "Weep with those who weep" (Rom. 12:15). He commands, "Be thankful" (Col. 3:15). He commands, "Be miserable and mourn and weep" (Jam. 4:9). He commands, "Fear the one who after he has killed has the power to cast into hell" (Luke 12:5). And so on.
Here in Romans 12:10 He commands us to feel affection towards our brothers and sisters in Christ. This is radical. He is not just commanding us to speak loving words and do loving acts; He is commanding us to FEEL loving feelings.
There is a very common and popular way of looking at God and our own wills and emotions that says: God will not command of us what we cannot do. And since we cannot by an act of will start feeling affection for someone, God would not require this of us. Or to put it another way, "I'm not a feeling or affectionate person by nature, therefore, God would not ask me to do something that isn't my nature to do." I find that most people are people are consciously and unconsciously controlled by that particular view of things.
John Piper describes how it works,
"So we read a command like, "Love one another with tender affection," and, without even thinking, we excuse ourselves on the basis of the fact that we cannot at this moment produce by an act of will such tender affection. Therefore we conclude it cannot be a real command, and we are not guilty if we don't have the affection because we are not really responsible for the spontaneous affections and emotions of our hearts...This is a deeply defective way of seeing God and of understanding your own emotions."
The truth of the matter is that if God is God then God has a right to command that we feel anything we ought to feel whether we feel it or not! The fact is that our hearts are so distorted by sin that we often times don't feel what we ought to feel. Not only are our behaviors and words sinful; so also are our emotions sinful. God has every right to command what is right and good and fitting for us to feel. We are responsible to feel what God commands us to feel. God has the right to tell you what you should feel toward others, and you and I are accountable for our emotions.
How can you begin to feel affection when you don't feel affection? How can you obey the commands to feel certain things? To become the kind of person who loves believers with affection:
1. You need to know that God commanded you to Love one another with brotherly affection..."fervently love one another from the heart."
2. You need to know that these things belong to the very nature of your newness in Christ. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. "(2 Cor.5:17)
3, You need to admit that you can’t be this kind of person without divine enablement (you can’t create real affection) "For apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:5)
4. You need to remember and preach to yourself the love that God has felt for you in Christ. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies (literally, in view of God's mercies) of God” (Romans 12:1). Wake up to God's love towards you. Revel in it. Revel in mercy. And affections for God’s people will grow and you will love to love them. Preach to yourself,, "By the mercies of God, I will love others with brotherly affection.
5. You need therefore to pray earnestly and regularly that God would do whatever he has to do to make you more and more into this kind of affectionate and honoring person. "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." (John 15:7-8)
Perhaps you are balking that God might birth affection in your heart for God's people. Remember how the angel Gabriel came to Mary and told here that as a virgin she would get pregnant with the Son of God. She balked, like you may be balking now—that God might birth in you affection for God's people. But he said, "Nothing will be impossible with God." Do not deny the power of God in your life. Remember what Paul said in Philippians 4:19,
"I can do all things (this means I can affectionately love my brothers and sisters) through him who strengthens me."
So I plead with you be more serious when you read the commands to feel certain kinds of emotions and feelings. I call you to it. Let's pursue it together for God's glory and our joy.
Longing for a deeper, wider, higher, and more affectionate love towards others,
Pastor Bill
(Romans 12:10; 1 Peter 1:22 ESV)
One of the most important discoveries that I have made in regards to Christian living is that the commandments of God are not only about behaviors and desires, but also about feelings and emotions. Once I read Jonathan Edwards Religious Affections I began to understand and experience a whole new dimension to my life. If you have never read this, you are truly missing out on a monumental Christian work. This treatise will not only challenge you in the way you think about your own salvation, but it will challenge you to think more deeply about everything in your life. In many ways, reading Edwards for the first time is like discovering a world which you knew very little about. His thoughts are profound and very much worth the time and effort to understand. Edwards said "True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections."
Paul Webb defines Religious Affections this way:
Religious affections —
have a divine source;
are caused by the nature of God alone, not self-interest;
focus on the beauty of God’s righteousness;
are based on an intellectual understanding of what is Godly;
have a reasonable basis for a belief in the reality of the divine;
are not proud, but humble;
change our inner being;
express the gentle temperment of Jesus Christ;
create a tenderness of spirit;are balanced in expression;move us to be Godly;cause us to be Christ-like.
This helps us to understand the nature of God's commanding us to feel. He commands, "Delight in the Lord" (Psalm 37:4). He commands, "Rejoice in the Lord" (Phil. 4:4). He commands, "Weep with those who weep" (Rom. 12:15). He commands, "Be thankful" (Col. 3:15). He commands, "Be miserable and mourn and weep" (Jam. 4:9). He commands, "Fear the one who after he has killed has the power to cast into hell" (Luke 12:5). And so on.
Here in Romans 12:10 He commands us to feel affection towards our brothers and sisters in Christ. This is radical. He is not just commanding us to speak loving words and do loving acts; He is commanding us to FEEL loving feelings.
There is a very common and popular way of looking at God and our own wills and emotions that says: God will not command of us what we cannot do. And since we cannot by an act of will start feeling affection for someone, God would not require this of us. Or to put it another way, "I'm not a feeling or affectionate person by nature, therefore, God would not ask me to do something that isn't my nature to do." I find that most people are people are consciously and unconsciously controlled by that particular view of things.
John Piper describes how it works,
"So we read a command like, "Love one another with tender affection," and, without even thinking, we excuse ourselves on the basis of the fact that we cannot at this moment produce by an act of will such tender affection. Therefore we conclude it cannot be a real command, and we are not guilty if we don't have the affection because we are not really responsible for the spontaneous affections and emotions of our hearts...This is a deeply defective way of seeing God and of understanding your own emotions."
The truth of the matter is that if God is God then God has a right to command that we feel anything we ought to feel whether we feel it or not! The fact is that our hearts are so distorted by sin that we often times don't feel what we ought to feel. Not only are our behaviors and words sinful; so also are our emotions sinful. God has every right to command what is right and good and fitting for us to feel. We are responsible to feel what God commands us to feel. God has the right to tell you what you should feel toward others, and you and I are accountable for our emotions.
How can you begin to feel affection when you don't feel affection? How can you obey the commands to feel certain things? To become the kind of person who loves believers with affection:
1. You need to know that God commanded you to Love one another with brotherly affection..."fervently love one another from the heart."
2. You need to know that these things belong to the very nature of your newness in Christ. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. "(2 Cor.5:17)
3, You need to admit that you can’t be this kind of person without divine enablement (you can’t create real affection) "For apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:5)
4. You need to remember and preach to yourself the love that God has felt for you in Christ. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies (literally, in view of God's mercies) of God” (Romans 12:1). Wake up to God's love towards you. Revel in it. Revel in mercy. And affections for God’s people will grow and you will love to love them. Preach to yourself,, "By the mercies of God, I will love others with brotherly affection.
5. You need therefore to pray earnestly and regularly that God would do whatever he has to do to make you more and more into this kind of affectionate and honoring person. "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." (John 15:7-8)
Perhaps you are balking that God might birth affection in your heart for God's people. Remember how the angel Gabriel came to Mary and told here that as a virgin she would get pregnant with the Son of God. She balked, like you may be balking now—that God might birth in you affection for God's people. But he said, "Nothing will be impossible with God." Do not deny the power of God in your life. Remember what Paul said in Philippians 4:19,
"I can do all things (this means I can affectionately love my brothers and sisters) through him who strengthens me."
So I plead with you be more serious when you read the commands to feel certain kinds of emotions and feelings. I call you to it. Let's pursue it together for God's glory and our joy.
Longing for a deeper, wider, higher, and more affectionate love towards others,
Pastor Bill
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
HOW GOD HELPS US TO FIND FAVOR IN HIS SIGHT SO THAT WE CAN FIND FAVOR IN HIS SIGHT!
12Then Moses said to the LORD, "See, You say to me, 'Bring up this up people!' But You Yourself have not let me know whom You will send with me. Moreover, You have said, 'I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.'13"Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. Consider too, that this nation is Your people." 14And He said, "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest." (Exodus 33:12-14)
It is a wonderful thing when God opens our eyes up to His glorious truths. The past few years has been a season in my life where each day my eyes are more opened to the wonders of God's free and sovereign grace as I read the Bible. Exodus 33:12-14 is one of those passages that demonstrate how God gives us conditions for His blessings to us and then graces us with the blessings of His grace in order to fulfill His conditions. In short, from beginning to end, the Christian life is a life of amazing grace!
Look at this. First, Moses finds favor in the eyes of the Lord (verse 12). He finds favor with God with absolutely no condition or reason for finding favor. As a matter of fact in verse 19 God says, " I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion." So Moses finds himself as a recipient of God's free and unconditional grace. God has known Him by name and Moses has found favor in the eyes of God for no other reason than God's grace!
So because of that amazing grace, notice that Moses prays in verse 13, "If I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You..." Moses desires to know God's ways in order to know Him better personally and intimately. There is a kind of seeing of God's working that Moses desires that will cause Moses to have a spiritual apprehension of God in His beauty, worth, and glory.
But then Moses adds, "let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight." THIS IS INCREDIBLE! Moses wants to know God so that he can find favor in His sight. So the blessing of knowing God is the condition for which more blessing will come and Moses is asking for that.
So what we learn here is first, that the grace of knowing God is the result of God's gracious grace to Moses. Then second, that the grace of God is the cause of God's being more gracious to Moses. "If I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight." In short, grace is the CAUSE of knowing God and grace is the RESULT of knowing God.
What I see here is that:
To put it another way, grace is the cause of my knowing God and grace is the effect of my knowing God. The Christian life is all about God's grace from beginning to end!
"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11:33-36)
Standing in awe, wonder, and love for my beautiful God of grace,
Pastor Bill
It is a wonderful thing when God opens our eyes up to His glorious truths. The past few years has been a season in my life where each day my eyes are more opened to the wonders of God's free and sovereign grace as I read the Bible. Exodus 33:12-14 is one of those passages that demonstrate how God gives us conditions for His blessings to us and then graces us with the blessings of His grace in order to fulfill His conditions. In short, from beginning to end, the Christian life is a life of amazing grace!
Look at this. First, Moses finds favor in the eyes of the Lord (verse 12). He finds favor with God with absolutely no condition or reason for finding favor. As a matter of fact in verse 19 God says, " I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion." So Moses finds himself as a recipient of God's free and unconditional grace. God has known Him by name and Moses has found favor in the eyes of God for no other reason than God's grace!
So because of that amazing grace, notice that Moses prays in verse 13, "If I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You..." Moses desires to know God's ways in order to know Him better personally and intimately. There is a kind of seeing of God's working that Moses desires that will cause Moses to have a spiritual apprehension of God in His beauty, worth, and glory.
But then Moses adds, "let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight." THIS IS INCREDIBLE! Moses wants to know God so that he can find favor in His sight. So the blessing of knowing God is the condition for which more blessing will come and Moses is asking for that.
So what we learn here is first, that the grace of knowing God is the result of God's gracious grace to Moses. Then second, that the grace of God is the cause of God's being more gracious to Moses. "If I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight." In short, grace is the CAUSE of knowing God and grace is the RESULT of knowing God.
What I see here is that:
- God's sovereign grace causes me to have favor in God's sight
- Sovereign grace fills me with the desires to desire what God's desires.
- Sovereign grace causes me to pray to ask God for His favor.
- Sovereign grace enables me to fulfill God's conditions.
- Sovereign grace causes me to find favor in God's sight because I have fulfilled His conditions.
- Sovereign grace causes God to respond with more grace in order to continue to find favor in His sight.
To put it another way, grace is the cause of my knowing God and grace is the effect of my knowing God. The Christian life is all about God's grace from beginning to end!
"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11:33-36)
Standing in awe, wonder, and love for my beautiful God of grace,
Pastor Bill
Saturday, June 9, 2007
JONATHAN EDWARDS ON THE REASONS THAT WE SHOULD AVOID SIN PART 2
I have been looking at Jonathan Edwards profound sermon on Temptation and Deliverance
’Tis our duty not only to avoid those things that are themselves sinful, but also, as far as may be, those things that lead and expose to sin."
6. Seeing we are to pray we may not be led into temptation, certainly we ought not to run ourselves into it.
Edwards is simply saying that as our Lord taught us to pray "keep us from temptation but deliver us from evil" (Matthew 6:13), and if we pray that prayer, then it would be very contradictory to do things that lead us or expose us into temptation. Edwards says, "By praying that we may be kept from temptation, we profess to God that being in temptation is a thing to be avoided; but by running into it we show that we choose the contrary, viz. not to avoid it. "
7.The apostle directs us to avoid those things that are in themselves lawful, but tend to lead others into sin. Surely then we should avoid what tends to lead ourselves into sin.
1 Corinthians 8:9, "But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. "
Romans 14:13,15,20-21, "Let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother...For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died...Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble."
Edwards says that if this rule obliges us to be sensitive in regards to causing others to sin, how much more does it cause us to be responsible to not do things that lead ourselves into sin.!
8.There are many precepts of Scripture, which directly and positively imply, that we ought to avoid those things.
Matthew 26:41, "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
Matthew 5:29, "If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell."
Edwards comments, "Christ tells us, that we must avoid them, however dear they are to us, though as dear as our right hand or right eye. If there be any practice that naturally tends and exposes us to sin, we must have done with it; though we love it never so well, and are never so loth to part with it; though it be as contrary to our inclination, as to cut off our own right hand, or pluck out our own right eye; and that upon pain of damnation, for it is intimated that if we do not, we must go with two hands and two eyes into hell fire. ".
God warns throughout the Old Testament concerning things that He knows would inevitably lead them to sin.
Deuteronomy 7:3-4, "You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly."
Deuteronomy 13:6, "If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,' which neither you nor your fathers have known..."
Proverbs 6:27, "Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned?"
9. A prudent sense of our own weakness, and exposedness to yield to temptation, obliges us to avoid that which leads or exposes to sin.
Edwards says, "Whoever knows himself, and is sensible how weak he is, and his constant exposedness to run into sin — how full of corruption his heart is, which, like fuel, is ready to catch fire, and bring destruction upon him — how much he has in him to incline him to sin, and how unable he is to stand of himself — who is sensible of this, and has any regard of his duty, will he not be very watchful against everything that may lead and expose to sin? On this account Christ directed us, Mat. 26:41, “To watch and pray, lest we enter into temptation.” The reason is added, the flesh is weak! He who, in confidence of his own strength, boldly runs the venture of sinning, by going into temptation, manifests great presumption, and a sottish insensibility of his own weakness. “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.” Pro. 28:26. "
I think that Edwards is challenging us to be brutally honest with our weaknesses. The truth will set us free! Only when we are aware that we are weak and only when we desire to love and obey God can we both order our lives to avoid that which causes us to fall and persistently pray for the Lord's guidance and protection.
Edwards concludes:
"The wisest and strongest, and some of the most holy men in the world, have been overthrown by such means. So was David; so was Solomon, — his wives turned away his heart. If such persons so eminent for holiness were this way led into sin, surely it should be a warning to us. “Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall."
May we take heed to Jonathan Edwards wise counsel and may we hate sin and love God in how we live before His beautiful presence.
Pastor Bill
’Tis our duty not only to avoid those things that are themselves sinful, but also, as far as may be, those things that lead and expose to sin."
6. Seeing we are to pray we may not be led into temptation, certainly we ought not to run ourselves into it.
Edwards is simply saying that as our Lord taught us to pray "keep us from temptation but deliver us from evil" (Matthew 6:13), and if we pray that prayer, then it would be very contradictory to do things that lead us or expose us into temptation. Edwards says, "By praying that we may be kept from temptation, we profess to God that being in temptation is a thing to be avoided; but by running into it we show that we choose the contrary, viz. not to avoid it. "
7.The apostle directs us to avoid those things that are in themselves lawful, but tend to lead others into sin. Surely then we should avoid what tends to lead ourselves into sin.
1 Corinthians 8:9, "But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. "
Romans 14:13,15,20-21, "Let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother...For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died...Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble."
Edwards says that if this rule obliges us to be sensitive in regards to causing others to sin, how much more does it cause us to be responsible to not do things that lead ourselves into sin.!
8.There are many precepts of Scripture, which directly and positively imply, that we ought to avoid those things.
Matthew 26:41, "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
Matthew 5:29, "If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell."
Edwards comments, "Christ tells us, that we must avoid them, however dear they are to us, though as dear as our right hand or right eye. If there be any practice that naturally tends and exposes us to sin, we must have done with it; though we love it never so well, and are never so loth to part with it; though it be as contrary to our inclination, as to cut off our own right hand, or pluck out our own right eye; and that upon pain of damnation, for it is intimated that if we do not, we must go with two hands and two eyes into hell fire. ".
God warns throughout the Old Testament concerning things that He knows would inevitably lead them to sin.
Deuteronomy 7:3-4, "You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly."
Deuteronomy 13:6, "If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,' which neither you nor your fathers have known..."
Proverbs 6:27, "Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned?"
9. A prudent sense of our own weakness, and exposedness to yield to temptation, obliges us to avoid that which leads or exposes to sin.
Edwards says, "Whoever knows himself, and is sensible how weak he is, and his constant exposedness to run into sin — how full of corruption his heart is, which, like fuel, is ready to catch fire, and bring destruction upon him — how much he has in him to incline him to sin, and how unable he is to stand of himself — who is sensible of this, and has any regard of his duty, will he not be very watchful against everything that may lead and expose to sin? On this account Christ directed us, Mat. 26:41, “To watch and pray, lest we enter into temptation.” The reason is added, the flesh is weak! He who, in confidence of his own strength, boldly runs the venture of sinning, by going into temptation, manifests great presumption, and a sottish insensibility of his own weakness. “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.” Pro. 28:26. "
I think that Edwards is challenging us to be brutally honest with our weaknesses. The truth will set us free! Only when we are aware that we are weak and only when we desire to love and obey God can we both order our lives to avoid that which causes us to fall and persistently pray for the Lord's guidance and protection.
Edwards concludes:
"The wisest and strongest, and some of the most holy men in the world, have been overthrown by such means. So was David; so was Solomon, — his wives turned away his heart. If such persons so eminent for holiness were this way led into sin, surely it should be a warning to us. “Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall."
May we take heed to Jonathan Edwards wise counsel and may we hate sin and love God in how we live before His beautiful presence.
Pastor Bill
Thursday, June 7, 2007
JONATHAN EDWARDS ON THE REASONS WE SHOULD AVOID SIN
’Tis our duty not only to avoid those things that are themselves sinful, but also, as far as may be, those things that lead and expose to sin." Jonathan Edwards
Recently I have written several blogs on sin. Sin is just not spoken of enough in the church. It is not popular and doesn't make people feel good to talk about such matters. Ricard Niebuhr had a great analysis of modern Christianity. He wrote: "A God without wrath, brought men without sin, into a kingdom without judgement, through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross." The bible writers speak soberly and frequently about the reality of sin, it's power, it's deadly consequences, God's glorious provision to defeat sin through the cross, and necessity of overcoming sin in our lives.
I try to regularly read great preachers. One of my favorites is Jonathan Edwards. For the past week I have been reading his sermon preached in 1738 titled Temptation and Deliverance. The principle that Edwards expounds is "Tis our duty not only to avoid those things that are themselves sinful, but also, as far as may be, those things that lead and expose to sin."Edwards gives nine reasons for why we should avoid what not only the things that are in themselves sinful but also the things that lead to sin and expose us to sin. They are profoundly worth reflecting upon.
1. It is very evident that we ought to use our utmost endeavors to avoid sin; which is inconsistent with needlessly doing those things, that expose and lead to sin. And the greater any evil is, the greater care, and the more earnest endeavors, does it require to avoid it.
Edwards says that sin is evil because it is committed against God who in his words is "an infinitely great and excellent Being, and so a violation of infinite obligation. Therefore however great our care be to avoid sin, it cannot be more than proportionable to the evil we would avoid. Our care and endeavor cannot be infinite, as the evil of sin is infinite. We ought to use every method that tends to the avoiding of sin."
Oh how we need to have strategies in learning how to deal with the sin that so easily besets us. Dealing with sin is obviously a thoughtful endeavor. The scriptures command us to be thoughtful, diligent, and cautious in regards to the avoidance of sin.Edwards cites numerous passages:
Joshua 22:5, “Take care to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your soul.”
Deuteronomy. 4:15, 16, “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully...beware lest you act corruptly”
Deuteronomy 12:30, “Take care that you be not ensnared”
Luke 12:15, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness”1 Corinthians 10:12, “Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”
Deuteronomy 4:9. “Take care, and keep your soul diligently”
2. It is evident that we ought to avoid those things that expose and lead to sin; because a due sense of the evil of sin, and a just hatred of it, will necessarily have this effect upon us, to cause us so to do.
Edwards writes: "If we were duly sensible of the evil and dreadful nature of sin, we should have an exceeding dread of it upon our spirits. We should hate it worse than death, and should fear it worse than the devil himself; and dread it even as we dread damnation." He says that sin is both hateful and dreadful. Sin will undue and bring ruin to our souls. If we truly believed that we would treat it as something to hate and dread. On sin is enough to damn us for eternity.
Unfortunately we easily forget this and can glibly think it isn't really that big of a deal. We forget that the only reason sin doesn't bring ruin to us is the costly, merciful, free, undeserved grace of God towards us. Edwards warns and gives us a serious reality check: "Were it made known to us, that if we ever voluntarily committed any particular act of sin, we should be damned without any remedy or escape, should we not exceedingly dread the commission of such? Should we not be very watchful and careful to stand at the greatest distance from that sin; and from everything that might expose us to it; and that has any tendency to stir up our lusts, or to betray us to such an act of sin? Let us then consider, that though the next voluntary act of known sin shall not necessarily and unavoidably issue in certain damnation, yet it will certainly deserve it. We shall thereby really deserve to be cast off, without any remedy or hope. And it can only be owing to free grace, that it will not certainly and remedilessly be followed with such a punishment. And shall we be guilty of such a vile abuse of God’s mercy to us, as to take encouragement from it, the more boldly to expose ourselves to sin? "
3.It is evident that we ought not only to avoid sin, but things that expose and lead to sin; because this is the way we act in things that pertain to our temporal interest.
We operate in the natural to preserve and protect ourselves from harm. We are also careful to avoid things that would bring us harm. Edwards suggests that if we naturally avoid and are careful to bring harm to ourselves, how much more should we be careful in that way towards avoiding sin against God.
Edwards writes: "Certainly we should be as careful not to be exposed to sin against the Majesty of heaven and earth, as men are wont to be of a few pounds; yea, the latter are but mere trifles, compared with the former. "
4. We would not want to do harm to our dear earthly friends. — We not only are careful of those things that would bring destruction to their lives, or their hurt and calamity in any respect; but are careful to avoid those things that but remotely tend to it.
The reason is because they are dear to us. What kind of friend would we be if we brought harm to our friends in a way that destroyed them? Edwards shows that we should think even more that way in regards to God. "Surely we ought to treat God as a dear friend. We ought to act towards him, as those that have a sincere love and unfeigned regard to him; and so ought to watch and be careful against all occasions of that which is contrary to his honor and glory. If we have not a temper and desire so to do, it will show that, whatever our pretenses are, we are not God’s sincere friends, and have no true love to him. — If we should be offended at any that have professed friendship to us, if they have treated us in this manner, and were no more careful of our interest; surely God may justly be offended, that we are no more careful of his glory"
5. We would have God, in his providence towards us, not to order those things that tend to our hurt, or expose our interest; therefore certainly we ought to avoid those things that lead to sin against him.
We would never desire for God to give us something to destroy us. We would have God only do good to us and the things that pertain to life, peace, and happiness. We want His protection, guidance, and provision. We want to be protected from evil and harm and our enemies. So Edwards suggests "Now this plainly shows, that we ought, in our behavior towards God, to keep at a great distance from sin, and from all those exposes to it; as we desire God, in his providence to us, should keep calamity and misery at a great distance from us, and not to order those things that expose our welfare. "
There is allot to think and reflect and pray upon. All I can say is that it is causing me to radically look at my sin and my weaknesses and how I order my life. So I will continue tomorrow....
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