I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. Psalm 121:1-8 ESV
Two years ago, John Piper was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The evening before his surgery, he wrote a brief article to his church family entitled, “Don’t Waste Your Cancer.” It was very insightful. Here is what John Piper wrote,
“I believe in God’s power to heal—by miracle and by medicine. I believe it is right and good to pray for both kinds of healing. Cancer is not wasted when it is healed by God. He gets the glory and that is why cancer exists. So not to pray for healing may waste your cancer. But healing is not God’s plan for everyone. And there are many other ways to waste your cancer. I am praying for myself and for you that we will not waste this pain.”
And then, John Piper gave ten ways in which you can waste your cancer. He elaborated on each of these ways with a paragraph. For the sake of space, I’ll only give you his points. Here are John Piper’s ways to waste your cancer....
1. You will waste your cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.
2. You will waste your cancer if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.
3. You will waste your cancer if you seek comfort from your odds rather than from God.
4. You will waste your cancer if you refuse to think about death.
5. You will waste your cancer if you think that “beating” cancer means staying alive rather than cherishing Christ.
6. You will waste your cancer if you spend too much time reading about cancer and not enough time reading about God.
7. You will waste your cancer if you let it drive you into solitude instead of deepen your relationships with manifest affection.
8. You will waste your cancer if you grieve as those who have no hope.
9. You will waste your cancer if you treat sin as casually as before.
10. You will waste your cancer if you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ.
This is my heart for you as I write this blog this morning. This year has not been an easy year for most of us as we reach its half mark. As we all face our unique struggles and difficulties and temptations, and an uncertain future; I don’t want to waste my trials nor do I want for you to waste them. Rather, I want for us to see and experience that as Psalm 121:1 says, “our help comes from the Lord” and not merely from your own means. I want for you to resolve to put your trust in the LORD through your trials, so that you don’t waste the difficulties that the LORD brings upon your life this year but instead to put your trust in only in Him.
We could easily take the Spirit of John Piper’s words regarding cancer and adapt them generally into “trials” :
1. You will waste your trials if you do not believe it is purposefully, intelligently, intentionally, and sovereignly designed for you by God.
2. You will waste your trials if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.
3. You will waste your trials if you seek comfort from the experiences of others, rather than from the help that God gives.
4. You will waste your trials if you refuse to think about death.
5. You will waste your trials if you think that seeing your trial end, finding relief, or escaping it, is more important than cherishing Christ.
6. You will waste your trials if you spend too much time thinking about your trial and not thinking about God.
7. You will waste your trials if you let it drive you into solitude and isolation instead of deepening your relationships with others in service, care, manifest love, and affection.
8. You will waste your trials if you grieve as one who has no help and is all alone.
9. You will waste your trials if you treat sin as casually as before.
10. You will waste your trials if you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and supremacy and the glory of Christ.
This is my desire for my life and how I handle adversity. I am ruthlessly and radically preaching to myself, Robison, DON’T WASTE YOUR TRIALS! This my heart for all of you: Don’t waste your trials and difficulties and struggles and hardships that come upon your life. Rather, use them to display your trust in the LORD for His glory and your heaven graced joy!
Pastor Bill
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
THE SUBSTANTIAL AND SIGNIFICANT LIFE
How do you live? Are you really living or are you existing? Are you living your life fully, passionately, purposefully, and expectantly? Or are you wasting your life living far beneath what God created and redeemed you for? Why are you alive? Why were you made? What kind of purpose did God have for you and me as He designed the universe and the part that you and I play in His eternal design?
Oh friend, God has made you with the highest creaturely purposes in mind : To see His glory, to savor his glory, and to show His glory. God says in Isaiah 43:7, "Everyone who is called by My name…I have created for My glory..." God has purposed for us to fully enjoy and display the His glory. Paul caught this vision and said in 1 Cor. 10:31, "So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." This means that your life is radically and wonderfully significant. God has planned for a very substantial life both here on earth and for eternity.
This is why we were made:"All things were created by him and for him" (Colossians 1:16).
This is why our bodies were redeemed: "You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body"( 1 Corinthians 18-20).
This is why we bear fruit: "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit" (John 15:8)
This is why we pray: "Whatever you ask the Father in my name I will do it that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:13).
This is why we do all good deeds: "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).
That is why we exist - to show and display the glory of God. The apostle Paul passionately pursued this purpose. In one of the the apostle Paul's purpose statements he says in Philippians 1:20, "It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. "
To magnify or glorify God, in common language means to make God look as He truly is. We may think, “Christ is the Almighty God, Creator of the universe. How can I possibly magnify, exalt or glorify Him?” Think of Him as being a distant star. It may be more brilliant than our own sun, but to the human eye, it is just a dim speck in the night sky. To many in this world, Christ is that way. He is the very splendor of God, brighter than a billion suns. But the world doesn’t see Him that way. So God has purposed that the believer is to be a telescope to bring the truth about Christ into view for the unbeliever. Through us, Christ is magnified to a skeptical, unbelieving world. The calling of those who love God is to make his greatness begin to look as great as it really is. The whole duty of the Christian can be summed up in this: feel, think, and act in a way in your life and in your death that will make God look as great as he really is. Be a telescope for the world of the infinite starry wealth of the glory of God. Led us catch this purpose and it will revolutionize the kind of questions we ask in our daily lives.
Your life is all about God. That is the meaning of being human. It is our created nature to make much of God. It is our glory to worship the glory of God. When we fulfill this reason for being, we have substance; we have purpose; our lives have meaning. There is weight and significance in our existence. In short, we don't waste our purpose, we don't waste our lives!
To not to fulfill this purpose for our lives is as John Piper puts it "to be a mere shadow of the substance we were created to have. Not to display God's worth by enjoying him above all things is to be a mere echo of the music we were created to make. It is to be a mere residue of the impact we were created to have."
There is no greater tragedy than this. this is a meaningless, empty, utterly wasted life! Piper says,
"Humans are not made to be mere shadows and echoes and residues. We were made to have God-like substance and make God-like music and have God-like impact...when humans forsake their Maker and love other things more, they become like the things they love - small, insignificant, weightless, inconsequential, and God-diminishing."
Psalmist 135;15-18 says, "The idols of the nations are but silver and gold, the work of man's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; they have eyes, but they do not see; they have ears, but they do not hear, nor is there any breath at all in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, Yes, everyone who trusts in them".
This is radical! This is the kind of truth that can awaken us from our shadow like/echo like existence and bring us to be the light and beautiful music to a blind and deaf world we were made to be.
Or, as John Piper says, it can do this:
"Think and tremble. You become like the man made things that you trust: can't speak; can't see; can't hear. This is a shadow existence. It is an echo and residue of what you were meant to be. It is an empty mime on the stage of history with much movement and no meaning."
Piper challenges us all to "be not shadows and echoes and residue."
Oh reader, be not mere shadows and echoes and residue; be the light and the music and the substance of the worth, the beauty, the preciousness, the treasure, the supreme value of the glory of God! You were made for this and you were redeemed for this. I pray this for all of you who say from the heart, “Jesus is Lord.” Whether you realize it or not, when you confess Jesus as the Lord of the universe, you sign up for significance beyond all your dreams. I mean businessmen, homemakers, students. To belong to Jesus is meant for you to live in such a way as to bring honor to Christ, to boldly proclaim Christ, and to magnify and worship Christ. This is your purpose ordained by God for His glory and your soul’s satisfaction and delight!
There will always be a serious or mild sickness in your soul until you embrace this calling. Listen to J. Campbell White, the first secretary of the Layman’s Missionary Movement in the early 1900’s. This movement was born among businessmen who were captured by a holy ambition to get behind what God was doing in the massive Student Volunteer Movement. Here is what the main leader among laymen said: “Most men are not satisfied with the permanent output of their lives. Nothing can wholly satisfy the life of Christ within his followers except the adoption of Christ’s purpose toward the world he came to redeem. Fame, pleasure and riches are but husks and ashes in contrast with the boundless and abiding joy of working with God for the fulfillment of his eternal plans. The men who are putting everything into Christ’s undertaking are getting out of life its sweetest and most priceless rewards."
What is the purpose for which God has eternally planned for you and me? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That is the only life worth living.
"Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24) .
May you fulfill Christ's desire to see His glory, so that you might savor His glory, in order to fully live your created and redeemed and called purpose, to show His glory among the nations,
Pastor Bill
Oh friend, God has made you with the highest creaturely purposes in mind : To see His glory, to savor his glory, and to show His glory. God says in Isaiah 43:7, "Everyone who is called by My name…I have created for My glory..." God has purposed for us to fully enjoy and display the His glory. Paul caught this vision and said in 1 Cor. 10:31, "So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." This means that your life is radically and wonderfully significant. God has planned for a very substantial life both here on earth and for eternity.
This is why we were made:"All things were created by him and for him" (Colossians 1:16).
This is why our bodies were redeemed: "You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body"( 1 Corinthians 18-20).
This is why we bear fruit: "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit" (John 15:8)
This is why we pray: "Whatever you ask the Father in my name I will do it that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:13).
This is why we do all good deeds: "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).
That is why we exist - to show and display the glory of God. The apostle Paul passionately pursued this purpose. In one of the the apostle Paul's purpose statements he says in Philippians 1:20, "It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. "
To magnify or glorify God, in common language means to make God look as He truly is. We may think, “Christ is the Almighty God, Creator of the universe. How can I possibly magnify, exalt or glorify Him?” Think of Him as being a distant star. It may be more brilliant than our own sun, but to the human eye, it is just a dim speck in the night sky. To many in this world, Christ is that way. He is the very splendor of God, brighter than a billion suns. But the world doesn’t see Him that way. So God has purposed that the believer is to be a telescope to bring the truth about Christ into view for the unbeliever. Through us, Christ is magnified to a skeptical, unbelieving world. The calling of those who love God is to make his greatness begin to look as great as it really is. The whole duty of the Christian can be summed up in this: feel, think, and act in a way in your life and in your death that will make God look as great as he really is. Be a telescope for the world of the infinite starry wealth of the glory of God. Led us catch this purpose and it will revolutionize the kind of questions we ask in our daily lives.
Your life is all about God. That is the meaning of being human. It is our created nature to make much of God. It is our glory to worship the glory of God. When we fulfill this reason for being, we have substance; we have purpose; our lives have meaning. There is weight and significance in our existence. In short, we don't waste our purpose, we don't waste our lives!
To not to fulfill this purpose for our lives is as John Piper puts it "to be a mere shadow of the substance we were created to have. Not to display God's worth by enjoying him above all things is to be a mere echo of the music we were created to make. It is to be a mere residue of the impact we were created to have."
There is no greater tragedy than this. this is a meaningless, empty, utterly wasted life! Piper says,
"Humans are not made to be mere shadows and echoes and residues. We were made to have God-like substance and make God-like music and have God-like impact...when humans forsake their Maker and love other things more, they become like the things they love - small, insignificant, weightless, inconsequential, and God-diminishing."
Psalmist 135;15-18 says, "The idols of the nations are but silver and gold, the work of man's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; they have eyes, but they do not see; they have ears, but they do not hear, nor is there any breath at all in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, Yes, everyone who trusts in them".
This is radical! This is the kind of truth that can awaken us from our shadow like/echo like existence and bring us to be the light and beautiful music to a blind and deaf world we were made to be.
Or, as John Piper says, it can do this:
"Think and tremble. You become like the man made things that you trust: can't speak; can't see; can't hear. This is a shadow existence. It is an echo and residue of what you were meant to be. It is an empty mime on the stage of history with much movement and no meaning."
Piper challenges us all to "be not shadows and echoes and residue."
Oh reader, be not mere shadows and echoes and residue; be the light and the music and the substance of the worth, the beauty, the preciousness, the treasure, the supreme value of the glory of God! You were made for this and you were redeemed for this. I pray this for all of you who say from the heart, “Jesus is Lord.” Whether you realize it or not, when you confess Jesus as the Lord of the universe, you sign up for significance beyond all your dreams. I mean businessmen, homemakers, students. To belong to Jesus is meant for you to live in such a way as to bring honor to Christ, to boldly proclaim Christ, and to magnify and worship Christ. This is your purpose ordained by God for His glory and your soul’s satisfaction and delight!
There will always be a serious or mild sickness in your soul until you embrace this calling. Listen to J. Campbell White, the first secretary of the Layman’s Missionary Movement in the early 1900’s. This movement was born among businessmen who were captured by a holy ambition to get behind what God was doing in the massive Student Volunteer Movement. Here is what the main leader among laymen said: “Most men are not satisfied with the permanent output of their lives. Nothing can wholly satisfy the life of Christ within his followers except the adoption of Christ’s purpose toward the world he came to redeem. Fame, pleasure and riches are but husks and ashes in contrast with the boundless and abiding joy of working with God for the fulfillment of his eternal plans. The men who are putting everything into Christ’s undertaking are getting out of life its sweetest and most priceless rewards."
What is the purpose for which God has eternally planned for you and me? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That is the only life worth living.
"Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24) .
May you fulfill Christ's desire to see His glory, so that you might savor His glory, in order to fully live your created and redeemed and called purpose, to show His glory among the nations,
Pastor Bill
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
THOUGHTS ON MY SINFULNESS AND GOD'S MERCY
"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 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. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
Ephesians 2:1-10 ESV
John Calvin said that when it comes to knowledge, it is easier to know God than to know ourselves "first, because a true knowledge of ourselves assumes a true knowledge of God, and, second, because we tend to think we do know ourselves, when, in fact, the depths or our condition are beyond our comprehension without the help of God."
The prophet Jeremiah wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
David said in Psalm 19:12, “Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults.”
The longer I live on this earth the more I discover the exceeding depths of my depravity, corruption, and utter sinfulness. John Piper says, No one knows the extent of his sinfulness. It is deeper than anyone knows.
I am so glad that God has given us a means by which we can truly know ourselves, if we dare use it: The Word of God! We may never know the fullness of our sinfulness but we can know the depths of our sinfulness. The Word of God gives us a complete pathology of our depraved nature. The reason it does is so that we will be humbled to humbly receive what we need that only God can give. If we understand our true state without Christ we will be amazed by grace and continually in love with Jesus. In short, we will always know that we are doing better than we ever deserve!
In Ephesians 2 the apostle Paul holds up a mirror to us to help us to see the true state of who we are without Jesus Christ and His saving work.
1. We are dead in trespasses and sins "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1).
2. We are slaves of Satan "...in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience." (Ephesians 2:2)
3. We are Spiritually Depraved "...among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." (Ephesians 2:3)
If you go a little farther in Ephesians, Paul adds some more realities to the state of our soul:
4. We are Spiritually Darkened "Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart." (Ephesians 4;17-19)
5. We are Spiritually Defiled "For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous ( that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. " (Ephesians 5:5-6)
Add to that two more verses in Romans:
6. We are slaves to sin "You who were once slaves of sin..." (Romans 6:17).
7. No good thing dwells in me "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. "(Romans 7:18).
So the diagnosis of us all without Jesus Christ is: We Are Dead
But that leads to the glory, the wonder, the mercy, the amazing and stupendous, remedy:
"even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:5-10
The remedy: WE ARE ALIVE!
“God made us alive.” oh reader, do you hear this? Does this move you? Does this fill you with awe? With exceeding joy and gladness? Dare I say, giddiness?! You will never experience the fullness of the greatness of God’s love for you if you don’t see his love in relation to your former deadness. Because verse 4 says that the greatness of his love is shown precisely in this: that it makes us alive when we were dead. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” Because of his great love for us, he made us alive. If you don’t know that you were dead, you will not know the fullness of the love of God.
God’s mercy and love and grace are as desperately needed and beautiful to me today as it was 35 years ago, frankly more. May God's amazing grace that has brought you here to read this blog awaken you, renew your faith that justified you, sanctifies you to walk the narrow Calvary road, and will some day remove every last stitch of this soul destroying, God demeaning sin and will present present you spotless before Him. May His mercy soften you and open you with humble praise and deep gratitude and passionate hearts toward God for the riches of his mercy and the greatness of his love and the power of his grace.
AMEN!
Pastor Bill
Ephesians 2:1-10 ESV
John Calvin said that when it comes to knowledge, it is easier to know God than to know ourselves "first, because a true knowledge of ourselves assumes a true knowledge of God, and, second, because we tend to think we do know ourselves, when, in fact, the depths or our condition are beyond our comprehension without the help of God."
The prophet Jeremiah wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
David said in Psalm 19:12, “Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults.”
The longer I live on this earth the more I discover the exceeding depths of my depravity, corruption, and utter sinfulness. John Piper says, No one knows the extent of his sinfulness. It is deeper than anyone knows.
I am so glad that God has given us a means by which we can truly know ourselves, if we dare use it: The Word of God! We may never know the fullness of our sinfulness but we can know the depths of our sinfulness. The Word of God gives us a complete pathology of our depraved nature. The reason it does is so that we will be humbled to humbly receive what we need that only God can give. If we understand our true state without Christ we will be amazed by grace and continually in love with Jesus. In short, we will always know that we are doing better than we ever deserve!
In Ephesians 2 the apostle Paul holds up a mirror to us to help us to see the true state of who we are without Jesus Christ and His saving work.
1. We are dead in trespasses and sins "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1).
2. We are slaves of Satan "...in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience." (Ephesians 2:2)
3. We are Spiritually Depraved "...among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." (Ephesians 2:3)
If you go a little farther in Ephesians, Paul adds some more realities to the state of our soul:
4. We are Spiritually Darkened "Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart." (Ephesians 4;17-19)
5. We are Spiritually Defiled "For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous ( that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. " (Ephesians 5:5-6)
Add to that two more verses in Romans:
6. We are slaves to sin "You who were once slaves of sin..." (Romans 6:17).
7. No good thing dwells in me "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. "(Romans 7:18).
So the diagnosis of us all without Jesus Christ is: We Are Dead
But that leads to the glory, the wonder, the mercy, the amazing and stupendous, remedy:
"even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:5-10
The remedy: WE ARE ALIVE!
“God made us alive.” oh reader, do you hear this? Does this move you? Does this fill you with awe? With exceeding joy and gladness? Dare I say, giddiness?! You will never experience the fullness of the greatness of God’s love for you if you don’t see his love in relation to your former deadness. Because verse 4 says that the greatness of his love is shown precisely in this: that it makes us alive when we were dead. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” Because of his great love for us, he made us alive. If you don’t know that you were dead, you will not know the fullness of the love of God.
God’s mercy and love and grace are as desperately needed and beautiful to me today as it was 35 years ago, frankly more. May God's amazing grace that has brought you here to read this blog awaken you, renew your faith that justified you, sanctifies you to walk the narrow Calvary road, and will some day remove every last stitch of this soul destroying, God demeaning sin and will present present you spotless before Him. May His mercy soften you and open you with humble praise and deep gratitude and passionate hearts toward God for the riches of his mercy and the greatness of his love and the power of his grace.
AMEN!
Pastor Bill
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