Late Repentance

J.C. Ryle, in his book Thoughts for Young Men, pleads with his readers not to count on a "late repentance" - the notion that we will serve ourselves and our pleasures when young, and then turn to God when we are older. He says,

I grant you that true repentance is never too late, but I warn you at the same time, late repentance is seldom true. I grant you, one penitent thief was converted in his last hours, that no man might despair; but I warn you, only one was converted, that no man might presume (see Luke 23:39-43). (J.C. Ryle, 1996. Calvary Press: Amityville, NY. Thoughts for Young Men, p. 11.)

Ryle continues, illustrating the course that sin so often takes if we always count on a late repentance (We might add our own excuses here: "Perhaps tomorrow...just this time...maybe when I have different friends...maybe when I'm past this stage in life..."): "Habits are like stones rolling down hill, the further they roll, the faster and more uncontrollable is their course. Habits, like trees, are strengthened by age." (p. 12)

I would urge us all - including myself, as I know my tendency to use these excuses - to discard these deceptive promises that we will fulfill "later," and rather do so now by the grace of God! When we sense the conviction and the tug of the Holy Spirit, let us respond in that moment, and continue responding.

"Today, if you hear his voice, / do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah..." (Psalm 95:7b-8a; see also Hebrews 3:7 ff.)

Wisdom for a Lifetime

I was talking with an older friend/mentor a couple years ago, and asked him what he would say to me if he could say only one thing. His words have stick with me ever since:

"Cultivate gratitude."

Our Boast

Psalm 89, verses 15-17a says:

Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you,
who walk in the light of your presence, O LORD.
They rejoice in your name all day long;
they exult in your righteousness.
For you are their glory and strength... (NIV)

In a world where humans seek to rejoice in their own name, exult in their own "goodness," and boast in their own glory and strength, this God-centered boasting is all too often an alien concept. We are all guilty of it. And so, lest we sink more deeply into believing the lie of human-centered pride, may we remember Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 1:28-31.

[God] chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God - that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:28-31, NIV. Also see Jeremiah 9:23-24 regarding the final quote.)

Whom do we seek to please?

Yesterday, I met a pastor who was a friend of someone I know. He said something that has really stuck with me, and though he specifically applied it to those who wish to enter ministry, I think it is a crucial rule for life for all believers:

"Please God, not man."

We can seek to make our lives an endless, weary pursuit of the often shallow and fickle praise of other people, or we can (by the power of the Holy Spirit) seek praise from God: whole, real praise that is at its very essence truthful. And our lives may be lived to His praise forever, for to God belong the glory and the honor and the praise.

Do you, I know Jesus Christ?

I have been challenged recently in thinking about how easy it is to neglect actually seeking to know God in favor of trying to rack up knowledge about God. It is socially more acceptable to ask someone what church they attend or even to have debates about certain doctrinal beliefs, and yet it is a whole different issue when the question "Do you know Jesus Christ?" arises. This is a much more challenging question that actually reaches the recesses of our heart. A.W. Tozer, in The Pursuit of God, writes of this contrast:

It was Canon Holmes, of India, who more than twenty-five years ago called attention to the inferential character of the average man's faith in God. To most people God is an inference, not a reality. He is a deduction from evidence which they consider adequate; but He remains personally unknown to the individual. `He must be,' they say, `therefore we believe He is.' Others do not go even so far as this; they know of Him only by hearsay. They have never bothered to think the matter out for themselves, but have heard about Him from others, and have put belief in Him into the back of their minds along with the various odds and ends that make up their total creed. To many others God is but an ideal, another name for goodness, or beauty, or truth; or He is law, or life, or the creative impulse back of the phenomena of existence.

These notions about God are many and varied, but they who hold them have one thing in common: they do not know God in personal experience. The possibility of intimate acquaintance with Him has not entered their minds. While admitting His existence they do not think of Him as knowable in the sense that we know things or people.

Christians, to be sure, go further than this, at least in theory. Their creed requires them to believe in the personality of God, and they have been taught to pray, `Our Father, which art in heaven.' Now personality and fatherhood carry with them the idea of the possibility of personal acquaintance. This is admitted, I say, in theory, but for millions of Christians, nevertheless, God is no more real than He is to the non-Christian. They go through life trying to love an ideal and be loyal to a mere principle.

Over against all this cloudy vagueness stands the clear scriptural doctrine that God can be known in personal experience. (The link to the chapter can be found here.)

Let us pray that we may know Christ.

Preaching is Not Enough

I can't resist another quote from John Piper. He begins a sermon entitled "The Love of Human Praise as the Root of Unbelief" by pointing out his conviction that though preaching is important, listening to it in a large group setting is insufficient for believers. He gives seven reasons that highlight the need for small groups, which I find convicting, and which invade our all-too-pervasive desire for passivity and ease. Here they are:

1. The impulse avoid painful growth by disappearing safely into the crowd in corporate worship is very strong.
2. The tendency toward passivity in listening to a sermon is part of our human weakness.
3. Listeners in a big group can more easily evade redemptive crises. If tears well up in your eyes in a small group, wise friends will gently find out why. But in a large gathering, you can just walk away from it.
4. Listeners in a large group tend to neglect efforts of personal application. The sermon may touch a nerve of conviction, but without someone to press in, it can easily be avoided.
5. Opportunity for questions leading to growth is missing. Sermons are not dialogue. Nor should they be. But asking questions is a key to understanding and growth. Small groups are great occasions for this.
6. Accountability for follow-through on good resolves is missing. But if someone knows what you intended to do, the resolve is stronger.
7. Prayer support for a specific need or conviction or resolve goes wanting. O how many blessings we do not have because we are not surrounded by a band of friends who pray for us.

Still, all too easy to listen to this exhortation as a podcast from the comfort of my own living room, and neglect to apply it. May we each respond to these wise words by seeking out fellow Christians who will walk beside us and spur us on toward love and good deeds, confession and repentance.

For those interested in listening to the whole sermon, it can be found here.

A Gospel of Ego

John Piper, in a talk he gave to the American Association of Christian Counselors entitled “Beholding Glory and Becoming Whole: Seeing and Savoring God as the Heart of Mental Health,” includes an Edwards excerpt:

True saints have their minds, in the first place, inexpressibly pleased and delighted with the sweet ideas of the glorious and amiable nature of the things of God. And this is the spring of all their delights, and the cream of all their pleasures. . . . But the dependence of the affections of hypocrites is in a contrary order: they first rejoice . . . that they are made so much of by God; and then on that ground, he seems in a sort, lovely to them. (Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections, in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2, ed. John Smith [New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1959], 249­250. Emphasis added)

Piper continues to unpack the implications of this quotation:

This is my concern. Do we make clear to people over and over again that yes, they should feel loved because Christ died for them; and yes, they should feel loved because they are undeserving and he loves them anyway; and yes, they should feel loved because their sins are forgiven and God’s wrath is removed through Christ; but to what end? Died for while undeserving. Forgiven. Wrath removed. But to what end?

And just at this point, I wonder if many of our people are left thinking that what it means to be loved by God simply that he affirms their desire to be made much of. “Christ died for me to make much of me. He rescued me while undeserving to make much of me. He forgave me to make much of me. He removed his wrath to make much of me.” Oh how gloriously good this feels! What a precious gospel! And it’s all merely natural. There’s nothing supernatural about it. It looks like recovery and healing! It works. But at root, it is not “to the praise of the glory of his grace.” It’s all to the praise of the glory of his affirmation of me.

So my second implication is that feeling loved by God means feeling glad that God not only crushed his Son for me, but that he is now crushing every vestige of desire in my life that competes with the pleasure of the praise of the glory of his grace.

The entirety of John Piper's talk is well worth listening to, especially for those in the helping professions, and can be found here.

Pride's downfall and Humility's hope

I found this sermon clip very convicting. Pride is fatal - may God make us humble, gospel-centered people.

Every Moment

Perhaps when we lose a job, fail to make the cut, get dumped, or lose someone we care about, we often hear the verse "...in all things God works for the good of those who love him..." (see Romans 8:28). This is seen as a word of comfort, and yet it can also be misunderstood and misapplied.

Let's look at the verse in its immediate context (read also the surrounding verses/chapters for a greater context): "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." (verses 28 and 29)

What does it mean for God to work for the good of His children? Does it mean that everything will be easy? Or that we'll always get what we want when we want it? Or that our current problems will all be fixed according to our solutions?

Or does it mean that He will work something even better--a good even greater? For what could be more blessed than to be conformed to the image of Jesus? "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son..."

And since God is sovereign over all, we can take comfort in this. Let us seek out His work in every situation and moment, longing for the greatest good at all times: conformity to the image of Christ by God's grace and work and sovereignty.

British Health Service Promoting Sexual Activity for Teens and Seniors

In two new leaflets put out by the British National Health Service, the government advises elderly patients that it's "never too late to experiment" and tells teenagers that sex every day "keeps the doctor away."

The leaflet for teenagers, unambiguously called "Pleasure," was issued by the National Health Service in Sheffield and is available to teachers, parents and youth workers across the country.

"Health promotion experts advocate five portions of fruit and veg a day and 30 minutes physical activity three times a week," the booklet said, suggesting that some form of sexual activity "twice a week" might be healthy as well.

It's disheartening to see that sex is treated so cavalierly by the NHS. It also reflects a condition of the heart whereby sex is a tool for personal gratification and not love or service to one's husband or wife. Creation is groaning...

Now It's Time for Some Classic Far Side

Sanford's Apology Op-Ed

Thoughts? Do you think it's a sincere, godly, apology?

I have struggled with how best to convey my regret in letting so many down, and in that regard I realize this op-ed does not do justice to the process of saying “I am sorry.” A handwritten note or phone call would ultimately be more appropriate, but given the number of people I need to apologize to I write this to begin the journey of trying to get things more right with you and others.

It is true that I did wrong and failed at the largest of levels, but equally true is the fact that God can make good of our respective wrongs in life. In this vein, while none of us has the chance to attend our own funeral, in many ways I feel like I was at my own in the past weeks, and surprisingly I am thankful for the perspective it has afforded.

If you ever have the misfortune of being at this point, whether self-induced as in my case or not, it will give you an indeed amazing perspective on life and on what really matters. I read notes from someone who worked in a sandwich shop I ate at ten years ago, from 7th grade classmates, from state employees and more. While there have been lifetimes of lessons learned over the past weeks, three things most immediately come to mind.

One, forgiveness and grace really do matter. I used to believe that at an intellectual level, now it is at the level of heart. Over my life I have not given enough of either, and yet given all the ways in which my failings have come to light, I write to apologize for, in the most profound of ways, letting you and so many others down. In life it’s always the people closest to us that we hurt the most, and given my standing of public trust, I know I’ve hurt many across our state. I apologize for this, and more than anything would ask for your forgiveness going forward.

Two, life is indeed about way more than public standing or political views, it’s about recognizing that none of us are the arbiters of truth, that there are moral absolutes, and that there is a God to whom we will all report for our actions. My failure has been most glaring on this front, where no public apology can make wrong right. As a consequence, it is on this plane that I’ve grown the most over the past weeks – and where I’m committed to growing the most going forward.

I’ve been humbled and broken as never before in my life and as a consequence have given up areas of control in a way that I never have before – and it is my belief that this will make me a better father, husband, friend and advocate.

It’s in the spirit of making good from bad that I am committing to you and the larger family of South Carolinians to use this experience to both trust God in his larger work of changing me, and from my end, to work to becoming a better and more effective leader.

In this regard I think all that has transpired will be particularly relevant in the way I deal with the legislative body and other state leaders going forward. Micah 6:8 asks us to do justice, love mercy, and to walk humbly, and as I begin these steps into the last 18 months of this administration, it will indeed be with a more contrite and humble spirit.

I’ve realized that as much as I have and will continue to advocate for things ranging from restructuring to responsible spending to school choice, my approach needs to be less about my will and more about looking for ways to more humbly present the greater principals and ideas at play. It needs to be less strident and more about finding ways to work with legislative leaders to advance the ideas so many of us believe in. It means less time fighting the tide - and a greater awareness of the fact that God controls it. In working with a few alterations to my approach, I think this could be a far more productive last session than the one that would have been had the tragedy that has unfolded not occurred, and in turn, people’s lives can be made better.

Finally it is at your funeral that you in many ways not only can see most clearly the things that really matter in life, but where one gets the best glimpse of who your real friends are – and how much they matter. For that reason, I want to thank so many for their kindnesses and support over the years and for their kindness in this latest chapter in our book together as South Carolinians.

Bizaare Item of the Day: U.S. Airways Flight Diverted Due to Naked Passenger

(H.T. Breitbart TV)

Senator Grassley: "People always say I have the ability to turn people on."

Sen. Hatch and Sotomayor debate nunchucks

Yes, it's true. During the confirmation hearing today Senator Orin Hatch and Judge Sonia Sotomayor quibbled over Second Amendment rights as they pertain to a case in the state of New York involving nunchucks... Hilarious...

Here's a link to the CSPAN live coverage.

When We are the Crowd...

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

"You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' "

But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." (Mark 5:24b-34; NIV)

How many are there within the walls of the church who listen to the sermons, sing along with the worship music, and bow their heads for the prayers, yet who are not present in faith? How often do we who profess to follow Jesus "press around" and "crowd against" him (see verse 24 and 31), yet fail to touch him in faith?

I don't think this is just a story about the woman; I think it may be a story also about the crowd. So many are present with Jesus in this scene - perhaps jostling him, bumping up against him, and gathering around him, thrilled by his miracles. And yet in this part of the account, one woman is especially highlighted who was most truly present, who truly touched Jesus.

A multitude was crowding around Jesus, but the healing that this passage recounts comes when one woman touches him in faith.

Let us not simply crowd around Jesus in our churches, prayers, or Bible studies, but let us touch him in faith, knowing that in him is healing; in him is life!

Proper copyright credit to the NIV

To give proper credit to the source of the Scripture quotations in Eleomai's posts, I include the copyright notice from my NIV Bible (from which all quotations are taken, unless otherwise noted):

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (R). Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

The "NIV" and "New International Version" trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society.

Grace in the Old Testament

I am currently reading through the Old Testament, and instead of simply reading it as a series of individual stories, I am seeking to better see how it points to the gospel. Leviticus 16:29-31 stuck out to me especially:

This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work - whether native-born or an alien living among you - because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins. It is a sabbath of rest, and you must deny yourselves; it is a lasting ordinance. (NIV)

The whole chapter is an amazing read, and this passage in particular seems to clearly foreshadow the grace we find in the gospel. On the day of atonement, they were not to do any work, because atonement was to be made for them. This seems to be a strong way to phrase it, and seems to show that the atonement is God's work - something done for the people - and not something that the people do or earn. They were to abstain from work, and God would cleanse them from their sins. The gospel, foreshadowed in the Old Testament!

Obama's Diplomacy: "You Can't Come to my Cookout!"

In brilliant display of diplomatic prowess and soft power, the Obama administration rescinded an invitation to Iranian diplomats for a 4th of July Celebration next weekend. As if this story were not funny enough, the rescinded invite came after none of Iran's foreign service officers RSVP'ed!

Sanford Admits Affair

And we all thought he was a possible GOP contender for 2012... Another one bites the dust. Any politician want to step up and be faithful to their wife? Anyone?