Why don't we HATE sin?

How marvelous it is that we do not hate sin more than we do! Sin is the cause of all the pain and disease in the world. God did not create man to be an ailing and suffering creature. It was sin, and nothing but sin, which brought in all the ills that flesh is heir to. It was sin to which we owe every racking pain, and every loathsome infirmity, and every humbling weakness to which our poor bodies are liable. Let us keep this ever in mind. Let us hate sin with a godly hatred. —J.C. Ryle

Marriage is a way off, but reality is not.

Marriage is not mainly about prospering economically; it is mainly about displaying the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his church. Knowing Christ is more important than making a living. Treasuring Christ is more important than bearing children. Being united to Christ by faith is a greater source of marital success than per- fect sex and double-income prosperity.

If we make secondary things primary, they cease to be secondary and become idolatrous. They have their place. But they are not first, and they are not guaranteed. Life is precarious, and even if it is long by human standards, it is short. “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14). “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring” (Prov. 27:1).

So it is with marriage. It is a momentary gift. It may last a lifetime, or it may be snatched away on the honeymoon. Either way, it is short. It may have many bright days, or it may be covered with clouds. If we make secondary things primary, we will be embittered at the sorrows we must face. But if we set our face to make of marriage mainly what God designed it to be, no sorrows and no calamities can stand in our way. Every one of them will be, not an obstacle to success, but a way to succeed. The beauty of the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his church shines brightest when nothing but Christ can sustain it.

Very soon the shadow will give way to Reality. The partial will pass into the Perfect. The foretaste will lead to the Banquet. The troubled path will end in Paradise. A hundred candle-lit evenings will come to their consummation in the marriage supper of the Lamb. And this momentary marriage will be swallowed up by Life. Christ will be all and in all. And the purpose of marriage will be complete.

To that end may God give us eyes to see what matters most in this life. May the Holy Spirit, whom he sends, make his crucified and risen Son the supreme Treasure of our lives. And may that Treasure so satisfy our souls that the root of every marriage-destroying impulse is severed. And may the marriage-watching world be captivated by the covenant- keeping love of Christ.

"This Momentary Marriage" - John Piper

The Colossae Manifesto

I found this page that I wrote ages ago. I think it would be helpful to write it out again here :)

"So then, just as you received Christ as Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving." Colossians 2:6-7

What are some ways to achieve this? By no means definitive, but by God's mean's achievable:

1. Always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you pray (1:3)
2. Seek to find out about people's faith and love (1:4)
3. Look for places the gospel is bearing fruit and growing. Look for places it should be but is not (1:6)
4. Pray that God will fill people with knowledge of his will with all spiritual wisdom and understanding (1:9)
5. Walk (live) in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God (1:10)
6. Pray that people will be strengthened with God's mighty power so that may endure and be patient with joy (1:11)
7. Give thanks to God who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints (1:12)
8. Give thanks to God for rescuing us from the dominion of darkness by the Cross of Christ, in whom we have redemption and forgiveness of sin (1:13-14)
9. Think of Jesus as the image of God and how to imitate him (1:15)
10. Think of what it means that all things were created through and FOR Jesus (1:16)
11. Think of Christ as the head of the church and what that looks like in practice (1:18)
12. Think of what it means for the fullness of God to have dwelt in Christ Jesus, and what it means for us to have the Holy Spirit (1:19)
13. Consider often that you were alienated from God by your hostile mind BUT NOW you are reconciled and blameless (1:22)
14. Continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel (1:23)
15. Rejoice in sufferings (1:24)
16. As a servant of God, present the fullness of God's word (1:25)
17. Proclaim, correct and teach with all wisdom with the single aim of presenting everyone perfect in Christ (1:28)
18. In all things labour in God's strength and not our own as only he can accomplish this (1:29)

As you can see, I didn't get passed Chapter 1... but even those 18 things will be helpful to remember. I am such a crap Christian.

Through the Gates of pearly splendour...

I just finished reading "Through the Gates of Splendour" by Elisabeth Elliot. Perhaps not the wisest use of time with all the things I have to write, but it was helpful.

Last night I thought that this bit by Roger Youderian was interesting.

A missionary plods through the first year or two, thinking that things will be different when he speaks the language. He is baffled to find, frequently, that they are not. He is stripped of all that may be called "romance". Life has fallen more or less into a pattern. Day follows day in unbroken succession; there are no crises, no mass conversions, sometimes not even one or two to whom he can point and say: "There is a transformed life. If I had not come, he would never have known Christ." There will be those among the Indians who say they accept Christ, but what of the forsaking of heathen custom and turning from sin to a life of holiness? The missionary watches, and longs, and his heart sickens.

At this point he was pretty ready to pack up and head home.

The reason it struck me was because I think that this is how most Christians (western at least) live. The exception is that we don't have the one to two year period to learn the language. We long for the same results but without the hope that in two years we will speak in a language they will understand.

And I guess there is a couple of encouragements from this example.

1. Overseas mission is not different from home ministry. Missionaries feel the same, and sinners respond the same. Do not seek it if all you want is to see "better" results. The beginning of the book clearly presents the missionaries as people who were perfectly suited for ministry at home, but their driving force was that they could not stay home when other places needed to hear the gospel. We have a lot of spiritual resources at our fingertips, and overseas mission should spring from the desire to see the "gospel poor" have access to the same.

2. If you are seeking to live for Jesus and speak to others about Jesus, there is NO truth in thinking that others would know Christ if you had not come. I was encouraged at Scripture this week to remember that we are God's mouth piece. The very fact that I am here is a sign from God that he is not silent to you. I don't feel any different, but feelings are unhelpful when they distract us from the truth. The truth is 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God."

Come, Lord...

Hasten, Lord, the glorious time
When, beneath Messiah’s sway,
Every nation, every clime,
Shall the Gospel call obey.
Mightiest kings His power shall own,
Heathen tribes His Name adore;
Satan and his host o’erthrown,
Bound in chains, shall hurt no more.

As when soft and gentle showers
Fall upon the thirsty plain,
Springing grass and blooming flowers,
Clothe the wilderness again;
So Thy Spirit shall descend,
Softening every stony heart,
And its sweetest influence lend,
All that’s lovely to impart.

Then shall wars and tumults cease,
Then be banished grief and pain,
Righteousness and joy and peace,
Undisturbed shall ever reign.
Bless we, then, our gracious Lord,
Ever praise His glorious Name;
All His mighty acts record;
All His wondrous love proclaim.

I want Jesus to come back. Sometimes it's because I feel the wait of suffering more than others. Sometimes it's because I feel the wait of others suffering more. This is one of those times.

I am thankful for the reminder, when I see my fellow Atlases carrying the weight of the world, to give my dear brothers and sisters to the Saviour of the same.

WHY?!

"Why would God want to stop two people who love each other?"

The bell went and everyone left the Year 10 Scripture class, so I could not answer. Nor did I have an answer. They knew the gospel. They'd heard it all before. But now, in their last Scripture lesson ever, they got to the heart of the black bead (green = creation, white = life in relationship as God created, black = sin stuffing up our relationship, red = Jesus dying on the cross for our sin, yellow = eternity in a right relationship with God because of Jesus).

Why should I do what God desires over what I desire?

I have been a Christian for many years now. If I can't answer that question, then what hope is there for people who have knowledge about God, but no knowledge of God.

There is an answer. I didn't know it then, but there is an answer. It is a truth long applied to my heart by the Holy Spirit. Thanks be to the Father's desire for my salvation over and above my own desire.

Many prayers that his desire and his Spirit will bear fruit in class tomorrow.