Lessons from Tiger Woods

C.J. Mahaney has some thoughts about what we can all learn from Tiger Woods and his troubles this last week.  Excellent stuff. Go read it all.

Hunted by Sin

But Tiger is being hunted by something more menacing than journalists. Tiger’s real enemy is his sin, and that’s an enemy much more difficult to discern and one that can’t be managed in our own strength. It’s an enemy that never sleeps.

Let me explain.

…..

And this story should humble and sober us. It should make us ask: Are there any so-called “secret sins” in my life? Is there anything I have done that I hope nobody discovers? Is there anything right now in my life that I should confess to God and the appropriate individuals?

And this should leave us more amazed by grace because there, but for the grace of God, go I.

HT to Vitamin Z.

Grace

Austin Christian Fellowship is having a series on the Most Beautiful Word. If you want to hear a demonstration of what Grace is and why it is indeed the most beautiful word, then listen to the interview with Bob and Audrey Meisner. Wow! wow.

II Timothy 3:12

II Timothy 3:12 says “12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,”. Do you believe that? Do you believe that all means all and that persecution really means persecution? Really?

here is a John Piper quote from Vitamin Z:

“Obedience in missions and social justice has always been costly, and always will be. In the village of Miango, Nigeria, there is an SIM guest house and a small church called Kirk Chapel. Behind the chapel is a small cemetery with 56 graves. Thirty-three of them hold the bodies of missionary children. Some of the stones read: ‘Ethyl Armold: September 1, 1928-September 2, 1928.’ ‘Barbara J. Swanson: 1946-1952.’ ‘Eileen Louise Whitmoyer: May 6, 1952-July 3, 1955.’ For many families this was the cost of taking the Gospel to Nigeria. Charles White told his story about visiting this little graveyard and ended it with a tremendously powerful sentence. He said, ‘the only way we can understand the graveyard at Miango is to remember that god also buried his Son on the mission field.’

And when God raised Him from the dead, He called the church to follow Him into the same dangerous field called ‘all the world’ (Mark 16:15). But are we willing to follow? In Ermelo, Holland, Brother Andrew told the story of sitting in Budapest, Hungary, with a dozen pastors of that city, teaching them from the Bible. In walked an old friend, a pastor from Romania who had recently been released from prison. Brother Andrew said that he stopped teaching and knew that it was time to listen.

After a long pause the Romanian pastor said, ‘Andrew, are there any pastors in prison in Holland?’ ‘No,’ he replied. ‘Why not?’ the pastor asked. Brother Andrew thought for a moment and said, ‘I think it must be because we do not take advantage of all the opportunities God gives us.’ Then came the most difficult question. ‘Andrew, what do you do with 2 Timothy 3:12?’ Brother Andrew opened his Bible and turned to the test and read aloud, ‘All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.’ He closed the Bible slowly and said, ‘Brother, please forgive me. We do nothing with that verse.’

We have, I fear, domesticated the concept of godliness into such inoffensive, middle-class morality and law-keeping that 2 Timothy 3:12 has become unintelligible to us. I think many of us are not prepared to suffer for the gospel. We do not grasp the truth that God has purposes of future grace that he intends to give his people through suffering. We can speak of purposes of suffering because it is clearly God’s purpose that we at times suffer for righteousness’ sake and for the sake of the Gospel. For example, ‘Let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.’ (1 Peter 4:19, 3:17 and Hebrews 12:4-11).

To live by faith in future grace we must see that the suffering of Gods people is the instrument of grace in their lives.”

– John Piper, Future Grace

emphasis added.

God Provides

Continuing with Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, we get to this on page 72:

God must feed us. We cannot and dare not demand this food as our right, for we, poor sinners, have not merited it. Thus the sustenance that God provides becomes a consolation of the afflicted; for it is the token of the grace and faithfulness with which God supports and guides His children. True, the Scriptures say, “If any will not work, neither let him eat” (II Thess. 3:10, A.R.V.) and thus make the receiving of bread strictly dependent upon working for it. But the Scriptures do not say anything about any claim that the working person has upon God for his bread. The work is commanded, indeed, but the bread is God’s free and gracious gift. We cannot simply take it for granted that our work provides us with bread; this is rather God’s order of grace.

we would do well to remember the admonitions that Moses gave the children of Israel in the book of Deuteronomy and especially chapter 8.

¹¹“Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, ^12(M) lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, ¹³and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, ^14(N) then your heart be lifted up, and you^(O) forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, ¹⁵who^(P) led you through the great and terrifying wilderness,^(Q) with its fiery serpents and scorpions^(R)and thirsty ground where there was no water,^(S) who brought you water out of the flinty rock, ¹⁶who fed you in the wilderness with^(T) manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you,^(U) to do you good in the end. ¹⁷Beware^(V) lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ ¹⁸You shall remember the LORD your God, for^(W) it is he who gives you power to get wealth,^(X) that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹And if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them,^(Y) I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. ²⁰Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you,^(Z) so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.

emphasis added

reality of marriage

Challies put up an article on Monday just after his eleventh wedding anniversary that was a very real look at marriage through the device of wanting to give his younger newly married self some counseling.

the whole thing is good, but I thought this part was especially helpful because so many people have unrealistic ideas of the marriage relationship:

Prepare to Hurt and Be Hurt!. One of the greatest ironies and the greatest tragedies of marriage is that a husband and wife have more opportunities to sin against one another than against anyone else in all the world. Over the course of eleven years of marriage, I have hurt Aileen more than anyone else and have sinned against her more than I’ve sinned again anyone else. I suppose this means that marriage also offers unparalleled opportunities to extend forgiveness and to choose to overlook sin. While Aileen and I have had our share of struggles over the years, I truly believe that we carry no bitterness toward one another. Through God’s grace we have offered and received forgiveness time and time again. And through his grace we have overlooked many an offense. Yet there have been many occasions when we have hurt one another and when we have let this wounds fester for just a little too long.

If I could go back, I would prepare myself to be hurt and, even more, would seek to emphasize kindness and forbearance and grace so that I could hurt my wife far less often.

that is why I Peter 4:8 says “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.”

I can tell you after 20 years of married life that in a marriage there are many many sins that will need to be covered by fervent love. It is when you let your love grow cold that bitterness grows. Once bitterness takes hold of your heart, it is very difficult to uproot, so that love can flourish again.

The writer of Hebrews warned against ever letting the root of bitterness grow and prescribed the grace of God as the preventative. “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.”

learning vicarious suffering

courtesy of vitamin z, I saw this quote from Tim Keller:

“You need to get used to this reality. Once you become a parent, for the rest of your life, you’ll never be happier than your unhappiest child, because your heart is tied to your kids. That is a way of learning the gospel because before you have kids you don’t really know what it means that God suffers for your sins. He has to. He has to suffer for your sins, because when you have children you suffer for their sins. Your heart is tied up to them.”

truth in love

Paul reminded the Ephesian church that only with truth would there be mature Christian unity and only if truth was spoken in love.

Truth cannot be ducked or minimized in any way, but it must be softened with compassion. It is not compassionate to downplay or minimize or disregard truth.

Dr. Mohler wrote about this the other day in the context of homosexuality.

first the truth:

The homosexual rights movement understands that the evangelical church is one of the last resistance movements committed to a biblical morality. Because of this, the movement has adopted a strategy of isolating Christian opposition, and forcing change by political action and cultural pressure. Can we count on evangelicals to remain steadfastly biblical on this issue?

Not hardly. Scientific surveys and informal observation reveal that we have experienced a significant loss of conviction among youth and young adults. No moral revolution can succeed without shaping and changing the minds of young people and children. Inevitably, the schools have become crucial battlegrounds for the culture war. The Christian worldview has been undermined by pervasive curricula that teach moral relativism, reduce moral commandments to personal values, and promote homosexuality as a legitimate and attractive lifestyle option.

Our churches must teach the basics of biblical morality to Christians who will otherwise never know that the Bible prescribes a model for sexual relationships. Young people must be told the truth about homosexuality–and taught to esteem marriage as God’s intention for human sexual relatedness.

The times demand Christian courage. These days, courage means that preachers and Christian leaders must set an agenda for biblical confrontation, and not shrink from dealing with the full range of issues related to homosexuality. We must talk about what the Bible teaches about gender–what it means to be a man or a woman. We must talk about God’s gift of sex and the covenant of marriage. And we must talk honestly about what homosexuality is, and why God has condemned this sin as an abomination in His sight.

but with compassion:

And yet, even as courage is required, the times call for another Christian virtue as well–compassion. The tragic fact is that every congregation is almost certain to include persons struggling with homosexual desire or even involved in homosexual acts. Outside the walls of the church, homosexuals are waiting to see if the Christian church has anything more to say, after we declare that homosexuality is a sin.

Liberal churches have redefined compassion to mean that the church changes its message to meet modern demands. They argue that to tell a homosexual he is a sinner is uncompassionate and intolerant. This is like arguing that a physician is intolerant because he tells a patient she has cancer. But, in the culture of political correctness, this argument holds a powerful attraction.

Biblical Christians know that compassion requires telling the truth, and refusing to call sin something sinless. To hide or deny the sinfulness of sin is to lie, and there is no compassion in such a deadly deception. True compassion demands speaking the truth in love–and there is the problem. Far too often, our courage is more evident than our compassion.

Go read the rest. Great stuff.

the object of the Christian life

Todd Burus has had a couple of interesting posts on depression and biblical counseling this week. The book he is reading is Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ book Spiritual Depression: It’s Causes and Cure.

Yesterday, Todd talked about the spirit of bondage and had some extended quotes from Lloyd-Jones that were quite good. one little piece of the second quote caught Todd’s eye. It was this:

[Now] to the second principle– the presence of the Holy Spirit in us reminds us of our relationship to God. . . . How does it do so? Well, it enables us to see that our object in living the Christian life is not simply to attain a certain standard, but is rather to please God because He is our Father– ‘the spirit of adoption whereby we cery, Abba, Father.’

the object of the Christian life is not to attain a certain standard, but rather to please God because he is our father.

Do you see the difference? Do you understand the beauty of the true goal?

How come we reduce the latter to the former in our daily lives?

Is it because we prefer to remain emotionally distant from the one before whom we will stand naked and exposed? Are we somehow like Adam and Eve covering ourselves with the leaves of fleshly performance instead of running to God our Abba Father for help in every situation?

just asking.

John 10

I have been spending some time in the Gospel of John lately. It is amazing how reading familiar words can have a new impact on you when you are reading them again.

Just look for a minute at some phrases from John 10.

here are verses 3-5:

3. To him [the shepherd] the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

emphasis added.

Isn’t that comforting? Amazing? the Shepherd calls “his own sheep” by their own name and he leads them. The sheep “know his voice”. What a great and comforting word from God. Jesus calls his sheep by their name and he leads them. Just think about how fantastic that is for a bit.

go on down to verses 9-16:

9. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15. just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

emphasis added
Jesus came to give the sheep that enter by his name abundant life. He is good and proof that he is a good shepherd is that he put his own life on the line for his sheep. Just think about that for a bit. Contrast that with man made gods like Zeus or Money or Fame. Which of these man made idols ever proved their love for us by laying down their own life for their flock?

Jesus knows his own and they know him. They know his goodness. They know of his sacrifice for them. They know him just like he and God the Father know each other. They are part of the God’s family. There are even more sheep out there who belong to Jesus the great Shepherd and they will listen to Jesus’ voice. Why will they listen? Because verse 3-5 above says that he calls them by name and is not a stranger.

then check out verses 24-27:

24. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25. Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, 26. but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. 27. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

emphasis added

Very interesting indeed. The Jews gathered around and asked Jesus straight up “Are you the Messiah or not?” Jesus answered by saying that he had told them plainly and had done works (miracles) in God’s name as evidence to prove what he had said with his mouth. Then Jesus says something that should capture much more attention in pulpits than it does. He says “you do not believe because you are not part of my flock.”

Now think a minute. Doesn’t Jesus have that backwards? Shouldn’t he have said “you are not part of my flock because you do not believe”? Wouldn’t the latter be more consistent with the way most of us are taught about salvation?

But he didn’t say it the way we would expect. And when you think about it very much, you can see why. Making our status inside or outside the sheepfold of God dependent on our choosing to believe elevates us. It makes anyone who “believes” smarter/wiser/better than someone who doesn’t “believe.” But Ephesians 1 and 2 make it clear that there is no such possibility. We were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world to the praise of His glorious grace. We were part of His flock before we were born and before the Earth was created. We were part of His flock before time began. Names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life before the foundation of the world. We are saved by grace through faith and all of it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8-9

But you say, We must follow the shepherd. We must believe. We must exercise faith. And I agree. Scripture makes this requirement clear such that there is no doubt about it. Indeed we must make a choice (Romans 10:9-10), but the thing to realize is that apart from God’s hand, we are dead and unable to make such a choice. By the providence of God and the love of the Great Shepherd, we were made alive and by grace we are given the faith as a gift that we use to choose to follow the Shepherd who laid down his life for us. Salvation is God’s work from first to last. Salvation is God’s work so that his glorious grace might be seen and praised for the magnificent thing that it truly is.

Jesus says that his sheep are called by their own name. Jesus says that his sheep know his voice and follow him because they know him. Jesus says that he has other sheep in other pastures who also know his voice and will follow him when they hear his voice. Jesus says that other sheep do not believe in Him because they are not part of his flock.

Now my question to you after you read John 10 and think about it and pray about it is: Do you agree with what Jesus plainly says? Or do you find yourself saying some version of “yes, but….”

hat tip to John Samson for the John 10:26 rephrase

friends ride in

Timmy Brister has posted a round up of reactions to the Baptist Press article on Mark Driscoll.

I found three of them to be particularly interesting.

First, Ed Stetzer writes that Friday is for Friends and he says, in part:

So, some don’t like Mark, and they point to his past as justification. But we need to realize that Mark has repented for the “cussin’ pastor” reference and continues to grow (and I hope this is true of all of us). And I can tell you that first hand.

You see, I personally confronted Mark about his language, and Mark responded clearly. God was and is working in Mark’s life. He has mentioned his growth and his repentance frequently.

Mark explained our discussion in a blog post a few months ago:

A godly friend once asked me an important question: “What do you want to be known for?” I responded that solid theology and effective church planting were the things that I cared most about and wanted to be known for. He kindly said that my reputation was growing as a guy with good theology, a bad temper, and a foul mouth. This is not what I want to be known for.

Now, I am not saying that everything Mark Driscoll does is right. And, I am not really interested in having that discussion on my blog.

He reaches a lot of people, teaches the scriptures, and has a passion for planting. I like that. But, there are also areas where we disagree (and, I sat on his front porch and told him so).

But, let’s remember that to bring up someone’s old sin flies in the face of Scripture and contradicts grace. And let me also say, I am so thankful I am not continually evaluated on the basis of my past mistakes.

emphasis added.

JD Greear chimes in as well:

Mark and I are friends, and in many ways he has been a huge help to me in ministry. He has spoken truth into my life personally, as well as really challenged me to keep the focus of our church on the Gospel and the Scriptures. Mark and I disagree on some things, and sometimes strongly (we both are often wrong but never in doubt)… but at the end of the day he is a Bible-believing, theologically ultra-orthodox, Gospel-loving brother and God’s hand is all over him. That doesn’t excuse his (or my) errors, just that we see that God honors the preaching of His Word and Gospel above all other things. Mark believes in salvation by faith alone, that Jesus died as a penal substitution for sinners, the inerrancy of the Bible, that you should reach people with an offensive Gospel and baptize them after they make a decision, that men and women are distinct with different roles, that God’s primary instrument in the world today is the local church, and that preaching ought to be central in the church. He has influenced a whole generation of Christian leaders away from uber-trendy emergent liberalism back into the fundamentals of the Gospel. Baptists, in our book, he should be a GOOD GUY.

The third reaction deserves its own blog post which will come next.

God saves bad people (hallelujah!)

here is a word from Dr. Art Azurdia III courtesy of the Ramblin’ Pastor Man.

Romans 5:1-11:

1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

emphasis added

Santa Claus v. Grace

the best Christmas news you could ever receive.

hat tip to Vitamin Z

Godly living

this quote from Joel Beeke on ligonier’s blog is a great way to explain the christian walk:

The way to godly living is surprisingly simple: we are to walk with God in His appointed way (Micah 6:8), diligently using the means of grace and the spiritual disciplines, and waiting upon the Holy Spirit for blessing. Note that godly living involves both discipline and grace. This emphasis upon duty and grace is fundamental to Reformed, experiential ideas about godly living. As John Flavel wrote, “The duty is ours, though the power be God’s. A natural man has no power, a gracious man hath some, though not sufficient; and that power he hath depends upon the assisting strength of Christ.”

emphasis added.

Quoted in Feed My Sheep: A Passionate Plea for Preaching. 2nd edition, 2008 by Reformation Trust Publishing, an imprint of Ligonier Ministries.

Tim Keller

Tim Keller has a new book out called The Prodigal God.

he explains what it is and why he wrote it here. a sample:

What’s the book about? It’s about being ‘prodigal.’ The word ‘prodigal’ is an English word that means recklessly extravagant, spending to the point of poverty. The dictionaries tell us that the word can be understood in a more negative or a more positive sense. The more positive meaning is to be lavishly and sacrificially abundant in giving. The more negative sense is to be wasteful and irresponsible in one’s spending. (Some people think prodigal means ‘wayward,’ but there is no dictionary that indicates that the word means ‘immoral.’) The negative sense obviously applies to the actions of the younger brother in the Luke 15 parable. But is there any sense in which God can be called ‘prodigal’? I think so.

go read the rest. Good stuff. and it looks like another (short) book is on my list.

hat tip to Vitamin Z

speaking of worldview

here is a clip of a talk by a young lady who survived an attempt on her life and lived to tell the tale (albeit with scars). Makes for an interesting point of view on life. she gets the God centered view better than most of us.

hat tip to Adrian Warnock.

persuasion

Paul said that since we know what it means to fear God, we seek to persuade men. Then he said, “we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” In his earlier letter to the same group he said that he was willing to become whatever he needed to become so that by all means some more people might be persuaded to follow Christ.

I bring all that up, because our goal when we teach or preach (to a group or to our friend over coffee) is the same as Paul’s. Our goal is to persuade people to accept Jesus Christ as their savior and Lord.

We must always be ready to give an answer when asked about the reason for our hope, with gentleness and respect.

Todd Hiestand has an exellent post up about persuasion in sermons. His illustration is the speeches given at the political conventions that just occurred. He believes that most of those speeches at both conventions did nothing more than cement previously held beliefs by the respective partisans. (I would disagree slightly on this point. Lieberman’s speech at the Republican convention [and even John McCain’s, to a certain extent] was not primarily targeted at Republican’s. He was deliberately asking for security conscious Democrats to put that belief above party for the sake of the country.)

Todd wonders how much of his preaching is the same thing. His goal is to provoke thought and consideration by someone who disagrees with him.

as Todd puts it:

Now, I have nothing wrong with believing and speaking things with conviction. In fact, if I did, there would be no point of me continuing to preach. But, a huge challenge to those who preach (and dare I say those who speak in political settings) is to make your case for your side in such a way that allows the other side to begin to see why it is important that you think the way you think.
…….
What I am talking about a difference between being a bully with your words and carefully shepherding with your words.

When I get done preaching, I would honestly rather hear someone say to me, “Your sermon was very thought provoking” than to hear someone say, “your sermon was awesome.”

When someone says, “your sermon was awesome” it usual means they already agreed with me and I just reinforced their previously held belief.

When someone says, “that was thought provoking” it means I really communicated well and made them think about the topic a little differently.

It’s easy to effectively communicate with those who already agree with you.

It’s a whole other challenge to communicate effectively with those who disagree with you.

And pissing them off isn’t necessarily effective communication.

Todd’s post is convicting. Ephesians 4:29 requires that we use our communication to minister grace to the hearer and build them up. Let us endeavor to do so.

discipline and bitterness

Here are some thoughts about dealing with hard discipline and avoiding bitterness. It is wise counsel for all of us.

You must approach tough experiences with maturity and demonstrate a humble and teachable attitude. The season of suffering is meant to produce fruit. It will do that only for those ‘who have been trained by it’ (Heb. 12:11), not for those who’ve missed the training. Indeed, suffering doesn’t automatically produce holiness and sanctification. It can produce the very opposite. Those who’ve gone through tragic circumstances often fall into bitterness and misery.

…

The only way to withstand bitterness is to make sure that you don’t miss the grace of God. Grace, like an effective weed-killer, can get to the root of bitterness and destroy its power. But you must deliberately obtain grace. You must make a specific choice to refuse bitterness, not once but many times. Bitterness will repeatedly knock your door and you must always send grace to answer it.

Go read the whole (short article). There is also a link on the entry to Terry’s bible study on the topic with an action plan.

hat tip to Ramblin’ Pastor Man

Jon Bloom on Hebrews 12

Is God punishing me? that is the question we sometimes ask when things aren’t going well. Jon Bloom takes a look at Hebrews 12 and concludes:

These saints were not to interpret their painful experiences as God’s angry punishment for their sins. That angry punishment was completely spent on Jesus—once for all—on the cross.

Rather, this was the message they were to understand from their hardships: God loves you! He has fatherly affection for you. He cares deeply for you. He is taking great pains so that you will share his holiness (12:10) because he wants you to be as happy as possible and enjoy the peaceful fruit of righteousness (12:11).

….

It is crucial that we remember that everything God feels toward us as Christians is gracious. When God disciplines us it is a precious form of his favor. It’s what a loving father does. He is not giving us what we deserve because he “canceled the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands…nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14). Instead, he is training us in righteousness. Because he loves us so very much.

HT to the Ramblin’ Pastor Man..

UPDATE:

this is from Randy Alcorn’s blog today:

However, Luther refused to see his illness as divine punishment but rather as a natural consequence of man’s sinful state. It was to be countered with both prayer and medication but one relied ultimately on the will of God. Indeed, he felt God’s presence and power more acutely in his sickness than in times of greater vitality. After recovering from an illness so serious that his basic life signs were undetectable, Luther wrote the great hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” in which he expressed his trust in God’s victory over the devil’s forces with these concluding words, “Though life be wrenched away, they cannot win the day. The kingdom is ours forever.”

Also, take note of the following words from the great British preacher, Charles Spurgeon. He too dealt with poor health all his life, but especially in his last decade when he was nearly incapacitated. He writes, “I have suffered many times from severe sickness and frightful mental depression seeking almost to despair. Almost every year I’ve been laid aside for a season, for flesh and blood cannot bear the strain, at least such flesh and blood as mine. I believe, however, the affliction was necessary to me and has answered salutary ends. But I would, if it were God’s will, escape from such frequent illness. That must be according to His will and not mine.”

This is a frank admission of the pain that trials involve but, near the end of his life, Spurgeon also wrote this, “I venture to say that the greatest earthly blessing that God can give to any of us is health, with the possible exception of sickness. Sickness has frequently been of much greater use to the saints than has health.”

emphasis added

what a timely word.

acceptable words

I have long tried to use Ephesians 4:29 to guide my speech, written and verbal. Sometimes with more success than others. I have tried to explain to my kids why we use certain words and not others in our communication based on this verse.

So I can identify with the family discussion described by Paul Tripp in the following video. It is hilarious. As Steve McCoy says, “Paul Tripp has a potty mouth and he’s right on the money”. If mild expletives of a scatological nature offend your ears, then don’t play this clip. If you want to hear a funny and excellent explication of Ephesians 4:29, please go ahead.