Blogging Break

I'm going to be spending about 10 days in Missouri for a family reunion, and during that time I won't be blogging. I'll probably resume posting the first or second week of June. I just thought I'd let y'all know.

God Bless,

Christine

Hard Ground

Last week a friend from church brought over a couple of rose plants. Mama decided she wanted them in the front yard in a little area where we had torn out the planter. So my brother, Will and I started digging. Each hole needed to be 2’ x 3’. We soon discovered that the dirt just didn’t want to budge. It took 4 hours with a pick-ax and shovel to get those little holes finished.

While I was digging I had plenty of time to think. Many times people are just like that hard ground. When we try to share the gospel with them, we are met with resistance from a hard heart. So many of them need the pick-ax of God’s Law to break their hearts. One of my favorite places to share the gospel with people is Jamba Juice. I usually have to wait a few minutes, and there is very little seating. People usually stand around looking bored, which gives me a perfect opportunity! Anyway, I was talking with a lady not too long ago, and I asked her “Have you ever told a lie?”. Of course she had, so I asked, “What does that make you?” Her first response was typical, but after a few moments she said “You want me to say I’m a liar, but I’m not a liar”. Her responses continued to show me that she had a proud, hard heart, and she was unwilling to be broken by the Law. It’s so sad. All I could do was leave a tract with her.

We often recognize this problem in unbelievers, but we turn a blind eye to it in our churches. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like it’s so easy to “toughen up” and “not let it get to us.” Fundamentalists have a reputation these days for being proud, and not being willing to address our own sins. Sadly, this is far too often true. We defend our sin, or completely deny that we have a problem with whatever sin we are confronted with. When people come to us and show us sin, we should thank them for coming to us and repent of that sin. Instead, many times, those in our circles get defensive and bitter towards those who came to them. This is not right. It doesn’t reflect the love and humility of our Savior. We need to be willing to acknowledge our sin, and accept the loving rebuke of other believer’s with thankfulness. When we have a whole church operating like this, imagine what kind of spiritual growth could occur! We would all be much more like Christ, and the more like Christ we are, the more He is glorified. And that’s our goal.

Excellent Post

Over at Bowing Down there is a wonderful post, Blessed be the Name. It is written by a seventeen year old young lady whose mother has recently been diagnosed with cancer. It was an encouragement to me and I hope it will be to you as well.

A Radical Change. . .and Then?

This week I’ve been thinking about a song that Pastor Tom wrote a few years ago. It’s called “A Radical Change.” I’d like to share some of the lyrics with you, “I heard the truth, believed, and turned away from sin, the Holy Spirit turned my world around. Now you may think the change you see is just a little odd, but wait and see…the change has just begun.”

When I hear this song one family from my church comes to mind. As long as I can remember we’ve prayed for this family to come back to the Lord. This year we finally had the joy of watching them repent. It has been an amazing display of the mercy, grace, love and power of God. There truly was a radical change. But that isn’t where it ended. We have been given the wonderful joy to accept them into our church family and to watch their continued growth in Christ. To watch a person’s repentance is great, but to watch that person turn around and then go out and tell others about Christ is wonderful! That is how it is supposed to be. We weren’t saved merely so that we could be more like Christ and be happy about it, God wants us to turn around and bring others.

I’ve especially enjoyed watching their daughter. I have never seen anyone so exited about sharing the gospel! (although her father comes close.) She has been a Christian less than 6 months, and already she is joyfully sharing God’s message with others. She may not be very far along in her Christian walk, but she is working to bring others along with her. Sadly, that’s more than we can say for most people who have been in church for many years!

We need to be learning from this family. When the Holy Spirit turned their world around, they changed, and then turned to share this good news with others. We need to be more like that. We need to be continually learning more about Christ, growing in Christlikeness, and doing whatever we can to help those who are behind us get closer to Christ. If they are Christians, we should encourage them to be more Christlike, if they are unbelievers, we should be pleading with them to be reconciled to Christ. We should be following Christ, and pointing everyone we meet to Him. When that is done, God will be glorified. This family has glorified God in this way, and we should also.

The Flesh and the Spirit

Sunday night we were studying Galatians 5 as it relates to the quality of our community, and there was something that was just briefly touched on that I’ve been thinking about: the war between the flesh and the Spirit.

Galatians 5:17 says, “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.” Romans 7:15-23 is very similar to this passage, it says, “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members”

Talk about a confusing passage! Paul sets up two sides, the flesh, and the Spirit. We are no longer under bondage to the flesh, but obeying it is still a habit, and we still desire to sin. On the other hand we have the Spirit, and we want to do right and glorify God. Pastor Tom summed the conclusion up quite well, “No matter which you pick, you won’t do what you want to do.” Either way you are still going to have to say no to something.

Anybody who knows me knows I love to read. People tease me about how much I love to read theology, but they don’t realize that I love fiction also. The problem is that these days it’s hard to find good clean fiction. I’ve felt the same thing that Paul describes many times at the library. I pick up a book, read the back, and discover it sounds quite interesting. Then I read more and discover that it’s not God glorifying. Suddenly I have a war on my hands! I’d love to read the book and enjoy it, but on the other hand, I don’t want to do anything that wouldn’t please God, but I still think it sounds like an interesting book. Either way I’m going to have to say no to my desires.

This is where humility and love must come in. If I base my decision on what I feel like doing, I’ve got a 50/50 pull on both sides. But when I realize that what I want is really quite irrelevant, and that it is God’s desires and His glory that are most important, the decision is easily made. Looking back, I can’t think of a single time I regret putting the books back on the shelf, but I do regret the times I have chosen to read the books. When it comes down to it, the glory of God is all that matters. The Bible says that there is pleasure in sin for a season, (Hebrews 11:25) but when all is said and done, it doesn’t matter what pleasure I got from books, music, videos or anything else. It matters what gives glory to God.

So the next time we are faced with a war between the flesh and the Spirit, let's remember that it's not about us. It doesn't matter what we want, it matters what will bring glory to Christ.

Change

I’ve decided to make some changes around here, and I thought I’d let y’all know. As you can see I’ve made some small changes to the template, but I’m hoping to change a little bit more than that. Sunday morning in Sunday school we were discussing how loving God changes our life. Pastor Tom asked how it could change the way I blog. I couldn’t think of anything, but he suggested that there are plenty of people who write theology, and far too few who actually try to show what applied theology looks like. So I’m going to try to write a bit more about what God has been teaching me and how the principles in the Bible actually apply to life . . . Feel free to tell me when my posts stink, I’m sure some of them will, since I don’t quite know what I’m doing yet, but Lord willing, I’ll get the hang of it eventually.

God Bless,

Christine