Hungry

About 21 days ago I began reading my Bible differently. I was intrigued by Professor Horner's Bible Reading System, which you can look at on Facebook, or download by clicking here.

The Bible is divided up into 10 sections, and you read one chapter per day out of each of the sections. It's designed to make you read different passages together, so you begin to see relationships between the Old and New Testaments, or between Job and the Psalms, and so on.

I figured out one thing: I am hungry for the Word of God. I was starving myself with my couple-of-chapters-a-day reading, that was often hit and miss. Now that I am reading more of the Word every day, I find I am MORE hungry. I meditate on passages throughout the day, and find myself looking forward to the early morning hour, so I can grab my ESV, my notebook, and my coloured pens.

I figured out another thing: It's not enough. The more I read, the more I want. The more I read, the more I talk to God, and listen for His voice. He is with me. I feel His presence.

It's not that He wasn't with me before. I've been a Christian for 32 years, and I have known all that time that God's promises are true - He never leaves His children, nor forsakes them.

But Christians are designed to know God intimately. The only way to do that is to read His word, to know His thoughts, to see His ways, to worship Him for His beauty and majesty, His compassion and mercy, His justice and wrath, His protection and care. I have seen all of these attributes and more, over and over again. I am in love with this beautiful God. I want to know Him more!

Suffering & God's Sovereignty

My daughter Linda is writing a paper on The Sovereignty of God in Suffering.  I'll be posting a link to her blog when she gets it posted on there.  Meanwhile, let the following words of wisdom from a young lover of God bless you:

Jesus understands our suffering because He’s human. 

He can do something about our suffering because He’s God. 

So we can put our complete trust in Him, and cling to Him as the Source of our help in times of trouble.

Hebrews 4:14-15 “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

He is perfect, and He is sympathetic. There is no greater Saviour, and there is no greater Lord. Who else can we turn to in our suffering? No one else has both suffered as we have, and accomplished the work of atonement without the stain of sin. There is only Jesus, and He is enough. 

Praise God!

There is only Jesus, and He is enough.  Praise God!

Resurrection

O God of my exodus,

Great was the joy of Israel's sons

         when Egypt died upon the shore,

Far greater the joy 

        when the redeemer's foe lay crushed in the dust.

Jesus strides forth as the victor,

        conqueror of death, hell, and all opposing might;

He bursts the bands of death,

     tramples the powers of darkness down,

     and lives for ever.

He, my gracious surety,

        apprehended for payment of my debt,

        comes forth from the prison house of the grave

        free, and triumphant over sin, Satan, and death.

Show me herein the proof that his vicarious offering is accepted,

        that the claims of justice are satisfied,

        that the devil's sceptre is shivered,

        that his wrongful throne is levelled.

Give me the assureance that in Christ I died, in him I rose,

                                                   in his life I live, in his victory I triumph,

                                                   in his ascension I shall be glorified.

Adorable redeemer,

        thou who wast lifted up upon a cross

        art ascended to highest heaven.

Thou, who as a man of sorrows wast crowned with thorns,

        art now as Lord of life wreathed with glory.

Once, no shame more deep than thine,

           no agony more bitter, no death more cruel.

Now, no exaltation more high,

          no life more glorious, no advocate more effective.

Thou art in the triumph car leading captive thine enemies behind thee.

What more could be done than thou hast done!

        Thy death is my life, thy resurrection my peace,

        thy ascension my hope, thy prayers my comfort.

Living Life Without Breathing

"So many of you are trying to live your life without breathing!" 

~ John Piper, in his sermon, Put in the Fire for the Sake of Prayer.

Take the time to click on the link and listen to John Piper preaching about prayer.  It'll be worth the time it takes, trust me.

We Christians don't do a great job praying.  Oh, we promise to pray, and we shoot up a prayer, because otherwise we'll feel guity.  But we fail to remember that prayer is a privilege - purchased by the blood of Christ.

Three Practical Suggestions from the sermon:

1.  Set aside a time and place each day for concentrated prayer.  Do not leave it to chance.  The devil is shrewd, and will show you all manner of good things that need to be accomplished.  It's not our evil that keeps us from praying...it's our righteousness.  Resist!  Pray!

2.  Combine praying with reading the Bible.  Turn your reading into prayer.  Otherwise, you'll be distracted and your mind will wander.

3.  Pray in Concentric Circles:  Put yourself at the centre, then spouse, family, your local church leaders, then members, then missions...followed by your country, then the entire world.  

"I am the most needy, the chief of sinners, so have mercy on ME, Lord. Use me to accomplish Your purposes.  Use me to advance Your kingdom, to bring You glory."

God is not at the centre - He is in it all.  It is His glory, His kingdom, His will that should be the focus of our prayers.  

If we do not pray, says Piper, we'll end up in the School of Prayer.  

Now what about Zechariah 13:8-9? It tells us one of the main ways that God awakens earnest prayer in his children, namely, in the refining fires of suffering. . .

Verse 8: “In the whole land, declares the Lord, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive.” So the one third represents God’s remnant—his faithful, imperfect, weak people, who do not pray with the kind of discipline and desperation and joy, and hunger for God, that they should. So what is God’s remedy? What is his school of prayer?

Verse 9: “And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested.” Notice carefully what is happening. In his great love, God saved the one third from being cut off with the two thirds who perished (v. 8). And then as part of his love for them, he puts them in the fire to be tested and refined. That is normal Christianity. “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12).

Put in the Fire to Awaken Prayer

But what is it that God wants to see change in his people? Verse 9: “I will test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them.” 

God puts us in the fire to awaken us, so that we'll pray.  He does this out of His great love for us, knowing that in praying we gain power, we gain the Presence of Almighty God, we gain purpose to serve Him.  It is our privilege.

Almost 500 years ago, John Calvin commented on Zechariah 13:9, and what he said then is more true today:

It is therefore necessary that we should be subject, from first to last, to the scourges of God, in order that we may from the heart call on him; for our hearts are enfeebled by prosperity, so that we cannot make the effort to pray. (Commentary onZechariah 13:9 [Baker, 2003], 403, emphasis added)

John says that it's a duty to pray, but it is not to be viewed as a legalistic rule.  It is a means of grace. 

Do I go to pray with many of you . . . out of duty? Is it a discipline?

You can call it that. It’s a duty the way it’s the duty of a scuba diver to put on his air tank before he goes underwater. It’s a duty the way pilots listen to air traffic controllers. It’s a duty the way soldiers in combat clean their rifles and load their guns. It’s a duty the way hungry people eat food. It’s a duty the way thirsty people drink water. It’s a duty the way a deaf man puts in his hearing aid. It’s a duty the way a diabetic takes his insulin. It’s a duty the way Pooh Bear looks for honey. It’s a duty the way pirates look for gold.

Just as we cannot live life without breathing, we cannot live the Christian life without praying.  Don't even try.

Bible Study - The Treasure of God's Word

How should we study the Bible?  How do we understand difficult topics like polygamy, for instance?  When we read about the Patriarchs in the Old Testament, we see that they had many wives.  Is that prescriptive?  Should good Christian men in modern times go out and get themselves a few wives, just to be on the safe side?  (I will respond to that in another post.)

God chose to reveal Himself to the people He created, and He did so in different ways.  First, He created Adam and gave him work to do.  He gave him his beautiful wife, Eve, and we can assume that He walked with Adam in the garden, in the cool of the day.  He taught Adam about Himself while in a relationship with him.

Then, God gave Adam eyes to see the glories of creation.  

Psalm 19 The heavens declare the glory of God,

and the sky above  proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours out speech,

and night to night reveals knowledge.

  

There is no speech, nor are there words,

whose voice is not heard. 

Better yet, God breathed out His very word to people who wrote down exactly what the Lord intended to have written.

1 Peter 1:19 And  we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God l as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

"That the Scriptures have a divine origin, being authoritatively inspired of God, is shown by the combined witness of archaelogy and the Scriptures, including the recorded testimony of Christ and evidenced by the transformation of human lives." ~Emery H. Bancroft, Elemental Theology, p. 37

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable 

for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

The Word of God is inerrant, complete, verbally inspired by God, of no private interpretation, and organic.  God used different writers from various ages and backgrounds to record His Word to us.

"In harmony, with the personality, experiences, gifts, talents, vocabulary and style of the writer, the Holy Spirit illuminates the mind, aids the memory, and represses sin within, so that the end product is the Word of God."

Systematics is the study of the doctrines in the Bible done systematically.  Picture a Filing Cabinet full of files.  In one file you will find everything the Bible says about anthropology, or the study of man.  Another one has a file on Ecclesiology, or the study of the church.  It is good and right to study the Bible systematically, as it helps a student to safeguard the Word of God by studying everything God has to say to us on a particular topic.  However, there is a weakness in this wonderful discipline, and that is that things can be taken out of context.  We must learn to study systematically, but we must not neglect Biblical Theology - the study of each of the Books in the Bible.  

 We must remember that God revealed His Word slowly, over time.  Diachronological study is study with the awareness that as time progressed, God revealed more of His plan and purpose and decrees to His people.  Adam knew the pronouncement of the Protoevangelicum... that God would provide someone to bruise the "head" of Satan.  He did not know that this would be the Messiah, Jesus.  We, looking back, see the entire truth of the doctrine of Christology.  

Every doctrine must be studied systematically and theologically.  God revealed truths about certain topics to Adam, to the patriarchs, to the prophets, and to the apostles.  We must study the whole counsel of God to understand what He says about each doctrine.  All Scripture is given by inspiration of God...all Scripture, Old and New Testament...but not every Scripture has as much weight on a topic as another Scripture on that same topic.  We must read with wisdom and discernment, with prayer and much study, in order to understand what the Word of God actually says.

What is the danger of "proof-texting", or searching for specific verses to prove one's point?  Those verses are taken out of context, so the historical context (why the passage was written, to whom it was written, what was happening at the time, etc.) is lost.  We must guard against this kind of error by studying the entire Bible, by reading whole books, by learning the historical context, and by understanding the different genres of Biblical literature.  

The final goal of reading any portion of Scripture is the practical application - the So What?  If this is true, how does it apply to my life?  What do I do now?  How should my thinking and behaviour change as a result of understanding this passage from God's Holy Word?

 "The Bible gives forth no uncertain sound.  Its testimonies are reliable, and its teachings are trustworthy."~!A.W. Pink

This is a key verse for the doctrine of Scripture, indicating that Scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit, but at the same time men spoke God's words, using their own personalities, knowledge, background, vocabulary, and style. “They were carried along” implies that the inspiration of Scripture was invisibly directed by the Holy Spirit, though without overriding the personalities of the human authors. Thus Scripture is fully the Word of God, even though it is recorded in the words of human beings. 

2 Timothy 3:16 d All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Goodies online!

I am so happy to have discovered (through Tim Challies) Jay Adams' blog.  I didn't know he wrote a blog.  Tim linked to Jay's blog today, commenting on the fact that Jay Adams is now 80.  

I clicked over to Jay's blog, and was delighted.  It's full of practical help on how to counsel...but there's more.  Jay shares his wit and wisdom and life experiences.  

It only took a short time for me to realize that I'd have to visit regularly.  I dashed off a short note to Mr. Adams, wishing him well on his 80th birthday.

Why am I such a fan?  Because Jay Adams made a difference in MY life.  Seventeen years ago Rick and I were separated.  Rick was living at his computer store, and I was home with 8 children, with the 9th on the way.  Our trials were many - financial, spiritual - and the answers were few.  Rick wasn't being the husband I thought he should be, and I wasn't being the wife he thought I should be.  We were at an impasse.

Providentially, we ended up in the counsellor's office.  Ron (our counsellor and friend) used the Bible and books by Wayne Mack, Larry Crabb and Jay Adams to teach us that our marriage could glorify God, if we learned to do it His way.  We've spent the past 17 years learning just that. 

The Bible is one of our glorious treasures.  Nouthetic counselling takes the Bible and applies it to real life.  I thank God for starting us on this path seventeen years ago.  I thank God, too, for Jay Adams, and the impact his writing made on my life.

Happy Birthday, Jay!

Raison d'être*

*Raison d'être is a phrase borrowed from French where it means simply "reason for being".

I entered the blogging world a couple of years ago, writing semi-frequently on "Grannymom's Spot". That blog tends to be, for the most part, about my family and personal experiences. I have decided that it will be kept private, for family and invited friends.

For a few days, I have been pondering what to do about cyberspace. This morning, as he is wont to do(entirely unbeknownst to him), John Piper rocked my world with the following essay: Boasting Only In the Cross

He writes,

"You don't have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great things that matter, and then be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by a few great things. If you want your life to count, if you want the ripple effect of the pebbles you drop to become waves that reach the ends of the earth and roll on for centuries and into eternity, you don't have to have a high IQ or EQ; you don't have to have to have good looks or riches; you don't have to come from a fine family or a fine school. You have to know a few great, majestic, unchanging, obvious, simple, glorious things, and be set on fire by them."

My few great, majestic, unchanging, obvious, simple, glorious things include:

GREAT: GOD. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, Three in One. The Father chose me from before the foundation of the earth. The Son redeemed my life from destruction, dying in my place on that cruel cross, and rising again to be the mediator on my behalf. The Holy Spirit lives in me, guiding me, leading me, reassuring me, and pointing me to the Cross.

MAJESTIC My home is in heaven. This world is not my home. I really am just passing through.

UNCHANGING God loves me. Whether or not I'm having a "good" day from man's perspective, my God never changes. Every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of Lights, in whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He doesn't change. He loves me during the darkest days, He loves me during the most treasured moments, when I can scarcely breathe for joy.

OBVIOUS He blesses me. With family, and friends. With material blessings and spiritual wonders. With air and water and food and clothing. With thorns and stones and cuts and bruises, and heart-wrenching sobs that turn me to Him, He blesses.

SIMPLE I love Him. We love Him, because He first loved us. I love Him enough to want to tell others how very good He is. I can't begin to approach any sort of true description, but here on this blog, I will try.

GLORIOUS I bring Him glory. How cool is that? By simply living my life with my heart turned towards my God, I bring Him glory. By being willing to live in an obscure part of the Canadian countryside, far from any "big-wigs" or influential people, I bring Him glory. With a kiss on the cheek of my husband, or a snuggle or back-scratch for my little grandchild, I bring the God of the Universe glory.

So, this blog is about the ordinary things in life, and what God is teaching me through them. If you didn't bother clicking over to John Piper's exhortation, please do so. He says it so much more eloquently than I do.

I have to ask: What sets YOU on fire?