All I Want to Do is Swing All Day
Under 7th (Taken with instagram)
Oh how the church and our communities would be transformed if this were more true of God’s people…
John Frame:
We need more Christians who will lead lives of repentance, for repentance always challenges pride.
If you’re coming to God daily to confess to him how much you have sinned, you will find it hard to pretend that you are holier than everybody else. You’ll find it hard to put on airs, to pose as the perfect Christian.
When others accuse you of sin, you won’t immediately jump to defend yourself, as if of course you could never do wrong and any accusation must be a misunderstanding. Rather, when someone accuses you of sin, you’ll respond by thinking there is a high probability that the accusation is true, and you won’t be embarrassed to say, “Oh, yes, I did do that. And I am terribly sorry. Will you forgive me?”
If we are able to humble ourselves before God, we will be humble before men as well. And the church will be far better if there are more of us who are like that.
Salvation Belongs to the Lord, (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2006), 199, paragraphing added.
[HT: David Mathis]
In the midst of your struggles do you ever feel like you are all alone? Have you been in a community where someone suffers and not known how to respond? If so, your experience is not out of the ordinary. Saints as old as Job, who some say is the one of the earliest Christian books, have gone through incredible suffering and felt like they have been abandoned by everyone who once loved them. The communities of old have been trying to figure out how to respond since the beginning.
Job describes how his relatives, close friends, guests, maidservants, his personal servant, his wife, his children, all his intimate friends, and those who he has loved have all turned away from him.
From what Job shares some have gone silent. Some look at him strangely. Others can’t stand his sight, while a number of them actively turn against him. This is all in the midst of Job experiencing incredible loss and unimaginable suffering.
This provides us with some helpful commentary on common responses to suffering by both the one suffering and the community of the sufferer:
The Sufferer Often Responds by:
The Community of the Sufferer Often Responds with:
The challenging thing with both these responses by the one suffering and their community is that many times neither party is unaware of how they are responding. Much grace, patience, courage and forgiveness is needed. Pray that the Holy Spirit will enable our communities to become places where we respond to suffering in faith and with love together.
“But when the Bible speaks of love, it measures it primarily not by how much you want to receive but by how much you are willing to give of yourself to someone. How much are you willing to lose for the sake of this person? How much of your freedom are you willing to forsake? How much of your precious time, emotion, and resources are you willing to invest in this person?” — Tim Keller, The Meaning of Marriage (via mikerusch)
This Christmas at the Austin Stone we are preaching through various prayers from the Valley of Vision. Few books have helped stir my prayers and worship like this one. If you don’t have a copy of these Puritan prayers buy it today, or ask for it for Christmas! The prayer below is the only prayer in the book specific to Christmas - it is called The Gift of Gifts:
O Source of all Good,
What shall I render to Thee for the gift of gifts,
thine own dear Son, begotten, not created,
my Redeemer, proxy, surety, substitute,
his self-emptying incomprehensible,
his infinity of love beyond the heart’s grasp.Herein is wonder of wonders:
he came below to raise me above,
was born like me that I might become like him.Herein is love:
when I cannot rise to him he draws near on wings of grace, to raise me to himself.Herein is power:
when Deity and humanity were infinitely apart
he united them in indissoluble unity, the uncreated and the created.Herein is wisdom:
when I was undone, with no will to return to him, and no intellect to devise recovery,
he came, God-incarnate, to save me to the uttermost,
as man to die my death,
to shed satisfying blood on my behalf,
to work out a perfect righteousness for me.O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds and enlarge my mind;
let me hear good tidings of great joy,
and hearing, believe, rejoice, praise, adore
my conscience bathed in an ocean of repose
my eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father;
place me with ox, ass, camel, goat
to look with them upon my Redeemer’s face,
and in him account myself delivered from sin;
let me with Simeon clasp the new-born child to my heart,
embrace him with undying faith,
exulting that he is mine and I am his.In him thou has given me so much that heaven can give no more.
~The Valley of Vision, The Gift of Gifts, p. 16
God’s Heart For Orphans Conference
This is a helpful quote on what our theology produces in us. Everyone has a theology, whether they realize it or not. What we believe about the nature and acts of God has a profound impact on our nature and how we act in this world.
“The Puritans made me aware that all theology is also spirituality in the sense that it has an influence… If our theology does not quicken the conscious and soften the heart, it actually hardens both; if it does not encourage the commitment of faith, it reinforces the detachment of unbelief; if it fails to promote humility, it inevitable feeds pride.” ~J.I. Packer, A Quest for Godlines
“As a follower of Christ you are more broken and aware of your selfishness and sin, but you are more confident and hopeful about God’s acceptance of you all at once.” — Tim Keller
“Mission” is not something the church does, a part of its total program. No, the church’s essence is missional, for the calling and sending action of God forms its identity. Mission is founded on the mission of God in the world, rather then the churches effort to extend itself.”
(p. 82, Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America)