Romans 5

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 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. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. 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.

 ”You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 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! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.  

 ”Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.

 ”But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

 ”Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

 ”The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Sermon.

Prayer (2)

As never before, my will and I stood face to face. I asked my will the straight question, “Will, are you ready for an hour of prayer?” Will answered, “Here I am, and I’m quite ready, if you are.” So Will and I linked arms and turned to go for our time of prayer. At once all the emotions began pulling the other way and protesting, “We’re not coming.” I saw Will stagger just a bit, so I asked, “Can you stick it out ,Will?” and Will replied, “Yes, if you can.” So Will went, and we got down to prayer, dragging those wriggling, obstreperous emotions with us. It was a struggle all the way through. At one point, when Will and I were in the middle of an ernest intercession, I suddenly found one of those traitorous emotions had snared my imagination and had run off to the golf course; and it was all I could do to drag the wicked rascal back. A bit later I found another of the emotions had sneaked away with some off-guard thoughts and I was in the pulpit, two days ahead of schedule, preaching a sermon that I had not yet finished preparing!

At the end of that hour, if you had asked me, “Have you had a ‘good time’?” I would have had to reply, “No, it has been a wearying wrestle with contrary emotions and traunt imagination from beginning to end.” What is more, that battle with the emotions continued for between two and three weeks, and if you had asked me at the end of that period, “Have you had a ‘good time’ in your daily praying?” I would have had to confess, “No, at times it has seemed as thought the heavens were brass, and God too distant to hear, and the Lord Jesus strangely aloof, and prayer accomplished nothing.”

Yet something was happening. For one thing, Will and I really taught the emotions that we were completely independant from them. Also, one morning, about two weeks after the contest began, just when Will and I were going for another time of prayer, I overheard one of the emotions whisper to the other, “Come on, you guys, it is no use wasting any more time resisting: they’ll go just the same.” That morning, for the first time, even though the emotions were still suddenlu uncooperative, they were at least quiescent, which allowed Will and me to get on with prayer undistractedly.

Then, another couple of weeks later, what do you think happened? During one of our prayer times, when Will and I were no more thinking of the emotions than of the man on the moon, one of the most vigorous of the emotions suddenly sprang up and shouted, “Hallelujah!” at which all of the other emotions exclaimed, “Amen!” And for the first time  the whole of my being–intellect, will, and emotions–was united in one coordinated prayer-operation.” 

–Dr. J. Sidlow Baxter

God’s Grace

Over the past December holidays I was extremely glad to put school on hold. It was great at first until I realized I was also spiritually “on hold”. I stopped reading my Bible, hardly ever prayed and was just really sluggish. Even after I realized this I didn’t change anything. To be honest I had no real desire to change anything at that point. Looking back on this I believe it was one of my all time lows. Nothing I did was fun anymore and I became extremely bored and almost depressed.

Thanks to the grace of God the Holy Spirit put a desire in me to again read the Word and devote myself to Him. After just that first quiet time by myself I was feeling rejuvenated. While being on hold over the holidays I was numb, but was brought back to the reality that I need God. Without Him I am nothing and can be nothing.

It’s hard to put into words how great the grace of God is. Without it where would we be?

This all happened just before the start of the next school year. The timing was perfect. God’s grace prepared me to work hard this year for His honour and glory.

What makes this even more amazing is God’s providence in all of this. The first book I had to read for school was The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges*. In it he deals with the believer’s pursuit of holiness and God’s grace. It seemed to speak right to where I was. No doubt this is how God was using it.

I use myself as an example just to remind you all of how dependant we are on the grace of God. Often we can take it for granted or even take advantage of it. Paul’s argument against this is brilliant: 

 “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” - Romans 6:1-4

As believers God’s grace isn’t an excuse to do whatever we want. Rather it is motivation to serve God better. By God’s grace we can take all our sins to Him and as unworthy as we are they will be forgiven.

* By the way I highly recommend that you read this book. It will be of great help in your pursuit of holiness.

Praise The Lord!

 Shout To The Lord

My Jesus, My Savior
Lord there is none like You
All of my days, I want to praise
The wonders of Your mighty love
My Comfort, My Shelter
Tower of refuge and strength
Let every breath, all that I am
Never cease to worship You

Shout to the Lord, all the earth
Let us sing. Power and majesty, praise to the King.
Mountains bow down and the seas will roar
At the sound of Your name
I sing for joy at the work of Your hands
Forever I’ll love you, forever I’ll stand
Nothing compares to the promise I have in
you

Knowing You

All I once held dear, built my life upon
All this world reveres and wars to own
All I once thought gain I have counted loss
Spent and worthless now compared to this

Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You
There is no greater thing
You’re my all, You’re the best
You’re my joy, my righteousness
And I love You Lord

Now my heart’s desire is to know You more
To be found in You and know as Yours
To possess by faith what I could not earn
All surpassing gift of righteousnessKnowing You, Jesus, knowing You
There is no greater thing
You’re my all, You’re the best
You’re my joy, my righteousness
And I love You Lord

Oh to know the power of Your risen life
And to know You in Your sufferings
To become like You in Your death, my Lord
So with You to live and never die

Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You
There is no greater thing
You’re my all, You’re the best
You’re my joy, my righteousness
And I love You Lord

Frail

Convinced of my deception
I’ve always been a fool
I fear this love reaction
Just like you said I would

A rose could never lie
About the love it brings
And I could never promise
To be any of those things

If I was not so weak
If I was not so cold
If I was not so scared of being broken
Growing old
I would be…
I would be…
I would be…

Blessed are the shallow
Depth they’ll never find
Seems to be some comfort
In rooms I try to hide

Exposed beyond the shadows
You take the cup from me
Your dirt removes my blindness
Your pain becomes my peace

If I was not so weak
If I was not so cold
If I was not so scared of being broken
Growing old
I would be…
I would be…
I would be…

Frail…

- Jars of Clay

Prayer

“The work of praying is prerequisite to all other work in the Kingdom of God, for the simple reason that it is by prayer that we couple the powers of heaven to our helplessness, the powers which can turn water into wine and remove mountains in our own life and in the lives of others, the powers which can awaken those who sleep in sin and raise up the dead, the powers which can capture strongholds and make the immpossible possible.” - O. Hallesby, Prayer

“Devote Yourselves to Prayer”

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” – Colossians 4:2

Here is a sermon on this passage that my dad preached a couple weeks ago. I would encourage you all to listen to at least the beginning of it. Prayer is a vital part of our walk with Christ and yet so many Christians (myself included) hardly ever pray.

My prayer for everyone (again, myself included) is that we would all pray often and with  earnesty. God answers prayer and answers it powerfully.

We Shall Not Be Shaken

 A special thanks to Kaitlin Atmore of Mission Amare for writing this post. Thanks Kait

When I read missionary biographies, I often get discouraged because of the faith they had to follow God anywhere – Amy Carmichael to India , Hudson Taylor to China, Jim Elliot to Ecuador and many others.  To them, following and trusting God seemed to be like breathing.  You just do it.   No questions asked.  If you didn’t do it, you’d die.  For many Christians today though, following God is what you do when you “feel called”.   We send out missionaries who claim they’re God’s “called”.  We support them because they’re “called”. But we forget some things, namely, that all Christians are called to spread the Gospel, not just some, (Mark 16:14-20), and we lose sight of the One who called us.

Why was it so easy for the aforementioned missionaries to follow God so seemingly effortlessly?  How did the men and women featured in Hebrews 11 – The Chapter of Faith – get there?   By seeking and obeying the Lord, that’s how.  If you read the stories of Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua and others, you will find why they had such great lives of faith.   It was because they sought the Lord in everything.  When they didn’t seek him, they fell and fell hard.  The Old Testament is full of stories of victories attained only by the Hand of God.   Without Him, there was only failure.

In Psalm 16:8-10, David says,

 “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.   Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.  For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.”  

In contrast, read what Jeremiah 17:5, 6 says,

“Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.  He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come.  He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.”             

When we trust and seek the Lord, we will not be shaken and our whole being shall rejoice and be glad.   When we trust man and this world, we’re compared to a shrub in the desert – dry and lifeless.  Now I ask you, which sounds more appealing?  Trusting the Lord or man?   Trusting the Lord, of course!  If we all were to trust God as much as we unconsciously trust man (i.e. sit in man-made chairs, etc) think just how much we could accomplish for His glory!  

 When we put all our faith in God there leaves no room for self-glorification too!  

Trials are sent along our way so that our faith may increase.  We have hardships so as to learn to depend on the Lord in all things.   However, it is not by trials alone that our faith increases.  When we seek the Lord in small, daily things our faith begins to grow slowly and surely.   It can be difficult to set the Lord before us always.  It’s hard to wait on Him, because we want things to be done in our time and in our way.   But the Lord’s way is best.  Let us live a life that shows this to be true.  We can because, like the Psalmist said in Psalm 16:8, the Lord is at our right hands and we shall not be shaken!   

Living for Christ (2)

What is the meaning of life? What is our purpose on this earth? These are questions that the world wants answered. They are also questions that I have been pondering lately. In my head I know the simple answer: Christ! But…it’s not enough to just know that fact. We have to understand what it means. We have to understand how to apply it to our lives in our striving to glorify Christ.

For the past month or so I’ve been meditating on this truth that Christ is the meaning to our lives. My whole life I’ve been constantly trying to accomplish my will on this earth. My whole mindset was, “Now how can I further myself in life by doing what I enjoy?” I applied this to everything from watching a movie to what I wanted to do after university. My self-centredness was (and still is) a sinful thing and I have realized that by thinking about my life from a Christian perspective and asking myself, “What am I doing?”

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” – Philippians 1:21

This verse serves as a great rebuke to me. Life on this earth isn’t about me. It isn’t about how I can further myself. Life is about Christ! It is about how I can serve him and strive to further his Kingdom and not my own! After what Christ has done for us how can we be so selfish as to not give a damn about the Kingdom of God, but rather strive to make our own kingdom. Life is not about us.

The purpose of our lives is to glorify Christ! I cannot say it enough. Surely this should affect the way we live! Christ’s will is what we should be trying to accomplish not our own.

We have been given one life to live on this earth and only one. Think about that…We are given only one chance to glorify Christ on earth. Why do we not use this chance wisely?! We are headed for an eternity of rest in heaven as Christians. How can we not use this one special oppurtunity to glorify Christ and spread the good news?! There is no need to further ourselves. History will forget us in the end. What matters is that we use our lives to the glory of Christ! Look again at Philippians 1:21. Everything in that passage is about Christ. Our lives are about Christ. Our deaths are about Christ. The only way then to live is for Christ. This should be our desire! This should be our joy! So let’s start doing it!

So then how do we do this? In my mind I’ve categorized into three main ways how we can live lives that glorify Christ.

1. By obedience to God’s commands.
2. By submitting to God’s will for our lives.
3. By enjoying the life God has given us.

1. If our lives are Christ-centred then we will love to obey him! How can we not love to obey Christ?! Our sin will very often get in our way, but Christ has conquered our sin so let’s act like it!

2. As I have already said many times it is not our will that must be accomplished, it is Christ’s. This has quite a few implications. First of all we hold on to things too tightly in this world. It’s about time we loosened our grip. What if it was Christ’s will that tomorrow your house should burn down and all your valued possessions along with it? Would you gladly submit to it as Christ’s will for your life? Or would you cry over your possessions and be angry about it? Personnaly my prayer is that I would have the same spirit that Job had and fall down on my knees in worship of Christ if something like that happened to me! (Job 1:20-22) This is what we should do if we are truely living for Christ and not ourselves.

3. Life is a gift from God. It is made to be enjoyed. God did not create us to be miserable, but to enjoy his awesome creation, worship and thank him for it. After thinking about all of these things I hope you will all have a greater appreciation for life and realize that it is truly a tremendous joy to live!

I hope all of you will meditate on these great truths as I have. They have been of tremendous help to me and I thank God for it. So step back for a moment and look at your life. Are you really living for Christ or are you just sitting around like a piece of rubbish wasting your life?

Living for Christ

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the grace and mercy of Christ. The more I ponder it and meditate on it the more I realize just how infinite his mercy toward me is and how undeserving of it I am.

Every passing moment more mercy is shown to me and to all of us as believers. Every second that I am alive is more mercy being shown to me by Christ. I am deserving of death and yet I live. Christ was deserving of not just life, but all glory, laud and honour and yet he died for me in the greatest act of his mercy on the cross.

This has got me thinking about how then we should live. So often we live thinking that we are making great sacrifices in everything we do. An example that my dad used in one of his sermons was about church. We think that we are making a sacrifice for Christ because we get up early to go to church instead of sleeping in or going shopping or whatever. Surely this is not the case. Christ sacrificed himself for us. We go to church and live lives pleasing him to show our loyalty to him and our gratitude for his great sacrifice.

After thinking through all of this my sin seems so much greater. How could I go around constantly sinning after the awesome mercy that Christ has shown me and still is giving me? I should be living a life that completely obeys and honours Christ and yet I still sin…

I hope that all of you will think about this as much as I have. I stand in awe and amazement at the mercy of Christ.