Tag Archives: spiritual growth

The Power of Moods to Shape the Mood

April 21, 2011 By in Spiritual Life Tags: , , , 3 Comments

For years, even after my conversion, I went about my days often as a pretty moody person.

Back in the time when Tim LaHaye’s temperament categories captured the evangelical imagination, I always got stuck with the same label of the four: melancholy (choleric, sanguine, and phlegmatic rounding out the group). Ask Nancy and she will probably tell you that this moody blues pattern in her husband during far too many of those early years made for one of the biggest challenges to her marital adjustment.

I am happy to say after nearly forty years of walking with Jesus that the label doesn’t stick so well anymore. That’s not to say that I don’t struggle with melancholy from time to time. I do. But things have changed by God’s grace and the power of the gospel.

Understanding the power of the gospel and living in the grip of grace that delivers one from melancholy depends a great deal on grasping the relationship between the moods of Greek verbs. Gotcha thinking now, don’t I? You probably didn’t guess that trajectory in my thinking.

But it’s true, entirely true, in the relationship between the indicative and the imperative moods. The indicative mood in languages states what is. The imperative, on the other hand, declares what should be. The former is descriptive; the latter is prescriptive. To put it another way, the indicative tells us who we are in Christ because of the gospel while the imperative tells us how we should live in light of the gospel.

For example, Ephesians 2:4-6 states what is. Because of God’s great love, even when we were dead in sin, He made us alive together with Christ, raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places. We refer to that as positional truth. That’s our position in Christ. Ephesians 4:1-3, on the other hand, declares what should be in light of what is. Because of what God has done for us in Jesus we should walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. The rest of those verses goes on to unpack what worthy walking looks like.

That’s only one of a myriad of examples from the New Testament. Here’s the point. Don’t confuse your who with your do. Don’t switch your indicative with your imperative. The Bible never does. The indicative always precedes the imperative, never the other way around. In Christ what you do does not determine who you are; who you are determines what you do! We don’t obey the commands of Christ in the word of God to make ourselves pleasing to God; we obey the commands of Christ in the word of God because we are pleasing to God in Christ.

This is huge in terms of shaping emotional moods! If you confuse your who with your do, if you switch the moods, you will end up either despairing because you never measure up, or you go the other way and end up bragging at how much you have it together. Neither of those moods pleases God.

I was reminded the other morning just how much the gospel has changed my moods by a rather silly incident. Nancy prepared a dynamite egg & cheese strata for our weekly staff meeting. I get up earlier than she does on Tuesday morning so it fell to me to preheat the oven and get the thing cooking while our guys prayed. Sounds simple enough.

But when she came out to the kitchen I heard a gasp and wondered, What did I do wrong now? Turns out I had preheated the oven but never put the casserole in there! Poor Nanc had to scramble literally, whipping ups some eggs. Plan B she graciously called it. How cool is it to live with a wife constrained by the gospel?

Tell you the truth, I was tempted, really tempted, to do that silly thing I have often done. I thought seriously about playing that game I play so well called beat up on PC. I know it’s silly, but that’s the very kind of thing that can put me into an emotional tailspin!

And then I remembered the gospel. It’s not about my performance; it’s about His provision. He has perfected me for all time (Hebrews 10:14). I am complete in Him (Colossians 2:10). I have been crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20). The pleasure of God with me His child does not depend on remembering to put the strata in the oven or any other assignment for that matter. It depends upon my union with Christ and God’s absolute delight with Him.

If we get this, if we keep our moods in the right order, then the joy of the Lord really will be our strength (Nehemiah 8:10), and our moods will be shaped for the glory of God and testify to the beauty of the gospel.

The Not-So-Dreaded "P" Word

April 11, 2011 By in Spiritual Life Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

By “P” word I mean potential.

I used to dread hearing from others, “You have so much potential.” This implied in my mind far too painfully that I still had a long way to go in more ways that I could imagine.

Lately I don’t hear that so much any more. I suspect getting older has something to do with it. If I haven’t reached my potential by age 58, well, it’s probably too late.

But today I found myself contemplating an old-friend verse of Scripture that puts the “P” word in a different light, one that a follower of Jesus and a treasurer of His gospel never outlives or grows.

Galatians 2:20 – I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

This text declares some radical things. By faith in Christ we gain more than the benefits of the cross; we get united to Christ in His death. So much so that we no longer live. That is to say that Christ doesn’t just make us new and improved persons, but that he makes us utterly different at the core.

Lane and Tripp, in their book How People Change, drive home the significance of this truth for understanding the exciting prospect of gospel potential:

When you grasp the fundamental nature of this change within you as a believer, you will begin to grasp your true potential. You are not the same as you once were. You have been forever changed. You no longer live under the weight of the law or the domination of sin. Christ’s death fulfilled the law’s requirements and broke the power of sin. You do not have to give in to sin. You can live in new ways amid the same old situations, because when Christ died physically, you died spiritually. This constitutional change is permanent! Do you view yourself with this kind of potential for a new life in Christ?

Suddenly the “P” word doesn’t look dreadful. It looks downright delightful.

Listen Up!

September 29, 2010 By in Spiritual Life Tags: , , , Leave a comment

Available this Sunday for a mere buck at the resource table will be Christopher Ash’s little book Listen Up! A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons (2009, The Good Book Company, 30 pages).

Here’s how the publisher describes the resource:

Christopher Ash outlines seven ingredients for healthy listening. He then deals with how to respond to bad sermons – ones that are dull, or inadequate, or heretical [not that you’ll need this at OGC]. And finally, he challenges us with ideas for helping and encouraging our Bible teachers to give sermons that will really help us to grow as Christians.

Ash prescribes these seven ingredients for healthy sermon listening:

1. Expect God to speak
2. Admit God knows better than you
3. Check the preacher says what the passage says
4. Hear the sermon in church
5. Be there week by week
6. Do what the Bible says
7. Do what the Bible says today – and rejoice!

Endorsements include:

‘We give Listen Up to all our new members’
– Mark Dever, Sr. Pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church

‘We just don’t have teaching and training on how to LISTEN to sermons. Christopher Ash shows what a gaping hole that omission leaves’
– Rico Tice, All Souls, Langham Place, London

‘New, fresh, wise, and personally convicting. A must-read for anyone serious about growing as a Christian’
– Andrew Reid, Ridley College, Melbourne, Australia

‘Provides crucial theology and practical advise about listening that can make the difference between life and death in the church.’
– R Kent Hughes

‘A great resource to help grow a new generation of believers who both tremble at God’s word and are changed by it.’
– Vaughan Roberts, St Ebbe’s Church, Oxford, UK

Be sure to pick up your copy this Sunday!

The Trellis and The Vine

July 28, 2010 By in Books Tags: , , 2 Comments

In 2009 Matthias Media published this book subtitled: The Ministry Mind-Shift that Changes Everything.

When I read Mark Dever’s assessment (This is the best book I’ve read on the nature of church ministry) I knew I needed to read it. I have. Since then I have given away several copies.

Recently I picked up thirty more copies at a great one time only price of $8 per copy which will be available beginning this Sunday on the resource table.

You will want to read this book if you are a pastor.

You will want to read this book if you are an elder or deacon.

You will want to read this book if you are an intern.

You will want to read this book if you are a discipler of others – a mentor or are being mentored.

You will want to read this book if you are a growth group leader.

You will want to read this book if you are a believer looking for ministry in the local church, especially if you don’t have a clue where you fit.

Here is Mark Dever’s endorsement of the book:

Pick up your copy this Sunday!

How To Be Certain Your Faith is Certifiably Genuine (Part 1)

July 4, 2010 By in Sunday Morning Tags: , , Leave a comment

Today’s sermon is now on the web. You can listen to it here.

Here’s how I closed the message beginning with the big idea of the text and finishing with a review of the two main points/applications:

Genuine faith bears the marks of steadfast allegiance to Jesus. Two of the four we have considered today: growth of insight and boldness in witness. Yet to come are perseverance through suffering and admission of need. Don’t forget the two application questions we covered and their implications. If you want to have assurance of your salvation, give yourself to the means of grace that contribute to your growth of insight into the things of Christ. Cultivate your spiritual appetite. Behold the Lord in all the ways He prescribes from reading his word to feasting at the Communion table. If you want to have assurance of your salvation, faithfully and boldly share your faith with others when the Lord opens the door of opportunity. Write out your testimony and memorize it if you need to like they teach you to do at CCC so you can have instant recall. Memorize some gospel verses to share with others. Speak up. Take some heat. Feel the sting. It’s a privilege to suffer for the sake of Christ and the reputation of His name.

Consider these words of again, J. C. Ryle from Holiness as we close:

I bless God that our salvation in no wise depends on our own works. By grace we are saved—not by works of righteousness—through faith, without the deeds of the law. But I never would have any believer for a moment forget that our sense of salvation depends much on the manner of our living. Inconsistency will dim our eyes and bring clouds between us and the sun. The sun is the same behind the clouds, but you will not be able to see its brightness or enjoy its warmth; and your soul will be gloomy and cold. It is in the path of well–doing that the dayspring of assurance will visit you and shine down upon your heart.

How to Stop the Sinful Self-Indulgence of the Flesh

January 10, 2010 By in Exposition, Sunday Morning Tags: , , Leave a comment

I know, I promised this morning I would post the study guide questions for this week’s study in Dr. Carson’s book. Actually, I have that file on my computer at the office. I am posting this from home. I promise, tomorrow I will put up the study guide.

But here is a review of the gist of this morning’s message (listen to the entire sermon here) from Colossians 3:1-4:

Sinful self-indulgence is progressively overcome by cultivating a thoroughgoing heavenly-focused orientation in this life based upon the realities of our identification with Jesus in His death, burial, resurrection and ascension. Since we have been identified with Christ in these realities we must commit to do three things if we are to overcome the sinful indulgence of our flesh. We must pursue the things of Christ in His exalted domain – seated at the right hand of God in heaven –  working hard at the various means of grace -, ponder – by memorizing and meditating upon Scripture –  the things of Christ in His exalted domain since we have died and our lives are buried with Christ and God within the unseen realm, and picture the return of Christ from His exalted domain when He and we will be revealed in the same glory.

So remember your position in Christ. This is all important. Make spiritual things the number one priority of your lives. Think on spiritual things in regular meditation. Give yourself to reading through the Bible this year and memorizing extended portions of Scripture. Pray come quickly, Lord Jesus, every day.

J. C. Ryle, in his book Holiness, writes:

Christianity will cost a man his love of ease. He must take pains and trouble if he means to run a successful race toward heaven. He must daily watch and stand on his guard, like a soldier on enemy’s ground. He must take heed to his behavior every hour of the day, in every company and in every place, in public as well as in private, among strangers as well as at home. He must be careful over his time, his tongue, his temper, his thoughts, his imagination, his motives, his conduct in every relation of life. He must be diligent about his prayers, his Bible reading, and his use of Sundays, with all their means of grace. In attending to these things, he may come far short of perfection; but there is none of those who he can safely neglect. “The soul of the sluggard desires, and has nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat” (Prov. 13:4). 

Let us be diligent that our souls may be made fat.

A Valuable Resource for Memorizing Scripture

January 5, 2010 By in Spiritual Life Tags: , 5 Comments

This Sunday will mark a significant milestone for me. With my recitation of Titus 3:1-15 I will have finally completed memorizing Paul’s pastoral epistles! It has taken me over two years to get the task done, but I have managed, by God’s grace, to stick with it. Perhaps more significantly I have kept up my review of all thirteen chapters so as to retain them.

It is difficult to express just how valuable this spiritual discipline is to one’s walk with God. As a result I feel more armed with the precious promises of God’s word for my spiritual life. I feel more equipped to fight temptation in my walk. I enjoy increased knowledge of God by seeing things I have never seen before. I find wisdom from these pages particularly for me as a pastor of a local church. I experience conviction of sin in different ways. I enjoy more of the Spirit in my life by letting this word of Christ dwell richly within me. And these reasons don’t begin to tell the manifold benefits of memorizing especially extended portions of Scripture.

Dr. Andrew Davis has written an extremely helpful booklet for equipping believers for memorizing whole chapters and books of the Bible. Among other things, he makes this plea for committing to memory more than just isolated verses here and there:

Jesus said, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) Paul said “All Scripture is God-breathed, and is useful for teaching rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness…” (2 Timothy 3:16) Memorizing individual verses tends to miss intervening verses that the individual does not feel are as significant. Furthermore, most of Scripture is written to make a case… there is a flow of argumentation that is missed if individual verses are memorized. Furthermore, there is also a greater likelihood of taking verses out of context by focusing on individual verses.

We have copies of this booklet available at our resource table on Sunday mornings or you may access the text online here. I commend it to you in hopes that 2010 may see you commit more Scripture to memory than at any time in the past.

Why Read Through the Bible in a Year or More?

December 26, 2009 By in Spiritual Life Tags: , , Leave a comment

469px-Robert_Murray_McCheyne-234x300I say a year or more because I don’t want people to get overwhelmed by the size of the challenge. While I want to encourage believers to stretch to accomplish the task in a year, far better that we do it in a longer period of time than not at all.

It has been my practice to read according to a plan for covering Genesis to Revelation in a year for the last ten years. Few disciplines have more thoroughly shaped my spiritual life. I plead with you – pick up a copy of the Robert Murray McCheyne plan at church this Sunday or access one of the several alternative approaches you can download on line. Or purchase a copy of one of several brands of a through-the–bible-in-a-year bibles available at your bookstore. For the last two years I have used the TNIV of one of those and have enjoyed it thoroughly. This means of grace will change your life!

In case you need convincing about this, I submit to you sixteen biblical reasons for giving yourself to reading through the Bible in a year.

  1. All Scripture is inspired by God (2 Tim. 3:16). Inspired means breathed out. It comes from God Himself to us as a gift. We dare not neglect any portion of the sacred text.
  2. That same Scripture in entirety equips us for a life of good works (2 Tim. 3:17).
  3. That same Scripture in entirety leads us to a proper knowledge and experience of the gift of salvation and the eternal life it bestows (Phil. 2:16; 2 Tim. 3:15; Jas. 1:21; 1 Pet. 1:23).
  4. The Word of God is His appointed means for fighting sin, Satan, and temptation in the spiritual warfare that constantly assaults us (Matt. 4:1-1; Eph. 6:17).
  5. Scripture pierces the heart with Holy Spirit conviction to purify thoughts, intentions, and motives of the heart (Heb. 4:12).
  6. Scripture conveys to us the grace of God and helps to build us up in our most holy faith (Acts 20:32; Jude 21).
  7. The Word of God is the means whereby God sanctifies us – sets us apart for His use and purposes (John 17:17; Eph. 5:26). It provides the spiritual nourishment whereby we may grow with respect to our glorious salvation (1 Pet. 2:2).
  8. Scripture keeps us from the peril of spiritual error (Matt. 22:29).
  9. The Bible charts out for us the path to true blessing and happiness (Luke 11:28).
  10. Scripture fosters faith and counters unbelief (John 20:31; Rom. 10:17).
  11. The Word clothes us with a nobility similar to the Bereans who searched the Scriptures daily (Acts 17:11).
  12. God’s Word transforms the mind in such a way to make a powerful antidote for being squeezed into the world’s mold (Rom. 12:2).
  13. Scripture increases patience, comfort, and perseverance in the testing that comes with trials (Rom. 15:4).
  14. The Bible sets apart the everyday gifts of God like food and sex by informing our understanding of the proper use and enjoyment of such things (1 Tim. 4:5).
  15. The Scriptures act as a preserving agent keeping us from the disaster of apostasy and spiritual shipwreck (Heb. 2:1-3).
  16. The Bible yields to us the exceedingly precious promises of God whereby we may become partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4).

There are probably more. But you get the point. Oh how many benefits come to us by the discipline of daily reading the Scriptures! If you make any resolution for 2010 I pray it would be this one. Take up and read through the entire Bible this year.

Why Pray for Power?

November 11, 2009 By in Books Tags: , , , 2 Comments

CarsonWe have biblical precedent to pray for God’s power in our lives. For example, Paul prays this way for the Ephesians in 3:16 – that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.

The question remains why? The answer comes in v. 17 – so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

The key to understanding what Paul means by this purpose lies within the word dwell. D. A. Carson, in his book A Call to Spiritual Reformation, observes:

The verb rendered “to dwell” is a strong one. Paul’s hope is that Christ will truly take up his residence in the hearts of believers, as they trust him (that’s what “through faith” means), so as to make their hearts his home. . . . Make no mistake: when Christ first moves into our lives, he finds us in very bad repair. It takes a great deal of power to change us; and that is why Paul prays for power. He asks that God may so strengthen us by his power in our inner being that Christ may genuinely take up residence within us, transforming us into a house that pervasively reflects his own character (Baker, 1992, pp. 186-87).

Pray for power in your own life and in the lives of others to this end – that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.