Gossip

Ray Ortlund has an excellent post on the sin of gossip. This is a serious sin we all dabble in. I think we need to take it more seriously for the sake of Christ's reputation and the good of our churches and friends. Check out these excerpts and read the whole article here.

The Bible itself is so clear against gossip, probably because we are so inclined toward gossip:

O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?
Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
He who does not take up a reproach against his friend. Psalm 15:1, 3

There are six things that the Lord hates,
seven that are an abomination to him: . . .
one who sows discord among brothers. Proverbs 6:16, 19

Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people. Leviticus 19:16, AV

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. James 4:11

Argue your case with your neighbor himself,
and do not reveal another’s secret. Proverbs 25:9

God gave them up to a debased mind . . . . They are gossips. Romans 1:28-29

There are many biblical passages confronting gossip. The witness of God against this sin is overwhelming.

Gossip is our dark moral fervor eagerly seeking gratification. Gossip makes us feel important and needed as we declare our judgments. It makes us feel included to know the inside scoop. It makes us feel powerful to cut someone else down to size, especially someone we are jealous of. It makes us feel righteous, even responsible, to pronounce someone else guilty. Gossip can feel good in multiple ways. But it is of the flesh, not of the Spirit.

Adultery too is a serious sin, and one likely to be disciplined in a church. But I have never seen a church split over the sin of adultery. Gossip is a sin rarely disciplined but often more socially destructive than the sensational sins.

Gossip leaves a wide trail of devastation wherever and however it goes – word of mouth, email, blogging, YouTube. It erodes trust and destroys morale. It creates a social environment of suspicion where everyone must wonder what is being said behind their backs and whether appearances of friendship are sincere. It ruins hard-won reputations with cowardly but effective weapons of misrepresentation. It manipulates people into taking sides when no such action is necessary or beneficial. It unleashes the dark powers of psychological transference, doing violence to the gossiper, to the one receiving the gossip and to the person being spoken against. It makes the Body of Christ look like the Body of Antichrist – destroyers rather than healers. It exhausts the energies we would otherwise devote to positive witness. It robs our Lord of the Church he deserves. It exposes the hostility in our hearts and discredits the gospel in the eyes of the world. Then we wonder why we don’t see more conversions, why “the ground is so hard.”

King of Grace Church has developed an understanding on how to navigate this issue biblically in the church. You can check it out here (p. 95). May God grant us repentance from the sin of gossip! May the power of the gospel transform how we speak in every way!

God Bless, Paul


HT: Justin Taylor

A Great Devotional!

I have been using "For the Love of God" by DA Carson in my morning devotionals for some time. It is a devotional commentary that follows the Robert Murray M'Cheyne bible reading plan. It is a fantastic way to let the word of God abide in you. I recommend the two-year plan that follows two of the four readings per day. If you are ambitious try the four readings a day plan.

Check out this excerpt from today's commentary on Ezekiel 14:

"To set up idols in the heart is to seperate oneself from the living God (14:7). ... That danger is no less treacherous today than in Ezekiel's time. Somehow we manage to adhere to our creedal profession, but if anything goes wrong our undisciplined rage shows tha we maintain little real trust in the living God; our secret idol is comfort and physical well-being. We attend church, but rarely do we pray in private or thoughfully read the Word of God. We sing lustily at missionary conventions, but have not shared the Gospel with anyone for years. And deep down we are more interested in our reputation, or in sex, or in holidays, than we are in basking in the awesome radiance and majesty of God. Meditate on 14:8, and ask for forgiveness adn grace to become more consistent."

Wow! This meditation convicted me and caused me to run to Christ for forgiveness and fresh power to love Him first.

I think you will find many other insights to spur you on in this excellent devotional commentary. If you are interested read the excerpt below from the Christway Media site and subscribe to or purchase "For the Love of God".

Enjoy!

Now more than ever, the need to read the Bible, to understand the big picture of its storyline, and to grasp the relevance this has for your life is critical. Join with us as we follow Donald Carson's Bible-reading plan one day at a time though email. (We hope you'll be enticed to purchase the two volumes.)

"For the Love of God" Used by permission of the publisher, Crossway Books, a division of Good New Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187.

To subscribe send an empty email to: christwaymedia-join@associate.com

Desperate for Grace

Another good one from Jeff:

There is enough within your soul, O Christian, though you are one of the best of saints, to destroy you in an hour unless the grace of God guards you and keeps your passions in check, and prevents your stubborn will from asserting its own rebellious determinations.

Taken from the book God Loves You by Charles Spurgeon 1834-1892

Mortification of Sin

Another quote from a Puritan father via my friend Jeff Haavisto:

"The choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business, all their days, to mortify the indwelling power of sin. (Romans 8:13)"

Taken from the book The Mortification of Sin by John Owen 1656

Thoughts from the Puritan Fathers

Once again, sorry for my lapse in blogging. As you may imagine it is a lower priority for me among the many facets of life as a husband, dad and pastor.

Anyhow, I thought I would start to feature some of the many quotes my friend Jeff Haavisto regularly sends me from his readings. Here are five posts from John Flavel. Enjoy!

The remembrance of former providences will minister to your souls continual matter of praise and thanksgiving, which is the very employment of the angels in heaven, and the sweetest part of our lives on earth.

There are five things belonging to the praise of God, and all of them have relation to His providences exercised in us:

1) A careful observation of the mercies we receive from Him (Isa. 41:17-20). This is fundamental to all praise. God cannot be glorified for the mercies we never noted.

2) A faithful remembrance of the favours received. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits" (Psalms 103:2). Hence the Lord brands the ingratitude of His people, "They soon forgot His works" (Psalms 106:13).

3) A due appreciation and valuation of every providence that does us good (1 Sam. 12:24). That providence that fed them in the wilderness with manna was a most remarkable providence to them; but since they did not value it at its worth, God had not that praise for it which He expected (Num. 11:6).

4) The stirring up of all the faculties and powers of the soul in the acknowledgement of these mercies to us. Thus David: “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me bless his holy name” (Psalms 103:1). Soul-praise is the very soul of praise: this is the very fat and marrow of that thank-offering.

5) A suitable recompense for the mercies received. This David was careful about (Psalms 116:1). And the Lord taxes good Hezekiah for the neglect of it (2 Cor. 32:24-25). This consists in a full and hearty resignation to Him of all that we have received by providence from Him, and in our willingness actually to part with all for Him when He shall require it.

Taken from the book The Mystery of Providence by John Flavel 1678

Thanks Jeff!

The Flaw of the Excluded Middle

    I have been recently reading a book given to me by a friend on evangelism. In it the author points to an article by the late missiologist Paul Hiebert entitled “The Flaw of the Excluded Middle”. The article is about how people live life at three levels.

    The bottom level involves those aspects of life directly encountered with the senses. At this level we plant and harvest crops, build homes, take out the garbage, fix broken stuff and other seemingly simple things.

    The top level deals with those things which are beyond what the mere senses can grasp, the things that are transcendant such as the meaning of life, destiny, true beauty and the infinite nature of God.

    The middle level is that between the bottom and the top where we deal with more immediate yet still profound questions to do with the past, the present and the near future. Things like accidents, tragedies, serendipitous discoveries and unexpected turns of events occupy the middle and it is here that much of life is interpreted and experienced.

    Many people experience their Christianity in the top level but not in the middle or bottom level. Heibert himself found this to be a challenge in his work in missions in India. He found that professing believers would often turn to shamans and luck charms when it came to dealing with life in "the excluded middle." I have found it a challenge at times in my own life to experience God in "the excluded middle." "Can I really trust God to provide for my children's college education?" "Will I be able to perform well in my vocation over the long haul?" "Will I have to endure this arthritic knee and locking shoulder for the rest of my life?" "Why do I feel depressed in the morning so often and how can I change?" Do you identify? I don't think I'm alone.

    Yet, the testimony of scripture is that God is present in the bottom, the top and the middle and calls us to invite him to bring the experience of salvation and the truth of the gospel into every level of life. His word is replete with this invitation both implicitly and explicitly.

Psalm 139 says,
“ ⁸ If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
¹² even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.”

And Mt. 28:20 - “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age!” .

And the cry of the Seraphim in Isaiah 6:3 -
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
(note - the whole earth, not just the transcendent!)

    So much of the exhortations in scripture that flow from the context of the grace of God have all three tiers in mind. Take a look at Ephesians and watch how Paul masterfully blends the transcendent with the seemingly mundane and everything in between. The celebration of the glorious grace of God, his eternal decree in election and the revealing of his great mystery in Christ flows into the call to practically love and enjoy our church, our families, our spouse, our employees in every aspect of life. All of life is to be worship and the experience of God.

    I have found two things to be very helpful in this – remembering the gospel & prayer. In every situation and challenge I am learning to ask “What does the gospel say about this?” "Do I need to apply the forgiveness purchased by Christ's atonement?" "Is their a promise inherent in the gospel that I must cling to?" "Is their a truth about God and myself from the gospel which I must understand?" There are a number of these sort of “gospel questions” we can ask. I recommend Mike Bullmore’s article and teaching entitled, “Applying the Gospel to All of Life” to get a more complete picture of this.

    And the other thing is prayer – learning to take all things – whether issues at the bottom, middle or top of life and bringing them before our ever near God in prayer, crying out to him and depending on him, seeking his presence. As I have been able to do these two practices, with the help of the Holy Spirit and those around me, I have been able to avoid living life without God in the normally, “excluded middle.”

Hope this helps!

God Bless,
Paul

True Spirituality.

The other week we focused on 1 Corinthians 12:1-3 where Paul begins his discourse on spiritual gifts and spirituality with the following:

1 Corinthians 12:1-3 (ESV)
¹ Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. ² You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. ³ Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.

There is a very important lesson in this text for all Christians: There is no higher spiritual experience or state than that of being one who, by the power of the Holy Spirit alone, proclaims, affirms and delights from the heart in the absolute, fully divine, all wise, all-glorious, all-sufficient, saving, Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Simply put:

True Spirituality is a pure gift from the Holy Spirit, it is to confess Jesus is Lord.

Check out what our friend Gordon Fee says about this passage:

The ultimate criterion of the Spirit’s activity is the exaltation of Jesus as Lord. Whatever takes away from that, even if they be legitimate expressions of the Spirit, begins to move away from Christ to a more pagan fascination with spiritual activity as an end in itself.

Gordon Fee

How does this truth change what you think about spirituality? Do you measure spirituality by other things, like whether you speak in tongues or not, whether you understand and agree with reformed theology or not, whether you know church history well, even whether you lead a Christlike life or struggle? True spirituality is to confess Jesus is Lord from the heart. There is no greater spiritual miracle than to do so.

Knowing and Being.

So often we struggle with the relationship of knowing and being. Sadly, these two qualities are seen as enemies rather than the closest friends. I understand why, I think. Just look around - so much of our experience seems to point this way. We see that some of the most apparently Christ-like, loving people have a simple and very basic faith while some of the most knowledgeable people are too often arrogant and love-less. But experience does not determine truth, it only tests it. I would submit that the deepest lovers are the deepest knowers and the deepest knowers are the deepest lovers.

Check out Paul's approach in Philippians:

Philippians 3:10 "that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead."

Notice that Paul wants to know Him and become like Him. These two must go together. How do we become like Him? - by knowing Him. How do we know Him? - by understanding the word of God's teaching on who He is and what He has done. What is the objective? Christlikeness, not mere knowledge. But in order to get to Christlikeness there must be knowledge. You can not be without knowing. That is just as dangerous as thinking that academically knowing is enough. The measure of the knowing is in the being! The path to the being is in the knowing.

Check out Philippians 1:9-11
" And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so by pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God."

And finally, James:

"Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. "
James 3:13 (ESV)

So the word would teach us that knowledge and Christlikeness go hand in hand. I would submit the pre-eminent quality of Christlikeness is love. So put another way, love and knowledge go hand in hand, you can't have one without the other.

Check out this link courtesy of monergism.com: Love and Knowledge: Living in Balance By Patrick Ramsey

Do You Know the Game Plan?

Thoughts from the Word– We have spent the past four Sundays springing from 1 Corinthians 10 and probing the topics of idolatry, our struggle with sin and Christ-centered holiness. So many times we can find ourselves on the playing field of Christianity and not really having any clue what we are supposed to do. The result often is that the opposing team runs roughshod over us (picture a gruesome threesome of the fallen world, the devil and our own sinful nature– the chief player and enemy coming straight at us). It is so important for us to grasp what the scripture teaches us about our life in Christ. This past series has been an attempt to give us “the game plan”. It can be summed up as follows:

1. OUR GREATEST ENEMY IS THE SIN THAT DWELLS WITHIN US.

2. OUR GREATEST WEAPON AGAINST SIN AND TEMPTATION IS THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.

3. WE MUST BELIEVE AND APPLY THE GOSPEL IN ORDER TO SLAY INDWELLING SIN.

Consider the following passage (one among many like it.)

2 Peter 1:3-11 (ESV)
³ His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, ⁴ by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. ⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ⁶ and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, ⁷ and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. ⁸ For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. ¹⁰ Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. ¹¹ For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Peter calls his readers to progressive holiness in this passage. But note something very critical here. Verse 9 says that if someone is not walking in holiness the problem is they have forgotten they have been cleansed from their sins. They have forgotten the gospel. Additionally, it is the promise of the gospel, received, that gives us all the power we need for life and godliness – verse 1-4. Because of the sure promise in the gospel that we are already cleansed and already new creations in Christ we are totally free from the penalty and power of sin. And, because of the sure promise of the gospel we can effectively battle the presence of sin that dwells within (until we see Him face to face). Because God has already decisively and irrevocably acted for us in Christ (before we had any say!) we can now walk out the realities of our salvation in Him. Listen to how John Piper sums this truth up as taught in Romans 6-8.

What we have learned from Romans 6 and 7 is that when we trusted in Christ as our Savior and Lord (as our Treasure!), we were united to Christ (Romans 6:5; 7:4). In this union with Christ we died (Romans 6:8; Colossians 2:20; 3:3) and rose again (Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12; Ephesians 2:6). Therefore a decisive and irrevocable new creation came into being (2 Corinthians 5:17), and a decisive and irrevocable liberation happened (Romans 6:14, 18). We passed from death to (eternal!) life. Our decisive judgment is behind us - at Golgotha (John 5:24). We have moved from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of God's Son (Colossians 1:13).

But we also learned that our liberation from sin is not yet final and perfect. Decisive and irrevocable, Yes! But final and perfect, No! Sin still dwells within us (Romans 7:17, 20). Evil is present in us (Romans 7:21). The "flesh" is a daily troubler of our souls (Romans 7:25). We are not yet perfect nor have we already obtained our crown and prize (Philippians 3:12). We are liars if we say we have no sin (1 John 1:8, 10).

How then does the apostle Paul teach us to live? Will he say: "You are decisively and irrevocably new, so you can coast through life with no fight to become new"? Or will he say: "You are not decisively and irrevocably new and must fight to get to that place in Christ"? No, neither of these. He will say: "By faith, embrace all that God is for your good in Christ and all you are for his glory in Christ. Believe that. And now, with that confidence, fight to take possession of the territory that Christ has conquered for you. Fight to become in practice what you are in Christ."

John Piper, Already: Decisively and Irrevocably Free, Not Yet: Finally and Perfectly Free, August 28, 2001

Because we have a Savior and Lord who has won us a decisive and irrevocable victory let us fight with great joy and faith to gain the territory that is rightly his. Let us believe and apply the gospel! Let us use all the means He gives us (faith, the word, prayer, church and trials) to walk in His glorious ways, becoming more and more like our wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ – until we see Him face to face and receive our reward.

Got a clearer idea of what it is all about and what you are called to do? Ready to resist the opposing team and experience victory? I hope so. May the Lord bless you as you grapple with these life-transforming truths!

Check out these links:
Gospel-Driven Sanctification
Jerry Bridges


Already: Decisively and Irrevocably Free, Not Yet: Finally and Perfectly Free
John Piper


Christ and Him Crucified
C.J.Mahaney