Growing Up Christian

Right now I am doing a bible study with a girl at church. We are going through the book Growing Up Christian by Karl Graustein. So far, we have only made it to chapter 4, but have learned a lot! The past three chapters have given dangers that come for kids that grow up in Christian homes. I thought they were very helpful and I know I, and probably many of you, can relate!

Danger #1: False Assurance of Salvation

2 Corinthians 13:5-6, "Examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless of course, you fail the test?"

Danger #2: A Lack of Appreciation for the Saving and Forgiving Grace of God

"Grace never ignores the awful truth of our depravity. In fact, it emphasizes it. The worse we realize we are, the greater we realize God's grace is." -Randy Alcorn

When we think about all that God has protected us from in being raised in a godly home, we have extra reason to be thankful for God's grace.

Danger #3: Loving the World

1 John 2:15-17, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever."

"The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but the endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night...For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable." -John Piper


As "church kids" (people who have grown up or are growing up in a Christian home), we must recognize these dangers and be careful to watch and guard against them.
This is a great book! I recommend going through it as a personal study or with another "church kid" in your life.

We are at Daytona Beach right now!

“The greatest cause in the world is joyfully rescuing people from hell, meeting their earthly needs, making them glad in God, and doing it with a kind, serious pleasure that makes Christ look like the Treasure He is.”
-John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life

The Love of God, part 3

The copy of Knowing God that I have is an older used copy. I do not know who had the book before me, but I really benefited from their notes in the margin. At the end of this chapter on love, the previous reader wrote these words:

I don't deserve His love at all--yet I know I have it. How is it that I dare to judge others as unworthy of my love?

God used these words from someone who I know not to convict, remind, and encourage me to be thankful for God's love to me, a sinner, and to love others unconditionally. I hope and pray that, like me, you were encouraged to give love to all people.

The Love of God, part 2

Does the love of God really mean all that this one book describes and more??? If so, Packer gives us these questions that we should be asking ourself:

*Why do I EVER grumble and show discontent and resentment at the circumstances in which God has placed me?

*Why am I EVER distrustful, fearful, or depressed?

*Why do I EVER allow myself to grow cool, formal, and half-hearted in the service of the God who loves me?

*Why do I ever allow my loyalties to be divided so that God has not all my heart?

~

Let us examine ourselves.

The Love of God-part 1

I am currently reading Knowing God by J.I. Packer. For a variety of reasons, this book is taking much longer to finish than most. One reason, I am sure, is that a book on the character of God is, by nature, going to be long and intense. Many good books have been written in attempt to tell about God's nature, but none can ever completely explain Him. God is indescribable and incomprehensible! As each chapter of Knowing God carefully and biblically tells of the incredible nature of our God I am reminded of the hymn by Frederick M. Lehman.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

These words are so beautiful and so true. We could never write the totality of the character of God. So far, my favorite chapter in Knowing God is titled "The Love of God." I learned, and was reminded, of some awesome truths. Here are some points Packer made in that chapter:

1. God's love is an exercise of His goodness.

2. God's love to sinners was expressed by the gift of His son to be their Savior.

"The measure of love is how much it gives, and the measure of the love of God is the gift of His only Son to be made man, and to die for sins, and so to become the one mediator who can bring us to God."

3. God's love to sinners reaches its objective as it brings them to know and enjoy Him in a covenant relation.

~

If the love of God ended in these three points that would be enough to leave us speechless and in awe of His wonderous character. But that barely begins to explain how great He is. Looking into the nature of God must draw us to our knees in repentance and open our hearts to pour out praise and honor to His holy name.

Check back soon!

I haven't had much writing time recently, but I have some things in process. I will post them when I get back at the end of the week! Thanks for reading!

Here is an excerpt from Safely Home (one of my favorite novels). These words give a beautiful picture of what it will be like when, one day, we are safely home with our Savior.

"The multitudes innumerable began to sing the song for which they had been made, a song that echoed off a trillion planets and reverberated in a quadrillion places in every nook and cranny of the creation's expanse. Audience and orchestra and choir all blended into one great symphony, one grand cantata of rhapodic melodies and powerful sustaining harmonies. All were participants. Only one was an audience, the Audience of One. The smile of the King's approval swept through the choir like fire across dry wheat fields."
-Randy Alcorn, Safely Home

"Never fear. There are only two kinds of people in the end:

those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'Thy will be done.' All that are in Hell choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it.

Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened."

-C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

Amazing Grace

This past weekend we had a great time of fellowship and celebration with our church. Saturday we celebrated the high school graduation of two boys in our church. Sunday, we celebrated the birth of a new believer making His profession of faith public the act of believers baptism. One of my best friends, Philip, came to know Christ about a month ago. All day Sunday we were together with our church, enjoying fellowship and praising God for His saving grace in Philip's life.

I met Philip about a year and a half ago. Since that day, I have been praying for his salvation, as has many others in our church. Seeing the change God can do in his life reminds me to be ever thankful for my own salvation.

There are many unbelievers that I have been praying for their salvation for quite sometime. Last night, I read a quote from George Muller that was very encouraging:

“I have also prayed daily, without intermission, for the conversion of other individuals about ten years, for others six or seven years...and still the answer is not yet granted, concerning these persons whom I have prayed for nineteen years I daily continue in prayer and expecting the answer...Be encouraged dear Christian reader, with fresh earnestness to give yourself to prayer.”

It is hard, and often times discouraging to see those you love living in sin, apart from Christ. It is hard not to give up in our evangelistic efforts. There comes a point where people just refuse to listen to us when it comes to matters of our Savior. A friend sent the following quote from Spurgeon to encourage me in my witnessing:

“If they [lost sinners] will not hear you speak, they cannot prevent your praying. Do they jest at your exhortations? They cannot disturb you at your prayers. Are they far away so that you cannot reach them? Your prayers can reach them. Have they declared that they will never listen to you again, nor see your face? Never mind, God has a voice which they must hear. Speak to Him, and He will make them feel. Though they now treat you despitefully, rendering evil for your good, follow them with your prayers. Never let them perish for lack of your supplications” (Metropolitan Pulpit, vol. 18, pp. 263–264).

"Brethren, my hearts desire and prayer for Israel is that they might be saved." We do not know who God will choose to save. Therefore, we must continue to share the gospel of Christ with all the world. If they refuse to hear us, we must show His love through our example and carry the lost to Christ through our prayers. As I have so joyfully learned in my time of praying for and witnessing to Philip-there IS great power in prayer! God is faithful to forgive and has the power to change and transform lives. Glory be to Him!

Six Ways to Hinder Your Prayers

by: Tim Challies

http://www.challies.com/archives/christian-living/six-ways-to-hinder-your-prayers.php

Keeping the Heart

"Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life."

Proverbs 4:23

Pictured above are some almost-eager science students. In the hands of Claire-Elise is the heart of a pig. In Sarah's study of the circulatory system, I thought it helpful to dissect an actual heart. So we did. As I told the girls the different parts of the heart and how they work, I was once again reminded of our wonderful creator. The intricacies and complexity of the human body (or any living organism) is amazing-we serve and incredible, all-knowing God.

As we cut that preserved heart, I thought of the spiritual lessons that can be learned from that science experiment. Just as the girls and I cut pieces of the heart away, we as sinful humans give our hearts to worldly affections and lusts. In the end, we are not left with a beautiful, pure heart that works well for the purpose for which it was made. We are left with a broken, torn-up heart that lacks the ability to function well, if at all. Just as a physical heart that has been dissected by us girls will never pump blood to a body again, a spiritual heart that has been given to sin does not, and cannot, serve the Lord fully, but rather worships that sin.

One of the most impactful books I have ever read is "Keeping the Heart," by puritan pastor John Flavel. In reading it, I was challenged and encouraged to keep my heart from sin, and protect it from anything that would hinder my relationship with Christ. Yes, this heart keeping is laborious and not always "fun" like some employments of the world. However, "is not eternal life worth the suffering of a moments pain?"

"If it is a desiriable thing in your eyes to have a fair testimony of your integrity, and to know of the truth that you fear God, then study your heart, watch your heart, and keep your heart."

A Time to Grow

“God never place us in any position in which we can not grow. We may fancy that He does. We may fear we are so impeded by fretting, petty cares that we are gaining nothing; but when we are not sending any branches upward, we may be sending roots downward. Perhaps in the time of our humiliation, when everything seems a failure, we are making the best kind of progress.”
-Elizabeth Prentiss

Fighting Sin

Here is a blog from Alex and Brett Harris on battling the enemy within.

When we sign on to God’s plan for our growth, we’re declaring war on our sin nature and it fights the idea of do hard things with everything its got. The reason it’s so hard to do hard things is because our sinful flesh wants us to do easy things.

Jonathan Edwards, a great American theologian, once wrote: “The way to Heaven is ascending; we must be content to travel uphill, though it be hard and tiresome, and contrary to the natural bias of our flesh.”

Doing hard things is a fight with our own sin nature, our own natural tendency to take it easy and just get by, our inherent disposition to go with the flow and to take the path of least resistance. That’s why it’s hard.

In the Romans 7:21-25 the Apostle Paul talks about this nature that wages war against his desire to obey God:

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

The Bible alone gives us the real explanation about our tendency to take the path of least resistance, even though doing hard things is in our best interest.

http://www.therebelution.com/blog/2007/12/why-do-hard-things-part-two/

Joy in Christ

Jesus priceless treasure
Source of purest pleasure
Truest friend to me
Long my heart hath panted
'Till it well-nigh fainted
Thirsting after Thee.
Thine I am,
O spotless Lamb,
I will suffer nought to hide Thee,
Ask for nought beside Thee.
-Johann Franck