Valley of Vision

Earlier this week my friend Alli shared this prayer from the Valley of Vision with me. It's called "True Religion" and if you don't have a copy of Valley of Vision you should get one!


True Religion


Lord God Almighty,

I ask not to be enrolled amongst the earthly great and rich,
but to be numbered with the spiritually blessed.

Make it my present, supreme, persevering concern
to obtain those blessings which are
spiritual in their nature,
eternal in their continuance,
satisfying in their possession.

Preserve me from a false estimate of the whole or a part of my character;
May I pay regard to my principles as well as my conduct,
my motives as well as my actions.

Help me never to mistake the excitement of my passions
for the renewing of the Holy Spirit,
never to judge my religion by occasional impressions and 
impulses, but by my constant and prevailing disposition.

May my heart be right with thee, and my life as becometh the gospel.

May I maintain a supreme regard to another and better world,
and feel and confess myself a stranger and a pilgrim here.

Afford me all the direction, defence, support, and consolation
my journey hence requires,
and grant me a mind stayed upon thee.

Give me large abundance of the supply of the Spirit of Jesus,
that I may be prepared for every duty,
love thee in all my mercies,
submit to thee in every trial,
trust thee when walking in darkness,
have peace in thee amidst life's changes.

Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief and uncertainties.

By Faith

Here is another outstanding quote I read this morning from Charles Spurgeon's All of Grace. 


"Faith is the tongue that begs pardon, the hand which receives it, and the eye which sees it; but it is not the price which buys it. Faith never makes herself her own plea, she rests all her argument upon the blood of Christ. She becomes a good servant to bring the riches of the Lord Jesus to the soul, because she acknowledges whence she drew them, and owns that grace alone entrusted her with them...So God has selected faith to receive the unspeakable gift of his grace, because it cannot take to itself any credit, but must adore the gracious God who is the giver of all good. Faith sets the crown upon the right head, and therefore the Lord Jesus was wont to put the crown upon the head of faith, saying, 'Thy faith has saved thee; go in peace.'"


Last month as our mission trip to the Czech Republic drew to a close we found ourselves watching a strange (to say the least) group of French Circus performers putting on a show in Old Town Square in Prague. Perhaps the most entertaining part of the show were the jugglers. They kept one-upping each other. They would add one more ball, then add a spin or two, then a flaming torch and on and on and on. It was whimsically entertaining.


If we were all honest, I think we would agree that our lives look like this juggling contest. We've come to believe that if we can keep all the balls in the air, then we will be acceptable to GOD, and even better if we can add more and more and juggle more and more then we will become even more loved by GOD.


But, if we drop the ball, or we see someone else juggling more than we are, then we end up feeling less loved, less important, less a child of GOD.


This is why we are saved BY FAITH through grace, and not by our own works. We can't manage on our own. I love what Spurgeon wrote above: "Faith is the tongue that begs pardon, the hand which receives it, and the eye which sees it; but it is not the price which buys it."


Christ bought our pardon at the cross, and we receive this pardon in faith by receiving what is freely offered us. When we attempt to juggle enough to make ourselves acceptable before GOD we are placing the crown on our own heads, but faith places the crown on the head of the one who is worthy, the one who laid down his crown humbly on our behalf.


Have you taken the crown off your head and placed it upon Christ?


⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.
- Ephesians 2.8-9

Astonished

I read this yesterday in Charles Spurgeon's All of Grace: 


"Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. It is a very surprising thing–a thing to be marveled at most of all by those who enjoy it. I know that it is to me even to this day the greatest wonder that I have ever heard of, that God should ever justify me. I feel myself to be a lump of unworthiness, a mass of corruption, and a heap of sin, apart from His almighty love. I know by a full assurance that I am justified by faith which is in Christ Jesus, and treated as if I had been perfectly just, and made an heir of God and a joint her with Christ; and yet by nature I must take my place among the most sinful. I, who am altogether undeserving, am treated as if I had always been godly, whereas for aforetime I was ungodly. Who can help being astonished at this? Gratitude for such favor stands dressed in robes of wonder."


Oh, what a wonder! What a wonder that GOD almighty, GOD the just, GOD everlasting would justify me who is most unworthy! Christian this is something to be marveled at daily, hourly, minute by minute. I love Spurgeon's description of himself "a lump of unworthiness, a mass of corruption, and a heap of sin." It's true of each of us apart from Christ's merciful love. Christian this is the hard work of following him to daily remind yourself of this tremendous gift of righteousness given you.


It strikes me that many who I know and love are daily attempting to justify themselves before GOD. That perhaps, daily, you wake and attempt to make yourself acceptable before GOD by being good, and avoiding evil, and loving your neighbor. Hoping against hope that it will be enough. These are good attempts, however, they are not able to justify us. That is why GOD himself does the difficult work of justifying us through the righteous blood of his Son, shed for you on the cross. 


So, christian, may you find daily astonishment at GOD's love for you! And those attempting to justify themselves, may you find rest in Christ's finished work for you, that you too can be astonished by his immense love for you.


But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5.8

Mike's Blog

No one has more consistently pointed me to the gospel as my sufficiency, hope, and joy lately than my friend Mike Lang. He recently started blogging, which I'm pretty excited about. Here's a link to Mike's blog.  Thanks Mike for being such a faithful friend and a great example of gospel-centered living.

My Job, GOD's Job, Their Job.

This past spring I attended the Immersion 1 training at Real Life Ministries in Post Falls, ID. (I highly recommend both of Jim Putman's books). As they were talking about the way they view shepherding they explained that they see three parts to shepherding. First, there is my job as the shepherd to point the person I'm shepherding at the moment to Jesus. Second, there is GOD's job to challenge/transform/convict/encourage/
regenerate/etc them.  And, third, there is their job to respond. I find that often times in the past I have attempted to do, not only my job, but GOD's job, and their job too.


This lesson has proved invaluable to me as I have been spending time with people since then, walking through scenario after scenario with them.  In the past I put all the pressure on myself to make others make good decisions in their lives, or for me to believe in Jesus for them.


Never has this principle proved itself more true than when sharing Christ with someone. Emmy and I prayed with a friend to receive Christ this past spring, and I thought to myself as we were  wrapping up the conversation, "she needs more time." So I told her when she has made her decision to become a Christian to let Emmy and I know and we would love to pray with her. She just looked at me and said, "Well, I'm ready now!"  My job: point her to Christ; GOD's job: call her to himself; Her job: respond.
Who's job have you been attempting to do?

Gospel Power

I read this this morning on Tullian Tchividjian's (yes I spelled that correctly) blog.  It's origninally from John Calvin's preface to Pierre Robert Olivétan's French Translation of the New Testament (1534).  Tchividjian credits Justin Taylor with the line breaks which make it easier to read.  I'm only posting the beginning of it and then giving you a link to go to Tchividjian's blog to read the rest.

Calvin wrote:

Without the gospel

everything is useless and vain;

without the gospel

we are not Christians;

without the gospel

all riches is poverty,
all wisdom folly before God;
strength is weakness,
and all the justice of man is under the condemnation of God.

But by the knowledge of the gospel we are made

children of God,
brothers of Jesus Christ,
fellow townsmen with the saints,
citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven,
heirs of God with Jesus Christ, by whom

the poor are made rich,
the weak strong,
the fools wise,
the sinner justified,
the desolate comforted,
the doubting sure,
and slaves free.

It is the power of God for the salvation of all those who believe.
It follows that every good thing we could think or desire is to be found in this same Jesus Christ alone.

Now, please go read the whole thing, and read it again, and again until it begins to fully inform your identity in Christ.  The whole thing is posted on Tchividjian's blog. 

The Gospel According to Scripture

A few weeks ago I put this together. It's a string of passages from Scripture that tell the gospel. I have found this to be extremely powerful for me as I have been daily rereading it. Reminding myself of the gospel is transforming my relationships and continually giving me a clearer picture of how GOD sees me and how much he loves me.  So here you go, read it, pass it along to someone else:

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” [Revelation 4.11] But all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God... [Romans 3.23] and the wages of sin is death. [Romans 6.23] But you see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. [Romans 5.8] For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. [John 3.16-17] It was the third hour when they crucified him...At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour.  And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”...With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” [Mark 15.25, 33-34, 37-39]

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. [2 Cor 5.21] He raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. [Ephesians 1.20-21] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. [1 John 1.9] Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. [Romans 8.1, 37-39]

Therefore, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. [Galatians 2.20]