a thought on works and grace

I've been talking to people a lot this past year about grace, and it seems like most people, whether we are Christian or not, believe grace implies some kind of license to do whatever we feel like doing. I love the doctrine of grace, and the concept of justification by grace through faith. It is by grace alone i have been saved. But i would love to put to death the idea that grace means God does not care what we do as long as we love Him. I hope to start a bit of a discussion on this, so please comment. I won't write too much on it here, i'll just quote the text that initiated this post. "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age..." -Titus 2:11-12.

Deuteronomy 9

Thanks to all who have been reading and commenting on the blog. I'll be at staff training for a few more days here in Madison. It is good training, but i think i'm ready to go home and see Joanna. One thing that has really impressed me this week is looking at how far the organization has come in the past 50 years. Around 1950 there was a man named Stacey Woods who went all over the country planting Christian fellowships (in that day there were not very many Christian orgs. besides IV). One time, while on his way across the country his plane made an emergency landing in a town which also had a university, so he planted a chapter there as long as he had stopped. He also went around and gave resources and advice to many of the chapters he planted. Before there were very many of us staff, a staff would have to oversee every chapter over an area of several states. One day when Stacey was headed out the door of the national service center in Madison to give literature to chapters in Georgia and North and South Carolina an advisor yelled out the door "and take Florida, too!" We've come a long way.
We read through Deuteronomy 8 as a group this week. When looking at that chapter by itself it seems like God is saying "if you keep my commands and remember me I will give you a good land." I wish with all my heart that we would have done a better job of putting that chapter into context of the whole of scripture. If we read the very next chapter, just a few verses down, we see God declaring "Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness." It is because of God's promise and covenant that Israel gets this special grace of God. For us it is much the same. If we imagine for a moment that we could keep all of God's commands and not forget Him we are very wrong. But His grace is amazing, and i stand in awe. So when looking at Deuteronomy 8 we see God's free gift of grace and our brokenness. God's love and our response. God's faithfulness to His covenant and our undeserved grace. Instead of taking from the passage "look at what we need to do for God to take us to the promised land of ministry," we should say nothing because of our sin and sensing what huge grace has been given. It is His work, from the first to the last, and His love that will bring us where we go on earth and will guide us safe home. That makes me want to love and serve Him. Father, help us do that for Your Name. To Him be glory forever.
"At your right hand are pleasures forevermore." -Psalm 16:11
"Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God..." -Acts 2:33

Thoughts from Staff Orientation

I've been at InterVarsity staff orientation in Madison for almost a week and have 5 days left. My mind has been wandering a bit, but today is a day of rest for us so it's OK. I find myself being very thankful for the men's bible study Jeremy and i led this year through Romans. I am reading John Owen's The Mortification of Sin in Believers right now and he is using Romans 8 and Romans 9:30-32 to explain the work of killing sin can only be done by the Holy Spirit. The term for it is monergism, and the base idea of it is that the Holy Spirit is the only agent which can truly affect regeneration in believers. It is such an important doctrine today, as we seem to often be inundated with Christian literature focused on self-help and making the best of ourselves with what God has given us. It's true that the first books we see when we walk into most Christian book stores are this genre. I write "the first books we see" because sometimes it takes a while to get past all of the Christian scented candles and crafts and whatnot. But anyway, Owen states that "Mortification from a self-strength, carried on by ways of self-invention, unto the end of a self-righteousness, is the soul and substance of all false religion in the world." The Holy Spirit is the cause and the means for the mortification of sin in our lives, for without Him we would have no desire nor much reason to do the task. In Romans 8:1-11 this fact is proclaimed, and the Spirit and His work is mentioned 11 times, while the futility of attempting any good in the flesh is mentioned about the same number of times. To deny the fact of monergism is to make an attempt to rob God of His power (if that were possible) and transmit some of that power to ourselves. Our flesh desires this power, and i know attempting to believe we have some of it is a big downfall. But David once said (in my favorite passage to use in defense of free will, 2 Samuel 24:14), "Let us fall into the hands of the LORD, for His mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man." Charles Spurgeon once wrote "I fear most my being left to my free will." We are in the hands of a God who is great and merciful, worthy of our fear and adoration no matter what our circumstances are. His are the glory and the power forever and ever. I'm thankful for the rock that He is and the work He does in us. What do you think?

What am I getting into?

So, i started a blog i guess. It was kind of an accident, but i think it is a good idea. We'll see where this goes. I think it will be helpful for keeping you all updated with life and ministry when so many things are changing. I hope that this blog will help a the few people who might stumble upon it to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. May it be used by God for His purposes.
I'm going to start these posts with something other than what might be expected. Instead of talking about what I just started reading (Deuteronomy and The Mortification of Sin in Believers) i'd like to write down a quick testimony. A few weeks ago i read a book by Leonard Ravenhill called Why Revival Tarries. He talked an uncomfortable amount about prayer in his book. I realized that there may not be a more important thing for me to be doing than praying for the students and all of the people involved in my ministry, and spending time meditating on God's Word and enoying Him. I committed to spending 2 hours each morning to focused prayer, and it has been absolutely wonderful. I feel like i don't pray nearly enough or put as much effort into it as i should, and that is not good. However, God is good all of the time, and he is faithful when we are not. I'm learning that it is an amazing and wonderful thing that we have the Holy Spirit to interceded for us, because my praying is so broken and confused. I don't know what to ask for, but God knows my needs. I pray that God will give you a growing desire to focus your prayers and turn your thoughts to Him, and i pray that He will grow in us a heart to know Him. What more could we want?