Christian Living – Page 9

Who’s the Boss?

John Owen, in his book Triumph Over Temptation, identified the three faculties of man: the mind, the will and the affections (or feelings).

The mind is the leading faculty of the soul. Its job is to guide, direct and choose. It is the eye of the soul. The will is a rational appetite: it is rational because it is guided by the mind; and it is an appetite because it is guided by our feelings. The affection includes all our emotional drives, positive and negative. It directs our choices by drawing us to or repelling us from particular things.

In the original scheme of things, man was made to know good with his mind, and once he knows it, to desire it with his feelings and pursue it with his will. All three faculties combined, we are to pursue whatever is lovely and pure and noble and true and excellent and worthy of praise.

The fall of man messed this up. Continue reading Who’s the Boss?

Why It Is Okay to Grieve

Because it is Biblical to grieve, in fact, if you read the book of Psalms, you will find many songs that tackle grief and pain in shocking ways. David’s Psalm 13, for example, opens with a series of questions that most modern day prosperity preachers will find faulty. It starts with nothing less than an accusation that God has forgotten the writer; and for the next four verses (out of a total of six verses), David expounded on the anguish of his soul.

We are told that we need to be careful with our confessions because what comes out of our mouths are self-fulfilling prophecies. We are told that death and life are in the power of the tongue. We are told that whatever we confess is bound to happen because our words have creative power (because we are children of God and God spoke the universe into existence). We are told that negative thinking leads to negative living. Each one of this is true. But that’s not the whole story. Continue reading Why It Is Okay to Grieve

Making Sense of Job’s Suffering

And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

–Job 2:11-13

It would have been perfect if they just remained silent and went home afterwards. Unfortunately, Job’s friends started talking and from there, things got more complicated. They originally intended to comfort Job but they ended up accusing him of secret sins.

Continue reading Making Sense of Job’s Suffering

People Pleaser

I have mixed feelings about this. While it is true that John the Baptist’s time was up as he was already done introducing Jesus to the world, it is just sad that his life was ended by the whim of a people-pleaser. I shudder at the callousness of the girl’s request and the evil in the heart of her mother. Mark 6:22-29

When Herodias’s daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.” And he vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.”

And she went out and said to her mother, “For what should I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.”

And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”

And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.

When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

Lord Over All Our Fears

Mark 4:35-41 and Mark 5.

After a long sermon in Galilee, Jesus crossed to the other side of the sea to the country of the Gerasenes. En route to that destination, a storm almost capsized the boat they were on. Jesus got up from His slumber and rebuked the wind and the sea. The stormed stopped right away. Jesus is Lord over the forces of nature.

As he stepped out of the boat upon arrival at the country of the Gadarenes, a demon possessed man rushed to bow down at Jesus’ feet seeking deliverance. The legion of demons who possessed the man literally begged Jesus not to torment them. They preferred to drown in the sea with a herd of pigs than be driven out of the country. Jesus spoke His command and the demons fled from his presence, causing havoc and destruction in their wake. Jesus is Lord over dark spiritual powers. Continue reading Lord Over All Our Fears

The Deeper You Walk with Christ

John Piper:

The more deeply you walk with Christ, the hungrier you get for Christ . . . the more homesick you get for heaven . . . the more you want “all the fullness of God” . . . the more you want to be done with sin . . . the more you want the Bridegroom to come again . . . the more you want the Church revived and purified with the beauty of Jesus . . . the more you want a great awakening to God’s reality in the cities . . . the more you want to see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ penetrate the darkness of all the unreached peoples of the world . . . the more you want to see false worldviews yield to the force of Truth . . . the more you want to see pain relieved and tears wiped away and death destroyed . . . the more you long for every wrong to be made right and the justice and grace of God to fill the earth like the waters cover the sea.