I Never Wanted to Follow Jesus

Posted on October 7, 2015 by Dana Dill

noSo, in the familiar tune of, “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus,” Red Mountain Church has created a song I think perfectly captures the way Jesus saved me (and you). The lyrics are as follows:

I never wanted to follow Jesus
I never wanted to follow Jesus
I never wanted to follow Jesus
He rescued me; He rescued me
No turning back; No turning back

How sweetly these words remind me of Ephesians 2:1-5 where Paul wrote say:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.

Praise God that, though I never wanted to follow Jesus, He rescued me.

Hear the song below.

(Sorry for the silly pictures in the slide show, but I couldn’t find the music accessible for the blog elsewhere.)

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What is Love?

Posted on October 6, 2015 by Dana Dill

a429b11d350127e82023ffc9fbdfd0ecJohn Piper talks about the truest and most beautiful love we can ever extend to anyone else or have extended to us.

So what is love? What does it mean to be loved by Jesus? Love means giving us what we need most. And what we need most is not healing, but a full and endless experience of the glory of God. Love means giving us what will bring us the fullest and longest joy. And what is that? What will give you full and eternal joy? The answer of this text is clear: a revelation to your soul of the glory of God—seeing and admiring and marveling at and savoring the glory God in Jesus Christ. When someone is willing to die—or let your brother die—to give you that, he loves you.

Love is doing whatever you have to do to help people see and treasure the glory of God as their supreme joy—to help people see and be satisfied with the glory of God. (Taken from this excellent sermon).

May we all live to love as such.

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We Drive Ourselves to Hell

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Dana Dill

cf21708714465056c97869b061220a83Once, James wrote:

Remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. James 1:14-15

Commenting on this verse, Matthew Henry wrote:

God has no pleasure in your death, as he has no hand in your sin; but both sin and misery are owing to yourselves. Your own hearts’ lusts and corruptions are your tempters; and when by degrees they have carried you off from God, and finished the power and dominion of sin in you, then they will prove your destroyers.

In other words, we drive ourselves to Hell’s door, turn the handle, and lock ourselves in. Our desires lead us to sin and our sin brings us to death. If we end up in hell, it won’t be because of Satan or the world or God, but because of our own desires; because we followed our hearts. As the song sings:

I once was lost in darkest night
Yet thought I knew the way
The sin that promised joy and life
Had led me to the grave

Our Greatest Problem

car-driving_2504156b

I think it’s important to see that our greatest problem is not that we do or don’t get what we want, but the problem is what we want. Our greatest problem is, outside the grace of God, we only want what will kill us. As Paul said elsewhere, our problem is that we are, “slaves to many lusts and pleasures” (Titus 3:3). Our desires are our downfall. We drive ourselves to Hell’s door. Our desires are our destroyers.

God’s Loving Gift

But alas, there is hope in the gospel where we are not only offered forgiveness for sins, but new hearts that detest the sin which kills and yearn for the things of God which bring life. The gospel holds the power of God to change our very desires.

And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. Ezekiel 36:26-27

In the gospel, God opposes and kills our deadly desires and gives us new ones in their place. He sent the Holy Spirit to us so we would obtain hearts that turn to Him. God turns our cars around and puts Hell in our rear view mirror. Praise God that He did not allow me to follow the directions of my heart to my own destruction.

Have you experienced the blessing of  a new heart? Have you turned away from your sinful desires because God gave you new desires?

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The Saturday Post(s)

Posted on October 3, 2015 by Dana Dill

Saturday PostThe Exuberant Goodness of the Creator. A short quote showing that God is far kinder to us and creation than we can imagine.

Does Netflix Make Christ More Precious to You? “What would that mean practically to regard everything in your life as loss compared to Jesus for the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus?”

If God Doesn’t Need Our Worship, Why Does He Command It? “Is it because he needs constant affirmation? Is he divinely insecure, so he requires us to praise him day and night? To tell him he’s good enough, smart enough and doggone it, people like him?”

Mormons Use Christian Words With Very Different Meanings. “Brett Kunkle explains how to navigate in conversation with your Mormon friends when the language is the same but the meanings are different.”

Advice for a Young Man Dating a Young Woman. “To all my 20-something friends, I honestly believe that every young man who is truly interested in entering into a marriage covenant with a young woman should embrace the following seven critical pieces of advice. Ignore them at the risk of missing out on the blessing. Embrace them and you can expect a depth of relationship experienced nowhere else.”

Orwellian. A short video on the proper use of the word “Orwellian.” Even more important than the definition correction is the depiction of where our society is. Scary stuff.

Did Paul Cuss? My old Greek Professor puts his scholar’s cap on to study the use of one colorful word (the only Greek word my middle school students know) Paul used in the Bible.

Caring For Your Wife After a Miscarriage. “As a young man who has lost a child to miscarriage earlier this year, I vividly remember the difficult journey that my wife and I encountered in the loss of our first child. It is a path we still walk.”

Three Ways of Helping New Believers Understand the Bible. A few places to turn when we’ve never read the Bible before or when we don’t know where to turn.

My Hero. This guy.

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Do You Really Have Access to Heaven?

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Dana Dill

access-deniedHave you ever thought about all the things we are denied access to?

We are denied access behind the counter at retail stores and various shops.

We are denied access to country clubs we don’t belong to.

We are denied access to hotel pools we aren’t staying in.

We are denied access to gyms of which we are not members.

We are denied access from searching government databases and records.

We are denied access from our local bank vault.

We are denied access to the White House without permission.

We are denied access on the personal property of others without their permission (i.e. trespassing).

We are denied access to certain meeting even at our own place of work.

Even with all the wonderful freedoms we have there are countless things we are denied access to every day.

And here, my friend, is where we need to do some honest thinking.

Do I Really Have Access to Heaven?

Although we live in a world where we are denied access to so many things, we live with ironic belief that God will always allow us access into heaven. We accept and understand that we aren’t given access to country clubs and gyms, but we scoff at the idea that God would ever deny us access to His heaven. We accept when other fallen, imperfect, and sinful people deny us access to temporal things, but we decry the thought that the righteous, just, and holy God would ever deny us access to His eternal joy.

So, we need to confront our ironic beliefs. We need to ask ourselves, “If I am so often denied access to unimportant, silly things by imperfect human beings, how have I grown so confident to think that the Infinite and Perfect God will allow me access to His Heaven?” If so many humans deny us access to their earthly things, why are we convinced God will allow us access to His Heaven?

God Offers You Access

Thankfully, God has not locked His heaven. Although, in our sin, access to heaven is denied, God has sent Jesus to meet the requirements of heaven for us. Through Jesus, God makes us able to gain access to him.

We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God freely and graciously declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. Romans 3:22-24

Jesus has paid for the sins that kept us out of heaven and He has lived the perfectly righteous life that gains us access into heaven. Through Jesus, God has made a way for sinful men and women to be forgiven of their sin and worthy of acceptance in heaven. The result of Jesus’ work on the cross is seen wonderfully a few chapters later in Romans.

Since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. Romans 5:1-2

To put it simply: Through faith in Jesus, our access to heaven is granted. There is only one way to gain access into God’s heaven. Thankfully, it isn’t based on the kinds of criteria that human institutions use for special access (e.g. money, class, race, gender, position), but on one thing: faith in Jesus Christ.

Praise God for sending Jesus. Through faith in Him, we have access to God’s heart and God’s heaven. Although we may still be denied to countless places here on earth, because of Jesus, we are and never will be denied access to the eternal place of God’s joy.

So, do you have access to God’s home? When you die, will heaven’s gates be locked with the message, access denied? Or will they be opened wide for you with the message, “In Christ, you have full access. Enter my joy.”

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Do You Live Close to Your Church?

Posted on September 29, 2015 by Dana Dill

churchwithfamilyinsideDo you live close to your church?

In such a mobile society, lots of folks go to churches they aren’t geographically close to. I’ve met many who drive 45 minutes to get to church on Sunday. Recently, I heard about a brother who live 2 hours away from his local church! Living far away from one’s local church is not sinful or evil or blasphemous, but, I would like to ask the question, “Does living far away from your local church help or hinder you from loving your church?”

Over at Ligonier, Jonathan Leeman humbly and graciously encourages believers that, although they are free in Christ to live wherever they like, they would be wise to live geographically close to their local church as one way to love them well.

Philippians 2:1–11 says to “consider others better than [ourselves]” and to “look to the interests of others.” Then it tells us to have the same attitude as Christ, who became man, made Himself a servant, and went to die on the cross. Let me see if I can apply these verses by fleshing out one example of a big life decision: which home to buy or apartment to rent.

If you are able, “consider others better than yourselves” and “look to the interests of others” by living geographically close to the church. When a person lives within walking distance of a church or clumps of members, it is easier to invite people to one’s house for dinner, to watch one another’s children while running errands, and to pick up bread or milk at the store for one another. In other words, it is just plain easier to integrate daily life when there is relative — even walkable — geographic proximity.

When choosing a place to live, Christians do well to ask some of the same questions that non-Christians ask: What are the costs? Are there good schools nearby? But a Christian also does well to ask additional questions like these: Will the mortgage or rent payment allow for generosity to others? Will it give other church members quick access to me for discipleship and hospitality?

During my family’s last move, the question of living near the church came down to a choice between two houses, both of which were affordable but very different otherwise. House 1 was newer, better designed, more attractive, did not need repairs, and was less expensive. But it was a thirty-minute drive from the church building and near no other church members. House 2 was older, draftier, in need of several repairs (such as a rotting front porch and an occasionally flooding basement), and it was more expensive. But it was only a fifteen-minute drive from the church building and, more important, within walkable proximity of a dozen (now two dozen) church families. I sought the counsel of several elders, all of whom advised me to prioritize church relationships. This actually meant choosing the older, less attractive, more expensive house.

Thankfully, we did, and it has been enriching for our whole family. My wife interacts with the other mothers almost daily, and our children with their children. I met with one brother every weekday morning to pray and read Scripture for a year and a half. And our church families can work together in serving and evangelizing our neighbors.

Must a Christian move close to other members of his or her church? No, the Bible doesn’t command this. We’re free in Christ to live wherever we want. But this is one concrete way to love your church — to consider others better than yourself and look to their interests.

Did the Son of God submit Himself geographically for the church’s good? He left heaven. Now, let’s put on the same attitude our Savior put on for us.

Now, again, I want to restate, I am not saying believers are sinning if they live far away from their churches (nor is Leeman). For some, driving long distances to get to church may actually be a sacrifice of love and loyalty to their local church (shout out to my grandparents on this one!). Other may be interning for a time at a specific church that is a bit further away from where you presently live, but God is training and equipping you for future ministry through that specific church. There are lots of scenarios that could make driving a bit further be an understandable choice for now. However, for all of us, the question is still worth asking and reflecting on: How does the location of my home affect my love and ministry for my church? Does it help or hinder?

I highly encourage you to read the whole piece here.

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The Church’s Worst Enemies

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Dana Dill

The-Enemies-p In recent days, new, vocal, and very hostile enemies against Christians have been coming out of the woodwork in droves. It’s easy to think that the church’s only danger today is coming from an outward direction. For that reason, I am thankful to Ray Ortlund for this very timely quote from the late, great John Stott.

“The persecution of the true church, of Christian believers who trace their spiritual descent from Abraham, is not always by the world, who are strangers unrelated to us, but by our half-brothers, religious people, the nominal church.  It has always been so.  The Lord Jesus was bitterly opposed, rejected, mocked and condemned by his own nation.  The fiercest opponents of the apostle Paul, who dogged his footsteps and stirred up strife against him, were the official church, the Jews.  The monolithic structure of the medieval papacy persecuted all Protestant minorities with ruthless, unremitting ferocity.  And the greatest enemies of the evangelical faith today are not unbelievers, who when they hear the gospel often embrace it, but the church, the establishment, the hierarchy.  Isaac is always mocked and persecuted by Ishmael.” (Taken from John. R. W. Stott, The Message of Galatians (London, 1968), page 127.)

Sometimes, the worst enemies of the true church are those who claim its name, yet have forsaken its message; those who confess Christ with their lips, yet deny Him with their lives (Titus 1:16). Sometimes, the most powerful and dangerous enemies are those not on the outside of our walls, but within.

May God give us heaven’s discernment to be protect ourselves and our people from hell’s double agents.

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The Saturday Post(s)

Posted on September 26, 2015 by Dana Dill

Saturday PostNothing Explicitly Christian About the Pope’s Message. “Nevertheless, even though the speech was historic, it was also a disappointment—not so much for what he did say but for what he didn’t say. For example…”

Some Thoughts on Reading Books. Al Mohler has read more books than I have probably seen with my eyes. Therefore, his thoughts on reading should be listened to carefully.

My Injury Interrupted My Idolatry. Landry Fields, of the professional NBA team the Toronto Raptors, shares how God broke him away from idolatry by breaking him.

Why Don’t Protestants Have Popes? This is why we don’t and why protestants will never be OK with the idea that anyone has a pope.

Four Tips for Using Your Study Bible Well. Do you use your study Bible well?

Heavenly Tourism. “To mark the release of 90 Minutes in Heaven I have teamed up with Josh Byers to prepare an infographic we’ve titled Greetings From Heaven: A Modern History of Heaven Tourism. ”

Planting Seed in Your Child’s Public School. “For many years, our public schools have been seen as battlefields. Nothing much grows on a battlefield, though. Instead, our schools should be viewed as gardens to cultivate. Tending your garden involves nurturing relationships with a small number of people within your immediate sphere of responsibility.”

What God Thinks About You. “God has a lot to say about what he thinks about us — a whole Bible full. But if we could summarize it in a short space, here’s how it might sound…”

Garage Doors Are Amazing. I appreciate this little one reminding me of the wonder that is the garage door.

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Your Life is the Evidence of Your Theology

Posted on September 23, 2015 by Dana Dill

Our believing gives way to our behaving. Our theology (i.e. the stuff we really believe about God and not the stuff we pretend to believe about God) always flows out of our fingertips. What you do is a result of what you truly believe. Therefore, our becoming like Christ is absolutely dependent on what we believe about Christ and His work.

Ray Ortlund powerfully unpacks what this looks like for our churches.

Gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture.  The doctrine of grace creates a culture of grace, as Jesus himself touches us through his truths.  Without the doctrines, the culture alone is fragile.  Without the culture, the doctrines alone appear pointless.  But the New Testament binds doctrine and culture together.  For example:

The doctrine of regeneration creates a culture of humility (Ephesians 2:1-9).

The doctrine of justification creates a culture of inclusion (Galatians 2:11-16).

The doctrine of reconciliation creates a culture of peace (Ephesians 2:14-16).

The doctrine of sanctification creates a culture of life (Romans 6:20-23).

The doctrine of glorification creates a culture of hope (Romans 5:2).

The doctrine of God creates a culture of honesty (1 John 1:5-10).  And what could be more basic than that?

If we want this culture to thrive, we can’t take doctrinal short cuts.  If we want this doctrine to be credible, we can’t disregard the culture.  But churches where the doctrine and culture converge bear living witness to the power of Jesus.

If you want to live out the fullness of the gospel, you must dig deeply into the riches of the gospel’s truth. Dig into God’s Word and let His treasures shine in your life.

Read the whole piece here.

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A Song I Want Sung at My Funeral

Posted on September 22, 2015 by Dana Dill

Coffin-in-groundRecently, I have been listening to the song Death Be Not Proud by Audrey Assad and it has been wrecking me in all the right ways. In listening, I have decided that I want this song sung at my funeral, whenever that may be.

The song is written to death and is a bold proclamation that, although death is still feared by many and still claims victims day after day, it will not win in the end. It declares that death may touch us Christians, but, because of Jesus, it cannot kill us. Now, because Jesus has died in our place and then rose to life, believers are able to look death in the face and sing:

Death, be not proud, though the whole world fear you:
Mighty and dreadful you may seem,
But death, be not proud, for your pride has failed you
You will not kill me.

So yes, this will be sung at my funeral. As my dead body lay in a casket one day, I plan for this song to be sung so that all in attendance would remember that, because of Jesus, death is dead and Dana is not. What a victory we live in.

Play the song below and follow along with the lyrics here.

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