When the Head Disconnects from the Heart

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Dana Dill

opposing-arrow-sign-head-vs-heart1I am sure you can relate, but sometimes I don’t feel what I know. Sometimes, my head is disconnected with my heart. I know in my head that Jesus is supreme over all. I know in my head that everything is disgusting when compared to Christ (Philippians 3:8). But although I cognitively acknowledge these to be true and believe them with all my mind, sometimes these precious truths don’t make it all the way to my heart. I often find that the connection from my head to my heart gets short-circuited. Like my old apartment, the pipes often get clogged.

What is one supposed to do when they find their themselves seemingly unaffected and distant from the glories of Christ? How can we help our cold hearts to grow warm? Here are eight things that greatly help to bring the truth of Christ into my heart and increase my affections for Christ.

Sing Good Hymns Out Loud and Slowly. “I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me” (Psalm 13:6). Good hymns are like powerful sermons put to music. Singing them out loud and slowly has become a very helpful way to let God’s truth soak into my heart. If you don’t know many good hymns, check this page out for a very good list with lyrics and even demos to hear how they sound. Don’t let your singing be restricted to Sundays!

Pray in Response to the Scriptures. When my heart is cold my prayers are ice. I’ve said this before, but few things help me pray like God’s Word. Take on the Lord’s Prayer or the Ten Commandments or other gospel rich verses and pray that God would give you strength to obey His commandments, faith to believe His promises, conviction to repent of your sins, and a heart to delight in His Word. Let your words to God be guided by God’s Word to you.

Confession of Sin to God. Sin breeds sorrow. The more sin we hold onto and do not confess, the more sorrow we let fester in our soul. Although all our sins are forgiven completely by the cross of Christ (2 Cor. 5:21), the nausea they bring often does not leave us without repentance and confession. As Thomas Watson once noted, “Confession (is) the vomit of the soul whereby the conscience is eased of the burden that laid upon it.” Take time to think about your sins and acknowledge them to the Lord while being reminded that, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Before leaving this point, I have found that, in addition to confessing sins to God, confessing sin to others is also immensely helpful. James 5:16 commands us to, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” Yes, confess your sins to God, but don’t forget to bring them to others as well. When was the last time you confessed your sins to another Christian and received prayer?  For some more thoughts on confession & repentance, check this out.

Memorize Gospel-Rich Passages. Memorization is a powerful way of meditation. If you have a hard time getting God’s truth into your heart, try getting it into your memory. I have found that the repetition and work of memorization works like a jack hammer to break up my hard heart and renew it with gospel truth. Take verses that center on the person and work of Jesus (e.g. Colossians 1:15-22; 1 Peter 2:24-25; Hebrews 10:10-14; John 3:16-17; Romans 3:21-26) a work to commit them to memory. Here is a very helpful memorization system to help to this end.

Get Together With Godly for Fellowship. Friends who love Jesus rub off on you. I find it very difficult to stay unaffected by Christ when I am engaged in conversation with other men who love Him and want to honor Him. Hebrews says it well: “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25). We need one another and to especially be encouraged by one another. 

Meet with Faithful Pastors and Listen to Faithful Preaching. Ephesians 4:11 says that Christ has gifted His church with gifted people to bless her and make her more mature. Faithful pastors and preachers are gifts to the church and the church should receive them as such. It is not unspiritual to look to people to help your cold heart. Call your pastor and ask to meet with him. Tell him about your struggles and allow him to minister to you. Also, get yourself under faithful preaching so God’s Word may be given to you from the lips of another. Allow the Lord to minister to you through His ministers.

Read a Puritan. To say it quickly, the Puritans were masters of clearing the pipes from the head to the heart. They were men who loved God’s Word and desired it to be loved also by God’s people. Try taking up this one or this one.

This list is not exhaustive, but I hope it offers some practices that will help you warm your heart in the fires of Christ. The practices themselves are not the goal or point, but are simple roads that can be helpful to bring us to experiencing fellowship with our Lord. They have blessed me and I hope they do so for you.

What about you? What are some things that have been helpful for increasing your affections for Jesus?

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Gossip

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Dana Dill

What is gossip?

HT: Justin Taylor

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

I Hope You Experience Despair

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Dana Dill

ws_man_in_despair_1680x1050I hope you experience despair. I hope you come to a place where you no longer can find any meaningful happiness in yourself or the things around you. I hope that when you drink, you will find that even alcohol cannot numb away your nagging feeling of emptiness and despair which lingers in your soul. I hope the unending sexual encounters you pursue would all leave you with nothing but more cravings and less peace. I pray that even your own family, as much as you love and care for them, will no longer bring meaning to your life. I hope you lose all hope in yourself and everything else in this world. I hope you come to the conclusion of King Solomon:

All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless. (Ecclesiastes 2:17-23).

Why would I hope for such a thing? How could I possibly desire that you experience despair and hopelessness? Do I hate you? No. I say this not out of hatred, but love.

I hope all these things for you, not because I want your life to be marked by sorrow, sadness, and dissatisfaction. No, I say this because I want the opposite for your life. I hope you (and I) come to despair in all that you are and all that you have so you then may finally turn away from trusting in yourself, your stuff, or anything else in this world and turn to the Only God of All. I say this in hopes that you would turn from empty idolatry, that you would turn away from living your life for Creation, and finally turn to your Creator. I say this because I want you to stop running after God’s stuff and chase God Himself. As the song calls…

Rise from your knees, stop worshiping
The splinters of broken gods, turn and see your King
There is one God over all kings and rulers
And he reigns alone

Timothy Keller sums it up well…

The way forward, out of despair, is to discern the idols of our hearts and our culture. But that will not be enough. The only way to free ourselves from the destructive influence of counterfeit gods is to turn back to the true one. The living God, who revealed Himself both at Sinai and on the Cross, is the only Lord who, if you find Him, can truly fulfill you, and, if you fail him, can truly forgive you.

Although God’s creation is very good (Genesis 1:31) and should be accepted with thanksgiving (1 Timothy 4:4), it should never be looked to for complete contentment. Satisfaction is sold separately from creation and can only be known in relationship with the Creator.

Unfortunately, none of us will ever come to see this truth until we see the bankruptcy of the idols we chase. We will never know true hope unless we come to it from the depths of true despair. We will never cherish the living God until we know the pitiful emptiness of our beloved idols.

Or you could say it this way…

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Saturday Post(s)

Posted on September 27, 2014 by Dana Dill

Saturday Post

Things Jesus Didn’t Say. I like the end: “When Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were super cool with his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had a realistic understanding of the Bible and helped the disciples feel better about themselves.”

Why Keep Sexual Boundaries? “Though almost any reason for sexual boundaries is a good one, mine is not a Christian reason in that it has nothing to do with Jesus. That scares me. Jeopardizing my relationship with my wife is more motivating to me than jeopardizing my relationship with the Lord.”

Are You Leaching the Local Church? I appreciate the pastor who was quoted in this piece, “For those of you who come here every week thinking attendance makes you good with God, you’re wrong. Some of you are driving from the other side of the metroplex, and are not really connected to the church at all. If you’re just coming here, not involved in a small group, not serving with nursery, parking, or ushering — if you’re just here to hear the band or listen to me talk — go somewhere else. You’re a leech. And quite frankly, we could use your seat.”

Why Women Should Study Theology. Give it a read, ladies!

How Busy People Make Time to Read. FastCompany offers some good ways to fit reading into your busy life.

Encourage One Another. “In one sense, encouragement is like oxygen in the life of a church. It keeps hearts beating, minds clear, and hands inspired to serve.”

5 Reasons to Journal. I love journaling, but know it’s not for everyone. Here are five reasons you should at least consider it.

3 of the Best Books for Non-Believers. I appreciated this list. For more book recommendations for non-believers, check this out.

These Guys Are Awesome. The hat trick is especially good.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Let Them Only Get to Hell Over Our Dead Bodies

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Dana Dill

437727Last night I preached on the topic of evangelism to the middle schoolers at my church. I helped them see that following Jesus meant becoming a fisher of people. As Jesus said…

 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” Matthew 4:19

As we follower Jesus, the Greatest Fisher of People who ever lived, we will follow Him in His work of catching fish. As Christians, we will seek to catch those who swim in a sea of sin in order to bring them onto the land of God’s grace.

As I preached that simple message, I was reminded of the powerful words of Charles Spurgeon in a sermon he preaches long ago:

Oh, my brothers and sisters in Christ, if sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies; and if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay, and not madly to destroy themselves. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.

Amen. Amen. Amen. May the love of Christ overflow out our mouths. May we all be unrelenting in throwing out the nets of His gospel.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

A Log in the Fire

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Dana Dill

fireI have written before about the essential importance of loving, being a part of, and going to church. To add to the list, here is a simple little story from Donald Whitney to help illustrate the importance of church fellowship within the Christian life.

A pastor went to visit a church member who had been neglecting fellowship. The man invited him in, and they both sat down by the fireplace. Without speaking, the pastor looked thoughtfully into the fire for several minutes. Then, taking the iron poker, he pulled one of the red-hot coals to the front edge of the hearth. Soon it lost its glowing warmth and became dark and cool. Silently the pastor pushed the coal back into the company of the other embers and it quickly returned to its former strength.

“I see what you mean, Pastor,” the man admitted. “I’ll be back this Sunday.”

The strength of your spiritual fire is related to the fellowship you have with the body of Christ. You will not be able to maintain your spiritual fervency without the spiritual fuel God supplies through fellowship.

(Spiritual Disciplines Within the Church, p. 158-159).

As the author of Hebrews wrote long ago, “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (10:24-25).

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Doctrine is Not Enough

Posted on September 22, 2014 by Dana Dill

sound-doctrine-pathSound doctrine is a gift, a blessing, and a fountain of life to those who love the Lord Jesus. What can be more beautiful to a believer than the precious truth about His Lord? However, as precious as sound doctrine is, it is not enough.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones elaborates:

There is a terrible danger of putting our doctrines (teachings), the true doctrines, about the persons into the place of the persons. And that is absolutely fatal. But it is a very familiar scare, which traps evangelical people and orthodox people. You can be orthodox but dead. Why? Well, because you are stopping at the doctrines, you are stopping at the definitions and failing to realize that the whole purpose of doctrine is not to be an end in itself, but to lead us to a knowledge of the person and to an understanding of the person and to a fellowship with the person.

There are churches and denominations today that are perfectly orthodox yet are quite dead.. They do not seem to be used at all in the salvation of souls, nor really in giving their people assurance of salvation. Why? Because they remain only on the level of doctrine – this intellectual concern and this intellectual correctness. It is a terrible thing to substitute even true doctrines for a living relationship with the person. (Taken from Revival, p. 58).

It is true, no meaningful relationship can exist without true knowledge of the other, but there is a great danger of making that truth an end in itself which is an abuse of the truths God has given us. God’s Word, and the doctrines therein, are purposed to lead us into fellowship with God Himself. Andrew Bonar said it best:

It never is the belief of bare truths that saves the soul; for these have to do only with the understanding. Truths, however weighty, must guide us onward to the Person who is the essence of the testimony…Faith is begun in the head, but not perfected till it comes into the heart…The belief of the testimony concerning the Son of God, our Savior, is the porch of the building, through which we pass into the audience-chamber and meet the Living Inhabitant, full of light, and life, and love. (Taken from The Person of Christ).

Doctrines are designed to lead us into fellowship. They are roads, not destinations. They are doorways you pass through, not living rooms you sit in. We must always be careful that we do not camp on the road or stop in the doorway, but that we enter through the doorway of doctrine into fellowship with the Living Christ.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bigger & Bigger & Bigger

Posted on September 22, 2014 by Dana Dill

lion-photoafrican-safari-travel-blog----blog-archive----lion-----mara-ss-eh4gapqzAmong the many gifts of maturing in Christ, few surpass the one illustrated here by C.S. Lewis in Prince Caspian.

And then—oh joy! For he was there: the huge Lion, shining white in the moonlight, with his huge black shadow underneath him.

But for the movement of his tail he might have been a stone lion, but Lucy never thought of that. She never stopped to think whether he was a friendly lion or not. She rushed to him. She felt her heart would burst if she lost a moment. And the next thing she knew was that she was kissing him and putting her arms as far round his neck as she could and burying her face in the beautiful rich silkiness of his mane.

“Aslan, Aslan. Dear Aslan,” sobbed Lucy. “At last.”

The great beast rolled over on his side so that Lucy fell, half sitting and half lying between his front paws. He bent forward and just touched her nose with his tongue. His warm breath came all round her. She gazed up into the large wise face.

“‘Welcome, child,” he said.

“AsIan,” said Lucy, “you’re bigger.”

“That is because you are older, little one,” answered he.

“Not because you are?”

“I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”

C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia.

A sure way to measure your growth in Christ is to measure how much Christ has grown in your eyes. Growing in Christ results in Christ growing larger in your eyes with every passing year. He does not become more glorious, but the more we grow, the more we are able to see how glorious He truly is. Every year we grow, we shall find Him bigger.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Saturday Post(s)

Posted on September 20, 2014 by Dana Dill

Saturday Post

Preach the Gospel to Yourself. Read this for excellent instruction on how to preach the gospel to your own heart. “Whatever Scriptures we use to assure us of God’s forgiveness, we must realize that whether the passage explicitly states it or not, the only basis for God’s forgiveness is the blood of Christ shed on the cross for us.”

If God Knows Our Every Need, Then Why Doe He Tell Us to Pray? “Most of us don’t like to humble ourselves. At least I don’t like to. And prayer is an act of humility. Prayer is an act of weakness. When we pray we admit to God that we desperately need help.”

Dads, Plan for Family Time. “Dads, as fall begins (in the Northern Hemisphere), your family schedule is likely already filling up with activities. But does your fall schedule bear the marks of your leadership?”

The Ordinary Church. An extremely good sermon on the ordinary nature of the church. “A church was not an event.  A church was not a place where there was a platform for some striking figure or over-the-top personality.  It was just an ordinary place where the people of God who were genuinely converted devoted themselves continually to the Word of God, to fellowship, to the Lord’s table, and prayer.  Ordinary.  I’m so thankful that this is an ordinary church.  Not only ordinary activities, but secondly ordinary attitudes, ordinary attitudes.”

Mentoring 101. Some good wisdom on the crucial topic of mentoring.

Two Things We Must Be Clear About When We Talk About Homosexuality. “We may want to avoid the controversy, but it’s coming whether we like it or not. In some way, at some time or place, every Christian will have to take their stand on this question: what does the Bible say about homosexuality? Let me suggest two points I think we must state with both compassion and clarity.”

Here’s to Adventurous Toddlers. Try not to laugh.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why You Should Take Jesus Seriously

Posted on September 19, 2014 by Dana Dill

1575719Jesus of Nazareth is a big deal. I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that you would be an absolute fool to not take him seriously. Here are some reasons why.

He is the most influential man who has ever walked the face of the earth. From the individual to national level, there is no man who comes close to comparing with Jesus in measure of influence. You have to understand Jesus to make sense of most world history for the past 2,000 years.

His actions and statements. Jesus said things that only a crazy person would say (e.g. He is eternal, He is God, He is the truth, He is the only way to the Father, etc.), but Jesus acted more sane than anybody I know, including myself. Crazy people don’t act so sane and sane people don’t say things like Jesus did, unless they were true.

He claims to be God in flesh. Jesus claimed to be one with the Father (John 10:30) and the Jews knew that He meant He was God (John 10:31).

He changed the calendar. Whether it is BCE/CE or BC/AD, it seems that history has honored Jesus by making time centered on Him.

Billions of people throughout history have chosen to live their entire lives (even give up their lives) for Him alone. As Todd Friel says in his excellent book Jesus Unmasked, “He has more followers than the Rolling Stones, Beatles, and Miley Cyrus combined.” This doesn’t prove anything, but if billions of people have chosen to run one direction, it is at least worth a look to find out why.

He promised to rise from the dead and then did so. Although his enemies knew he died and they knew where they buried him, they never were able to find his body afterward. Additionally, the disciples who ran away scared when he was crucified (Matthew 26:31) began boldly proclaiming that He rose from the dead only weeks after (Acts 5:27-32). What created such a change other than they really saw their Risen Lord. If you disagree about the resurrection, what plausible explanation do you have?

He is a common denominator in practically all major and minor religions. Every major world religion has something to say about him (Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism) and most minor religions include him in some way. They all claim different things about him, but none of them ignore him.

He claimed that your eternal destiny depends on how you respond to Him. Jesus once taught, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). According to Jesus, your entrance to heaven or your condemnation to hell rests on Him alone.

There’s more to say, but those are some good starting points. I am not saying that, because of these reasons, you should become a Christian right now (although I think you should), but what I am challenging you to do is see is that you must take Jesus seriously. You would be a fool not to.

Now, allow Ravi Zacharias to blow your mind.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments