More Generous Than You Know

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Dana Dill

7578222_f248This last Sunday, one of our pastors, Derick Zeulner, preached a fantastic sermon on the abundance God has for us in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. During his sermon he shared one man’s testimony about his own father’s generosity.

One time, my dad wanted to congratulate me on something I had accomplished in the sixth grade. He took me to K-Mart and made a wide sweeping gesture with his hand toward the whole store from the entrance. He said, “To congratulate you, I’ll buy you anything in this whole store tonight.” My eyes widened as I thought of the possibilities.

At the time, I didn’t have a full grasp on how money worked or how much money Dad had. So I sort of limited things in my mind. I didn’t even look at the huge stereo systems, expensive bikes, or anything that cost more than one hundred dollars. Instead, I chose a cassette tape case that was less than fifty dollars. I was content with just that case. It was more than I could afford myself, for sure, so I chose that one. It was nice. Only many years later did I find out from Dad that he had one thousand dollars cash in his pocket that night. What’s more, he brought his checkbook just in case that wasn’t enough. In my selection, I limited his blessing in my life. (Taken from Soul Shift by Steve DeNeff & David Drury, p. 55)

In commenting on this, Pastor Derick reflected…

The blessings were there for the taking because his dad was generous. But because he didn’t know how generous his dad was… he missed it. God is ready to give to you everything; everything that is good that He has to give… through the Gospel.

Don’t miss it. Don’t set your sights too low by asking for just health, or riches, or talent, or physical beauty or fame and success… God can give it, but those things don’t live up to the hype. Go for the best thing that God has to offer…the Gospel.

There you go. God has so much more to give you than the empty desires and fleeting pleasures of the world.  There is something better than health, wealth, fame, or fortune. There is something that far exceeds sex, money, or power. That is the gospel of Jesus Christ; the only thing that brings you, not only to creation, but to the Creator. The Gospel brings believers into more than we can ask for or imagine.

Don’t underrate God’s generosity. Take all that He offers.

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What If I Don’t Feel Like Worshipping?

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Dana Dill

worship-passionate-2“Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord who minister by night in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who is the Maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 134

Eugene Peterson:

Do that for which you were created and redeemed…Bless God.

We are invited to bless the Lord. We are commanded to bless the Lord. And then, someone says, “But I don’t feel like it and I don’t want to be a hypocrite. I can’t bless God if I don’t feel like blessing God! It wouldn’t be honest.” The Biblical response to that is, “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord.” You can lift up your hands regardless of how you feel. It is a simple motor movement. You may not be able to command your heart, but you can command your arms. Lift your arms in blessing. Just maybe your heart will get the message and lift it up also in praise. We are psychosomatic beings. Body and spirit are intricately interrelated. Go through the motions of blessing God and your spirit will pick up the cue and go along. For why do men lift their hands when they pray (1 Timothy 2:8)? Is it not that their hearts might not be raised at the same time to God?…Act your gratitude. Pantomime your thanks. You will become that which you do.

Many think that the only way to change your behavior is to first change your feelings. We take a pill to alter our moods so we won’t kick the dog. We turn on music to sooth our emotions so that our conversation will be less abrasive. But there is an older wisdom that puts it differently: by changing our behavior we can change our feelings. One person says, “I don’t like that man, therefore I will not speak to him. When and if my feelings change, I will speak.” Another says, “I don’t like that person, therefore I am going to speak to him.” The person, surprised at the friendliness, cheerfully responds and friendliness is shared. One person says, “I don’t feel like worshipping, therefore I am not going to church. I will wait until I feel like it and then I will go.” Another person says, “I don’t feel like worshipping, therefore I will go to church and put myself in the way of worship. In the process she finds herself blessed and begins, in turn, to bless.

Feelings don’t run the show. There is a reality deeper than our feelings; live by that.

Living in an age of sensation like today, this truth comes with astounding helpfulness. Our feelings, though important, can never be boss. Something that changes with the weather (our feelings) will never guide you safely anywhere. Feelings can be great liars. Therefore, the guiding order of our life must be this: (1) God’s truth determines (2) our actions which form (3) our feelings. Any other way is a recipe for destruction.

So, for your reflection, are your actions guided by how you feel or what God has said? Do your feelings direct your actions or do your actions direct your feelings?

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The Saturday Post(s)

Posted on May 10, 2014 by Dana Dill

Saturday Post

The Church is for Messy People. “Church should be a place where messy people feel comfortable. When I say “messy people”, I don’t mean people who are willfully engaging in unrepentant sin. I mean people who are seeking to follow Jesus, but who often find themselves struggling, and falling, and failing. I’m talking about the weak, weary, and worn out.”

8 Things I Want my Toddler to Thank His Mom for (In 20 Years). Very encouraging, instructive, and hope-filled.

Hey Science, You Can Thank Christianity for Your Existence. “An atheistic understanding of the universe does not naturally lead to the pursuit of science, nor does a supernatural view automatically lead there. Only in a culture with a belief in a rational, orderly, sovereign Creator—where it’s believed a reasonable mind is behind things—would science be likely to appear.”

“I Feel Super Great About Having an Abortion. A must read. “Emily Letts is a 25-year-old abortion counselor at the Cherry Hill Women’s Center in New Jersey whose video has gone viral…Emily Letts decided to make a video about her own abortion, and the result is one of the most disturbing video messages ever presented to public view.”

Scared. A Christian apologist, theologian, teacher, author speaks honestly about being scared. This was refreshing to my heart.

Liar, Lord, Lunatic…Legend? Why it would be silly to think that Jesus is simply a mere legend.

Too Cool. People do some amazing stuff.

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Jesus Isn’t Interested in Good People

Posted on May 9, 2014 by Dana Dill

jesus-saves-sinnersJesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 10:45

Rico Tice comments well on this passage:

It upsets religious people enormously to hear this powerful and authoritative figure say, “I can heal you, but if you don’t think you need a cure, you can forget it. I’m here for the sick.” Jesus makes it clear that people who think they are good enough without him don’t want his help, just a healthy people don’t want doctors. That’s a problem for a lot of us. As Tom Ripley says in The Talented Mr. Ripley: “Whatever you do, however terrible, however hurtful, it all makes sense in your head, doesn’t it? You never meet anybody that thinks they’re a bad person.” But Jesus says here, “I’ve come for people who realize that they’re bad people, for those who know that they’re living as rebels in God’s world.” In other words, for sinners.

So, the qualification for coming to Jesus is not “Are you good enough?” but “Are you bad enough?” Jesus is categorically not interested in people who think they are good. He is devoted to those who realize that they are bad. (Taken from Christianity Explored, p. 21)

It is terribly refreshing to remember that Jesus does not just save sinners, but He only saves sinners. No one will benefit from the saving work of Jesus other than sinners. No one goes to heaven because they are a good person. The only people who populate heaven are those who confess they only deserve hell.

This has tremendous power for those struggling with guilt on account of their sins. Martin Luther give us a great example of this in when he shared this story: “Once, when I was racked with pain and sin, Satan said, ‘Luther, you can’t be saved, for you are a sinner! ‘No,’ said Martin Luther, ‘I will cut your head off with your own sword. You say I am a sinner; I thank you for it…because Christ died for sinners, therefore he died for me.”

For the bad people. Are you a sinner? Have you turned your back on God, ignored His Law, and worshiped something else? Have you spit in the face of grace and lived in glad rebellion? Have you committed more sins than you can remember? Take heart, a Savior has come looking to save folks just like you: sinners.

For the good people. You really aren’t good (and you know that) and thinking you are good disqualifies you from the saving work of Jesus Christ. You may not think that is a great problem because you don’t think you need Jesus. Rest assured, your comfort is an illusion and your danger real. You are a like cancer patient who refuses to see the doctor and be properly diagnosed and treated. You live like you don’t have cancer, but it, not you, will have the final word. The longer you think your healthy, the more dangerous it becomes for you.

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The Backward, Upward, & Forward Look

Posted on May 5, 2014 by Dana Dill

J.C. Ryle | 1816-1900

J.C. Ryle | 1816-1900

J.C. Ryle:

The early Christians made it a part of their religion to look for His return.

Backward they looked to the cross and the atonement for sin, and rejoiced in Christ crucified.

Upward they looked to Christ at the right hand of God, and rejoiced in Christ interceding.

Forward they looked to the promised return of their Master, and rejoiced in the thought that they would see Him again. And we ought to do the same.

Taken from Practical Religion.

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The Saturday Post(s)

Posted on May 3, 2014 by Dana Dill

Saturday Post

Jesus, You Are Enough. Great article with a great challenge. “I’m challenged myself as I gaze around my room at the heaps of stuff – some of it useful, some of it decorative, some of it of sentimental value, some of it literally just stuff – with which I surround myself. If it were all stripped away, would Jesus be enough?”

Copernicus & the Scientific Revolution. Some evidence against the claim that Christianity is a hindrance to scientific progress. “More than 60 percent of those who jumpstarted the scientific revolution were religiously ‘devout.’ Clearly, holding a Christian worldview posed no barrier to doing excellent scientific work, and even seems to have provided a positive inspiration.”

7 Lessons from Failure. Although we avoid failure, there’s much to learn from it.

A Small God & a Big Storm. “How many times have I read or watched a news report about the devastation, caused by a tornado in some part of the country? Dozens maybe. I might have paused for a while, to think about the unimaginable power of the violent winds, or pondered what it would be like to lose everything I own in a storm…This time it was different. This time a friend of mine–and two of his children–died.”

Satan Cast Out. A very interesting book review on what seems to be a very good book on demonology. “Frederick Leahy’s Satan Cast Out began as a project, an assignment. Back in the 1970s the Foreign Mission Board of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Ireland asked Leahy to make a special study of demonology. They did this in response to phenomena that missionaries had been observing on the mission field. To that point very little had been written on the subject and it was discussed in only a passing way in seminaries…While his study is now nearly 40 years old, it remains in print and remains a powerful read.”

Love Was the Cause, Not the Consequence of the Cross. This is essential in understanding the cross of Christ. “The cross didn’t transform the Father into love, as if before the cross he was altogether and only angry and mean. The cross was itself the expression of God’s love! The cross of Christ came to pass because God already is love; not so that he might become love.

5 Reasons Why That Guy Didn’t Go to Heaven. Some helpful thoughts in here. “A little while ago, I got an e-mail from a pastor friend who was picking my brain about the whole “I went to Heaven” book industry since one of the largest and most successful fleece-job books is now becoming a movie…Here’s what I said to him…”

Calvin & Hobbes & the Gospel. A very important lesson taken from the comic of Calvin & Hobbes. It takes a bit to get to the point, but it’s well worth it. “Communicators need to understand their message well enough, organically enough, to pick an appropriate medium for getting it across.”

I’m a Textpert.

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15 Things to Remember When Criticized

Posted on May 1, 2014 by Dana Dill

critics5Mark Altrogge serves us well with these 15 things to remember when we are criticized:

View correction as a good thing: Ps 141:5 says: “Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness; let him rebuke me—it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it.” That’s how we should view the correction of a believer – as a blessing.

Remember the danger of being wise in your own eyes. As Pr 26:12 says, “Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.”

Consider that it may be really hard for this person to bring a negative comment to you – try to make it easy for them. Consider that if they didn’t love you they might not say anything.

Determine that you really want to hear and understand their concern, even if it hurts, or even if in the end you don’t agree.

Remind yourself that God gives grace to the humble, but resists the proud. You don’t want God resisting you.

Remember we all have blind spots. We all have logs in our eyes at times. We can’t know ourselves perfectly and can’t see ourselves as others see us. Maybe this is something we’re blind to.

Don’t be quick to defend yourself. God is perfectly able to defend you.

Don’t be formulating your rebuff while the other person is still speaking.

Ask questions. Draw them out. Seek clarification. Depending on the situation, take notes.

Don’t write off their concern because they don’t deliver it perfectly. Even if they share in anger, the content could still be accurate.

Even if most of what they share is inaccurate, there’s usually at least a grain of truth worth looking for in any criticism.

Believe God can and will speak to you through others to sanctify you.

If you don’t see it, tell them you really want to and that you will definitely consider it and pray about it.

Thank them for bringing this to you.

Ask them to point it out again any time they see you do it in the future.

May we always be teachable and humble as we remember and confess that we are worse than our worst critics could ever imagine. As Spurgeon puts it…

Brother, if any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him; for you are worse than he thinks you to be. If he charges you falsely on some point, be satisfied, because if he knew you better he might change the accusation, and you would be no better off by the correction. If you have your moral picture painted, and it is ugly, be satisfied; for it only needs a few blacker touches, and it would be still nearer the truth.

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Do You Plan to Pray?

Posted on April 30, 2014 by Dana Dill

GameChangersFew things have been as helpful for my practice of prayer than these few paragraphs. I hope they bless you as they bless me.

D.A. Carson:

Much praying is not done because we don’t plan to pray. We do not drift into spiritual life; we do not drift into disciplined prayer. We will not grow in prayer unless we plan to pray. That means we must self-consciously set aside time to do nothing but pray.

What we actually do reflects our highest priorities. That means we can proclaim our commitment to prayer until the cows come home, but unless we actually pray, our actions disown our words.

This is the fundamental reason why set times for prayer are important: they ensure that vague desires for prayer are concretized in regular practice. Paul’s many references to his “prayers” (Romans 1:10; Ephesians 1:16; 1 Thessalonians 1:2) suggest that he set aside specific times for prayer – as apparently Jesus himself did (Luke 5:16). Of course, mere regularity in such matters does not ensure that effective prayer takes place: genuine godliness is so easily aped, its place usurped by its barren cousin, formal religion. It is also true that different lifestyles demand different patterns: a shift worker, for instance, will have to keep changing the scheduled prayer times, while a mother of twin two-year olds will enjoy neither the energy nor the leisure of someone living in less constrained circumstances. But after all the difficulties have been duly recognized and all the dangers of legalism properly acknowledged, the fact remains that unless we plan to pray we will not pray. The reason we pray so little is that we do not plan to pray. Wise planning will ensure that we devote ourselves to prayer often, even if for brief periods: it is better to pray often with brevity than rarely but at length. But the worst option is simply not to pray – and that will be the controlling pattern unless we plan to pray. If we intend to change our habits, we must start here. (Taken from A Call to Spiritual Reformation, p. 20)

Let It Sink In

A few questions to help this truth sink in: When will you pray today? When will you pray tomorrow? Where will you pray? What will you pray for this week? What special prayer requests have been given to you?

In order to plan well make sure you…

Plan the Time. When? 6am? 10pm? During the kids nap time? Before work? Lunch break How long? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? 30 minutes?

Plan the Place. Favorite chair? Bed room? Office? Beach? Park? The parking lot as you are waiting for the kids to get out of school or sports practice?

Plan the Prayers. Since, you can’t fit everything into every prayer time: who/what will you pray for? Any particular Scripture you can use as a model? For instance, take note of the things Paul prayed for and pray the same kind of things for others (see 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Colossians 1:9-14; Philippians 1:9-11; Ephesians 1:15-23; Ephesians 3:14-21; Romans 15:14-33).

If you want to grow in your practice of prayer, you can’t do better than this book.

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This Can Ensure College Won’t Be Worthless to You

Posted on April 29, 2014 by Dana Dill

digit 2I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that listening to the warning in this post could make or break your college career. If you want to learn anything at all in college or be sharpened in any significant way, you have to listen to this.

Below is a section from the FAQ page of Alan Jacobs, the Distinguished Professor of the Humanities in the Honors Program at Baylor University in Waco, Texas:

Is it okay if I bring my laptop to class to take notes?

No, sorry, not any more. Now that Baylor offers wireless internet access in most classrooms, the university has provided you with too many opportunities for distractions. Think I’m over-reacting? Think you’re a master of multitasking? You are not. No, I really mean it. How many times do I have to tell you? Notes taken by hand are almost always more useful than typed notes, because more thoughtful selectivity goes into them; plus there are multiple cognitive benefits to writing by hand. And people who use laptops in class see their grades decline — and even contribute to lowering the grades of other people. Also, as often as possible you should annotate your books.

Before you dismiss this, I encourage you to check out the links provided in the above quote. The concept of multitasking is most definitely a myth. As for the laptop thing, having finished my Bachelor’s Degree and being half-way through my Master’s, I can attest that laptops can either be the best of friends or worst of enemies to your education. In any given class, at any time, the majority of students who are on their laptops are probably not present cognitively in the classroom. It’s not that they aren’t focusing, but they are focusing on something else (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, iMessage, etc.) besides what’s going on in the class.

But there’s more…

Are You Studying Christianly?

Screen-shot-2010-10-18-at-11.14.46-PMThis is an especially important note if you are a Christian. Unlike the majority of college students out there who are simply working for a degree so they can get a bigger paycheck, your college education means something more than clinching a good job for yourself. For the Christian, education is a gift from God that should be stewarded well by working diligently to grow in knowledge, character, and maturity. Christians should make the best students because they have the best Savior and the greatest purpose for studying hard: His glory. Every Christian student should work at their learning as if Jesus Himself was their professor (see Colossians 3:23). All classes and assignments should be done as a representative of Jesus Christ and done full heartedly for His honor and glory (Colossians 3:17). But, the sad truth I have experienced is that too many Christians are worldly students. We may sing, pray, and read our Bibles like saints, but, often times, we study like pagans.

So I ask you, what do you do in class? Do you listen? Do you think carefully and critically? Do you ask good questions and try to master whatever subject you’re in? Or are you on Facebook and wasting your time surfing the Interwebs? Are you taking your education seriously? Like it is an assignment entrusted to you from your King? Like it itself is an act of worship done in a way to please your Lord? Please, friends, don’t follow your non-believing classmates in their foolishness. Don’t waste your education. Let it never be said that the scholars of Satan are more studious than those of Christ.

Close the laptop. Silence the phone. Get a notebook and worship your way through class. “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17).

HT: Justin Taylor

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Are You Choosing Hell?

Posted on April 28, 2014 by Dana Dill

 

C.S. Lewis | 1898-1963

C.S. Lewis | 1898-1963

C.S. Lewis:

There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Your will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Your will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened. (Taken from The Great Divorce, p. 75).

 

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