“I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.” Romans 7:25

Being a saint and perfect Son of God can be VERY tiring! Have you noticed? I’ve heard it takes special material and a LOT of pressure, accompanied with time of course, to make a diamond. Pig poo??? Not so much! What?? You don’t like my reference? Well, my little cupcake, Let’s take a stroll!

While on vacation in the mountains my wife applauded my peace and serenity. She admitted, when I was that state of rest, that she had been worried about me before we left! She said I was so stressed out and mean, that she wasn’t sure she wanted to go to the mountains with this ogre! Now that we were there and the AHHHH factor had settled in… it turned out I was a pretty nice guy after all! She liked the nice guy. She even said, “I didn’t like you before we left! WHEW!!!!!! HARSH!!!!

I am a crazy man on the road. Being goal oriented and driven, I drive that way. In the mountains, where traffic is extremely limited, winding narrow roads don’t ALLOW for speed. And since death over a cliff isn’t my preferred method of dying, I can handle the occasional sight seer in front of me. Besides…wrecking a RENTAL car carries EXPENSIVE consequences! But now… I am home!

The very first time Katie and I rode together since back from vacation, she YELLED at me! Now it’s not like ‘I’ can yell. But I know her yell well! “HEY…STOP IT! Where’d MY MAN go?” Catching a look at myself in the rear-view mirror as I looked at the psycho woman I had just passed, I saw a tinge of green in my face. Like David Banner in ‘The Hulk,’ the ogre was coming back with a roar!

Paul was Psycho too! And YOU KNOW EXACTLY what that term means. Because it applies to YOU as well! Maybe not when behind a wheel. But YOU know! The term that sophisticated Christians use is ‘Agathokakological.’ And yes, please feel free to use it as you apply it to yourself…you sicko you! The term means what we all ARE…”that which consists of both good and evil!”

I have noticed that the road construction on U.S. 41, in places 6 plus lanes wide, are STILL under construction. And psyco people who drive SLOW… in the passing lane… by themselves… WEARING A MASK… have not left the area. Unfortunately…neither has the Ogre within me. But I am working on it with the help of the Holy Spirit… (SURE I am!).

I am SO grateful that Romans 7:25 STARTS with the promise of hope for me BEFORE it goes on to describe my state of agathokakologicalness! It says, ‘Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” And THAT is PRECISELY the method of turning pig poo into a diamond. Or a cupcake!

Are you familiar with the process?

Being led to guide us into the true purpose for which we were placed, I assigned that we all look through the Epistles to find out how the Patriarchs, (Paul, Peter, John etc.) prayed.  To discover the hows and whys, in an effort to find out just how WE should pray.  This miraculous undertaking has been filled with spiritual road pointers, so that there is NO DOUBT as to what God has in mind.  I just was led to this article that I simply must share.  May YOU find it enlightening as I did.  

Pray Until You Pray

A Simple Way to Begin Each Day  an article by Jonathan Parnell Pastor, Minneapolis, Minnesota

You begin every day with prayer, one way or another.

In his book The Common Rule, Justin Earley explains that unless we create new habits of gospel prayers in the morning, we’ll start the day with some kind of “prayer” we’ve borrowed from the world. Whether it’s anxiety-ridden regret or self-sufficient resolve, something fills our minds as soon as we awake, directing us to look beyond ourselves, or at least deeper within. And here’s the thing: unless we intend for our prayers to accord with truth, they won’t.

What would it mean to start the day differently — to pray according to truth? It would mean, for starters, that we don’t merely look beyond ourselves (and certainly not within), but to God alone. That sounds simple enough: start every day praying to God according to truth. We soon realize, however, that praying truth as a daily habit can feel complicated.

For one, regularly praying truth means we say many of the same words again and again. We address God in the same ways, declaring the same realities. We don’t say them in vain repetition, but we do repeat them. For example, God is truly our Father in heaven every time we pray, and so we say it — if not every time, at least repeatedly.

And unless we’re only asking God for various things, our praying will involve adoring God for his attributes (which never change) and thanking him for his gifts (which are constant), and this also means repetition. But in repeating the same truths, what if we slip into a kind of wooden formalism? What if we end up just going through the motions?

One Problem After Another

This is a danger. Habits, by definition, become second nature to us; we do them almost involuntarily, without needing to work up our wills. But if that’s where praying truth takes us, does that mean our prayers are insincere (or less sincere)? Have we just dug ourselves into a deeper hole? To remedy the first problem of not praying daily according to truth, have we now spun off a second problem of wooden formalism?

While wooden formalism is indeed possible, we also should consider the alternative danger of banking on creativity and spontaneity to carry our prayer life. How creative and spontaneous do we suppose we should be? Do we imagine that our praying to God should follow the same patterns of our dialogue with friends? Are we to approach him with no agenda, whether his or our own? Perhaps we assume we should pray as we’re guided by whatever seems to come up during our time together, as if we were sitting across from a trusted confidant, cup of coffee in hand.

As romantic and authentic as this idea might seem, the problem with this type of creative praying — at least for many of us — is its impracticality. It makes one especially vulnerable to what D.A. Carson calls “mental drift,” which makes sense given one obvious difference between God and your coffee friend: God is invisible (1 Timothy 1:17). It’s not easy to carry on a conversation with an invisible person. It takes locking in our minds and hearts with unusual energy, which tends to wane. One reason crises improve our prayer lives is that they focus us, at least for a season.

Mental Drift

Carson describes what he means by “mental drift” in his book Praying with Paul, and it’s safe to say the experience resonates with all of us. He gives the following example:

Dear Lord, I thank you for the opportunity of coming into your presence by the merits of Jesus. It is a wonderful blessing to call you Father. . . . I wonder where I left my car keys? [No, no! Back to business.] Heavenly Father, I began by asking that you watch over my family — not just in the physical sphere, but in the moral and spiritual dimensions of our lives. . . . Boy, last Sunday’s sermon was sure bad. I wonder if I’ll get that report written on time? [No, no!] Father, give real fruitfulness to that missionary couple we support, whatever their name is. . . . Oh, my! I had almost forgotten I promised to fix my son’s bike today. . . . (2)

At risk in this experience is that we become so discouraged, maybe even cynical, that we give up praying altogether. We are so bad at it that trying feels like a waste of time.

But if we understand that prayerlessness is the greatest danger, then a wandering mind or mindless repetitions suddenly become more normal, part of our humanness in this age. It’s redeemed humanness in that we’re praying, but humanness still in that praying is a struggle.

Repeating True Prayers Habitually

Carson addresses these and other ailments with several lessons on prayer, including, first, that we should plan to pray; and second, that we should adopt practical ways to impede mental drift during those appointments. Among these practical ways he mentions vocalizing our prayers, praying over Scripture, and journaling our prayers. Following the same line of thought, I would add repeating true prayers habitually. In other words, pray the same truths at the same points every day.

This method applies both pieces of Carson’s advice: it makes prayer a regular practice, and it keeps our prayers on track. By repeating true prayers habitually, we kill a few birds with one stone: we’ve eliminated prayerlessness, we’ve mitigated the possibility of mental drift, and inasmuch as these repeated prayers are indeed true, we’ve directed our prayers according to truth, which was our problem from the start.

The final piece, and the one impossible to script, is how we keep these prayers real. For that, we need the ongoing grace of God. At the same time, it’s worth noting that repeating certain sayings every day doesn’t necessarily make them insincere. For example, I say the exact same things to my wife and children every single day, even multiple times a day, and I’ve never not meant it, even if sometimes I might say it with more zest than at other times. Zesty praying is a worthwhile hope — and may God grant it! — but our first goal should be starting the day with genuine prayer that accords with truth. Now how does that look?

Starting Every Day

Every day, at the earliest possible moment — before you check your phone or your mind starts preparing for what’s ahead, but after you’re mentally aware enough to think — consider reciting a simple prayer full of truth.

In The Common Rule, Earley provides this example: “Spirit, I was made for your presence. May this day be one I spend with you in all that I do. Amen.” Another example is a four-part petition taken from Psalm 51, or perhaps one from Psalm 143, or many other such examples found in The Book of Common Prayer. If our prayer lives accompany a life of Bible reading, then we have fresh opportunities each day to stumble into another pathway for prayer. Listening to God is one of the greatest preparations for speaking to God.

If possible, consider making this simple prayer habit a mile-marker throughout your day, with different prayers repeated at morning, noon, and bedtime. But start with the morning, since it marks what many call a “keystone habit.” The idea there, popularized by Charles Duhigg’s best-selling The Power of Habit, is that not all habits are equal. Some habits have the power to start a chain reaction. Duhigg writes, “The habits that matter most are the ones that, when they start to shift, dislodge and remake other patterns” (101). Repeating true prayers, every morning, can have that effect.

Learn to Pray by Praying

To be sure, this is not the only praying we do, but it is the praying we’re sure to do. Often, it can become a jump-start to longer, more conversant prayers — as the Puritans liked to put it, we “pray until we pray.” Carson reminds us of this Puritan persistence, which means we should pray “long enough and honestly enough, at a single session, to get past the feeling of formalism and unreality” (18).

Indeed, would that God would make that our habit! If it already is, then disregard all that’s been said here. But if that goal is still ahead, fellow redeemed humans, repeating true prayers habitually, every morning, might be your best next step.

The late J.I. Packer puts this all in context, as quoted by Carson:

There is no recipe for prayer that can work for us like a handyman’s do-it-yourself manual or a cookery book, where the claim is that if you follow the instructions you can’t go wrong. Praying is not like carpentry or cookery; it is the active exercise of a personal relationship, a kind of friendship, with the living God and his Son Jesus Christ, and the way it goes is more under divine control than under ours. . . . As in other close relationships, so in prayer: you have to find out by trial and error what is right for you, and you learn to pray by praying. (19)

Jonathan Parnell (@jonathanparnell) is the lead pastor of Cities Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he lives with his wife, Melissa, and their eight children. He is the author of Mercy for Today: A Daily Prayer from Psalm 51. 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6

While I live in Florida (by choice), I have a family cabin (by grateful blessing) up in the Allegheny mountains. The flat terrain of home gives way to gorgeous vistas, foliage and the challenges that come by walking an incline. Along with the sights come trials and hardships of walking mountains since, no matter the destination, it is either up…or down. This makes every destination either work at worst, or a hike at best.

My father bought this slice of heaven almost fifty years ago, and it rests, almost at the base, of a mountain. Coming out the front door, out view is a mountain across the valley. Going out the back of the property is to go UP! One of the first things that I wanted to do when he bought it was to walk to the top of the mountain…just to see what was there! It is NOT a goal that very many adults have, because walking a mountain takes some skill.

Going up, one finds, is harder than it looks. These mountains don’t have shear cliffs and drops offs like you might see in the Rockies, so a hike is quite possible. When coupled with sweat, good boots and a walking stick, it can be done. I think the last time I walked the back yard it took about 45 minutes to get to the top. Getting up was less than HALF the adventure. It is coming DOWN that presents the bigger challenge!

Because these mountains are covered with trees of all types and sizes, the entire place is covered in dead leaves. This makes the going a little more tenuous since underneath, there are rocks, holes and decaying matter that God is turning into more dirt. When it rains or snows, it only makes the slopes more slippery. Grabbing onto tree saplings and pulling yourself up is one way. Making a walking stick to help pull oneself up is smart. Though coming DOWN with a stick CAN prove dangerous!

It’s easy to see that animals who live there have a different way of going up a mountain. Deer trails don’t got up and down, they traverse the mountain, gently crisscrossing as they ascend upward. This makes the trip to the top longer, but much less difficult. Me being me, I usually don’t think things through like that because, as they say, “the shortest distance between 2 points is a straight line.” I just can’t seem to get it it my head that taking a longer course can actually get me there in better shape! Something God knows much better than me.

The Bible verse today is actually one of my all time favorites. NOT because it started out that way. But because, over the long tenuous course of my life, I have LEARNED…the HARD way…that God does not lie! Me means EVERY WORD He says. But I, knowing as much as I did, and having tried to take the shortcut so many times, carry lifetime scars both inside and out. Eventually the rebel inside just gave up and started paying attention. Imagine my shock when what He said…proved true!

Coming DOWN a mountain, like coming off of a trial, fall or crisis, can be difficult. I learned to actually RUN down mountains as a kid. The trick is to go down HEELS FIRST, digging into the dirt as you go. I found that if I started to slide, I could actually use my momentum to my advantage. Coming DOWN is faster than going up! But falls are more common.

Life is a mountain. Falls, hardships and pain are inevitable. But God! He SAID that He would have me, IF I would put HIM FIRST. Deer Christian… the question is…do YOU?

Fire

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire.'” Hebrews 12:28-29

My lovely wife loves fire! One of the greatest highlights for her, when we visit ‘The Cabin’, is to sit around the fireplace in the evening. Which isn’t a surprise. Most people do! The cool mountain air becomes much more cozy when sitting in front of a warm fire. The light and sounds coming off of a well built fire only add to the ambiance. But first, someone has to BUILD a fire! That someone…is me!

Now before I get started, I don’t want to sound like I am an expert woodsman. Though I HAVE had LOTS of practice and have cut more than my share of wood! I learned how to build fires as a Boy Scout, then taught it through the years as a scout leader. But having ‘The Cabin’ forces me to put the ‘walk’ in my ‘talk.’ It doesn’t matter how much I KNOW if I can’t, or don’t, choose to apply it! ‘The Cabin’ is my proving ground.

A fire is nothing more than the rapid oxidation of a material in a chemical process called combustion. This process releases heat, light and other products in the form of ash, gas etc. Now almost no one knows this…though any kid with a match can replicate it well enough. But BUILDING a fire is NOT as easy as it seems. Without proper methods, materials and skill, I have watched MANY a person try! I CAN say, without doubt or braggery, that if you want a fire…I’m your guy! Which means ‘I’m’ the one that usually has to do the WORK involved in creating the ambiance! Which also means, I’m the one that usually smells the most like smoke!

There are tools that I have at ‘The Cabin’ that I DON’T have at home. Saw’s, splitters, wedges and mauls are needed to cut, trim, split and chop trees into actual fuel for a fire. There are things to know in order to do all of this, but nothing compares to the amount of energy and work needed to actually DO it! But I have to admit…I like it!

It’s actually enjoyable cutting big logs, splitting them down to size and then stacking them! Katie encouraged our joining a gym last year and honestly, I don’t really care for it. When I’m exerting energy necessary for a fire, at least I can SEE something from my sweat. It gives my efforts a point! A tangible goal or reason to actually do it!

There are different kinds of trees in the forest, and knowing them is important. Some, like pine, are called softwood. Others, like oak, ash and maple, are called hardwood. I have a saying up there that ‘softwood is for lookin’, and hardwood is for cookin’! The comment, “nice fire,” usually comes after seeing several big chunks of softwood are ablaze and brightening up the area. Hardwood burns hotter but isn’t as pretty at night. When it’s cold, the women like when I use both kinds so that the fire burns hot AND bright as well.

The process of fire takes a lot of effort and time. After cutting, hauling, splitting, stacking and drying, one needs to know HOW to actually BUILD a fire. And there are several types…tepee, box and lean-to fires just to name a few. It takes tinder, kindling, sticks and logs to eventually get the fire to the comfort level my wife likes. And just because it may have rained during the day is NO excuse to NOT have a fire at night! So learning to build a fire in wet and adverse conditions is a must. And yes.. I have stories!

God is a consuming fire! That is what the Bible verse says, so it MUST MEAN something! And it does. Ask anyone who has lost their home to a fire and they will tell you how devastating fire can be. Fire has no tolerance for anything less than itself. If something CAN be consumed, it WILL be. And unless the fire is stopped or put out, it will continue to burn and rage until there is no fuel left. And that is EXACTLY HOW GOD operates!

My flesh is consumable. Born in sin, I have NO HOPE of EVER becoming anything more than what I am. A sinner! And since God CANNOT tolerate ANYTHING LESS than Himself, something has to happen OUTSIDE of myself to make me tolerable to Him. And THAT something, is His Son, Jesus Christ. HE is ‘The One’ who takes my life, burns it to the ground and rebirths me into His image. It’s a LOT of work on His part. But He likes it! After all the years of being the object of His affection and the recipient of his light and warming love…so do I!

I have found that when I go to ‘The Cabin’ I am drawn to the woodpile, the fire place and the tools. I look forward to spending the time and energy it takes to make something lovely out of something dead and lifeless. It is no accident that I get the same results when I approach God each morning with His Word in my hands. As I voluntarily yield myself to the Master’s consuming fire, I am changed. Neither of us regret the process. And if I smell like His smoke and look brighter because of the process…well… isn’t that the point!

Are YOU on fire? If so, how hot and bright ARE you?

Cabin Chronicles

Somewhere, up in the mountains is a place we call, “The Cabin.” Which is a funny name for a building that USED to be a Church! And while I’ve been going up to those mountains all of my life, I only acquired this slice of Heaven back in 1974. My grandfather had a cabin north of us where I learned to walk and where I spent a great part of my childhood summers. Since God blessed us with our own, we have the joy of going to ‘The Cabin’ every summer to get away, rejuvenate and relax. It is the PERFECT place to spend time with Jesus. The following are just some of the blessings.

Mountain Spring

“Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Jesus John 4:14

People look at me funny when I tell them we don’t have running water up there! It’s like they can’t figure how someone could even LIVE without it! But we manage just fine. There’s a creek below in the valley for baths and, yes…it gets COLD! But we have a saying at the cabin, “It feels good once you get in!” Like with much of life…AND with a life of following, Jesus, it’s the initial ‘getting IN’ that’s the only problem!

Since we don’t have running water, we don’t have a bathroom toilet either! For that, we have our very own ‘Outhouse!’ And a fine one it is! When it comes to drinking and cooking water, we have what many of the small town folk still rely on, by choice! Simply called, ‘The Spring,’ it is a pipe that was stuck in the mountainside, and from which flows what WE think is the cleanest, coldest water in the world. Other than the pipe, it isn’t much different than the method folks used to get water back in Jesus day!

When we need water, we gather up our old milk jugs we have used in previous years, thread a rope through about 20 of them, and head to the spring. Like most things, there is a method to ‘getting water’. After removing the cap, we rinse out the jug, then blow HARD into it to make sure there’s no leak. We then rinse it out, fill and cap it, and take it back to the Cabin, where we let it set until the temperature drops and the condensation disappears off the jug. We have a special shelf inside to store them when they are dry. These last few years, as our family has grown, my daughter Cori added 5 gallon water jugs AND a battery operated dispenser! I guess we’re modernizing… but SLOWLY and in Cabin style!!

Back in Jesus day, it was the woman’s job to fetch water from the town well. There was no real STANDARD size for how big their water pots were. But at 8 pounds per gallon, plus the weight of the clay jar, it COULDN’T have been more than 1 or 2 gallons. I can’t imagine trying to fill up a 25 to 30 gallon water crock inside the house! That would be a LOT of walking and carrying! And SOOOO many little trips would need to be made to keep a family supplied. With CONSERVATION ALWAYS on the mind!

EVERYONE likes to ‘go get water’ when we first get to the cabin. The kids like it the best! But after a while, getting water becomes more like WORK than an adventure. Necessity becomes the motivation, and to the responsible family member with love at the center of every action, it really isn’t WORK as much as it is SERVICE! Which is why Jesus talked about and used water for MANY illustrations.

By the time I manage to GET to the cabin in the summer, I am PARCHED! Thirsty to get away, have a break and get renewed. But even though we have the ‘BEST’ water in the world up there, it isn’t water that I crave. It is HIM! I make a living at making Jesus available to others. But I STILL need to drink from His well myself. As I sat there this year, I was struck by the awesomeness of my life with Jesus Christ for well over 50 years. After ‘drinking a living’ from ‘His well supplied’ life, I can honestly say that He has NEVER lied to me. His Life is STILL the ONLY REAL thirst quencher for my soul. The ONLY thing that satisfies me.

What about YOU? What truly satisfies YOUR thirsty soul? 

We are His hands and feet and heart.  As you go through your day, I pray that YOUR eyes, feet and heart are submitted to Jesus.  Then go do what He asks.

Lord, Spare Our Land – How Revival Begins in America

Article by Greg Morse Staff writer, desiringGod.org

As I walked into the coffee shop, I thought I had wandered into a painting. Vibrant blues, and greens, and yellows, and oranges were displayed all over the store. Tie-dye shirts on every employee, banners strewn overhead. Why the celebration? Before I had time to ask, I saw the back of one of the rainbow-colored shirts: “PRIDE.”

The rainbow, the sign of God’s covenant to Noah, promising never again to drown the world of sinful men with a flood, the drawn bow pointed up at the heavens, now used as a mascot for sexual deviance. Though our nation champions Sodom’s sins, we have not learned from Sodom’s censure (2 Peter 2:6). We receive advertisements for sins that bar millions from the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9–10), as we order our morning coffee.

Of course, homosexual sin is just one of the many abominations to which our nation lends colorful support. Heterosexual sins of fornication, adultery, and pornography saturate our television shows, movies, and the magazines lining our checkout lines. Half-naked women whisper from billboards driving to work. Shower scenes come unbidden in commercials and pop-up ads. The indoctrination of transgenderism confuses and abuses many children.

While our societies are flooded with proud corruption, Christians sometimes wonder what can be done.

We need to confront the darkness surrounding us, but along with cultural engagement — above cultural engagement even — stands the need for us to define and cultivate the purity of the church. In this we can learn a hidden secret from the intercession of Abraham for Sodom and Gomorrah: Fire fell on Sodom not only because of the thousands of brazenly wicked people, but because there were not even ten righteous among them.

When God Counts to Ten

The story is well-known in the church. God discloses his decision to destroy the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to Abraham because God plans to make him into a mighty nation that would bless other nations. He would command his household and the next generation to walk in righteousness and justice — a righteousness these two wicked cities had not known (Genesis 18:18–19).

After hearing of the judgment that would fall upon Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham asks the Lord, Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? (Genesis 18:23–24)

God agrees not to destroy the cities if there were fifty.

Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five? (Genesis 18:27–28)

God agrees not to destroy the cities if there were 45.

With reverence, Abraham moves from 45 to 40 to 30 to 20 to just 10. God receives the mediation: “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it” (Genesis 18:32). He was willing to spare an entire, unholy city from destruction for the sake of just ten people.

Spared for the Sake of One

But ten were not found.

And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace. (Genesis 19:27–28)

Abraham climbs the mount expectantly. Had God spared the city? He looked and saw it ablaze.

Indeed, we know of only one definitively: Lot, the nephew for whom Abraham had pled. Had Lot perished in the fire of the wicked? Had Abraham’s intercession been for nothing?

No, Genesis tells us in great detail how God saved Lot. Angels went to the city and commanded him to flee with those of his house. And even when he lingered, they physically grabbed him and his family by the hand and “brought him out” for “the compassion of the Lord was upon him” (Genesis 19:16 NASB). His story is a lasting example, reminding us that even while unholy cities go down in flames and sin, “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials” (2 Peter 2:9).

For Lot’s sake, a small town was also spared. Zoar (i.e. “little”) is the place where Lot is permitted to flee for refuge from God’s wrath. Abraham’s intercession had not failed; the righteous was not swept away with the wicked, as the text makes clear:

So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived. (Genesis 19:29)

Cities fell for lack of ten who followed the Lord, but the righteous man was spared, along with his little town, because of the intercession of a faithful mediator.

Where God Begins

Revival of a nation, should God be pleased to grant it, begins in the church.

As we take thoughts captive to obey Christ, we must not forget to obey him ourselves. How easy it becomes to hate other men’s sins more than our own; a nation’s drift more than the church’s. For the past two thousand years, it has been the “time for judgment to begin at the household of God” (1 Peter 4:17). And if God sees fit to begin at the household of God, so should we. Is this not the focus of all our New Testament letters?

Our gaze should turn first within, on the vitality of Christ’s church, and this can and will be a blessing for a nation. Our God has, in history, spared nations — or at least Zoars — for the sake of his righteous few.

What Might God Do Now?

Isn’t it amazing that God orchestrates his world, including the rise and fall of nations, with such a consideration for his people?

The Christian church, even when abused or ignored, is the backbone of any land. God rules the world in consideration of their good (even when their “good” includes refining fires of persecution, 1 Peter 1:6–7). His curses and blessings, his ways and his mysterious acts of providence, all serve his own glory and the eternal benefit of his people — neither impeding the other.

Yet we can feel so small, so insignificant, so powerless. Perhaps we believe ourselves a dutiful afterthought of a God busily lording the world. We can look at the celebrities, the wealthy, the elite, and think that they hold all the influence.

But while great men in expensive suits make great speeches about important decisions, the Monarch of mankind bends his ear to little children. He who holds the hearts of kings in his hand (Proverbs 21:1) considers how all decisions will affect them.

Should we not rightfully believe that the command center of this world, the place where real influence is wrought, is in the secret place of faithful Christian living? Even evil Queen Mary knew this when she confessed, “I fear John Knox’s prayers more than all the assembled armies of Europe.”

If God spared the lives of many for a few, if the heroic efforts of individual men, through faith, “conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight” (Hebrews 11:33–34) — what might a praying, loving, waiting, expecting church do in a nation like ours?

Greg Morse is a staff writer for desiringGod.org and graduate of Bethlehem College & Seminary. He and his wife, Abigail, live in St. Paul with their son and daughter.

Ahhhhhh… after so many of us going through SO many difficulties…from death, sickness, surgeries, money issues and threats from Covid and other unknowns, I find myself tired.  I need a breather!  But please note I DID NOT say I was DISCOURAGED!  Oh NO NO NO NO NO!  Even Jesus took breaks to commune with His Father and get re-centered.  But difficulties have served, over the years, to make me stronger and even MORE defiant against the things that are against God.    I do not doubt Him.  Even though I do not have a map of where He is going.  In fact, I feel sorry for those who do not put their faith in His Love.  I can even laugh at circumstances, some of which “I” have created myself, that would point to my own demise.   Oh no!  Romans 8:28 is a sword!  Not a Kleenex!  A tank!!!  Not a pill.  God WILL PREVAIL!  Even when I don’t know how!  

Article by David Mathis Executive Editor, desiringGod.org

Making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple. (John 2:15)

He made a whip. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild. It was “a whip of cords,” John reports. Whether any human or animal actually caught it on the backside, we don’t know. We might reasonably doubt he drew any blood. After all, he came to Jerusalem to spill his own blood, not to take it from others. Either way, we do know the whip was effective. “He drove them all out of the temple.”

True, this was an unusual event, but it was not unique — he would do it again at the outset of his Passion Week (Matthew 21:12–13). Jesus didn’t go around wielding whips on a regular basis. He didn’t keep a whip or weapon on his belt. But he also wasn’t afraid to pick one up from time to time. So we dare not reduce the God-man to someone too docile to do anything but play nice and keep thin peace.

He was tender. Oh, the compassion of Christ — a virtue attributed only to Christ, and no other, in the Gospels. His tenderness led him to heal lepers (Luke 17:13–14), to restore sight to the blind (Luke 18:38–42), to help a grieving widow (Luke 7:13) and the distressed father of a demonized son (Mark 9:22). He had compassion on the crowds (Mark 6:34). Even as God in the flesh, without any sin of his own, his life was not driven by righteous anger but sustained by joy. He was known for his compassion.

His wonderful, welcoming tenderness, however, need not rule out his holy strength and grit. In fact, it must not. If he had no spine, it wouldn’t be nearly so precious to know his heart.

His Piercing Tongue

His tenderness, which we love and so desperately need, is all the more striking because of his toughness toward sin and unbelief. His compassion for the afflicted would be undermined if not flanked by righteous anger toward their afflicters. He emphatically did not demonstrate compassion for wicked kings, conniving priests, and self-righteous Pharisees — which makes his tenderness all the more precious as he turns to his trusting sheep.

“It is often the offensive side of Jesus that we need most,” writes John Piper.

Especially offensive to the modern, western sentiment is the tough, blunt, fierce form of Jesus’s love. People with thin skin would have often felt hurt by Jesus’s piercing tongue. People who identify love only with soft and tender words and ways would have been repeatedly outraged by the stinging, almost violent, language of the Lord. (Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, 93)

“Christ’s tenderness is all the more striking because of his toughness toward sin and unbelief.”

In Christ, we see that compassion incarnate will, at times, take up the veritable whip of strong words to sting imperiled addressees. Memorable, of course, is Jesus’s pronouncement of sevenfold woe on the Pharisees (Matthew 23:1–36). To their faces, he said they were “like whitewashed tombs” (Matthew 23:27), “like unmarked graves” (Luke 11:44). Jesus found himself in the midst of a “faithless generation” (Mark 9:19), “an evil and adulterous generation” (Matthew 16:4), and he wasn’t afraid to say it. He assumed his hearers were fallen, even evil, and named it (Matthew 7:11).

And he informed his recalcitrant opponents to whom they truly belonged: “You are of your father the devil” (John 8:44).

Hard Words to Friends

We should not mistake “the tough, blunt, fierce form of Jesus’s love” as a severity reserved for his foes, though. Even Peter, first among equals, felt the verbal lash — and it was a grace to him.

Looking back, what a horror for Peter, to think he took Jesus aside and tried to redirect him from obedience to the point of death, even death on a cross (Matthew 16:22). But Jesus rescued himself, and Peter, from the all-too-powerful temptation, with the shocking and appropriate, “Get behind me, Satan!” (Matthew 16:23). In hindsight, Peter would see it as love. So too, all his disciples have our moments when, like Peter, we need to be stunned wide awake to all that’s at stake in this life.

In John 6, Jesus’s offensive language turns away the crowds — not foes, mind you, but those who were, to this point, following him (even if presumptuously). Here Jesus is not seeker-friendly. “You are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves” (John 6:26). He challenged the carnality of their “faith” with confounding language designed to drive away those with no spiritual apprehension.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. (John 6:53–54)

Even his own disciples had to confess, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” (John 6:60). And he did not relent even then, this time speaking of another disciple, not Peter: “One of you is a devil” (John 6:70).

Hard Words to Families

Genuine, deep, lasting peace is his goal, and Jesus knows hard words are often vital to that goal. When Satan and sin have taken root, we dare not pretend there is peace when there is not.

First, Jesus comes as Truth into a world of lies, and division ensues. “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! . . . Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Luke 12:49, 51). Even our most basic of bonds, even the most intimate of earthly peace, will be broken to reveal the wickedness of sin and worth of God.

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. . . . Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26, 33)

You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. (Luke 21:16–17)

I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. (Matthew 10:35–36)

“We need the whole Jesus, the real Jesus. Both gentle and lowly, and honest and courageous.”

Who else can demand such allegiance? Even short-term peace in our own homes, and extended families, will be challenged by the uncomfortable, tough side of Christ. And on the far side, he promises to make up for every loss — and they are genuinely painful losses. “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time . . . and in the age to come eternal life” (Mark 10:29–30).

Hard Words to Churches

Jesus’s strong words, even for his own people, appear again in his seven letters to the churches in Revelation 2–3. Along with his words of praise to the church in Ephesus (Revelation 2:3), he cuts to the chase: “I have this against you . . .” (Revelation 2:4; cf. 2:20). He warns, “I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent” (Revelation 2:5).

So too to the church at Pergamum: “I have a few things against you” (Revelation 2:14). And he speaks to the church at Thyatira of “that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols” (Revelation 2:20). And to the church at Sardis: “You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead” (Revelation 3:1). And of course to Laodicea: “Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16). In the mouth of Christ, this is love — tough words, for love’s sake: “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline” (Revelation 3:19).

Again Piper writes, What we meet in the biting language of Christ is a form of love that corresponds with the real world of corruption and the dullness of our hearts and the magnitude of what is at stake in our choices. If there were no great evils and no deaf hearts and no eternal consequences, perhaps the only fitting forms of love would be a soft touch and tender words. But such a world does not kill the Son of God and hate his disciples. There is no such world. (94)

Coming Omnipotent Wrath

In the end, hard words, and a whip in the temple, will not prove to be the height of Christ’s severity. One day his wrath will fall, not with words, but in fire. And no one spoke about hell like Jesus, or more often than he did. The angels will separate the evil from the righteous, he says, and “throw them into the fiery furnace” (Matthew 13:50). Better to cut off a hand, or gouge out an eye, than to go to “the unquenchable fire . . . where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:43, 48) — to “the outer darkness” where “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12; 22:13; 25:30). Apart from Christ, humans will not only coast and choose hell; they will be thrown there, into “eternal punishment” — “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:30, 41, 46).

Revelation 6 gives us a stunning glimpse of the coming final judgment. A sixth seal is opened. The earth quakes, the sun goes dark, the moon turns to blood. Stars fall, and the sky is rolled back like a scroll. The earth’s kings and “the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful . . . hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains” (Revelation 6:15). So terrified are they at “the wrath of the Lamb” that they call to the mountains and rocks to fall on them: “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:16–17). They would rather be crushed to death than to face the omnipotent wrath of gentle Jesus, tender and tough.

Tough Serves Tender

The tough side of Christ, the words and acts hardest on modern stomachs, is not instead of his tenderness, but in service of his mercy. He doesn’t rescue us to rough us up; he roughs us up to rescue us. He shows wrath and makes his power known “in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory” (Romans 9:22–23). In the coming ages, having seen his toughness and strength, we will see, and enjoy, “the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us” (Ephesians 2:7). His toughness serves his tenderness; his power serves his mercy.

The glory of Christ and his Father, at its apex, is the glory not of wrath and power, but of mercy and grace. We need this Jesus, the whole Jesus, the real Jesus. Both gentle and lowly, and honest and courageous. We need ears to hear the love and compassion of Christ even in his most piercing words and uncomfortable acts.

David Mathis (@davidcmathis) is executive editor for desiringGod.org and pastor at Cities Church in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is a husband, father of four, and author of Habits of Grace: Enjoying Jesus Through the Spiritual Disciplines.

This has been an issue with Believers forever.  With Disney proclaiming it in cartoon form, “Just Follow your Heart,”  it is easy to get confused and make the wrong decisions.  This article is WELL worth your reading.

Article by Jon Bloom Staff writer, desiringGod.org

“Why shouldn’t I follow my heart? If I am a Christian — if God has caused me to be ‘born again’ and has given me ‘a new heart’ — isn’t my new heart trustworthy?”

Readers have raised some version of this objection when I’ve exhorted Christians, “Don’t follow your heart.” And the objection is warranted. After all, the Bible clearly teaches that in this era of the new covenant, God writes his law on our new hearts so that we willingly follow him (Jeremiah 31:31–34; Hebrews 8:8–12). This would seem to not merely imply, but even mandate, that Christians should follow their hearts.

But the Bible’s description of what a regenerated person actually experiences in this age reveals a more spiritually and psychologically complex picture — one that I believe gives Christians biblical warrant to cultivate a healthy suspicion of what they recognize as their hearts’ desires. So, while we may, and hopefully will, reach a point in our lives as Christians where it’s right, at times, to follow our hearts, allow me to make a brief case that the phrase actually undermines Christians as they labor and struggle to discern their various desires, and that Scripture itself discourages us from thinking this way.

War Within

How might we summarize the complex picture the Bible paints of the born-again experience in this already-not-yet age?

The New Testament explains that when the Spirit brings us from spiritual death to spiritual life (John 5:24; Romans 6:13), we enter a strange new reality. Our regenerated new self emerges, “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” And yet our “old self, which belongs to [our] former manner of life,” is still “corrupt through deceitful desires” (Ephesians 4:22–24). We are “born of the Spirit” (John 3:6) while still inhabiting the “flesh,” our “body of death” in which “nothing good dwells” (Romans 7:18, 24).

“The hearts of regenerated people are not yet fully free from the influence of their flesh.”

When Christians are born again, we enter into a lifelong internal war where “the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:17). Stepping back and viewing these desires objectively, “the works of the flesh” that result from fleshly desires “are evident,” and so is “the fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:19–23). But Christians often struggle — on the ground, in real time — to discern the desires of the Spirit from the desires of the flesh.

This is why the New Testament Epistles are full of exhortations and corrections addressed to Christians. James tells his readers (and us at relevant times) that their “passions are at war within” them (James 4:1). Peter warns his readers (and us), “Do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance” (1 Peter 1:14). Paul describes this internal experience of warring passions as “wretched” (Romans 7:24). And he admonishes the Colossian Christians (and us) with strong language: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5).

Why did these apostles feel the need to speak this way to regenerated people? Because the hearts of these regenerated people were not yet fully free from the influence of their flesh, their old selves.

Follow the Spirit

Much of the Christian life is a war to die to remaining sin and live by the Spirit. John Piper calls it “the main battle of the Christian life”:

The main battle is to see our hearts renovated, recalibrated, so that we don’t want to do those sinful external behaviors, and don’t just need willpower not to do them, but the root has been severed and we have different desires. In other words, the goal of change — of sanctification, of the Christian life — is to be so changed that we can and ought to follow our desires.

That’s exactly right. And when we have been so changed through progressive sanctification, so renovated that our hearts (and therefore our desires, dispositions, motives, emotions, and passions) are, as Piper says, “calibrated to Christ,” then we should follow our hearts.

However, at any given time within our churches, small groups, friendships, and families, different Christians are at different places for different reasons in this heart-renovation process. Some hearts are more sanctified, and therefore more reliable to follow, than others. I think that’s why we don’t hear the apostles generally counsel us to follow our hearts in our fight of faith against remaining sin, but rather to follow the Holy Spirit.

Let Not Sin Reign

Paul is the one who delves most deeply into this issue: “I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). He devotes most of Romans 6–8 to explaining the nature of the strange new-self/old-self, Spirit/flesh reality of the Christian life, including Romans 8:13: “If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

Paul lays the theological foundation of our understanding by explaining “that our old self was crucified with [Christ] in order that [our] body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin” (Romans 6:6). Our new selves were “raised with Christ” (Colossians 3:1) so that “we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Therefore, we “must consider [ourselves] dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). In light of this, Paul admonishes us,

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:12–14)

And how do we do this? By learning to “set [our] minds on the things of the Spirit” and not on “the things of the flesh” (Romans 8:5) — by learning to follow the Spirit, to “walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16), because “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:14).

Follow the Treasure

One of the reasons I find “follow your heart” generally unhelpful as counsel for Christians is that many of us, from the time we were young, have absorbed this as a pop-cultural creed that says if we just look deep into our hearts, we’ll be shown our deepest truth, and discover the way we should go. Given the significant amount our sinful flesh still influences our hearts, it’s not hard to see how this phrase can easily increase confusion when applying it to the Christian life.

“Some hearts are more sanctified, and therefore more reliable to follow, than others.”

I also don’t believe the Bible encourages that idea since, when it comes to engaging our hearts, far and away what we hear in it is counsel to “direct our hearts,” not to follow them. We see that clearly in Paul’s instructions above. God made our hearts to follow, not to lead. And what do our hearts follow? Jesus gives the clearest answer: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). In time, our heart always pursues (follows) our treasure.

When we are born again, the eyes of our hearts are enlightened (Ephesians 1:18) and, through faith, we begin to see the Treasure: God himself in Christ. And since our heart learns to pursue the object that stirs its greatest affections, its treasure, I suggest we not counsel each other to “follow your heart,” but instead to “follow the Treasure.” Looking into our hearts for direction can be spiritually hazardous. It is usually more helpful for us to direct our hearts to what is most valuable and delightful. Which is why I believe David counsels us, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).

Jon Bloom (@Bloom_Jon) serves as teacher and co-founder of Desiring God. He is author of three books, Not by Sight, Things Not Seen, and Don’t Follow Your Heart. He and his wife have five children and make their home in the Twin Cities.

“Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.’” Genesis 4:6-7

I noticed it about Thursday of last week… at the time… it was just a faint whiff! But it was a whiff enough to know that something in the church had died. I’m still not sure if it was denial, laziness or a case of wishful thinking, but I must admit that I didn’t really look TOO hard. By Sunday morning, when I opened up the Church, reality hit and my countenance fell! As the seats began to fill, a thorough investigation came up empty. The question on most people’s lips was, “What’s that smell?”

I am experienced in the rat department. I find that rats are like colds, bills and taxes! They seem to come in seasons. I had already caught 5 outside my house last week, and the smell of decay hadn’t yet left my nose, if it ever does! But there I was, dressed in my Sunday-go-to-meetin’ clothes, facing my failure. If I had only investigated more carefully! Now…it was only 10 minutes before service was to start!

I had already sprayed half a can of air freshener throughout the place. SOME people were even fooled! But not most! Facing the situation realistically I did what ANYONE might do. I had a mini-meltdown! Grabbing 3 of my tough guys I said, “Look.. I am tired of always having to do the dirty work around here! Can you give me a hand and FIND THAT RAT?” 7 minutes later it was pulled from the attic and everyone began to breathe a little easier!

Now this story is an example of what ‘The Church’ is really all about! In the story of Cain and Able, a stench was already settling around Cain when God pulled up a stool, looked into Cain’s eyes and shot that warning off to him. And don’t think for a moment that God didn’t KNOW what Cain was going to end up doing, after the crouching sin entered Cain’s heart, it turned to complete stink! But God HAD to let free will choose! And Cain ended up a stink-pot forever!

I need tough guys and gals around me to hold me accountable and to point out the stink in my life. Sometimes I can’t smell it myself! Other times, I deny it’s there or try to mask it. But the stink of sin is even MORE nauseating than a dead rat. Sooner or later, it takes it’s toll and ruins who and whatever it touches. I find God’s words to Cain are prophetic to ALL of us. Jesus died for us, but even HIS rat removal system cannot have an effect if He isn’t contacted and allowed access to the stench.

If YOU’VE got stench? Who are YOU gonna call???