Thoughts on Idolatry

I found these quotes on my Pastors blog this morning. It is ironic, last night during Bible study I was referencing this book as we were studying through Romans 6 and we got to talking about the topic of Idolatry.

“What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything that you seek to give you what only God can give.


“A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would hardly feel worth living. An idol has such a controlling position in your heart that you can spend most of your passion and energy, your emotional and financial resources, on it without a second thought. It can be family and children, or career and making money, or achievement and critical acclaim, or saving ‘face’ and social standing. It can be a romantic relationship, peer approval, competence and skill, secure and comfortable circumstances, your beauty or your brains, a great political or social cause, your morality and virtue, or even success in the Christian ministry. When your meaning in life is to fix someone else’s life, we may call it ‘co-dependency’ but it is really idolatry.


“An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, ‘If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.’ There are many ways to describe that kind of relationship to something, but perhaps the best one is worship.”


-- Tim Keller, “Counterfeit Gods” (Dutton) p.xviii

What is my aim in following Jesus

When we think about it, what in my mind and life drives my following Jesus?
Do I subconsciously think that I can obediently follow Jesus in my own way and strength?
What does God's Law require of us?
Can you live up to all this perfectly?

"Many people, well meaning church leaders included, are eager to boil down Christianity to the great commandments, or the Sermon on the Mount, or the Beatitudes, or Micah 6:8, or some other powerful summary of God's ethical intentions. But if all I have are God's ethical intentions for my life, I am in a worse fix....My own efforts to be a good person are, in comparison to what God requires of me, positively miserable. I'll be damned, discouraged, and dismayed if being a follower of Jesus means nothing but a new set of things I'm supposed to do for Him. Instead, my following Jesus should be, first of all, a declaration of all that He has done for me."

This is from "Lord's Day 2" which is found in Kevin DeYoung's new book
The Good News We Almost Forgot

Impoverished Christian Walk

I was reading tonight in Chamber's "My Utmost for His Highest".
Today's section had this quote in it:

"The reason some of us are such poor specimens of Christianity is because we have no Almighty Christ. We have Christian attributes and experiences, but there is no abandonment to Jesus Christ."

God's Providence

Providence is mysterious. It must never be used to justify wrong actions or to mitigate sin: Isaac and his family are more than a little sleazy, Judas is a deceitful wretch, Haman is vile, and the Roman court trying Paul is more than a little corrupt. Yet God sovereignly rules, behind the scenes, bringing glory out of gore and honor out of shame.

See the rest of the article here
This quote comes from - For the Love of God by D A Carson

"Just Do Something"

When you think of discerning God’s will, what initially comes to your mind? Probably if you are like me, that is growing up in the Christian culture you will think of things like “ open or closed doors” , a peace or mind, fleece, known or unknown, or difficult or easy. Well I would have to be honest and say that four years ago I was really struggling in the area of knowing or discerning God’s will for my life. At that time God used some of my Bible classes at New Tribes to open my mind to some new ways of looking at God’s will. The reality is that at the time I was really struggling thinking about a future career and marriage. ( of course the two big ones) Well it has been a journey and one that has gone up and down. The best part of it is looking back over the last few years I can rejoice to see how God has been growing me in my understanding and application of His Word and Will. To quote a good friend and mentor of mine “ I wish I could write a book but I am not smart enough…. I enjoy reading books written by guys who are way smarter than me but who agree with my theology of God.” I mention this because over this last year I have been thinking a lot about Christians and their decisions in dating, courting, marriage, career, singleness…. Naturally I find myself here, for I am in my late twenties and single. With all of this thinking and reading on the topic I have found the important need to develop a theology of relationships. ( for lake of better terminology, the pursuit of marriage) What does the Bible have to say about this?
Well these thoughts above come to me right now for I just finished reading the book by Deyoung. It is so refreshing to read a book on the topic of decision making and to find it stick so closely to the fundamental truth of scripture. It is also nice to read an author who agrees with me  . ( see above) The truth is that DeYoung did a great job of taking common practices and beliefs and putting them up against the filter of scripture. He then responds with a biblical centric view of decision making and the will of God. He lays out what he calls in the book the “way of wisdom.” This is to say that God has given us already everything that we need to make wise decisions, God’s word, prayer, and fellow believers. This book of course deals with decision making in general but I would like to look at it in relation to marriage. “ There is nothing wrong with being single. It can be a gift from the Lord and a gift to the church. But when there is an overabundance of Christian singles who want to be married, this is a problem. And it’s a problem I put squarely at the feet of the young men whose immaturity , passivity, and indecision are pushing their hormones to the limits of self-control, delaying the growing process and forcing countless numbers of young women to spend lots of time and money pursuing a career ( which is not necessarily wrong) when they would rather be getting married and having children. Men, if you want to be married, find a godly gal, treat her right, talk to her parents, pop the question, tie the knot, and start making babies.” P. 108
This is where I stand on this, I believe that far to many Christian men( myself included)are sinning in the area of not being responsible in their pursuit of marriage. I believe that God has created us to be married and so if you are single man, other than for the sake of ministry, I believe to not be pursuing marriage is to sin. That seems harsh I am sure and it is convicting to me, but when I look at it we have made life so much more complicated. We as men pursue our careers, hobbies, and our entertainment more than we pursue being married. I think that pride, unbelief, selfishness, and lazyness are of a few of the fundamental factors in this problem. We need men who are going to stand up and go against the flow of our culture including that of our Christian subculture. Men who will instead of asking the question of is this the right woman for me, will ask the question am I the godly man I should be. Men we need to step up and be the spiritually leaders, that means in relationships too. I believe that if we were to understand what God’s will for our lives is then it would help in all areas of decision making. Quite focusing on all of the temporal decisions and instead focus on seeking the kingdom of God. For the will of God is your sanctification. ( I Thess. 4:3) If we are truly focusing on this then all of the rest of the decisions in life will naturally fall into place. So men will you join me in taking the head knowledge and putting it into action.” Let us be active in the present, grateful for the past, and hopeful for the future.” P.120
“ Be holy like Jesus, by the power of the Spirit, for the glory of God” p. 62
Thoughts and quotes come from

“ Just Do Something” by Kevin DeYoung – This was an excellent book and I highly recommend it.

What is the Bible???

How do you answer that?
Is it God's Word?
Does it have authority?
Is it sufficient for all of life?

" Everything that God wants to tell all his people for all time about that kind of issue or situation will be found on the pages of the Bible."

" Just as our physical lives are maintained by daily nourishment with physical food, so our spiritual lives are maintained by daily nourishment with the Word of God. To neglect regular reading of the Bible is detrimental to the health or our souls."

-Christian Beliefs - Grudem ( quotes from ch.1)

Lay it all down

So today I was putting my books away and trying to clean up my room from the four suitcases that I unloaded in it after returning from Japan. While putting books away I came across one of the past journals that I have used. I use the word journal in the loosest term possible. Even as I read back through it it was funny how much time occurred between the different entries. I say all this just to get to the point that my last entry I found again challenging and worth posting.

" Lord send me anywhere, only go with me. Sever any ties but the ties that bind me to your service and your heart." David Livingston ( missionary to Africa)

He also prayed this prayer when he buried his wife in Africa:

" My Jesus, my King, my Lord, my life, my all, I again consecrate my life to You. I shall place no value in anything I possess, except as it relates to Your Kingdom and to you service."
Both quotes came from the book " Walking from East to West" Ravi Zacahrias

This was great how these quotes came at a time where I have been thinking alot about my schooling and direction of ministry. In this time of waiting to hear from Moody and at the same time trying to discern what or where to go. I know and am reminded that God is faithfully at work in my life.

Psalm 37:5-7 I will paraprase by saying :
Commit you ways to the Lord, Trust in the Lord and in His faithfulness, Be still and wait patiently for Him.

I see the great joy that comes from reading back over past thoughts or challenges. I resolve again to work on disciplining myself to journal.

Love compelled labor

Paul's desciption of service to God

Colossians 1:29
" To this end I labor struggling with all his energy which so powerfully works in me. "

" The word labor means to work to the point of exhaustion, while from the greek word translated struggling comes our word agonize. So for Paul to serve God was ' to agonize to the point of exhaustion.' That doesn't mean it was miserable toil in fact the reason Paul worked so hard was because the only thing he loved more than serving God was God himself. God supplies us with power to serve Him. We struggle in service ' with all His energy, which so powerfully works ' in us. " p. 126

'Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian life' by Donald Whitney

More thoughts on Idenity

" The truth is that because we have lost touch with God and His word we have lost the secret both of community ( because sin kills neighbor - love) and of our own idenity ( because at the deepest level we do not know who or what we are, or what we exist for)."

Idenity

" Jesus isnt really concerned with moving us into a new economic strata or a different social structure, and I think the chuch has missed this. Jesus isnt so much concerned about removing you from the margins as he is with helping you understand that you dont have to be named by the margins of this society. He says you're named by God.......His invitation to us is to walk away from the names placed on us by society and to hear and believe the new names the Father gives us.
Legitimate
Accepted
Loved
Cared for
Forgiven

The love of Jesus doesnt come to make us fit into American culture; its here to make us fit into heaven. His love is here to complete us."

Rick Mckinley "Jesus in the Margins"