A while back the blog Blazing Center posted the following on loving other sinners who have problems like us.  Are we ready to get our hands messy like our Savior did?

Confession: I’m not a big fan of other people’s problems. I’m a wicked sinner who’s got a pile of his own sin to deal with on a daily basis. When someone comes to me with a problem, whether it be physical, financial, relational, or spiritual, I’m not doing a jig of excitement.

Working through problems with others takes work. My lazy heart doesn’t like work. It takes work to sit down and have a long, painful conversation about a friend’s current struggle with lust. It takes effort to pick up the phone and call a friend at 10:00 PM when all I want to do is sleep. My mind sinfully begins firing off excuses.

• Look Stephen, these aren’t your problems. Let them deal with them.

• You’ve had a long day and you just need R&R, TLC, and ABOC (A Bag of Chips).

• Why do I always get sucked into these situations?

Can you relate to my sinful, selfish distaste for the problem of others? The truth is, I don’t want to get my hands messy. People (myself included) are messy things, and I don’t want to get my hands dirty messing with other people’s problems.

Yet when I read the example of the Apostle Paul I’m deeply challenged. Paul was a guy who, out of deep love for the saints, didn’t hesitate to get messy. The book of Philemon illustrates this wonderfully.

Here’s the deal. Philemon has a slave named Onesimus. Onesimus, not being a Christian, steals from Philemon and then proceeds to high-tail it out of town. While on the run Onesimus meets Paul, who in turn leads him to Jesus. After becoming a Christian Onesimus realizes that he needs to return to Philemon and right what has been wrong. All this equals a very messy situation between two messy sinners.

Enter Paul. He writes a letter to Philemon, pleading with him to be reconciled to Onesimus. He offers to pay any monetary debt owed by Onesimus. He even asks Philemon to prepare a room for him so that he can come and visit. Out of love for Onesimus and Philemon, Paul gets his hands very messy.

I want to be like Paul. I want to have such a love for my fellow Christians that I’m not afraid to get my hands messy.

What about you? Can you relate to my distaste for messy people problems? How do we grow in our love for the saints?

From the blog Of First Importance-

“Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, became like us to be a total Savior, sufficient for the whole range of our need. How hollow, then, ring the world’s complaints against our God. People are saying all the time today, lamenting in this world of woe, ‘Where is God? Why doesn’t he do something?’ Meanwhile, he has done everything, indeed, more than ever we could ask or imagine. God has entered into our world. He has walked through the dust of this earth. He who is life has wept before the grave, and he who is the Bread of Life has felt the aching of hunger in his belly.

Is there anything more lovely in all of Scripture than the scenes of Jesus supping with the weak and the weary, the sinners and the publicans? He has taken the thorns that afflict this sin-scarred world and woven them into a crown to be pressed upon his head. And he has stretched open his arms in love, that the hands that wove creation might be nailed to a wooden cross. Then he rose from the dead, conquering all that would conquer us, setting us free to live in peace and joy before the face of God.”

- Richard D. Phillips, Hebrews: Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2006), 82.

Here are a couple of thoughts from John Piper on Suffering and God’s purposes.

Two quotes from the blog post, “Why God Doesn’t Fully Explain Pain“-

One of the reasons God rarely gives micro reasons for his painful providences, but regularly gives magnificent macro reasons, is that there are too many micro reasons for us to manage, namely, millions and millions and millions and millions and millions.

God says things like:

• These bad things happened to you because I intend to work it together for your good (Romans 8).
• These happened so that you would rely more on God who raises the dead (2 Corinthians 1).
• This happened so that the gold and silver of your faith would be refined (1 Peter 1).
• This thorn is so that the power of Christ would be magnified in your weakness (2 Corinthians 12).

But we can always object that there are other easier ways for God to accomplish those things. We want to know more specifics: Why now? Why this much? Why this often? Why this way? Why these people? (more…)

Here are three recent quotes from the blog Of First Importance that I helped feed my soul in recent days.  What a Savior!

“It could not have been done unless man paid what was owing to God for sin. But the debt was so great that while man alone owed it, only God could pay it, so that the same person must be both man and God. Thus it was necessary for God to take manhood into the unity of his person, so that he who in his own nature ought to pay and could not should be in a person who could.”

- Anselm of Canterbury, quoted by Richard D. Phillips in Hebrews: Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2006), 79.

“As a tempted brother, he feels for us; as a sinless brother he can save us.”

- Sinclair Ferguson, Children of the Living God (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1989), 35.

“I feel, when I have sinned, an immediate reluctance to go to Christ. I am ashamed to go. I feel as if it would do no good to go, as if it were making Christ a minister of sin, to go straight from the swine-trough to the best robe, and a thousand other excuses; but I am persuaded they are all lies, direct from hell.

John argues the opposite way: ‘If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father.’  I am sure there is neither peace nor safety from deeper sin, but in going directly to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is God’s way of peace and holiness. It is folly to the world and the beclouded heart, but it is the way.”

—Robert Murray M’Cheyne, quoted by Andrew Bonar, Robert Murray M’Cheyne (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1960), 176

The following quote was posted a while back on the blog Vitamin Z.  While there are obvious extremes on this issue, a truly biblical view will steer a refreshingly honest and positive course.

“Christians have no right to be embarrassed when it comes to talking about sex and sexuality. An unhealthy reticence or embarrassment in dealing with these issues is a form of disrespect to God’s creation. Whatever God made is good, and every good thing God made has had an intended purpose that ultimately reveals His own glory. When conservative Christians respond to sex with ambivalence or embarrassment, we slander the goodness of God and hide God’s glory which is intended to be revealed in the right use of creation’s gifts.”

-Al Mohler, as quoted in this article

A while back Erik Raymond over at the Irish Calvinist blog posted the following thoughts on cliques and the gospel.  This is a good opportunity to examine our relationships in the body of Christ.  Even though the post is a bit long I strongly encourage you to read the whole thing.

This weekend I was talking with a dear friend about the dangerously unhealthy implications of cliques in churches. We talked about what is being communicated when we huddle together exclusively with folks who are ‘just like us’ according to the flesh. This subject has been rattling around for three plus days now and I figured that I would try to work it out a bit (one of the main reasons for this blog).

At the heart of the church of Jesus Christ is the reality of unity. We are united in and through Jesus Christ. This comes to be emphasized when God calls people from various backgrounds, cultures and ages to come together and sing the harmonious message of Christ’s supremacy in their lives.

However, when we step back and look at our congregations, and even our own friendships, do we not see concentrations of people who share many of the same earthly preferences?

For example, I like to hang out with my family, play and watch sports, talk theology, and laugh a lot. As I look at those people I spend time with do they all like to watch and play sports? Are there people that I hang out with that do not share the same hobbies? Do I spend time with older people or single people or people who watch Nascar and drink Light Beer?

It should be said at this point that I do not think there is anything wrong with having friends that enjoy the same types of things as you do. However, as a Christian we should never unite on the basis of anything above the gospel and we should not exclude people or isolate ourselves from people who love and cherish the same Christ. To put it another way, I have to ask myself if the basis for my friendships and relationships are earthly or eternal.

Many of us are extremely biblical and God-centered in our creeds, but regrettably exude a rank man-centered, self-pleasing, earth-clinging practice with our relationships.

Imagine with me the early church and its convergence of different cultures to the Lord’s Table. Colossians 3 paints the picture that there are no distinctions between, “Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.”

Most of these categories are self-explanatory. However, the Scythians are the wild card. These cats were bad news. From what I have read, the Scythians were professional killers. They were worse than barbarians. To use a contemporary illustration, they would make Al Qaeda look like boy scouts! They killed tribes of people, drank their blood and used their sculls for bowls and peeled off skin for napkins.

And Paul says, “You are one in Christ. Go ahead and sit next to them. Talk with them. Share a meal with them.”

We like people that look like us, act like us, like what we like, and are similar to us; however, the Christian life is just not that neat. The point of the gospel is not to unite people according to the flesh, but rather to unite people in Jesus Christ. If I am a cliquey person then I am enjoying exclusive relationships with folks while also excluding others whom Christ has brought together. I have just unwittingly undermined a major aspect of what Christ has bought in and through his gospel! I have promoted my personal preferences to a position of supremacy and put the gospel in position of submission. This should not be.

As Paul says in Colossians, “Christ is all, and in all.”

This is it. It is Christ. My motive for relationships with other believers should be Christ and my desire for our time together should be the pleasure of Christ. If I have somehow flipped this on its head, replacing Christ and his pleasure for my own then I am a flaming idolater, worthy of a hearty rebuke. This idolatrous inversion is seen clearly in many church cliques but more subtly in our use of time in relationships.

The burden is to be Christ-Centered and Gospel-Boasting in everything with everyone. We should see our relationships, ranging from the close intimate friendships to perhaps the more casual relationships in our congregations, with the priority of making much of Christ, magnifying his power by preserving and promoting unity in him.

If you are a ‘cliquey’ person, get over yourself and fall in love with Christ and trumpet his unity producing gospel.

If you are not being intentional about relationships, make it a priority to exalt Christ with what you have eternally in common with folks. This will no doubt forge greater humility and love in Christ.

Parenting is one of those areas where continual evaluation, education, and growth is needed.  Rick Schauer has often said that there are certain things worth investing time, money and attention into- two of the most significant are- your marriage and then your children.  So, take some time today to invest some time and thought into your parenting with the following resources.

First, a quote from the blog Vitamin Z.

“It is not hypocritical to ask our children to do things we struggle with doing. It is hypocritical to pretend that we do not struggle. We should show them grace and strength from God for their struggles by modeling humble dependence on God for our struggles.”

-Tedd Tripp, Instructing a Child’s Heart, p. 89

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Second, here are links to a series of audio clips in which C.J. and Carolyn Mahaney answer questions on parenting.  Thought provoking material.

The Gospel + Parental Sin (2:39)

The Gospel + Discipline (5:37)

Teaching Children to Love the Church (10:59)

Fear and Unbelief in Parenting (3:46)

As many of you heard Chrissy Myers was unexpectedly hospitalized with complications with her pregnancy (toximia- sp?).

This afternoon the doctor determined that they needed to do an emergency c-section. Around 3pm they performed the operation and the new baby Myers arrived. The yet unnamed baby is 1lb and 11 inches (yes you read that right- that is not a typo). She is doing surprisingly well and all the issues she is dealing with are common for babies of her age and weight. They will be doing further tests later in the week to confirm that everything is as it should be. Chrissy is doing much better and is recovering quickly.

Due to its prematurity, size, etc, the baby is not out of the woods yet and the next couple days will be difficult. Please pray for health, recovery, faith, and endurance. There is a long road ahead and we as a body will have many opportunities to serve the Myers family.