The following is a post from Mark Altrogge over at the Blazing Center blog.  Enjoy.

Scenario 1: You ask your teen if she’s had any devotions this week and she rolls her eyes as if you asked her if she’s been chewing pig intestines. Your sinking heart screams, “She’ll never become a Christian. When she’s able, she’ll move out, and join either the circus or Parent Loathers Anonymous.”

Scenario 2: Your boss informs you the company’s downsizing…by one person. So you call your broker to check on your retirement, and his secretary says he’s unavailable until sometime after Haley’s Comet appears. Then she says you might want to check local coffee shops to see if they need baristas. You picture yourself gripping a little tin cup, saying, “Please sir, may I ‘ave some more?”

Scenario 3: You wake up from a wonderful nap, and your bible is on the floor and your coffee cup is lying on its side next to a small brown pond that’s running off the end table and forming a stain the shape our Lady of Guadalupe on your white carpeting. Then it dawns on you that once again, you have executed less than successful morning devotions. You think, “I’ll never change. I’d get more out of the morning traffic report than the Bible.”

Why do our hearts so easily despair?

“If we duly examine our own hearts about it, we shall find that…sinkings of heart are the immediate effects of unbelief. We do not depend and rely upon the Word with that full trust and confidence that is due to the infallible Word of a faithful and unchangeable God…”

“Our judging and measuring things by the rules of sense, this is a great cause of our discouragements. We conclude that according to the appearance of things will be their issues.” – John Flavel, the Mystery of Providence

Unbelief looks on the surface of our trials and concludes things are hopeless. But if we cling to God’s promises they will buoy us up.

We must see our rolling-eyed child in faith, trusting that God is at work, using her to humble us and teach us to trust him. We must cling to his promises to guide us and give us wisdom, to give grace to the humble, and to hear our prayers.  We must trust his promises like Isaiah 59.21 to put his Spirit and Word into our children.

In tough financial times we must trust the Word of our God who cares for the sparrows to provide infinitely more for us. We must hold fast to his pledge to never leave nor forsake us, and to supply all our needs according to his glorious riches in Christ.

When we struggle in our walk, we must keep believing God’s promises to complete the good work he began in us and present us blameless before the presence of his glory (Jude 1.24).

Unbelief is atheism and will sink us.  But God’s promises will lift us, a surely as life preservers. Hold on, look up.

Here are a couple of quotes from Tim Keller I’ve enjoyed recently over at the blog, Of First Importance.

“The key difference between a Pharisee and a believer in Jesus is inner heart motivation. Pharisees are being good but out of a fearful need to control God. They don’t really trust him or love him. To them God is an exacting boss, not a loving father. Christians have seen something that has transformed their hearts toward God so they can finally love and rest in the Father. . . . Jesus Christ, who had all the power in the world, saw us enslaved by the very things we thought would free us. So he emptied himself of his glory and became a servant (Philippians 2). He laid aside the infinities and the immensities of his being and, at the cost of his life paid the debt for our sins, purchasing us the only place our hearts can rest, in his Father’s house.”

- Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God (New York, NY: Dutton, 2008), 86-87.

“When God poured out his justice on Christ, he was not only destroying his Son, but destroying the barrier between himself and us. How amazing! The more God vented his holiness on Jesus, the more he was venting his love for us. On the cross, the holiness and love of God, otherwise in tension, were in complete, brilliant cooperation. The more his holiness expressed itself, the more his love was satisfied; the more his love expressed itself, the more his holiness was satisfied.”

- Timothy Keller, Paul’s Letter to the Galatians (Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2003), 65.

A couple of weeks ago Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds posted an outline of a chapter by Paul Tripp from his book, “Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands” (the best book on counseling I’ve read).

Paul Tripp, in Instrument in the Redeemer’s Hands, unpacks James 4:1-1o and the war for the heart according to the following stages:

Stage 1: Desire. “The objects of most of our desires are not evil. The problem is the way they tend to grow, and the control they come to exercise over our hearts. All human desire must be held in submission to a greater purpose, the desires of God for his kingdom.” (p. 85)

Stage 2: Demand. (“I must.”) “Demand is the closing of my fists over a desire. . . . I am not longer comforted by God’s desire for me; I am threaten by it, because God’s will potentially standards in the way of my demand. . . . The morphing of my desire changes my relationship to others. No I enter the room loaded with a silent demand: You must help me get what I want. . . .” (p. 86)

Stage 3: Need. (“I will.”) ” I now view the thing I want as essential to life. This is a devasating step in the eventual slavery of desire. . . . To ‘chriten’ desire as need is equivalent to viewing cake as I do respiration. . . .” (p. 86)

Stage 4: Expectation. (“You should.”) “If I am convinced I need something and you have said that you love me, it seems right to expect that you will help me get it. The dynamic of (improper) need-driven expectation is the source of untold conflict in relationship.” (p. 87)

Stage 5: Disappointment. (“You didn’t!”) “There is a direct relationship between expectation and disappointment, and much of our disappointment in relationships i s not because people have actually wronged us, but because they have failed to meet our expectations.” (pp. 87-88)

Stage 6: Punishment. (“Because you didn’t, I will. . . .”) “We are hurt and angry because people who say they love us seem insensitive to our needs. So we strike back in a variety of ways to punish them for their wrongs against us. We include everything from the silent treatment (a form of bloodless murder where I don’t kill you but act as if you do not exist) to horrific acts of violence and abuse. I am angry because you have broken the laws of my kingdom. God’s kingdom has been supplanted. I am no longer motivated by a love for God and people so that I use the things in my life to express that love. Instead I love things, and use people–and even the Lord–to get them. My heart has been captured. I am in active service of the creation, and the result can only be chaos and conflict in my relationships.” (p. 88)

So what do you do when desire has morphed into demand into need into expectation into disappointment into punishment? The first step must be vertical, not horizontal. Because relationship problems are rooted in worship problems, James’s solution, Tripp rightly notes, is “Start with God”:

• “Submit yourselves therefore to God” (James 4:7).
• “Draw near to God” (James 4:8).
• “Cleanse your hands . . . and purify your hearts” (James 4:8)
• “Humble yourselves before the Lord” (James 4:10).

The blog Of First Importance recently posted a couple of quotes from a book that’s currently in my “to read” stack, “In My Place Condemned He Stood,” by J.I. Packer and Mark Dever. Enjoy!

“Redeeming love and retributive justice joined hands, so to speak, at Calvary, for there God showed Himself to be ‘just, and the justifer of him who hath faith in Jesus’.

Do you understand this? If you do, you are now seeing to the very heart of the Christian gospel. No version of that message goes deeper than that which declares man’s root problem before God to be his sin, which evokes wrath, and God’s basic provision for man to be propitiation, which out of wrath brings peace.”

- J.I. Packer, In My Place Condemned He Stood (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2008), 41.

“God’s wrath is his righteousness reacting against unrighteousness; it shows itself in retributive justice. But Jesus Christ has shielded us from the nightmare of retributive justice by becoming our representative substitute, in obedience to His Father’s will, and receiving the wages of our sin in our place.”

- J.I. Packer, In My Place Condemned He Stood (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2008), 40-41.

Tim Chester recently posted the following on the one another’s of the New Testament.  Definitely worth reading and I’d encourage you to take some time to meditate on the questions he asks.

All the New Testament writers refer often to what we are to do to or for ‘one another’ (or ‘each other’ – the Greek is the same). This concept of ‘one anothering’ is a central feature of New Testament ecclesiology, albeit one which receives little attention in contemporary academic discussions. Some time ago I worked through these ‘one anothering’ statements and summarized them in to the following categories. (I’m posting them after a request to do so form someone who listened to my audio talks on ‘rethinking church’.)

*    be at peace with one another, forgiving, agreeing, humble, accepting, forbearing, living in harmony and greeting with a kiss
*    do not judge, lie or grumble
*    show hospitality to one another
*    confess your sins to one another
*    be kind to one another, concerned, devoted, serving and doing good
*    instruct and teach one another
*    admonish, exhort and stir up one another
*    comfort and encourage one another

Reflection questions
1. Which do you think you (as a church and as an individual) are good at?
2. Which do you think you (as a church and as an individual) are not very good at?
3. What stops you (as a church and as an individual) doing more ‘one anothering’?

This list is based on the following verses:Mark 9:50
John 13:34-35*
Romans 12:10
Romans 12:16 (Romans 15:5)
Romans 14:13
Romans 15:7
Romans 15:14
Romans 16:16 (1 Peter 5:14)
1 Corinthians 12:25
2 Corinthians 13:11-12
Galatians 5:13
Ephesians 4:2Ephesians 4:32 (Colossians 3:13)
Ephesians 5:21
Colossians 3:9
Colossians 3:16 (Ephesians 5:19)
1 Thessalonians 5:11; 4:18
1 Thessalonians 5:15
Hebrews 3:13
Hebrews 10:24-25
James 5:9
James 5:16
1 Peter 4:8-10
1 Peter 5:5

*See also John 15:12,17; Romans 13:8; 1 Thessalonians 3:12; 4:9; 2 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:11,23; 4:7,11-12; 2 John 5.

The blog Of First Importance recently posted this quote from John Stott.  May this burn in our hearts here at ASGF!

“If God desires every knee to bow to Jesus and every tongue to confess Him, so should we. We should be ‘jealous’ for the honor of His name—troubled when it remains unknown, hurt when it is ignored, indignant when it is blasphemed, and all the time anxious and determined that it shall be given the honor and glory which are due to it.

The highest of all missionary motives is neither obedience to the Great Commission (important as that is), nor love for sinners who are alienated and perishing (strong as that incentive is, especially when we contemplate the wrath of God), but rather zeal—burning and passionate zeal—for the glory of Jesus Christ.

Only one imperialism is Christian, and that is concern for His Imperial Majesty Jesus Christ, and for the glory of his empire or kingdom. Before this supreme goal of the Christian mission, all unworthy motives wither and die.”

—John Stott, The Message of Romans (Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press,  1994), 53

I found the following quote by Ligon Duncan quite thought-provoking and humbling (HT: Loving Church).

It is a surprising thing to note, because so often we speak of hell as a place where God is not. Let me, however, say something provocative. Hell is eternity in the presence of God without a mediator. Heaven is eternity in the presence of God, with a mediator. Hell is eternity in the presence of God, being fully conscious of the just, holy, righteous, good, kind, and loving Father’s disapproval of your rebellion and wickedness. Heaven, on the other hand, is dwelling in the conscious awareness of your holy and righteous Father, but doing so through a mediator who died in your place, the One who absorbed the fullness of the penalty of your sin. Heaven is eternity in the presence of God with the One who totally eradicated sin from your life, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hell is eternity in the presence of God without a mediator. Heaven is eternity in the presence of God with a mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ.