The following is a post from the blog Christ is Deeper Still.

“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John . . . . ‘And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness.’ . . . And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” Acts 4:13, 29, 31

“Boldness” is the key word in Acts 4. The apostles had not been bold. Now they were, having seen the risen Christ and having been drenched with the Holy Spirit. But they needed still more boldness.

After the Council ordered them to shut up about Jesus, they were dismissed. Walking back through the streets of Jerusalem and seeing their faces on wanted posters here and there, they gathered with their friends to pray. What miracle did they ask God for? Not that the wanted posters would disappear. They prayed for the miracle of more boldness. And God gave it.

“Boldness” is a biblical word. That means God defines it. We are not bold witnesses when we think we’re being bold; we are bold witnesses when God thinks we’re being bold, when God looks down on us and turns to the angel Gabriel and says, “Gabriel, look at those guys. Now that’s what I call bold!”

For people like us, that’s a miracle. And God works miracles.

Here’s another post on finances- again very helpful and quite timely.

In his commentary on Luke,  R. Kent Hughes quotes C.S. Lewis in reference to the widow’s sacrificial gift of 2 copper coins, which was all she had to live on (LK 21).  Unfortunately, I read the quote before I realized how convicting it would be.  By then it was too late to escape.  But you still have time to turn back…

“I do not believe one can settle on how much we ought to give.  I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.  In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little.  If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small.  There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them.” – C.S. Lewis

Great quote, huh?  Convicted?  I tried to warn you.

When we read this quote we should be able to think of things we’ve denied ourselves because of our giving.  If we can’t think of a single purchase or pleasure we’ve forgone for the sake of the church or the poor, the Lord wants to convict and inspire us.

I know I’ve never given as sacrificially as I should.  That’s why I’m grateful for Jesus’ blood and obedience.  His blood to cover my sins, and his obedience to count as my obedience before the Father.  Jesus’ all-out sacrifice is mine.  His total self-emptying counts for me as if I had poured out all I had.  I’ve failed to sacrifice as I should, but Jesus’ sacrifice is totally sufficient for me and all his children combined.

Not only do I need mercy for my giving failures, I need grace to change.  I need the power of the Holy Spirit to make me willing to give more than I can spare, to change my heart so I give till it pinches.  To make me content to deny myself things I’d like to do or have for the sake of the kingdom.  I’m glad he gives this grace.

Come Holy Spirit, and make us like Jesus!

(HT: The Blazing Center)

The following was posted over at the Vitamin Z blog.  It made me think of my children.  I have often thought of my children’s petty arguments and fits and wondered if God views our conflicts and grumbling the same way I view my children’s.  Anyways, here you go.

“If we begin to get a glimpse of the vast glory of God, we will realize that many of our conflicts are like two ants arguing about which is taller while standing in front of Mount Everest.

“We quibble over some infinitesimal difference of opinion while the vastness of Almighty God soars into the heavens.

“We need to stop looking at one another relative to ourselves, or, better yet, stop looking in the mirror. And we need to turn our eyes to the loveliness of Christ in his Word.”

- Chris Brauns, Unpacking Forgiveness: Biblical Answers for Complex Questions and Deep Wounds

The following was posted this last week by the guys over at The Blazing Center blog.

On May 24, the Wall Street Journal ran an article entitled, “Charities: Tough Times Call for Smarter Giving.”

The author, Jonnelle Marte states: “When wallets get lean, checkbooks tend to stay closed — and checks to charity become rarer.”

“Amid the recession and stock-market losses, philanthropy consultants say all donors are re-evaluating their giving. Those who would normally give new charities a chance are sticking with groups they know. Some are giving smaller gifts or none at all. Over the past year, a number of corporations have ended or trimmed their matching-gift programs.”

Seems natural right? When times get tight, give less. Tighten our belts. Circle the wagons. Give less. Who would expect someone to give more when they’re poor? That would be unnatural.

But Christians aren’t natural. We’re supernatural. We operate by grace.

Grace empties itself and pours itself out for others. In his grace, God gave up his precious Son to die to make sinners rich. In his grace Jesus impoverished himself, took on flesh, and sacrificed himself for his sheep.

Similarly, grace produces in us the impulse to impoverish ourselves for the sake of others:

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.  For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord…” (2 CO 8.1 – 3)

Extreme poverty should have made the Macedonians close their wallets and re-evaluate their giving. Instead God’s grace caused the Macedonians to overflow in a wealth of generosity. Grace produced graciousness. Grace made them like the Giver of grace.

How we need God’s grace in these tough times. We can’t make our selfish hearts be generous. But God’s grace can. Grace moved Zacchaeus to give half his possessions to the poor and pay back 4 times those he’d cheated (LK 19). Grace moved a poor widow to give all she had to live on to God (LK 21)

Generosity in good times doesn’t take much grace. But lavishness in lean times springs from great grace and brings great glory to God.  Tough times don’t call for smarter giving.  They call for abundant grace.

I found the following way of talking about maturity thought-provoking.  I trust you will as well. (HT: Justin Taylor)

“A mature Christian is easily edified.”

Chip Stam cited those words by Harold Best in the first video I linked to earlier. Those words have been rolling around in my heart and mind for the past couple of days.

Easily edified.

Isn’t that a wonderful goal–a sign of good mental health and genuine obedience of faith?

I’m afraid that far too often an accurate assessment of myself would reveal:

• easily annoyed
• easily irritated
• easily impatient
• easily hurt
• easily angered
• easily distracted
• easily arrogant

But wouldn’t it be great if those who knew us best could honestly say, “It is so easy to edify him. It doesn’t take much. It doesn’t need to be the best sermon ever preached or the most excellent song ever composed or the most powerful book ever written or the most theologically eloquent statement ever uttered. Just the simplest truth was enough to refresh his heart in Christ.”

Not a bad way to pray–for ourselves and for others.

Here are a couple of quotes I recently enjoyed.

From the blog Christ is Deeper Still:

“Your danger and mine is not that we become criminals, but rather that we become respectable, decent, commonplace, mediocre Christians. The twentieth-century temptations that really sap our spiritual power are the television, banana cream pie, the easy chair and the credit card. The Christian wins or loses in those seemingly innocent little moments of decision.

Lord, make my life a miracle!”

Raymond C. Ortlund, Lord, Make My Life A Miracle, page 151.

From the blog Of First Importance:

“Everything that is coming to us from God comes through Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus has won our pardon; he has reconciled us to God; he has canceled our sin; he has secured the gift of the Spirit for us; he has granted eternal life to us and promises us the life of the consummation; he has made us children of the new covenant; his righteousness has been accounted as ours; he has risen from the dead, and all of God’s sovereignty is mediated through him and directed to our good and to God’s glory.”

- D. A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Baker Book House, 1992), 189.

The following quote made me stop in my tracks.  It gave me a sense of deep conviction for my failures and heaviness over my responsibility as a husband.  It made me look to Christ- I desperately need His grace for forgiveness and for sanctification.  Praise God for His steadfast love!

“It is possible (but not right) for baptized believers to act in their lives as though the gospel were not true. How many conservative husbands are outraged if some liberal preacher says that Jesus did not rise from the dead, when their daily treatment of their wives makes the same statement? At least the liberal only states his heresy occasionally.”        – Douglas Wilson, Reformed Is Not Enough, p. 168

(HT: Z)

The following is from Tullian Tchividjian, the pastor at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Florida.  As one who feels like I am beginning to understand the depths of grace and the dangers of legalism I need this warning.

Now, it’s very interesting that in the Bible it’s always the immoral person that gets the Gospel before the moral person. It’s the prostitute who understands grace; it’s the Pharisee who doesn’t. It’s the unrighteous younger brother who gets it before the self-righteous older brother. Tim’s book points this out well.

There is, however, another (perhaps more subtle) side to self-righteousness that younger brother types need to be careful of. There’s an equally dangerous form of self-righteousness that plagues the unconventional, the liberal, and the non-religious types. We anti-legalists can become just as guilty of legalism in the opposite direction. What do I mean?

It’s simple: we can become self-righteous against those who are self-righteous. Many younger evangelicals today are reacting to their parents’ conservative, buttoned-down, rule-keeping flavor of “older brother religion” with a type of liberal, untucked, rule-breaking flavor of “younger brother irreligion” which screams, ”That’s right, I know I don’t have it all together and you think you do; I know I’m not good and you think you are. That makes me better than you.” See the irony?

In other words, they’re proud that they’re not self-righteous!

Listen: self-righteousness is no respecter of persons. It reaches to the religious and the irreligious; the “buttoned down” and the “untucked.” The entire Bible reveals how shortsighted all of us are when it comes to our own sin. For example, it was easy for Jonah to see the idolatry of the sailors. It was easy for him to see the perverse ways of the Ninevites. What he couldn’t see was his own idolatry, his own perversion. So the question is, in which direction does your self-righteousness lean?

(HT: Z)