Blog
Why Are You Addicted?
Mike Wilkerson:
Slaves usually don’t free themselves. Addictions are powerful. . . . There’s a difference between a belief in a higher power as I define it (subjective), and an actual power that’s actually higher and breaks me free from slavery (objective).
True freedom, not only from addictive behavior, but from the underlying sin problem at its root, is only possible through the latter: the resurrected Christ by his Spirit, working powerfully in the hearts and bodies of those he is redeeming from slavery of all kinds, as we respond in belief.
The Secret to Delighting in God
Owen--
HT: Don Jones
So much as we see of the love of God, so much shall we delight in him, and no more.--John Owen, Communion with the Triune God (ed. K. Kapic and J. Taylor; Crossway, 2007), 128
Every other discovery of God, without this, will but make the soul fly from him; but if the heart be once much taken up with this the eminency of the Father’s love, it cannot choose but be overpowered, conquered, and endeared unto him. This, if anything, will work upon us to make our abode with him. If the love of a father will not make a child delight in him, what will?
Put, then, this to the venture: exercise your thoughts upon this very thing, the eternal, free, and fruitful love of the Father, and see if your hearts be not wrought upon to delight in him. I dare boldly say: believers will find it as thriving a course as ever they pitched on in their lives. Sit down a little at the fountain, and you will quickly have a further discovery of the sweetness of the streams. You who have run from him, will not be able, after a while, to keep at a distance for a moment.
HT: Don Jones
That Inexhaustible Fountain
All that we receive in time, all the streams that come to our souls, are but so many streams flowing from that inexhaustible fountain, God's electing, God's sovereign, God's distinguishing, God's everlasting love.--George Whitefield, 'The Righteousness of Christ an Everlasting Righteousness,' in Lee Gatiss, ed., The Sermons of George Whitefield (2 vols; Crossway, 2012), 1:290
Ordinary Heroism
A good word from my friend Geoff Ziegler on Hollywood's latest unwitting depiction of the consummated eschatology that every fallen-but-God-imaging-and-thus-Eden-remembering human longs for.
As the film progresses we discover that the only hope for the city is found in people who devote their lives to making it better. “You don’t owe these people anymore. You’ve given them everything,” someone says to Bruce Wayne. His response reveals the heart of the film: “Not everything, not yet.” The fate of Gotham will be determined by just how much he and others are willing to give.
At the risk of being over-dramatic, it strikes me that each of us are called by God to just this sort of heroism. Though tempted to remain content in our own prosperity, or to complain against the mistakes of others, or to simply try to “wait things out,” we are summoned by God to lay down our lives in service to the world around us. “A new commandment I give you: love one another as I have loved you.” We have been loved completely by one who gave everything for us, and that very love compels us to do likewise. And unlike the superheroes of our age who must only rely on themselves, we can give ourselves without fear, for our lives are hidden in Christ, securely kept for us.
I am left with two simple questions: what does it mean for me to give my life to the family and community God has placed me in? And will I be willing to do it?
The more blockbusters I see the more clear it becomes that every one of them is a shadow of which Jesus is the substance.