A Heart Where Gratitude Sings

 From Sylvia Gunter's weekly devotional newsletter...

Journal of Gratitude

Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands! Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations. Psalm 100 Surely goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life. Psalm 23:6 We often neglect to tell those who matter most how much God blesses us through their lives. Our family relationships are richer when we express our gratitude to God for them and tell them so. Gratitude starts with humility, acknowledging that we enjoy blessings because of God's mercies. A friend's personally designed Christmas card read, "Thou hast given us so much. Give us one thing more...a grateful heart." Reflect on every person for whom you are grateful and for what you are grateful. Take out pen and paper, and share the overflow of your heart with your family. Your thanksgiving blessing will become a treasured legacy. Pray with me, "Lord, make my heart a habitation where gratitude sings." These thoughts will get you started. Your own journal of gratitude will be longer and much more specific. Father, from whom every family on earth is named, we give thanks- for time together as a family for our continuing love relationship with You through Jesus for our love relationship with each other for life, health, bright minds, and physical safety for food, clothing, a comfortable house, a clean bed for enjoying being together with laughter for the uniqueness of each one for the rock of strength that prayer is for us for faithful friends who encourage us by praying for our family for seeing God's hand of grace at work in our lives as we experience more of Him for God's plan for our lives and His enabling to keep us in His will each day for weaknesses through which God shows Himself strong in us for wisdom and guidance in daily circumstances for strength for daily demands of job and family for hope, peace, victory, satisfaction, and fulfillment for financial blessings for spiritual strength in spiritual battles for Your patience in the testing, struggles, and refining that we grow through for Jesus' sufficiency for today's grace for forgiveness received and forgiveness extended for hearts of obedience for more than we could ever deserve! Thanks, family, for who you are and all you mean to me. With love...

Adapted from Journal Of Gratitude In The Empty Nest Season Of Life, Prayer Essentials For Living In His Presence Vol 1, page 75 © Sylvia Gunter, 2000, The Father's Business, P O Box 380333, Birmingham, AL 35238.

Trample Sins in the Death of Christ--Brooks

From Thomas Brooks "The Crown and Glory of Christianity" (1662).

“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry" Colossians 3:5

While a darling sin lives and keeps the throne in the heart, grace and holiness will be kept exceeding weak and low. But when your darling sin is dethroned and slain by the power and the sword of the Spirit—grace and holiness will quickly grow stronger and stronger, and rise higher and higher.

When a man has eaten poison, nothing will make him thrive, until he has vomited up the poison. Beloved sins—they are the poison of the soul, and until these are vomited up, and cast out by sound repentance, and the exercise of faith in the blood of Christ, the soul will never thrive in grace and holiness!

If ever you would attain to higher degrees of holiness, then fall with all your might upon subduing and crucifying your most raging corruptions, and your most daring lusts!

Oh do not think that your golden and your silver idols will lay down their weapons, and yield the battle, and lie at your feet, and let you trample them to death—without striking a blow! Oh remember that besetting-sins will do all they can to keep their ground, and therefore you must arise with all your strength against them, and crush them to powder, and burn them to ashes!

Oh deal with your most enraged lusts, as the Philistines dealt with Samson—pluck out their eyes, and force them to grind in the mill of mortification, until their strength is utterly consumed and wasted.

I have read of five men, who being asked what was the best means to mortify sin, gave these answers. Said the first, "The best means to mortify sin, is to meditate on death."

Said the second, "The best means to mortify sin, is to meditate on the judgment day."

Said the third, "The best means to mortify sin, is to meditate on the joys of heaven."

Said the fourth, "The best means to mortify sin, is to meditate on the torments of hell."

Said the fifth, "The best means to mortify sin, is to meditate on the death and sufferings of Christ."

Doubtless the last man hit the nail on the head!

The daily sight of a bleeding, groaning, dying Savior—is the only thing which will subdue and mortify darling sins! O friends! Never leave looking up to a crucified Christ, until virtue flows from Him to the crucifying of those special besetting sins which do most obstruct and hinder the growth and increase of holiness.

Recognizing "Darling Sins"

"If I had cherished inquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened" Psalm 66:18

In Puritan writings, “the sin which clings so closely” in Hebrews 12:1 is frequently called a darling sin. "While a darling sin lives and keeps the throne in the heart," wrote Thomas Brooks, "grace and holiness will be kept exceeding weak and low." 

Darling sins are cherished sins. Other sins we may abhor but we are fond of these and play with them and feed them and protect them.

Often darling sins are not viewed as sins at all; they are blind spots and may even appear virtuous to us. We may regard our pride as confidence, our lust as love, a hot temper as mere feistiness, unbelief and fear as cautiousness, a critical spirit as an analytical mind, coveting as admiring, defiance as independent thinking, presumption as boldness, and gossip as concern.

The devil insinuates thoughts into our minds to keep us in a darling sin by re-framing, covering over, minimizing, justifying, and excusing.

“It’s no big deal.

“Everybody does it.”

“It’s only a little one.”

“It’s not as bad as my other sins.”

“I don’t do it very often.”

“It doesn’t hurt anyone.”

“No one will even notice.”

“Most people do worse things.”

Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8). To be among God's intimates, we must be pure and undivided in heart. Could it be we don't sense closeness with God because a darling sin has crowded Him out?

Reflection: What are my darling sins? Am I being honest with God about them?

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, you know me through and through. Show me the sins I am cherishing. Do a mighty work in me by your Holy Spirit that I might repent and give myself completely to you. In Jesus name. Amen.

rev 1/17/12

Why Did God Allow Evil?

John MacArthur speculates on the question, "Why did God allow evil?" in "The Origin of Evil," a message given in 2000. MacArthur's answer is, essentially, that God allowed evil because he wanted to make himself known, he wanted to manifest his attributes, his grace and mercy and also his wrath, and because God wanted to eliminate the possibility of evil forever.

The audio version is posted on Youtube in three parts: Part One,  Part Two and Part Three. The passage below begins near the end of Part Two:

Now the question then comes up...why would God allow sin? There's no specific statement but I think you can make a fairly reasonable speculation beyond which I cannot go and don't find any value in tempting to go. And it is this...what did sin coming into the world bring about? Well it brought about, I would say, three things. And these are the three reasons why I believe God allowed evil.

Number one, it brought about the salvation of sinners, right? God had to allow sin; God had to decree sin in the plan though never the author of it, in order that He might save sinners. Well, why did God want to save sinners? To put on display attributes that otherwise never would have been manifest, right? 

How is God going to show grace if there aren't any sinners? How is God going to show mercy if there aren't any sinners? That was a part of God's nature that God wanted to display for His own glory throughout all eternity. So God provided a means by which He could demonstrate grace, demonstrate mercy. He also wanted to show love, love that is so far reaching that it can reach even His own enemies who hate Him. How is He going to show that if He doesn't have any enemies?

So God allows evil in order that He might demonstrate grace and mercy and forgiveness and salvation. Secondly, He allows evil in order that He might display His wrath...in order that He might put His wrath on display, His anger on display, His judgment on display. How would God ever reveal that part of His true and eternal nature if there were not an opportunity to judge sinners? And so, all you can do is look at redemptive history and you see the salvation of sinners and the damnation of sinners and that is what goes on and you see ultimately a place prepared for those who are damned and a place prepared for those who are saved and you must conclude then that the eternal purpose of God was to save some and judge some in order that He might demonstrate both His grace and His wrath.

And then I like to throw a third thought in there. I believe that God allowed sin in order that He might forever destroy it. As long as His creatures have any measure of freedom, as long as His creatures have intelligence, that is they can know and reason, that is they can process that knowledge toward behavior, and choice, that is they can choose what to do, as long as they have that capacity there is a potential for them to fall short of the standard. Right? To make the wrong choice. Well it didn't take long for them to do it. We don't know how long it was before Lucifer made the wrong choice before God. We don't know how long it was even in the Garden before Adam and Eve made the wrong choice, but it was certainly before they had any children. They had their children probably around the age of a hundred or a little more. 

So there is choice and the potential of a wrong choice is there. A measure of freedom is given to the creatures by which they can choose to honor God, by which they can choose to dishonor. As long as that is there, then the reality, the potential reality of evil exists when the wrong choice is made. And I believe that once the wrong choice is made, then God goes into action and one, He can demonstrate His grace and salvation; two, He can demonstrate His wrath in judgment; and three, He can then finally destroy evil. It's almost as if God wanted evil to come to the surface so that He could excise it. 

That's what's going to happen when the whole of redemptive history is complete, when all the saved are saved and all the lost are cast into the lake of fire, then death and hell are thrown into the lake of fire. What does that mean? No more death and no more hell and no more judgment. Why? Because there won't be anymore sin. And when you go to heaven, there's nothing there that smacks of a sinful world, right? There's no more sorrow, no more sadness, no more sin, no more dying, no more death.

A Humble Guy Shines for Christ

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of the opportunity.”  Ephesians 5:15-16

Ruth Bell Graham, in her book “Legacy of a Pack Rat,” tells a story about a professor and a man who shined his boots: 

    Alexander Grigolia had immigrated to America from Soviet Georgia, learned English, earned three doctoral degrees, and became a successful professor at the University of Pennsylvania. But despite his freedom and achievements, he had a misery in his heart that he couldn’t dislodge.

    One day while getting a shoeshine he noticed that the bootblack went about his work with a sense of joy, scrubbing and buffing and smiling and talking. Finally Dr. Grigolia could stand it no longer. He said in his funny-sounding accent, “What always you so happy?” 

    Looking up, the bootblack paused and replied, “Jesus. He loves me. He died so God could forgive my badness. He makes me happy.” 

    The professor snapped his newspaper back in front of his face, and the bootblack went back to work.

    But Dr. Grigolia never escaped those words, and they brought him eventually to the Savior. He later became a professor of anthropology at Wheaton College, and taught, among others, a young student named Billy Graham.

On Humility--Jonathan Edwards

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you."  I Peter 5:6

Below is Jonathan Edwards' (1703-1758) description of a humble person. Between this and yesterday's post, I have given you the very best I've found on this subject.

A brief word: The Puritans want their readers to engage in serious meditation. That explains why most of us find the Puritans a hard slog. Meditation on truth is difficult work! Also, we may struggle with a style of writing that seems strange and antiquated, and because some of their words meant different things 300 years ago, or have gone entirely out of use. But here I believe is the main problem: We just don't think in the elevated ways the Puritans did about God and holy things. They make sounds outside our normal range and we must strain ourselves to hear them. "It is not the bee's touching of the flower that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time upon the flower that draws out the sweet" (T. Brooks).

"Humility may be defined to be a habit of mind and heart corresponding to our comparative unworthiness and vileness before God, or a sense of our own comparative meanness in His sight, with the disposition to a behavior answerable thereto.

And a truly humble man is sensible of the small extent of his own knowledge, and the great extent of his ignorance, and of the small extent of his understanding as compared with the understanding of God. He is sensible of his weakness, how little his strength is, and how little he is able to do. He is sensible of his natural distance from God, of his dependence on Him, of the insufficiency of his own power and wisdom to lead and guide him, and his might to enable him to do what he ought to do for Him.

Humility tends to prevent an aspiring and ambitious behavior amongst men. The man that is under the influence of an humble spirit is content with such a situation amongst men as God is pleased to allot to him, and is not greedy of honor, and does not affect to appear uppermost and exalted above his neighbors. Humility tends also to prevent an arrogant and assuming behavior. On the contrary, humility disposes a person to a condescending behavior to the meekest and lowest and to treat inferiors with courtesy and affability, as being sensible of his own weakness and despicableness before God.

If we then consider ourselves as the followers of the meek and lowly and crucified Jesus, we shall walk humbly before God and man all the days of our life on earth.

Let us all be exhorted earnestly to seek much of an humble spirit, and to endeavor to be humble in all their behavior toward God and men. Seek for a deep and abiding sense of your comparative meanness before God and man. Know God. Confess your nothingness and ill-desert before Him. Distrust yourself. Rely only on God. Renounce all glory except from Him. Yield yourself heartily to His will and service. Avoid an aspiring, ambitious, ostentatious, assuming, arrogant, scornful, stubborn, willful leveling, self-justifying behavior; and strive for more and more of the humble spirit that Christ manifested while He was on earth.

Humility is a most essential and distinguishing trait in all true piety. Earnestly seek, then, and diligently and prayerfully cherish an humble spirit, and God shall walk with you here below; and when a few more days shall have passed, He will receive you to the honors bestowed on His people at Christ’s right hand."

On Humility--Thomas Brooks

"Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another for 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble'" (I Peter 5:5).

When we are prideful, the "accuser of the brethren" is able to sow discord and create division with ease. Why should he bother himself with devouring the saints (I Pet 5:8), when we will do that work for him? "But if you bite and devour one another take heed that you are not consumed by one another" (Gal 5:15).

The Puritan Thomas Brooks gives 12 remedies for resisting the enemy's strategy for dividing Christians in his classic work, "Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices" (published 1652). The last remedy is "Above all, labor to be clothed with humility."

Brooks remarks on humility cut to the heart; I encourage you to read them to your family members:

“Humility makes a man peaceable among brethren, fruitful in well-doing, cheerful in suffering, and constant in holy walking. Humility fits for the highest services we owe to Christ, and yet will not neglect the lowest service to the meanest saint (John 13:5).  Humility can feed upon the meanest dish, and yet it is maintained by the choicest delicates, as God, Christ, and glory.

Humility will make a man bless him that curses him, and pray for those that persecute him. A humble heart is a habitation for God, a scholar for Christ, a companion of angels, a preserver of grace, and a fitter for glory. Humility is the nurse of our graces, the preserver of our mercies, and the great promoter of holy duties. 

Humility cannot find three things on this side of heaven: it cannot find fullness in the creature, nor sweetness in sin, nor life in an ordinance without Christ. A humble soul always finds three things on this side of heaven: the soul to be empty, Christ to be full, and every mercy and duty to be sweet wherein God is enjoyed. 

Grace Inexhaustible and Undeterred

It is good to sorrow over sin, and in our day when we are preoccupied with things of the world and find so little leisure for reflection, true sorrowing is perhaps rare. But we must also guard against the opposite danger and not allow the enormity of our sin to so overwhelm us that the small flame of our passion for God is quenched. In those cases, it is good to think of Jesus praying from the cross for those who proved faithless and abused him and stubbornly refused his love: “Father, forgive them.” 

 

“Men may flee from the sunlight to dark and musty caves of the earth, but they cannot put out the sun. So men may…despise the grace of God, but they cannot extinguish it.”  A.W. Tozer

“God never gave a believer a new heart that it should always lie a-bleeding, and that it should always be rent and torn in pieces with discouragements.” Thomas Brooks (1608-1680)

The "One"

I Can Only Imagine...

We're coming on the 3rd anniversary of November 29, 2008, the day my son Christopher "shuffled off this mortal coil" and put on immortality.

I miss him the most this time of year. But, honestly, it is not Chris as he was I miss so much, but rather the "glorified" person I dreamed he would be one day in heaven...and I still wait and I still long very much to see him.

We played "I Can Only Imagine" at Chris' service. I think, except for maybe "A Mighty Fortress," no song has ever moved my faith-strings as much as this. The song's link is here: "I Can Only Imagine." 

May it touch your heart as it has mine.

UPDATE: Early in December I started a second blog called "Life With Christopher" to talk and share about disability, parenting, and spirituality. You can find it at dennyhoytlifewithchristopher.blogspot.com