Those who make their dress a principal part of themselves, will, in general, become of no more value than their dress.
William Hazlitt
Thursday, October 15, 2009
"The Commandments: Doorways To Joy"
Keeping covenant is increasingly a foreign concept in America. The closest we had to it was perhaps marriage. That was in the old days when “for better or for worst” meant it.
God has kept his covenant with me—mostly “for worst.” I alluded in an earlier blog post to my decades of highhanded rebellion. It is interesting to observe the way a God in covenant handles that kind of thing. One never gets off scot-free, in the sense of feeling no painful repercussions; they are exquisitely painful. But God is expert in weaving chastisement with blessing seamlessly. And then you minister out of your scars, and it’s all good.
I like the way my New King James Version phrases the last part of the verse: “who remember His commandments to do them.” It’s one thing to remember God’s commandments, another thing to actually do them. I think we’ve all got the “remember” part more or less down pat: Love your enemy; forgive 70 times seven, do not grumble, do not be anxious. And I have a bad feeling that some of us are going to be awfully surprised some day that we confused the “remembering” part with the “doing” part. As my brother Marc likes to say, “When all is said and done, more will have been said than done.”
Some of us late bloomers have also come to see that when we have actually tried to start seriously “doing” the commandments, they’re not bad at all. Maybe that’s what Jesus meant by His yoke being easy and his commands not burdensome. As a matter of fact, to begin to venture out into the virgin territory of moment-by-moment obedience is to soon discover that the commandments are doorways to joy. Yes, what we have been avoiding doing all our lives turns out to be the way to our own joy.
And then we reread the Psalmist’s exclamation, “Oh, how I love your law!” And suddenly we don’t think he’s a weird ancient Hebrew “enthusiast” anymore.
Andree Seu
God has kept his covenant with me—mostly “for worst.” I alluded in an earlier blog post to my decades of highhanded rebellion. It is interesting to observe the way a God in covenant handles that kind of thing. One never gets off scot-free, in the sense of feeling no painful repercussions; they are exquisitely painful. But God is expert in weaving chastisement with blessing seamlessly. And then you minister out of your scars, and it’s all good.
I like the way my New King James Version phrases the last part of the verse: “who remember His commandments to do them.” It’s one thing to remember God’s commandments, another thing to actually do them. I think we’ve all got the “remember” part more or less down pat: Love your enemy; forgive 70 times seven, do not grumble, do not be anxious. And I have a bad feeling that some of us are going to be awfully surprised some day that we confused the “remembering” part with the “doing” part. As my brother Marc likes to say, “When all is said and done, more will have been said than done.”
Some of us late bloomers have also come to see that when we have actually tried to start seriously “doing” the commandments, they’re not bad at all. Maybe that’s what Jesus meant by His yoke being easy and his commands not burdensome. As a matter of fact, to begin to venture out into the virgin territory of moment-by-moment obedience is to soon discover that the commandments are doorways to joy. Yes, what we have been avoiding doing all our lives turns out to be the way to our own joy.
And then we reread the Psalmist’s exclamation, “Oh, how I love your law!” And suddenly we don’t think he’s a weird ancient Hebrew “enthusiast” anymore.
Andree Seu
"Precious Time"
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
"But On Every Word That Proceeds From The Mouth Of God"
We're drowning in information and starving for knowledge
Rutherford D. Rogers
Rutherford D. Rogers
"The Poison of Subjectivism"
The modern mind has two lines of defense...The second claims that to tie ourselves to an immutable moral code is to cut off all progress and acquiesce in 'stagnation'...Let us strip it of legitimate emotional power it derives from the word 'stagnation' with its suggestion of puddles and mantled pools. If water stands too long it stinks. To infer thence that whatever stands long must be unwholesome is to be the victim of metaphor. Space does not stink because it has preserved its three dimensions from the beginning. The square on the hypotenuse has not gone [moldy] by continuing to equal the sum of the squares on the other two sides. Love is not dishonored by constancy...For the emotive term 'stagnant' let us substitute the descriptive term 'permanent'. Does a permanent moral standard preclude progress? On the contrary except on the supposition of a changeless standard, progress is impossible. If good is a fixed point, it is at least possible that we should get nearer and nearer to it; but if the [terminal] is as mobile as the train, how can the train progress toward it? Our ideas of the good may change, but they cannot change either for the better or the worse if there is no absolute and immutable good to which they can approximate or from which they can recede. We can go on getting a sum ore and more nearly right only if the one perfectly right answer is 'stagnant.'
CS Lewis
The Poison of Subjectivism
CS Lewis
The Poison of Subjectivism
"Created To Become Like Christ"
God’s ultimate goal for your life on earth is not comfort, but character development. He wants you to become like Christ…Christlikeness is all about transforming your character, not your personality...God’s Word provides the truth we need to grow, Gods people provide the support we need to grow, and circumstances provide the environment we need to practice Christlikeness. If you study and apply God’s Word, connect regularly with other believers, and lean to trust God in difficult circumstances, I guarantee you will become more like Jesus...How does this happen in real life? Through the choices we make. We choose to do the right thing in situations and then trust God’s Spirit to give us His (strength), love, faith, and wisdom to do it…Don’t wait to feel powerful or confident. Move ahead in your weakness, doing the right thing in spite of your fears and feelings...Each metaphor requires active participation: Seeds must be planted and cultivated, buildings must be built- they don’t just appear- children must eat and exercise to grow...Spiritual maturity …is a gradual, progressive development that will take the rest of your life.
The Purpose Driven Life pp 173-176
The Purpose Driven Life pp 173-176
"Striving For The Ideal Relationally"
Our supreme model for unity is the Trinity…Just like every parent, our heavenly Father enjoys watching His children get along with each other…conflict is usually a sign that the focus has shifted to less important issues...Pastors often have the unpleasant task of serving as mediator between hurt, conflicting, or immature members…Sometimes you will have to do what ‘s best for the Body, not yourself, showing preference to others. That’s one reason God puts us into a church family- to learn unselfishness...Once you discover what God intend real fellowship to be, it is easy to become discouraged by the gap between the ideal and the real in your church. Yet we must passionately love the church in spite of its imperfections. Longing for the ideal while criticizing the real is evidence of immaturity. On the other hand, settling for the real without striving for the ideal is complacency. Maturity is living with the tension...We must remember that it was God who chose to give us different personalities, backgrounds, races, and preferences, so we should value and enjoy those differences, not merely tolerate them.
Rick Warren
The Purpose Driven Life pp160-167
Rick Warren
The Purpose Driven Life pp160-167
"As Far As The East Is From The West"
He gives us two things we cannot measure—the distance of heaven from earth and the tail-chasing distance of east from west...—to convey the idea of a mercy that is beyond our experience in other human relationships, a love that “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Literally, the sky is the limit when it comes to God’s mercy. No request that is made from a good motive is outrageous. Let me not limit my prayers to what men say is possible.
But if God’s love is so big—and He is so earnest to communicate how big it is—why do I keep thinking I’m just about to get the boot? How can I insult Him so? Do I think so highly of myself as to imagine that I’m the only person on earth that the gospel isn’t going to work for? I’ve finally done it: I’ve finally committed a sin that’s more powerful than Jesus’ blood!
The Christians I admire most—and I know precious few of them—are those whom I can see are so confident of God’s undeserved love that they are not constantly revisiting their sin or crime, but they have moved on with their lives and have peace and joy. Oh, if the matter of their past comes up, they will not deny it, and will be the first to call it evil. But you will not suck them into a morbid dwelling on it... “. . . as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”
How far is east from west? About as far as yes is from no, I suppose, or guilty from innocent. Or as far as future is from past. They can give each other a good chase, but they will never catch each other.
If you were trying to encourage a fearful soul to understand that he is forgiven, if you were dealing with someone given to serial relapses into self-incrimination, what would you say to him? God bends over backwards; He multiplies metaphors till one of them works for you: Your sin is so forgiven that only if the east could become west would you become unforgiven.
Don’t like that one? Then how about this: Your sin is so forgiven that it is like the goat whose head the high priest Aaron laid both his hands on it and confessed over it everything he could think of, transmitting all the vileness of his person and his people onto the animal. And then he took the sin-ridden beast to another man, who led it into the wilderness, never to return (Leviticus 16:20-28).
That one doesn’t do it for you, either? Try this: Your sin is like the curtain between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies (don’t picture your mother’s drapes but more like an iron curtain) that was ripped clean from top to bottom in the hour that Jesus, the archetypal scapegoat, took on our sins (Mark 15:38).
Or if it helps, picture yourself standing before God, covered in human excrement (that’s the actual word in Zechariah 3), with Satan accusing you—and making a very good case. And the Angel of the Lord rebukes Satan instead of you and calls for the filthy garments to be taken away and brand new, pure garments put on you...
Andree Seu
But if God’s love is so big—and He is so earnest to communicate how big it is—why do I keep thinking I’m just about to get the boot? How can I insult Him so? Do I think so highly of myself as to imagine that I’m the only person on earth that the gospel isn’t going to work for? I’ve finally done it: I’ve finally committed a sin that’s more powerful than Jesus’ blood!
The Christians I admire most—and I know precious few of them—are those whom I can see are so confident of God’s undeserved love that they are not constantly revisiting their sin or crime, but they have moved on with their lives and have peace and joy. Oh, if the matter of their past comes up, they will not deny it, and will be the first to call it evil. But you will not suck them into a morbid dwelling on it... “. . . as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”
How far is east from west? About as far as yes is from no, I suppose, or guilty from innocent. Or as far as future is from past. They can give each other a good chase, but they will never catch each other.
If you were trying to encourage a fearful soul to understand that he is forgiven, if you were dealing with someone given to serial relapses into self-incrimination, what would you say to him? God bends over backwards; He multiplies metaphors till one of them works for you: Your sin is so forgiven that only if the east could become west would you become unforgiven.
Don’t like that one? Then how about this: Your sin is so forgiven that it is like the goat whose head the high priest Aaron laid both his hands on it and confessed over it everything he could think of, transmitting all the vileness of his person and his people onto the animal. And then he took the sin-ridden beast to another man, who led it into the wilderness, never to return (Leviticus 16:20-28).
That one doesn’t do it for you, either? Try this: Your sin is like the curtain between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies (don’t picture your mother’s drapes but more like an iron curtain) that was ripped clean from top to bottom in the hour that Jesus, the archetypal scapegoat, took on our sins (Mark 15:38).
Or if it helps, picture yourself standing before God, covered in human excrement (that’s the actual word in Zechariah 3), with Satan accusing you—and making a very good case. And the Angel of the Lord rebukes Satan instead of you and calls for the filthy garments to be taken away and brand new, pure garments put on you...
Andree Seu
"Avoiding, Creating, and Resolving Conflict"
Notice Jesus didn’t say ‘Blessed are the peace lovers,” because everyone loves peace. Neither did he say, “Blessed are the peaceable,” who are never disturbed by anything. Jesus said, ‘Blessed are those who work for peace” those who actively seek to resolve conflict. Peacemakers are rare because peacemaking is hard work…Peacemaking is not avoiding conflict. Running from a problem, pretending it doesn’t exist, or being afraid to talk about it is actually cowardice. Jesus, the Prince of Peace, was never afraid of conflict. On occasion he provoked it for the good of everyone. Sometimes we need to avoid conflict, sometimes we need to create it, and sometimes we need to resolve it.
Rick Warren
The Purpose Driven Life pp 153
Rick Warren
The Purpose Driven Life pp 153
"God's Classroom & Laboratory"
The local church is the classroom for learning how to get along in God’s family. It is a lab for practicing unselfish, sympathetic love…only in regular contact with ordinary, imperfect believers can we learn real fellowship and experience…being connected and dependent on each other...God’s mercy to us is the motivation for showing mercy to others. Remember, you will never be asked to forgive someone else more than God has already forgiven you. Whenever you are hurt by someone, you have a choice to make: Will I use my energy and emotions for retaliation or for resolution? You can’t do both.
Rick Warren
The Purpose Driven Life pp.133, 142-143.
Rick Warren
The Purpose Driven Life pp.133, 142-143.
"Becoming Best Friends With God"
It’s difficult to imagine how an intimate friendship is possible between an omnipotent, invisible, perfect God and a finite, sinful human being…The word for friend in this verse does not mean a casual acquaintance but a close, trusted relationship. The same word is used to refer to the best man at a wedding and a king’s inner circle of intimate, trusted friends. In royal courts…the inner circle of trusted friends enjoy close contact, direct access, and confidential information…knowing and loving God is our greatest privilege, and being known and loved is God’s greatest pleasure...You are as close to God as you choose to be. Like any friendship, you must work at developing your friendship with God. It won’t happen by accident. It takes desire, time, and energy. If you want a deeper, more intimate connection with God you must learn to honestly share your feelings with Him, trust Him when he asks you to do something, learn to care about what He cares about, and desire His friendship more than anything else.
Rick Warren
The Purpose Driven Life
pp86-87,92
Rick Warren
The Purpose Driven Life
pp86-87,92
"What Makes God Smile"
This is what God wants most from you: a relationship…God made you to love you, and he longs for you to love him back…learning to love God and be loved by Him should be the greatest objective of your life. Nothing else comes close in importance...If you want to know how much you matter to God, look at Christ with His arms outstretched on the cross, saying, "I love you this much! I'd rather die than live without you.
Rick Warren
The Purpose Driven Life pp.70
Rick Warren
The Purpose Driven Life pp.70
"The Reason For Everything"
It’s all for Him. The ultimate goal of the universe is to show the glory of God. It is the reason for everything that exists, including you. God made it all for His glory. Without God’s glory, there would be nothing. What is the glory of God? It is who God is. It is the essence of his nature, the weight of His importance, the radiance of His splendor, the demonstration of his power, and the atmosphere of His presence. God’s glory is the expression of His goodness and all His other intrinsic, eternal qualities.
Rick Warren
The Purpose Driven Life pp.53
Rick Warren
The Purpose Driven Life pp.53
"Luxurious Self Reproach"
There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel no one else has a right to blame us.
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
"God's Megaphone"
God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
CS Lewis
CS Lewis
"Forget None Of His Benefits"
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits . . .”
At a wedding recently I met a woman whose husband spent the whole summer in nothing but repentance. She sensed that it was becoming morbid and said to him, “Will you stop repenting!” Repentance is a good thing and I do it all the time, but it is important for the soul’s health—it is chicken soup for the soul and strength for the body—to do a lot of rejoicing in God’s “benefits.”
“Benefits” is such an understated word for what God has done in my life—the Rube Goldberg orchestration of my conversion; the improbability of Him even wanting me after the evil child I was; the way He suffered through my first two decades of sham Christian life; the way He was planning, even during that period, the good things I now enjoy; the way He keeps this widow with modest abilities financially afloat; the way He has given me joy.
The Psalmist isn’t telling us not to forget God’s benefits because it’s impolite. He’s telling us not to forget God’s benefits because it’s deadly. After all, all we have to go on as our encouragement in this present day’s troubles is the record of God’s faithfulness in yesterday’s troubles. And not only our own yesterdays, but other people’s yesterdays (our own individual histories being so short a paper trail). That’s why fellowship is crucial (Hebrews 10:25; Malachi 3:16). You need to hear about the impossible things God has done in other Christians’ lives.
Pastor Bill Johnson of California made an absolute statement—that every time ancient Israel backslid it was because she had forgotten God’s miracles. Said Johnson, “Read Psalm 78 and see if you can reach any other conclusion.”
So I read it, and it is so. “The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle” (78:9). Why? Because what use is a bow where there is no mindfulness of God’s past miracles? What courage do we have to tackle spiritual strongholds when we don’t remember what God did before or believe that He can do them in our day?
“Those who feared the Lord spoke with one another . . .” (Malachi 3:16). Wonder what they spoke. I bet they reminded each other of God’s benefits.
Andree Seu
At a wedding recently I met a woman whose husband spent the whole summer in nothing but repentance. She sensed that it was becoming morbid and said to him, “Will you stop repenting!” Repentance is a good thing and I do it all the time, but it is important for the soul’s health—it is chicken soup for the soul and strength for the body—to do a lot of rejoicing in God’s “benefits.”
“Benefits” is such an understated word for what God has done in my life—the Rube Goldberg orchestration of my conversion; the improbability of Him even wanting me after the evil child I was; the way He suffered through my first two decades of sham Christian life; the way He was planning, even during that period, the good things I now enjoy; the way He keeps this widow with modest abilities financially afloat; the way He has given me joy.
The Psalmist isn’t telling us not to forget God’s benefits because it’s impolite. He’s telling us not to forget God’s benefits because it’s deadly. After all, all we have to go on as our encouragement in this present day’s troubles is the record of God’s faithfulness in yesterday’s troubles. And not only our own yesterdays, but other people’s yesterdays (our own individual histories being so short a paper trail). That’s why fellowship is crucial (Hebrews 10:25; Malachi 3:16). You need to hear about the impossible things God has done in other Christians’ lives.
Pastor Bill Johnson of California made an absolute statement—that every time ancient Israel backslid it was because she had forgotten God’s miracles. Said Johnson, “Read Psalm 78 and see if you can reach any other conclusion.”
So I read it, and it is so. “The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle” (78:9). Why? Because what use is a bow where there is no mindfulness of God’s past miracles? What courage do we have to tackle spiritual strongholds when we don’t remember what God did before or believe that He can do them in our day?
“Those who feared the Lord spoke with one another . . .” (Malachi 3:16). Wonder what they spoke. I bet they reminded each other of God’s benefits.
Andree Seu
"Only Supernaturalists Really See Nature"
Only Supernaturalists really see Nature. You must go a little away from her, and then turn around and look back. Then at last the true landscape will become visible. You must have tasted, however briefly, the pure water from beyond the world before you can be distinctly conscious of the hot, salty tang of Nature’s current. To treat her as God, or as Everything, is to lose the whole pith and pleasure of her.
Come out, look back, and then you will see: this astonishing cataract of bears, babies, and bananas [and birds]; this immoderate deluge of atoms, orchids, oranges, cancers, fleas, gases, tornadoes and toads. How could you ever have thought this was the ultimate reality? How could you ever have thought that it was merely a stage-set for the moral drama of men and women? She is herself. Offer her neither worship nor contempt. Meet her and know her.
If we are immortal, and if she is doomed (as scientists tell us) to run down and die, we shall miss this half-shy and half-flamboyant creature, this ogress, this [saucy girl], this incorrigible fairy, this dumb witch. But the theologians tell us that she, like ourselves, is to be redeemed. The ‘vanity’ to which she was subjected was her disease, not her essence. She will be cursed in character: not tamed (Heaven forbid) nor sterilized. We shall still be able to recognize our old enemy, friend, playfellow and foster mother, so perfected as to be not less, but more, herself. And that will be a merry meeting.
CS Lewis
Miracles pp.67-68
Come out, look back, and then you will see: this astonishing cataract of bears, babies, and bananas [and birds]; this immoderate deluge of atoms, orchids, oranges, cancers, fleas, gases, tornadoes and toads. How could you ever have thought this was the ultimate reality? How could you ever have thought that it was merely a stage-set for the moral drama of men and women? She is herself. Offer her neither worship nor contempt. Meet her and know her.
If we are immortal, and if she is doomed (as scientists tell us) to run down and die, we shall miss this half-shy and half-flamboyant creature, this ogress, this [saucy girl], this incorrigible fairy, this dumb witch. But the theologians tell us that she, like ourselves, is to be redeemed. The ‘vanity’ to which she was subjected was her disease, not her essence. She will be cursed in character: not tamed (Heaven forbid) nor sterilized. We shall still be able to recognize our old enemy, friend, playfellow and foster mother, so perfected as to be not less, but more, herself. And that will be a merry meeting.
CS Lewis
Miracles pp.67-68
"From Vapor to Eternal Glory"
Only one life, 'twill soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last.
Author Unknown
Author Unknown
"Risk For The Cause"
But not even Joshua could explode the myth of safety. The
people were drunk in a dreamworld of security. And they tried
to stone Caleb and Joshua. The result was thousands of wasted
lives and wasted years. It was clearly wrong not to take the risk
of battling the giants in the land of Canaan. Oh, how much is
wasted when we do not risk for the cause of God!...I have been assuming that the power and the motive behind
taking risks for the cause of God is not heroism, or the lust for
adventure, or the courage of self-reliance, or the need to earn
God’s good will, but rather faith in the all-providing, all-ruling,
all-satisfying Son of God, Jesus Christ. The strength to risk losing
face for the sake of Christ is the faith that God’s love will lift
up your face in the end and vindicate your cause...In this
way risk reflects God’s value, not our valor...Every loss we risk
in order to make much of Christ, God promises to restore a thousandfold
with his all-satisfying fellowship.
John Piper
Don't Waste Your Life pp89
people were drunk in a dreamworld of security. And they tried
to stone Caleb and Joshua. The result was thousands of wasted
lives and wasted years. It was clearly wrong not to take the risk
of battling the giants in the land of Canaan. Oh, how much is
wasted when we do not risk for the cause of God!...I have been assuming that the power and the motive behind
taking risks for the cause of God is not heroism, or the lust for
adventure, or the courage of self-reliance, or the need to earn
God’s good will, but rather faith in the all-providing, all-ruling,
all-satisfying Son of God, Jesus Christ. The strength to risk losing
face for the sake of Christ is the faith that God’s love will lift
up your face in the end and vindicate your cause...In this
way risk reflects God’s value, not our valor...Every loss we risk
in order to make much of Christ, God promises to restore a thousandfold
with his all-satisfying fellowship.
John Piper
Don't Waste Your Life pp89
"Unquenchable Optimism"
Ray Stedman writes in Authentic Christianity that the first mark of such authenticity is "unquenchable optimism."
Unquenchable: "unable to be extinguished, terminated, destroyed, or satisfied."
Optimism: "an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome."
Joseph had unquenchable optimism when he went from favored son to Egyptian jailbird, and he just kept doing his little prison jobs, one day at a time, because he knew he had a prophecy hovering over him (Genesis 39-50).
Moses' mom had unquenchable optimism when she thought it might just work to fashion a floating device and launch her son down the river (Exodus 2:2-3).
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
Caleb had unquenchable optimism when the other spies to Canaan said it was not realistic to attack at this time, and he said, like a choir boy, yippee, let's do it! (Numbers 13:30).
Manoah's wife had unquenchable optimism when her husband thought they were going to die because they had seen an angel, and she sensibly said, "If the Lord had meant to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these" (Judges 13:23).
Even Samson, when he had made a mess of his whole life, and squandered his calling, and was broken and blind and in ankle irons pushing a grinding wheel around in circles— even he thought it was worth a try to call on the Lord one more time and ask for favor (Judges 16:28).
Jonathan had unquenchable optimism when he and his armor bearer broke off from the moribund Israelite army during Philistine occupation, saying, "Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few" (1 Samuel 14:6).
David had unquenchable optimism when Philistia was spanking Israel's finest (1 Samuel 17:26). And when the King asked him how a runt like him could kill a giant, he said because he used to kill lions and bears when they threatened the herd, and Goliath would be just like one of them (1 Samuel 17:34-37).
Elisha had unquenchable optimism when even the prophets kept telling him to give up following Elijah, but he wouldn't because he thought he might just get a double portion of blessing (2 Kings 2).
Mordecai had unquenchable optimism. What else can you say about a guy living in exile, with a contract on his head, who mulls over his cousin's fluky positioning at court and says to her: "Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14).
Ezra had unquenchable optimism when he decided not to ask the king for an escort of soldiers to help them against bandits on the road from Persia to Israel, because he had bragged to the king that God would protect them (Ezra 8:22).
Simeon and Anna had unquenchable optimism when they grew old coming to the Temple every day, because they figured that one of these days the Messiah would show up (Luke 2).
A woman in Israel had unquenchable optimism when she thought if she only touched Jesus' cloak she would be healed of a 12-year disease that none of her doctors had been able to cure (Mark 5).
Paul had unquenchable optimism when he decided that his sitting in jail was a clever strategy on God's part for spreading the gospel to Caesar's household (Philippians 1:12-13; 4:22).
And Paul had unquenchable optimism when only decades after Christ's resurrection the church seemed to be coming unglued in Corinth and Galatia, and others wanted to go back to the old-time religion of slaughtering bulls and goats. He scolded them but expected better things.
I'll bet if someone like Caleb or Jonathan or Paul were not able to sleep worth a fig for the past five years, they would say to themselves something like, "Gee, I wonder if God is preparing me for some endurance test in the future where it will be an advantage to have learned how to make do with 4 hours of sleep a night."
Andree Seu
Unquenchable: "unable to be extinguished, terminated, destroyed, or satisfied."
Optimism: "an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome."
Joseph had unquenchable optimism when he went from favored son to Egyptian jailbird, and he just kept doing his little prison jobs, one day at a time, because he knew he had a prophecy hovering over him (Genesis 39-50).
Moses' mom had unquenchable optimism when she thought it might just work to fashion a floating device and launch her son down the river (Exodus 2:2-3).
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
Caleb had unquenchable optimism when the other spies to Canaan said it was not realistic to attack at this time, and he said, like a choir boy, yippee, let's do it! (Numbers 13:30).
Manoah's wife had unquenchable optimism when her husband thought they were going to die because they had seen an angel, and she sensibly said, "If the Lord had meant to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these" (Judges 13:23).
Even Samson, when he had made a mess of his whole life, and squandered his calling, and was broken and blind and in ankle irons pushing a grinding wheel around in circles— even he thought it was worth a try to call on the Lord one more time and ask for favor (Judges 16:28).
Jonathan had unquenchable optimism when he and his armor bearer broke off from the moribund Israelite army during Philistine occupation, saying, "Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few" (1 Samuel 14:6).
David had unquenchable optimism when Philistia was spanking Israel's finest (1 Samuel 17:26). And when the King asked him how a runt like him could kill a giant, he said because he used to kill lions and bears when they threatened the herd, and Goliath would be just like one of them (1 Samuel 17:34-37).
Elisha had unquenchable optimism when even the prophets kept telling him to give up following Elijah, but he wouldn't because he thought he might just get a double portion of blessing (2 Kings 2).
Mordecai had unquenchable optimism. What else can you say about a guy living in exile, with a contract on his head, who mulls over his cousin's fluky positioning at court and says to her: "Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14).
Ezra had unquenchable optimism when he decided not to ask the king for an escort of soldiers to help them against bandits on the road from Persia to Israel, because he had bragged to the king that God would protect them (Ezra 8:22).
Simeon and Anna had unquenchable optimism when they grew old coming to the Temple every day, because they figured that one of these days the Messiah would show up (Luke 2).
A woman in Israel had unquenchable optimism when she thought if she only touched Jesus' cloak she would be healed of a 12-year disease that none of her doctors had been able to cure (Mark 5).
Paul had unquenchable optimism when he decided that his sitting in jail was a clever strategy on God's part for spreading the gospel to Caesar's household (Philippians 1:12-13; 4:22).
And Paul had unquenchable optimism when only decades after Christ's resurrection the church seemed to be coming unglued in Corinth and Galatia, and others wanted to go back to the old-time religion of slaughtering bulls and goats. He scolded them but expected better things.
I'll bet if someone like Caleb or Jonathan or Paul were not able to sleep worth a fig for the past five years, they would say to themselves something like, "Gee, I wonder if God is preparing me for some endurance test in the future where it will be an advantage to have learned how to make do with 4 hours of sleep a night."
Andree Seu
"The Big Bluff"
I have been amazed by him for a long time, so I finally asked a friend of mine how he overcame such great sin in his life—and more than overcame, becoming a person with as pure a heart as it used to be crooked. He had an answer for me. He told me that for many years, even as a Christian, he used to think that he was more or less helpless before his sinful urges. (His was a heroin addiction, with all the deceit and other baggage that accompanies that lifestyle.) He believed that the best he could hope to do was a vicious circle of succumb and repent.
Then the Lord put him through a painful process in which he, for the first time, truly understood the meaning of Paul’s exhortation: “You also must consider [or “reckon”] yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). In a fairly epiphanic way, my friend grasped the fact that sin did not have to have dominion over him (v.14). The grace was there in Christ to say “no” to temptation (Titus 2:12). (For my part, I remembered 1 Peter 4:1, that the person who has suffered in the body is done with sin.)
Of course, sin will still try to convince you, after your conversion, that nothing has really changed, that you are still the weak and pitiful slave to him that you always were. But it’s a big bluff. And we need to call his bluff and to act on the grace that’s already present and sufficient (2 Peter 1:3). It is a very serious matter what we “consider” and “reckon” about ourselves. It is imperative that we operate out of the truth about who we are now: If we’re slaves to anyone now, we’re “slaves to God” and “the fruit you get leads to sanctification” (Romans 6:22).
Wouldn’t it be the most pathetic thing if a man drove a beautiful new Ferrari at 40 miles per hour all his life because he “reckoned” that’s as fast as it could possibly go? We have the Holy Spirit under the hood. A lot more “overcoming” is possible to us than many of us have believed. That’s why Jesus commends seven times in Revelation 2 and 3 the churches who believe they can “overcome” their sins, and do so.
Andree Seu
Then the Lord put him through a painful process in which he, for the first time, truly understood the meaning of Paul’s exhortation: “You also must consider [or “reckon”] yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). In a fairly epiphanic way, my friend grasped the fact that sin did not have to have dominion over him (v.14). The grace was there in Christ to say “no” to temptation (Titus 2:12). (For my part, I remembered 1 Peter 4:1, that the person who has suffered in the body is done with sin.)
Of course, sin will still try to convince you, after your conversion, that nothing has really changed, that you are still the weak and pitiful slave to him that you always were. But it’s a big bluff. And we need to call his bluff and to act on the grace that’s already present and sufficient (2 Peter 1:3). It is a very serious matter what we “consider” and “reckon” about ourselves. It is imperative that we operate out of the truth about who we are now: If we’re slaves to anyone now, we’re “slaves to God” and “the fruit you get leads to sanctification” (Romans 6:22).
Wouldn’t it be the most pathetic thing if a man drove a beautiful new Ferrari at 40 miles per hour all his life because he “reckoned” that’s as fast as it could possibly go? We have the Holy Spirit under the hood. A lot more “overcoming” is possible to us than many of us have believed. That’s why Jesus commends seven times in Revelation 2 and 3 the churches who believe they can “overcome” their sins, and do so.
Andree Seu
"Fatal Acquiescence"
I do not think any efforts of my own will can end once and for all this craving for limited liabilities, this fatal reservation. Only God can. I have good faith and hope He will. Of course, I don't mean I can therefore, as they say, "sit back." What God does for us, He does in us. The process of doing it will appear to me (and not falsely) to be the daily or hourly repeated exercises of my own will in renouncing this attitude, especially each morning, for it grows all over me like a new shell each night. Failures will be forgiven; it is acquiescence that is fatal, the permitted, regularised presence of an area in ourselves which we still claim for our own. We may never, this side of death, drive the invader out of our territory, but we must be in the Resistance, not the Vichy government. And this, so far as I can yet see, must be begun again every day. Our morning prayer should be that in the Imitation: Da hodie perfecte incipere - grant me to make an unflawed beginning today, for I have done nothing yet.
CS Lewis
The Weight of Glory pp. 191-192
CS Lewis
The Weight of Glory pp. 191-192
"The Only Well"
"If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God, it will make in the end no difference what you have chosen instead." Those are hard words to take. Will it really make no difference whether it was women or patriotism, cocaine or art, whiskey or a seat in the Cabinet, money or science? Well, surely no difference that matters. We shall have missed the end for which we are formed and rejected the only thing that satisfies. Does it matter to a man dying in a desert by which choice of route he missed the only well?
CS Lewis
The Weight of Glory pp190-191
CS Lewis
The Weight of Glory pp190-191
"Don't Fear The Reaper: Fill Well Your Years"
Our repugnance of death increases in proportion to our consciousness of having lived in vain."
William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt
Law VS Love
Far more important than law, the tempter would seem to say, is love. He condemns Eve’s attitude of trust in God’s command and seeks to point out to her that if she would obtain the wholesomeness and well-roundedness that should characterize a fruitful life, she must not be bound by law…She is confined by her position of trusting in God, of taking seriously His command…From this cramping position she must be emancipated and move over to a standpoint of neutrality from which she can accurately pass judgment upon God and His commands. She is foolish to continue permitting God to lay down the law for her...we can hear the tempter saying...[the human] soul is a very tender thing, and to restrain and bind it by the imposition of categorical law is to harm it. The soul should be free to develop and to express itself, and this it can do only through freedom and love.”
Edward J. Young
Edward J. Young
Neglect = Misery
"...the moral principles and percepts contained in the scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. If men would universally cultivate these religious affections and virtuous dispositions, with as much diligence as they cultivate human science ... the world would soon become a terrestrial paradise."
"All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice , crime , ambition , injustice , oppression , slavery , and war , proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible...."
Noah Webster
"All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice , crime , ambition , injustice , oppression , slavery , and war , proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible...."
Noah Webster
"The Great Cataract of Nonsense"
Most of all, perhaps, we need intimate knowledge of the past. Not that the past has any magic about it, but because we cannot study the future, and yet need something to set against the present, to remind us that the basic assumptions have been quite different in different periods and that much which seems certain to the uneducated is merely temporary fashion. A man who has lived in many places is not likely to be deceived by the local errors of his native village: the scholar has lived in many times and is therefore in some degree immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and the microphone of his own age.
CS Lewis
CS Lewis
"Our Happiness Lies In Him"
Everyone has noticed how hard it is to turn our thoughts to God when everything is going well with us. We “have all we want” is a terrible saying when “all” does not include God. We find God an interruption. As St. Augustine says somewhere, “God wants to give us something, but cannot, because our hands are full—there’s nowhere for Him to put it.” Or as a friend of mine said, “We regard God as an airman regards his parachute; it’s there for emergencies but he hopes he’ll never have to use it.” Now God, who has made us, knows what we are and that our happiness lies in Him. Yet we will not seek it in Him as long as He leaves us any other resort where it can even plausibly be looked for. While what we call “our own life” remains agreeable we will not surrender it to Him. What then can God do in our interests but make “our own life” less agreeable to us, and take away the plausible source of false happiness? It is just here, where God’s providence seems at first to be most cruel, that the Divine humility, the stooping down of the Highest, most deserves praise.
CS Lewis
CS Lewis
"Acquiring A Taste For Obedience"
...action precedes love. The...way to get to like doing God's work...is to throw yourself into it.
Andree Seu
Andree Seu
"Stake Your Claim"
The Lord has a storehouse of unasked for prayers just waiting to be claimed
Andree Seu's neighbor, "Janice"
Andree Seu's neighbor, "Janice"
"Learning To Sing In The Rain"
"...live in joy that's worthy of the gospel. The dog bits and the bee stings and you're feeling sad. But blest are those who praise God in the midst of it, who praise Him when their hearts are broken" [who have learned to 'sing in the rain' cd]
Andree Seu
Andree Seu
"Finding A More Excellent Way"
Joseph found his betrothed to be with child—and not by him. "Being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, [he] resolved to divorce her quietly" rather than throw the book at her (Matthew 1:19). Small footnote in Scripture; big leap in this reader's understanding. Here was a thinker, a grappler, who wrestled within the parameters of righteousness and found one way more excellent than another.
Andree Seu
Andree Seu
"Andrees Aphorisms"
(Selected)
People laugh at your unwholesome talk at the moment but think less of you afterwards.
Marry a man who loves God more than he loves you.
Neglect a phone call, lose a friend.
I complained, "God hasn't answered my prayer." That's because I was not looking for help in my weakness but for the removal of my weakness to the praise of my own glory.
Sit on a sensitive letter for three days before sending it.
A phone call to say, "I'm thinking of you," yields benefits all out of proportion to the time investment.
The best teaching moments are never at convenient times.
An idol forfeits your life. You look back and say you never lived.
God is the better chess player. Just obey.
Talent is good, but faithfulness is better.
Tell your child what delights you about him.
Drop the dust rag and look at your child when he's telling you a story.
Andree Seu
People laugh at your unwholesome talk at the moment but think less of you afterwards.
Marry a man who loves God more than he loves you.
Neglect a phone call, lose a friend.
I complained, "God hasn't answered my prayer." That's because I was not looking for help in my weakness but for the removal of my weakness to the praise of my own glory.
Sit on a sensitive letter for three days before sending it.
A phone call to say, "I'm thinking of you," yields benefits all out of proportion to the time investment.
The best teaching moments are never at convenient times.
An idol forfeits your life. You look back and say you never lived.
God is the better chess player. Just obey.
Talent is good, but faithfulness is better.
Tell your child what delights you about him.
Drop the dust rag and look at your child when he's telling you a story.
Andree Seu
"Widen Your Hearts"
Paul's phrase, "widen your hearts," is so loose, so non-technical, so undefined, so ... wide open, as to invite—or coerce—some outlay of cogitation on my part. What it means to "widen your heart" I am evidently free to explore without restriction, since I am so unlikely to go too far with it that, as with other virtues Paul names elsewhere, "against such things there is no law" (Galatians 5:23).
I discover there are two ways of seeing my brother. There is the "merely human" way (1 Corinthians 3; 4)—a severe, loveless accuracy. A clinical fixation on the wart on his nose. A covering the sun with one finger, as a Mexican boy once told me.
Then there is the "wide" way. It sees possibility; it is full of self-knowledge; it "believes all things, hopes all things" (1 Corinthians 13:7); it regards the other as "a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17) and abandons the tired modes of "measuring" and "comparing" (2 Corinthians 10:12). It is the difference between mercy and justice, kindness and shrewdness, remembering one's own reflection in the mirror and forgetting.
Andree Seu
I discover there are two ways of seeing my brother. There is the "merely human" way (1 Corinthians 3; 4)—a severe, loveless accuracy. A clinical fixation on the wart on his nose. A covering the sun with one finger, as a Mexican boy once told me.
Then there is the "wide" way. It sees possibility; it is full of self-knowledge; it "believes all things, hopes all things" (1 Corinthians 13:7); it regards the other as "a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17) and abandons the tired modes of "measuring" and "comparing" (2 Corinthians 10:12). It is the difference between mercy and justice, kindness and shrewdness, remembering one's own reflection in the mirror and forgetting.
Andree Seu
"The Warrior/Lover"
War is problematic for my thoroughly modern children (and for every thinking soul). It would seem to bring into collision two prominent themes of Scripture: God the warrior (Isaiah 42:13), on the one hand, and on the other, God the lover (1 John 4:16), the compassionate (2 Corinthians 1:3), the merciful (2 Samuel 24:14-15), the hater of violence (Ezekiel 12:19). But, I ask you, my children, would love be love—would it be compassionate, merciful, and a hater of violence—if, say, it let the murderer of your best friend go on his merry way?
Can we then at least establish, considering all the above, that if God is against war, He is not against it categorically? That extenuating circumstances may justify it? "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven ... a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace" (Ecclesiastes 3:1,8). The highest good is not earthly peace but heavenly peace. Earthly peace has given us such things as the tower of Babel and Sodom and Gomorrah, after all.
The Lord has a score to settle with the nations of the earth, and it will not come about without violence. It will be as in the days of Joshua, when the heavenly host, the sun, and hailstones all fought on his side (Joshua 5:14; 10:11-13). That first time was a sip of His justice; the second will be the full cup (Revelation).
Andree Seu
Can we then at least establish, considering all the above, that if God is against war, He is not against it categorically? That extenuating circumstances may justify it? "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven ... a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace" (Ecclesiastes 3:1,8). The highest good is not earthly peace but heavenly peace. Earthly peace has given us such things as the tower of Babel and Sodom and Gomorrah, after all.
The Lord has a score to settle with the nations of the earth, and it will not come about without violence. It will be as in the days of Joshua, when the heavenly host, the sun, and hailstones all fought on his side (Joshua 5:14; 10:11-13). That first time was a sip of His justice; the second will be the full cup (Revelation).
Andree Seu
The Gateway To Happiness"
We will see that every word we spoke was eternally consequential, and none were neutral. We wielded them not only to the betterment or detriment of our hearers but for ourselves, our very words incrementally forming the persons we would became, rendering us either capable of greater victory or more susceptible to temptation. We will see that the little phrase we always skipped over in Philippians 4:6—“with thanksgiving”— was the ticket against depression and the gateway to happiness.
Andree Seu
Andree Seu
"The Deadly Poison Of A Bad Report"
Caleb was one of 12 men sent by Moses to scout out Canaan and bring back intelligence to prepare Israel for conquest (Numbers 13). Twelve spies all observed the same data: fertile soil, fortified cities, and giants descendant from Anak. At the debriefing Caleb said cheerfully, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” But the other men (except Joshua) gave the people “a bad report”:
“The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim . . . and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them” (13:32-33).
How little have we understood the deadly poison of “a bad report” on the hearers? I do it all the time. I nearly gave one today. Someone told me his relationship with the mother of his son was unsalvageable and that the idea of their reconciling and marrying was out of the question. He listed several reasons why he should give up and move on, and they were such formidable reasons that I almost agreed with him. (God could never fix that! Too far gone!)
No Christian who insists that he is unable to do a difficult thing thinks he has a spirit of unbelief. He thinks, rather, that he is a realist. He considers someone with Caleb’s attitude to be nutty at best and theologically dangerous at worst.
God later weighed in on the spies’ reports and decreed that the 10 realists would never enter the land of Canaan. But as for the obnoxious faith fanatic, God said, “My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring him into the land into which he went. . . .” (14:24)...We have made things complicated but they are simple: Put your faith in God, in spite of all outward appearances. And do not go around giving “a bad report” and dousing other people’s faith by always pointing out the negative side of things, the obstacles and probabilities and statistics. Caleb saw opportunities for God to be glorious, where others saw only difficulties...
Andree Seu
“The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim . . . and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them” (13:32-33).
How little have we understood the deadly poison of “a bad report” on the hearers? I do it all the time. I nearly gave one today. Someone told me his relationship with the mother of his son was unsalvageable and that the idea of their reconciling and marrying was out of the question. He listed several reasons why he should give up and move on, and they were such formidable reasons that I almost agreed with him. (God could never fix that! Too far gone!)
No Christian who insists that he is unable to do a difficult thing thinks he has a spirit of unbelief. He thinks, rather, that he is a realist. He considers someone with Caleb’s attitude to be nutty at best and theologically dangerous at worst.
God later weighed in on the spies’ reports and decreed that the 10 realists would never enter the land of Canaan. But as for the obnoxious faith fanatic, God said, “My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring him into the land into which he went. . . .” (14:24)...We have made things complicated but they are simple: Put your faith in God, in spite of all outward appearances. And do not go around giving “a bad report” and dousing other people’s faith by always pointing out the negative side of things, the obstacles and probabilities and statistics. Caleb saw opportunities for God to be glorious, where others saw only difficulties...
Andree Seu
"Communicate What Is Universally Profitable"
The unbeliever may take his own temperament and experience, just as they happen to stand, and consider them worth communicating simply because they are his. To the Christian his own temperament and experience, as mere fact, and as merely his, are of no value or importance whatsoever: he will deal with them, if at all, only because they are the medium through which, or the position from which, something universally profitable appeared to him."
CS Lewis
CS Lewis
"Painting Black Mustaches"
My view of words was that there are good words and bad words but that most speech is neutral. After all, how can you sin ordering a cheese steak hoagie?
But the more I go, the more I see spoken words as falling into either what “gathers” or what “scatters.” ...It is a rare person who will recognize himself in a moral example. We are sure we would never have been the Pharisees or Job’s wife or Elisha’s servant Gehazi. We paint waxed mustaches on them, while we ourselves, by contrast, do not grumble but “share” or “discuss” or “confess” or make “prayer requests.”
It helps me to think of speech as a zero-sum game: It is important not only to avoid outright sinful words, but also worthless and insipid words, where words of life might have seized an opportunity for the kingdom. Jesus’ bar is higher than ours. We feel we’ve had a good day if we didn’t swear, lie, or gossip. Jesus says, “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak” (Matthew 12:36).
I hate to think of the times I went for a cheap laugh rather than turn a conversation to eternally weighty things.
Andree Seu
But the more I go, the more I see spoken words as falling into either what “gathers” or what “scatters.” ...It is a rare person who will recognize himself in a moral example. We are sure we would never have been the Pharisees or Job’s wife or Elisha’s servant Gehazi. We paint waxed mustaches on them, while we ourselves, by contrast, do not grumble but “share” or “discuss” or “confess” or make “prayer requests.”
It helps me to think of speech as a zero-sum game: It is important not only to avoid outright sinful words, but also worthless and insipid words, where words of life might have seized an opportunity for the kingdom. Jesus’ bar is higher than ours. We feel we’ve had a good day if we didn’t swear, lie, or gossip. Jesus says, “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak” (Matthew 12:36).
I hate to think of the times I went for a cheap laugh rather than turn a conversation to eternally weighty things.
Andree Seu
"Becoming Clean Mirrors"
Our whole destiny seems to lie in the opposite direction, in being as little as possible ourselves, in acquiring a fragrance that is not our own but borrowed, in becoming clean mirrors filled with the image of a face that is not ours
CS Lewis
CS Lewis
"Be Ye Doers"
I believe that the collecting of neat insights that never filter down to pavement-pounding obedience is the bane of a particular ilk of intellectual Christian: “Knowledge puffs up.” ...Lest this blog post become another neat insight, I propose a homework assignment: Next time we hear a neat insight from a preacher, teacher, or friend, let’s stop and pray over it immediately, thanking God for this illumination of a little corner of his truth and asking him to help us live it. Then let’s live watchfully... People who enter the kingdom and get somewhere in it are fiercely committed enthusiasts. They participate in the adventure by following Jesus, not by just sitting on the grassy knoll and eating the multiplied fish and bread...put into practice the neat insights you learned from God’s Word. Ignore those promptings and Satan comes along to snatch them from your mind like so much seed on a path..."
Andree Seu
Andree Seu
"Gardening Routines"
Cultivate only the habits that you are willing should master you.
Elbert Hubbard
Elbert Hubbard
"Waiting To Be Kindled"
The fire which seems extinguished often slumbers beneath the ashes.
Pierre Corneille
Pierre Corneille
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