CCEF: Holding Out for a Better Offer

"Discontentment reigns today. As a general rule, the more options, the less contentment, and the less contentment, the more people we will hurt. What a gift that the word of God reveals a different way to live.  When we say “yes” we are led in freedom, not bondage. Our “yes” becomes the will of God for us, and when we know we are living as our Father intends, life is good...There is freedom and contentment in not holding out for a better offer."   This is such a great article by Ed Welch, one I was both encouraged and challenged by!  

click HERE to read the rest of Welch's article

Lecrae: Hope When Life is Hard

When asked about the biblical promise he turns to most, Lecrae responds with:

"The biblical promise that I turn to most is that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called by him (Romans 8:28). I have to lean on the reality that even if it doesn’t look good to me, or feel good to me, God is ultimately being glorified. And in the end, even if it’s not until I am in heaven, it will work out to my benefit. Even if I don’t realize it until heaven, it will work out for my benefit.

I lean on that because life is difficult. Life is hard. It’s complicated. It’s not peachy keen, as a lot of people would like to make it seem. It takes a lot of leaning on the hope that is in Jesus. Without that hope we are just left to go insane, to be at our wit’s end. So this is the promise I hold to."

Personal Testimony: Trip Lee

"I never lived a wild lifestyle, but I was hopelessly dead in my sins." This is a short, concise, but very powerful testimony by Trip Lee.  I was extremely encouraged and challenged by all he had to say, and  I was especially struck by his comment, "But I don't think I was [a Christian] because my sin didn't bother me and Jesus was not precious to me." Wow.

Pride, Unbelief, and the Failure to Forgive

“But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” (Matthew 6:15)

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you.  […] For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” (Luke 6:37-38)

In response to being forgiven by God, shouldn’t our hearts overflow in love and forgiveness towards others?  Shouldn’t we be so in awe of the underserving mercy God has shown us that our lives are characterized by an outpouring of grace towards others?  Why then, when we are wronged, do we feel a driving need to call out the unjust?  Why do we hold grudges, and why do we possess the urge to defend ourselves and show others the offenders’ true colors?  Why does anger and resentment eat away at our souls, and is there a better way to respond when we feel unjustly aggrieved?

For myself, I am learning that the gnawing I feel within to have vengeance and set things right stems mainly from a heart of pride and unbelief.  One of my greatest idols is man’s approval.  I’m a people-pleaser, and as such much of my identity is wrapped up in how others view me.  While being a people-pleaser may cause me to appear humble, the reality is that my people-pleasing behavior actually stems from a twisted sense of pride—pride that demands others respect me and hold me in high esteem. Any slight against my character or person is thus a danger that threatens to destroy my world.  How do I respond to such slights?  Anger.  Bitterness.  Resentment.  Despair.  I believe also that my failure to forgive arises from a heart of unbelief which manifests itself in two ways— unbelief in who I am and unbelief in Who God is.  What do I mean by unbelief in who I am?  I mean that I fail to recognize how sinful I really am—I write my sins off as trivial compared to the sins of others, refusing to believe that I’m really that bad.  What a lie.  And then there’s my unbelief in God which doubts His sovereignty, goodness, and justice.  And what does this cause me to do?  I take matters into my own hands.               

C.S. Lewis writes on the problem of forgiveness in the following:

“. . . you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart—every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out. The difference between this situation and the one in such you are asking God’s forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough.

As regards my own sin it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are not really so good as I think; as regards other men’s sins against me it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are better than I think. One must therefore begin by attending to everything which may show that the other man was not so much to blame as we thought.

But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine percent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one percent guilt which is left over. To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian character; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.

This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life—to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son—how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night ‘forgive our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.’ We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.”

If I cherish and nurse a grudge against a fellow man, how can I dare approach God and demand mercy? If I—a depraved and sin-soiled sinner—demand justice when I am slighted, how much more should the holy and all-powerful God of the universe demand justice when His name is scorned?  Why should God have mercy on me if I fail to render to Him that which I demand for myself from others?  He shouldn’t.  In fact, the intensity with which I hold others guilty bears testimony to the fact that God will hold me guilty for my sins against Him.  It seems then that Christ’s command to “Forgive that you might be forgiven,” is not just a suggestion—it’s a rule!  I like how John Piper states it when he writes:

“God treats us in accordance with the belief of our heart: if we believe it is good and beautiful to harbor resentments and tabulate wrongs done against us, then God will recognize that our plea for forgiveness is sheer hypocrisy—for we will be asking Him to do what we believe to be bad. It is a dreadful thing to try to make God your patsy by asking Him to act in a way that you, as your action shows, esteem very lowly.”

And so, what can I take away from this?  If, in my pride, I hold fast to an unforgiving spirit, I am proving that I do not trust Christ and His way of life, for how could I withhold forgiveness for mild offenses when my monstrous debt against the most high God has been paid in full?  I know I can’t earn Heaven by forgiving others, but my prayer is that I will cease to be like the unforgiving servant Jesus spoke of in Matthew 18.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, may I come to resist revenge against those who have hurt me, grieve at their calamities, pray for their welfare, and seek reconciliation so far as it depends on me. 

“When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered he did not threaten; but he trusted to him who judges justly.” (1 Peter 1:23)

Shadows that Haunt

The shadows of fear, anxiety and self-indulgence all too often become ghosts and phantoms that haunt us.  The slightest gust of wind fills us with terror and a creaky floor causes us to freeze.  Friends become backstabbers, our parents our adversaries, and God—an enemy.  With darting eyes and racing hearts we find ourselves hurrying along, occasionally daring to rapidly glance back over our shoulder. 

Why this running and hiding lifestyle as though we are escaped convicts? Is it possible that all the worries of this world, combined with a sin-soiled conscience, have made us restless and prone to fear and avoidance?  I think so.  Maybe we have a sense that someone or something is out to get us, that we are being pursued. It is this terror that quickly consumes us, causing us to turn and flee in fear and mistrust even when we are not being pursued.

“The wicked flee when no one pursues…”

Proverbs 8:21a

Our guilty conscience condemns us, and in our wickedness and despair we are fearful.  But is there hope?  Is there somewhere we may find rest and boldness, somewhere we may shed our fears? 

Indeed, there is one great shadow we need not fear and from which we need not flee.   It is beneath this shadow—the shadow of the cross—that we are freed from the nightmares of our sins.  Here alone are we blessed and here alone do we find rest.  And it is here, in the shadow of the cross, that we are confronted with the Gospel and all that Christ has done on our behalf.  

“But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:5-6

As believers, we have a mighty and merciful message in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is a great hope and security in the face of a guilty conscience that threatens to destroy us.   No longer does every breeze that blows or every floor that creaks condemn us.  We need not agonize over the voices that once joined in unison to testify to our guilt, for in Christ all is washed away and we are freed from fear and healed of our sins!   

“..let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,

with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience

and our bodies washed with pure water.”

Hebrews 10:22

“…for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart,
 and he knows everything.  Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, 

we have confidence before God…”

1 John 30:20-21

“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,

and whose sins are covered;

blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

Romans 4:7-8

“There is therefore now no condemnation

for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 8:1

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

John 8:36

What great and glorious truths! We are freed and protected and glorified when we hide ourselves within the shadow of Christ and the cross.      

“And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord,

and I will be the glory in her midst.”

Zechariah 2:5

So let us hide ourselves within the fiery walls of protection afforded us by Christ's sacrifice, and when Satan tempts us to despair and our guilty hearts cry out of the guilt we hold within, may we boldly look to the cross and hold fast to the promise and reassurance and hope we have in Christ: 

When Satan tempts me to despair,

And tells me of the guilt within,

Upward I look, and see Him there

Who made an end to all my sin.

Because the sinless Savior died,

My sinful soul is counted free;

For God the just is satisfied

To look on Him and pardon me
(Before the Throne of God Above)

So what does mean?  It means we can stop running and hiding.  In Christ we are promised protection from the fires and shadows that haunt us.  His guiltless blood shed for us has covered all our sins and they are remembered no more.  No more! They have been removed as far as the East is from the West.    We may now come to the Father not as vile convicts but as sons and daughters of the King.  Unlike the shadows of our past, the shadow of the cross will never threaten or haunt us.  Rather, it is in the shadow of what Christ has done on the cross that we are granted the greatest blessing of all—we are invited to come and forevermore be filled with the infinite joy of God’s glory and presence.    

“For I will satisfy the weary soul,

 and every languishing soul I will replenish.”

 Jeremiah 31:25

What Do People Live to Do, the Way a Horse Lives to Run?

  “…I felt as though a hurricane had swept through me, leaving me hollow and exhausted. I swallowed a mouthful of orange juice and closed my eyes.

‘And what is it,’ I said softly, more to myself than to John, ‘What is it that people do? What do we live to do, the way a horse lives to run?’ I didn't expect an answer, and John didn't give me one…”

This text is an excerpt from one of my psychology textbooks.  In this particular case study, husband John and pregnant wife Martha have just undergone tests to see if their unborn baby has Down Syndrome. Although they do not yet know the outcome of the test, they nevertheless find themselves in the midst of a heated debate as to how to handle the possible outcome.  As I was doing my reading for class, what struck me was not Martha’s question, for I know that many have asked themselves, “What is it that makes our brief little lives worth living?” Rather, what perked my attention and broke my heart was the cold silence that followed this particular woman’s earnest yet timid plea for some sort of meaningful answer, for as she herself admitted, “I didn’t expect an answer, and John didn’t give me one…”   

In a world filled with suffering and chaos, we naturally possess deep and fundamental cravings for purpose and significance.  So where do we go and to whom may we turn to find and learn of our cause worth living for?  The answer is God and His Word.  The Bible offers compelling and profound answers to these questions that threaten to destroy the heart and soul if left unanswered.  Praise God, therefore, that we need not remain in a state of hopelessness and helplessness, for through His Word we have been granted both hope and help.

I know full well that brilliant men have devoted their lives to detailing and proclaiming God’s revealed purposes for mankind.  Now I do not currently have a lifetime—I have a limited amount of time before I must go and finish my Statistics homework.  Sounds thrilling, I know.  But in my limited time I want to simply proclaim what God has revealed to me through His Word regarding this great question:  What do people live to do, the way a horse lives to run?

To begin, we were created for God’s glory, and that is how we are designed to live—to daily bring Him glory!  In my textbook John told his wife, "A lame horse dies slowly, you know? It dies in terrible pain. And it can't run anymore, so it can't enjoy life even if it doesn't die. Horses live to run; that's what they do.”  The assumption here is that if a horse cannot live in a manner that fulfills its design, namely running, then that horse cannot experience true delight and pleasure as it was intended to.  In fact, the argument John makes is that a horse which cannot satisfy its innate need to run is not truly alive. More specifically, the assumption goes that horses, or any other creature for that matter, can only find deep and lasting joy from being and doing what they were created to be and do.  For horses, that is running.  For birds, soaring through the skies above.  For whales, it is plunging to the depths of the great and beautiful oceans.  For flowers, it is blooming forth in all their glorious splendor.  

But what about man? Surely among all the creatures and creation man would not be left without a purpose.  And herein lies the wonderful truth:  Man was created in God’s image with the glorious purpose of being a mirror to reflect His glory—our purpose is to fill the earth with the light of Christ’s beauty by reflecting Him to others. 

God has intimately created each one of us, beginning with knitting us together in our mothers’ womb.  Our lives are not accidents!  There is nothing meaningless about our existence, and to attribute our lives to random evolutionary mutations strips us of our Divine design and destroys that which God has made us to be.  We do not have to be like Martha and John who find themselves floundering in hollowness and exhaustion as they wrestle with the despairing prospect of a purposeless and therefore meaningless life.  We have been given the answer to our existence, and have therefore been granted a great and glorious hope!  Through the Gospel of Christ, we can come to more fully understand that our inborn longing to be satisfied is met in God’s purpose to be glorified.  And furthermore, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him!  Beginning with myself, my hopeful and earnest prayer is that our Lord Jesus may be glorified in us as we reflect His glorious Gospel to a broken and hurting world.  We have tasted the riches of His glory, and just as the heavens display the glory of God and the skies proclaim the works of His hands, may we live in such a manner that invites others to come and eat and drink and live in Him!