Monday, March 13, 2006

Helpful verses on seeking satisfaction in Christ, not our flesh.

To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. [Romans 8:6]

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. [Galatians 6:7-8]

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify it's desires. [Romans 13:14]

'If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to loose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to loose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.' [Matthew 5:29-30]

After Lord disciplines those he loves. and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. [Hebrews 12:6]

After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birht to death. [James 1:15]

You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. [Psalm 16:11]

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For mercy carves a thousand promises
And grace secures it new each day
This peace that passeth all my knowledge
Directs my thoughts in Christ to stay.

I sleweth my sin by the strength of the spirit
I exhaled my death throug the lungs of God
That wrath that tears within my soul
Has been torn from me in Christ my Lord.

Through his death, now I live
Through his life, my sin convicts,
Now he's rose, I'll stand anew
And kiss his face, his place, his grace.

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Im crushed in my spirit
waiting for you
I long for the night
Without the ado.

The world swirls around
The haze of colored chaos
The grays, the blacks, the browns
Spinning through to slay us.

Oh God I'm naked I'm blind
I'm lost in this haze
I'm out of my mind.

Death crawls to us all
How did we live
In sin and hate
Or weakness to forgive?

Oh Christ save my soul
Take me from this place
Come down on your throne
Let me see your face.

The fire in my heart
Burns brighter with your fuel
scorching away myself
Leaving behind a jewel.

Oh ragged, jagged
Suited, booted,
Falling from
Mountain disputed.
Oh heated, haunted,
Hated, fated,
Late within
This valley waited

I know i'm lost
without your cross,
I know the cost
From frost has glossed,
I know my eyes
Are still criss-crossed
But from your love
The wrath exhaused.

A confused heart - is for but a moment.
A dependent faith - a thousand lifetimes.

Letter from John Piper to his wife Noel on adopting a daughter.

As a big believer in adoption of Children as our heavenly Father as adopted us, I found this letter heart-warming and affirming on so many levels. A wonderful jem of fuitful biblical love in marriage and responsible Christ-mirroring grace by adopting. Enjoy.


Dear Noël,
With confidence in the all-sufficient future grace of God, I am ready and eager to move ahead with the adoption of Talitha Ruth. I want to thank you that during these years, when your heart has yearned to adopt a daughter, you have not badgered me or coerced me. You have been wonderfully patient. You have modeled faith in the sufficiency of prayer. You have always expressed support of me and my ministry even if we should never adopt. You have been reasonable in all our discussions and have come forth with your rationale only when asked. You have honored my misgivings as worthy of serious consideration. . . .
. . . To my perspective it seems to be the path that will “spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples.” . . . I believe it is the path of greatest love . . . And therefore I have confidence that God is pleased with it.
. . . I believe our eyes are open. . . . We have come through enough to believe that God’s future grace will be sufficient. His mercies are new every morning and there will be mercies for every weight and wonder on this new path of our lives.
I thank God for you. I enter with you gladly on this path. Whether we live to see our daughter grown or not, we will have done well to take her in. Life is very short, whether 12 hours, like Ashley Hope, or 50 years like me, or 76 years like my father, or 94 years like Crystal Anderson. What matters is not that we do all we might have done or all we dreamed of doing, but that, while we live, we live by faith in future grace and walk in the path of love. The times are in God’s hands, not ours.
With this common conviction we will, God willing, embrace our new daughter and give ourselves, with all the might that God inspires in us, to love her into the kingdom. May the Lord establish the plans of our hearts, and bring Talitha Ruth (and the future husband God already knows) into deep and lasting fellowship with Christ. May she be an ebony broach of beauty around your aging neck, and a crown of purity and joy on your graying head.
I love you,
Johnny

(from http://www.desiringgod.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?http://www.desiringgod.org/library/sermons/04/062004.html)

Extracts from John Bunyan's 'Grace Abounding'

1. Of all the temptations that ever I met with in my life, to question the being of God, and the truth of His gospel, is the worst, and the worst to be borne; when this temptation comes, it takes away my girdle from me, and removeth the foundations from under me. Oh, I have often thought of that word, 'Have your loins girt about with truth'; and of that, 'When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?'

2. Sometimes, when, after sin committed, I have looked for sore chastisement from the hand of God, the very next that I have had from Him hath been the discovery of His grace. Sometimes, when I have been comforted, I have called myself a fool for my so sinking under trouble. And then, again, when I have been cast down, I thought I was not wise to give such way to comfort. With such strength and weight have both these been upon me.

3. I have wondered much at this one thing, that though God doth visit my soul with never so blessed a discovery of Himself, yet I have found again, that such hours have attended me afterwards, that I have been in my spirit so filled with darkness, that I could not so much as once conceive what that God and that comfort was with which I have been refreshed.

4. I have sometimes seen more in a line of the Bible than I could well tell how to stand under, and yet at another time the whole Bible hath been to me as dry as a stick; or rather, my heart hath been so dead and dry unto it, that I could not conceive the least drachm of refreshment, though I have looked it all over.

5. Of all tears, they are the best that are made by the blood of Christ; and of all joy, that is the sweetest that is mixed with mourning over Christ. Oh! it is a goodly thing to be on our knees, with Christ in our arms, before God. I hope I know something of these things.

6. I find to this day seven abominations in my heart: (1) Inclinings to unbelief. (2) Suddenly to forget the love and mercy that Christ manifesteth. (3) A leaning to the works of the law. (4) Wanderings and coldness in prayer. (5) To forget to watch for that I pray for. (6) Apt to murmur because I have no more, and yet ready to abuse what I have. (7) I can do none of those things which God commands me, but my corruptions will thrust in themselves, 'When I would do good, evil is present with me.'

7. These things I continually see and feel, and am afflicted and oppressed with; yet the wisdom of God doth order them for my good. (1) They make me abhor myself. (2) They keep me from trusting my heart. (3) They convince me of the insufficiency of all inherent righteousness. (4) They show me the necessity of flying to Jesus. (5) They press me to pray unto God. (6) They show me the need I have to watch and be sober. (7) And provoke me to look to God, through Christ, to help me, and carry me through this world. Amen.

Extracts from John Piper on Open Theism

Open theism may help conceal deep idolatry in the soul. One of the great needs of our souls is to know if we treasure anything on earth more than we treasure Christ. Treasuring anyone or anything more than Christ is idolatry. Paul said in Colossians 3:5, "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you . . . covetousness, which is idolatry." If covetousness is idolatry, then desiring earthly things more than we desire God is idolatry. That means we must be more satisfied in Christ and his wisdom than we are in all our relationships and accomplishments and possessions on earth.

All of life is meant to be lived to reflect the infinite value of Christ (Philippians 1:20). We show his infinite worth by treasuring him above all things and all persons. Believing in his all-ruling, all-wise sovereignty helps reveal our idolatries in times of pain and loss. Not believing that God has a wise purpose for every event helps conceal our idolatries. Thus Open Theism, against all its conscious designs, tends to undermine a means of grace that our deceptive hearts need.

(for full article see http://www.desiringgod.org/library/fresh_words/2002/041002.html)