A needed word

Towards the end of last year I started a new memory verse system called Fighter Verses (you can find a lot of information and get an app if you want at the link).  It's less rigorous than the system I've used in the past, but it's very convenient and well laid out.  There are tons of different sets of verses, as well as great ones for kids with pictures to help with memory aid.  

But, the reason I'm writing is much has been hitting me lately all in the same vein - and that is in the character and goodness of God - simply how much he loves and cares for and provides for his children.  As you know I recently read "Jesus + Nothing = Everything" by Tchividjian and I'm now reading a book called "Because He Loves Me" by Elyse Fitzpatrick.  So far the book has dovetailed wonderfully with Tchividjian.  Much of the point so far is do we know and understand how Jesus is significantly relevant to us in our daily walk as a Christian - in a sense have we left Jesus behind in our pursuit of godliness?  Have we forgotten the Gospel?  Have we forgotten how much he loves and how that impacts us greatly?

I've also been doing a Bible reading plan with Erin where we take a book of the Bible and read through it as many times as possible in a month.  This month we are on 2 Peter and the first few verses of chapter one connect so well with what these books are teaching.  Read these words carefully and afresh in your life:

3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. (2 Pe 1:3–10 ESV)

God's power has given us everything for life and godliness.  Not so that we can do it on our own, but so that we can be more like him - partakers of the divine nature (which I believe means we image God as we live in him in self-control, steadfastness, etc...).  However, I often try and do it on my own - and it never works.  I get weary, tired, frustrated, and I'm not much good to anyone.  To come back around to the start of this post - my memory verse for this week is this:

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Mt 11:28–30 ESV)

The reminders just kept coming.  It's nothing new, but I needed to hear it.  I need rest.  I need to stop trying it all on my own.  I need Christ and he is constantly calling me to rest and take refuge in him because that is simply who he is.  He loves his children dearly and provides all we need in himself.  What an amazing savior!!  Rest in that thought and pray that I would rest in him daily and that I would intimately know the power of the gospel.

Orphans, Love, Pain, & Promises

For the past week and a half our family welcomed a young child into our home.  We were doing respite care for a foster family who would be out of town for 10 days.  Erin and I have recently been licensed to do foster care or adopt through a Christian adoption agency.  This was our first go in the system.  Here are some reflections on that time and what it's been like the past few days since the child left.

First, since moving to Ohio we have come across a significant number of people who have either adopted or are in process.  We have loved that about our planting church (www.northcincy.org) and even within our small group that is forming the basis of Living Hope.

Second, adoption is so rich theologically.  To think that rebellious sinners can become children of God through the sheer grace and mercy of God because of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ: it really is something that should never cease to amaze believers.  We are by nature children of wrath, dead in our trespasses and sins - ...but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ...(Ephesians 2:4, 5a).  This is theology that leads to doxology!

Third, I was amazed how quickly our family bonded with this child.  Having another person - a strange child in our family for 10 days added some different twists and limited us a tad bit, but nothing that wasn't well worth it.  This little one was adorable and so fun loving.  Every night our kids couldn't go to bed without giving their nightly hugs and kisses.  When the child left what I heard was - "it's lonely here...we miss...etc..."  Our family loved this kid greatly.  It was hard to see the time end.

Fourth, it is painful to think about the situation this child could be going back to.  There was a reason that this child was placed away from family, because it wasn't good...and the child could be going back.  It's so hard to think that.  To think that this precious little one could be put back in a bad situation, in a place that isn't good is gut wrenching.  It isn't the way it's supposed to be - it's not right!  I pray that this child is protected.  That God's kingdom comes to this one in a real way and invades this child's family and transforms them, but my hope for this is hard to have.  I believe that God is sovereign, but somehow that doesn't help enough right now.  I believe he can change the situation, but will he?

Truly though, Christ and his intervention is my only hope for this child just as it is my only hope for my children.  It doesn't make it easier for God that they live in a nice home with two loving parents...he works for his glory and pleasure.  Yes, I know he works through families and is a God of covenants and our children are part of the covenant community and there are advantages to that - but God must still call.  Please pray with us that God would chose to call this child and his family and that his kingdom would come powerfully to them.  Because I do know, if God calls Christ will never leave.  His promise in John 14:18 is so wonderful:

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

Come, Lord come!

"It is not imitation that makes sons; it is sonship that makes imitators"

The quote in the title is from Martin Luther.  I found it as I'm trying to finish up the Tchividjian book.  Though I don't have much left in the book, there is much to consider, ponder, and meditate upon.  In the next to the last chapter the author writes about sanctification (the progress of holiness).  Here is another sampling.

"When I came to see that Christian growth doesn't happen by working hard to get something you don't have, but rather it happens by working hard to live in the reality of what you already have, this gospel insight radically transformed my life."  (p. 170)

"...after reading the Bible more carefully, I now understand that Christian growth does not happen by working hard to get something we don't have.  Rather, Christian growth happens by working hard to daily swim in the reality of what we do have....Sanctification is the hard work of giving up our efforts at self-justification.  Those efforts are what we're all naturally inclined to do, and it's what makes the sanctification process so grueling and counterintuitive....When breathed in, the radical , unconditional, free grace of God reverses every natural instinct regarding what it means to spiritually survive and thrive.  Our survival mechanism is to measure spiritual maturity almost exclusively in terms of behavior - what we do and don't do.  Only the 'toxin' of God's grace can turn that mechanism upside down." (p. 172)

This is a way of thinking that is counter intuitive.  We naturally judge ourselves by what we do.  It's very easy to feel good or bad about your life depending on the things you do, how you react, and a whole host of other things that depend on you.  But that's not how we are to judge our relationship with the Lord.  When someone meets Christ in a real way and by grace alone, through faith alone trusts in Him that relationship is secure.  The Good News is that Christ has brought about justification by His life and work, and He will continue to work on conforming His children to His image.

One last quote:  "Christian growth is forgetting about yourself!  So by all means work!  But the hard work is not what you think it is - your personal improvement and moral progress.  The hard work is washing your hands of you and resting in Christ's finished work for you, which will inevitably produce personal improvement and moral progress."

That is hard work!!  It is so much easier to try and do it myself and simply pull myself up by my bootstraps and make myself "better."  But it really doesn't accomplish anything good and certainly nothing glorifying the free and amazing grace of God!  Therefore, rest in the sonship and concentrate on what that means and Who it was that bought you and you will become more and more like Him!