The Purpose of Sleep

"Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent." (Psalm 4:4)

"In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety." (Psalm 4:8)

From Zack Eswine's 'Sensing Jesus':

"One purpose for our bed in the night is to ponder in our hearts what troubles us and to speak such things to God. We entrust to him now what we pray the morning will relieve with fresh hope. Sleep results. Sleep is a Sabbath-like act. We rest from it all and leave it all for God's keeping while we lie motionless in the world for a while. If we hope to enact such trust out there on the horizon of another place, the practice this very night affords to us is our best hope."


Zack Eswine, Sensing Jesus: Life and Ministry As a Human Being (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway, 2013), 80. 

Set aside a day for rest?

I benefited from reading some of Ray Ortlund's thoughts on setting aside a day for worship, rest and time with family every week. Personally, rest is not something I do well (that sounds funny for some reason, ha). Often I think resting is just the absence of doing anything, but actually, I think it requires a lot of intentionality. It requires planning, and it requires trust that it will be okay even if I forego doing some of the things I think are absolutely necessary to get done. Obviously, some emergent things can't be neglected at times, but you get my drift.

Anyway, this practical implement of worship and rest into one's week has been very hard for me to adapt of the past few years. But I have realized, when the Lord has given me the grace to prioritize it, it has been quite a blessing to me. I hope we all pray for the discipline, faith and wisdom to set aside more time for the Lord during our week. I think Ray does a nice job summarizing the purpose of a "Sabbath rest" during the week. 

....

Is the Sabbath still relevant? Ray Ortlund

Is the Sabbath still relevant?

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”  Exodus 20:8

Let’s not dictate Sabbath observance today.  The point of the Sabbath is a dress rehearsal for a future eternity of glad rest in God.  So, for now, every one of us can work out the details personally.  But in our frantic modern world, the Sabbath offers wisdom that has lasted since the beginning (Genesis 2:2-3).  It is not written on our calendars as much as we are built into its calendar.  It seems to be part of the God-created rhythm for weekly human flourishing.

If we did set apart one day each week for rejuvenation in God, we would immediately add to every year over seven weeks of vacation.  And not for doing nothing but for worship, for friends, for mercy, for an afternoon nap, for reading and thinking, for lingering around the dinner table and sharing good jokes and tender words and personal prayers.

How else can we find quietness of heart in today’s world?  If anyone has a more biblical (and more immediately beneficial) place to begin, I’m open.  But raising hermeneutical objections to the Sabbath principle doesn’t in itself actually help any of us.

I wonder if the very concept of “the weekend” is biblical.  It seems to me that “the weekend” turns Sunday into a second Saturday.  Home Depot may gain, but we lose.  It turns Sunday into a day to catch up on what we didn’t do Saturday or a day to ramp up for what’s ahead on Monday.  It hollows out our whole week, because it marginalizes God and church and sermons and all the other vital things that happen in our lives only when we make the vital things also the central things.  If we accept the concept of “the weekend,” we risk “fitting God in” rather than centering our every week around him.  We risk living soul-exhausted lives, and wondering why God isn’t more real to us, why we’re grumpy.

If we want to find our way back into quietness of heart and reality with God, the first step might be simple.  Bold, but simple.

Trusting and Treasuring Jesus

This one from Scotty Smith was too good not to share with you all.....

 For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him [Jesus] will never be put to shame.” Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. 1 Pet. 2:6-7 

     But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Phil 3:7-11

     Dear Lord Jesus, our world hangs the word precious, on things it deems of great and lasting worth. Thus we have precious metals, like silver, gold, and platinum; or precious gemstones, such as diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds. But if anything or anyone deserves the appellation “precious,” it’s you, Lord Jesus—God’s chosen cornerstone and precious capstone of our redemption.

     For the combined worth of all precious metals and gemstones, that have ever existed, does not compare with the unsearchable riches that are found only in you. Compared to you, Lord Jesus, all other treasures are wanna-be imitations and fool’s gold, empty trifles and illusionary nothings; even as Paul says, they are to be counted as dung and rubbish, when compared to you and the inestimable privilege of knowing you.

     To trust and treasure you, Lord Jesus, is to be free from the burden of our guilt and the condemnation of our sin. To trust and treasure you, Jesus is to boast in the gift of your righteousness, to rest in the constancy of your love, to wake up each day to your endless mercies, to hear you sing to us in the gospel. To trust and treasure you is to feel the stranglehold of shame lose its grip over our hearts; it’s to have the idols of our hearts exposed and dethroned; it’s to be set free to love as we are loved, to forgive as we’ve been forgiven, to accept others as you accept us .

     Jesus, we praise you for taking the guilt of our sin and the shame of our brokenness on the cross. You became sin for us that in you we might become righteousness of God. Because of you, judgment day holds no terror. The cross was our judgment day, and that day has come and come. We no longer fear the gaze of God because of the grace of God we have in you.

     May you become more and more precious to us, Jesus. May the gospel continue to change the price tags on everything in our world. May yesterday’s values be considered today’s loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing you. So very Amen we pray in your glorious and grace-full name.

He has done it. Trust him.

"A hungry man eats even though he does not understand the composition of his food, the anatomy of his mouth, or the process of his digestion. He knows that he lives because he eats. Another far more clever person understands thoroughly the science of nutrition, but if he does not eat, he will die with all his knowledge. There are, no doubt, many in hell at this hour who understood the doctrine of faith but did not believe. On the other hand, not one who has trusted in the Lord Jesus has ever been cast out, though he may never have been able to intelligently define his faith. Oh, receive the Lord Jesus into your soul, and you will live forever!"

-All of Grace by Charles Spurgeon

...

When asked, "How do you feel about the state of your soul today?", it is easy for me evaluate the purity and progress of my heart and mind as the basis for my answer. And though I pray I continue to grow in my understanding of doctrine and things of faith, my instinctual "self-based" evaluation feels like a haymaker to the gut sometimes. Only when we simply claim Jesus as our answer, is there life giving, peace bringing, and rest instilling confidence.

Trusting God in the Dark

I needed this today.

From Dane Ortlund:

'Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love . . .'
--Genesis 22:2

The command to offer up the son of the promise, with whom the whole future lies, seems the complete contradiction of the Purpose of God on which Abraham has set his faith.

Abraham in the story is called by God to make a supreme sacrifice, an act of complete and entire worship, trusting God in the dark, committing everything to him: 'not my will but thine be done.' While God did not in the end demand this sacrifice to be made, that which he did demand was the entire willingness to make the offering.

Such is the meaning of the story as the writer tells it; and because this and nothing less is the true and original meaning therefore we, in interpreting it, may and must look onward to the self-giving of our LORD, in whose case no offering of a substitute was possible. Hence we may and must find the finalanswer to Isaac's question 'Where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?' and Abraham's reply 'God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son' (22:7-8) in the words of John 1:29, 'Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.'

--Gabriel Hebert, The Old Testament From Within (Oxford University Press, 1962), 34

Uncomfortable Grace

These words have spoken in a significant way to me over the past several weeks.

"So, if you are God's child, resist the temptation to doubt his goodness in the middle of your stress. It's time to stop thinking that our difficulty is a sign of his unfaithfulness and inattention. If you are God's child and you still recognize the battle of sin within, then those difficulties are sure signs of rescuing redemptive love. God isn't withholding his grace from you. No, you're experiencing uncomfortable grace, grace that's willing to break bones in order for your heart to be true. This grace is unwilling to give up. This grace will not turn its back. This grace will not accept the status quo. This grace will not compromise or grow cynical. God hasn't forgotten you. He loves you with real love, and he's giving you real grace. And he'll continue to do so until you're finally free of your propensity to wander away. Now that's real love."

-Paul Tripp, Whiter than Snow

In the Hours

A hymn by Kevin Twit, 'In the Hours'


In the hours of pain and sorrow,
When the world brings no relief
When the eye is dim and heavy,
And the heart oppressed with grief
While blessings flee, Savior Lord we trust in Thee!
While blessings flee, Savior Lord we trust in Thee!

When the snares of death surround us,
Pride, ambition, love of ease
Mammon with her false allurements,
Words that flatter, smiles that please
Then ere we yield, Savior Lord be Thou our shield
Then ere we yield, Savior Lord be Thou our shield

When forsaken in distress,
Poor despised and tempest-tossed
With no anchor here to stay us,
Drifting, sail and rudder lost
Then save us Thou, who trod this earth with weary brow
Then save us Thou, who trod this earth with weary brow

 Thou the hated and forsaken,
Thou the bearer of the cross
Crowned of thorns and mocked and smitten,
Counting earthly gain but loss
When scorned are we, We joy to be the more like Thee
When scorned are we, We joy to be the more like Thee

Thou the Father's best beloved,
Thou the throned and sceptered King
Who but Thee should we adoring,
All our prayers and praises bring?
So blessed are we, Savior Lord in loving Thee
So blessed are we, Savior Lord in loving Thee

Patience and Steadfastness in Suffering

"As an example of suffering and patience, brothers,

take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 

Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. 

You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, 

and have seen the purpose of the Lord,

how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.....

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray."

James 3: 10-13

The idea of patience and steadfastness in God's compassion and mercy amidst suffering is truly a foreign idea in our western culture today. In fact, most people spend their lives, striving everyday towards the goal of comfort and security. Suffering is something to be avoided at all costs. Amidst suffering, people may exhibit patience and steadfastness, but it is the hope that if they keep holding on, eventually the suffering will be gone, and they will return to their 'good life'. However, we see in these verses from James that our patience and steadfastness in suffering should be in God's glory. We should be patient and steadfast in suffering, not because we are consumed with ourselves, in the hope of a cushy life again, but because we are consumed with our God, and know that through our suffering, his purposes are being revealed, and his mercy and compassion are being displayed to us. The glory of our Creator is primary. This is the difference between worldly patience in suffering and Christian suffering. Suffering is not to be sought, yet it is to be expected, and embraced when encountered. James gives us every reason to embrace suffering with a steadfast hope in God. In verse 13, he exhorts his readers to look to the example of the prophets which came before. 

Throughout the Scriptures, most of the major players in the Bible story encounter some form of suffering. Why does this happen? Isn't suffering just a punishment for our mistakes? In Tullian Tchividjian's 'Surprised By Grace', the author dissects the story of the prophet Jonah, certainly someone from whom we could learn a thing or two about suffering. One thing that is clear from reading the book of Jonah, along with Tullian's book, is that God is sovereign over our situations, especially our sufferings. But this begs the question, why? Why does God allow suffering? Further, the even tells Christians that they in fact will suffer, not might suffer. 

Jonah was swallowed by a whale, and spent three days in the whales belly. What was it like in there? Well, I've  never been inside a fish, so I can't say for sure, but I imagine it was terrifying. Surrounded by darkness, and filled with uncertainty, Jonah indeed was suffering. But this brings us back to the question of 'why?'. 

Taking heed from James, as we look back at the prophets, it is clear that suffering has a purpose. Suffering brings us to a posture of desperation. Desperation leads us to turn our eyes to God. Desperation shatters all of our false hopes. When we are stripped of everything, we are left only to cling to God. Through our suffering, we are able to taste God's compassion and mercy in a fresh new way. We are able to know God's grace, and to trust in his purposes in ways in which we would not have otherwise. Suffering leads to desperation, and desperation leads to us crying out to God. Take a look at these examples. (these are taken from Tchividjian's 'Surprised By Grace')

In desperation, Jonah prayed. "I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me" (Jonah 2:1)

In desperation, David prayed. "This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles" (Psalm 34:6)

In desperation, Hannah prayed. "She was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly" (1 Samuel 1:10)

In desperation, Jeremiah prayed. "Water closed over my head; I said, 'I am lost.' I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit; you heard my plea, 'Do not close your ear to my cry for help!'" (Lamentations 3: 54-56)

And with Job. "My relatives have failed me, my close friends have forgotten me. The guests of my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes....My breath is strange to my wife and I am a stench to the children of my own mother. Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me. All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me......For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God." Job 19: 14-25

And lastly, with Jesus, who like Jonah, faced three days and nights in the darkest of places. "And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Luke 22: 44). 

In sum, in our times of suffering and affliction, we are to be patient and steadfast. We are to trust God. We can trust God because we have seen throughout history his faithfulness to his children. He may bring times of suffering, but it is not the end of the story. Our present suffering and afflictions reveal God's glory. In our desperation, we are able to see God's goodness, and plentiful redemption that is in Christ. 

Like James says, those who are steadfast and patient in their sufferings are blessed. They are blessed because through their situations, they come out knowing God's grace in a radical new way. Through our sufferings we are made more acutely aware of our sonship

Observation # 3: Justification is Received by Faith Alone

There are two important elements to note in this statement. One, justification is something received, not earned. Second, the means by which it is received is through faith.

If justification is an act of God, whereby he declares us righteous based on the merit of Christ, then justification can only be received by faith. In fact, being a Christian consists of turning from self-justification and turning to justification through faith in Christ. The Apostle Paul states it beautifully in his letter to the church at Galatia,

"yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified." Galatians 2:16

Again, justification has to do with trusting in the work of another. At times this can be a very difficult concept to functionally accept. There are two reasons this is true....

First, as Martin Luther said, our default mode is religion. In other words, our sinful, human tendency is to attempt to justify ourselves through 'doing'. This is religion. If we do x,y,z....then God will justify us. If we perform enough religious rituals, then we are OK with God. If we are nice people then we are righteous. If I get good grades and perform well on the sports field then I'm good. If I try to be moral and be a good parent, then God must accept me. The list is endless, and in some way, shape or form, applies to us all. Our default mode is to try to earn or merit our rightness with God. However, the Gospel of Jesus Christ tells us that we can never do enough ______(fill in the blank) and we can never be good enough, so Jesus lived the perfect life and died for our shortcomings. Therefore, to be accepted by God, to be justified, we must look to Christ in faith, trusting only in Him.

The second reason justification by faith can be a hard reality to accept is that we are constantly falling into sin. Even as Christians, those redeemed from sin, being renewed in the likeness of Christ, we still struggle with sin. It can be hard to believe that we are justified when we keep messing up. It is hard to rest in the work of another and trust that His pardoning favor is sufficient. However, this is exactly what faith is. Fully casting ourselves upon, and trusting in the work of another. Growing as a Christian means to grow in ones faith in Christ's finished work. If our trust is in the fact that we are justified by faith in Christ, then our faith will be as solid as a rock. However, if we are trusting in ourselves, we will have no comfort, peace or rest. Martin Luther used to say that a Christian is able to simultaneously call himself both 'sinner' and 'saint'. Sinner because he still struggles with sin, and still cannot earn salvation. Saint because he is hid in Christ.

Jesus Our Benefactor

From 'Valley of Vision'.

My dear Lord,

I depend wholly on thee,

wean from me all other dependencies.

Though are my all, thou dost overrule all and delight in me.

Thou art the foundation of goodness,

how can I distrust thee?

how be anxious about what happens to me?

In the light of thy preciousness the world

and all its enjoyments are infinitely poor:

I value the favor of men no more than pebbles.

Amid the blessings I receive from thee

may I never lose the heart of a stranger. 

May I love thee, my benefactor, in all my benefits,

not forgetting that my greatest danger arises from all my advantages.

Produce in me self-despair that will make Jesus precious to me,

delightful in all his offices,

pleasurable in all his ways,

and may I love his commands as well as his promises.

Help me to discern between true and false love, 

the one consisting of supreme love to thee, the other not,

the former uniting thy glory and man's happiness

that they may become a common interest,

the latter disjointing and separating them both,

seeking the latter with neglect of the former.

Teach me that genuine love is different in kind 

from that wrought by rational arguments or the motive of self-interest,

that such love is a pleasing passion affording joy to the mind where it is.

Grant me grace to distinguish between the genuine and the false,

and to rest in thee who are all love. 

A great prayer for this morning. That we would lean more wholly upon Christ and trust in His benefits and that Jesus would be increasingly precious to us. 

Lean on Him

"I seemed to depend wholly on my dear Lord, wholly weaned from all other dependencies. I knew not what to say to my God, but only lean on His bosom, as it were, and breathe out my desires after a perfect conformity to Him in all things...God was so precious to my soul that the world with all its enjoyments was infinitely vile. I had no more value for the favor of men than for pebbles. The Lord was my ALL; and that He overruled all greatly delighted me...I saw Him such a fountain of goodness that it seemed impossible I should distrust again, or be any way anxious about anything that should happen to me."

-The Life and Diary of David Brainerd, edited by Jonathan Edwards

....

So often am I overwhelmed that I have no idea what to say to God. I'm too exhausted to speak, but I desperately need Him...To catch me...To let me rest in Him...To let me give my biggest sigh of relief, knowing that He has got me, because of Christ. He does catch us. It is not based on how great our faith is, but how great He is. Simply trust He will catch you. He will. Those moments filled with grace wipe anxiety away like nothing else.

Be a Man

Martin Luther writing a letter of encouragement to his dear friend, Philip Melanchthon

"Now it is time to leave the rest to God, and he will accomplish it. Only be a man and hope in God."

Luther equates being a man with hoping in God. In contemporary culture, being a man is usually equated with pulling yourself up by the bootstraps and pressing on. It is bucking up, and pulling yourself together in your own strength. However, I think Luther touches on what being a real man is. Being a real man is being able to completely thrust yourself upon the true and living God, putting your full trust and hope in him. It is recognizing your own weakness, and in turn, turning to the strength of the Savior. Be a man, hope in God. 

Our Distrust Cannot Separate Us

"No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

- Romans 4: 20-25

... I often do not trust in God's promises. From small things to big things, every day I find another way to depend on myself. God, I pray you will extinguish the trust we place in ourselves, and in your sovereignty, bring us nearer to you through your gospel. Keep us in your grip.

Underlying Sin

"The sin underneath all our sins is the lie of the serpent that we cannot trust the love and grace of Christ, that we must take matters into our own hands."

Martin Luther

Where is Your Boast?

"But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" Galatians 6:14

Boast: verb

1. To speak with excessive pride or vanity, especially regarding oneself

This is a very strange passage. The Apostle Paul is essentially saying that his only boast is going to be in the work of another. The only thing that he will exult in, or glory in, or take pride in is going to be the cross of Christ.

One reason this is strange is because usually when we boast in something, it is in something that we have done well, or something that we take pride in. For example, you wouldn't normally boast in how bad you scored on a test. You might boast in how good your grades are, but it would be very strange to come home boasting about an F.

However, by Paul stating that his only boast is in the Cross, this is essentially what he is doing. Boasting in the work of Christ completely ruins any self boasting or self-promotion that we think we might deserve. Boasting 100% in the Cross means boasting 0% about ourselves. By boasting in the cross, Paul is recognizing his own self deficiency and need of grace. The cross completely crushes all attempts at self-justification.

This passage fits right in with Paul's proclamation in Philippians 3 that he counts 'all things as loss' compared to knowing Christ and being found in Him. In a world that places so much emphasis on success, achievement and approval, it is very hard for me to functionally boast only in the cross, and not in my successes, the approval of others and so on.

I pray that God would give us a continued sense of the enormity of our sin, and our desperate need of grace. Only then, will we place our pride, our exultation and our boast in the work of Christ alone. Only then will we recognize that our only hope is in the work of another. We have all alike scored F's in the Lord's eyes. However, Jesus got an A+ and is offering us the same score, if only we would trust in the work He did. Let's trust in Jesus. Let us boast in the glorious Cross of Jesus Christ.