The Call to Fight

Regardless of who we are, or what walk of life we are in, everybody fights for something. Some of us fight for an image. Some of us fight for approval. Some of us fight to be heard. Others fight to have control. Whatever it is, we are all fighting for something.

The New Testament is filled with imagery of fighting. However, for those who have new life in Christ, the call to fight shifts drastically. Whereas before, we tirelessly fight for our own identity, with Christ, the call is to fight to believe that Jesus is our new identity. Further, we must daily fight to believe that in Jesus, everything we long for and desire, we have in Him. Christians are called to keep fighting to believe in Jesus.

We must fight because this is not easy. How easily do I go back to believing the lies of sin and idolatry! Sin says Jesus isn't enough. Sin tells us the idols of our hearts are what we really need. If I only I had that one thing then life would be OK. I'll be satisfied if I had more money, or if I gain the acceptance of this circle of people, or if I am successful professionally then I'll have people's respect and have joy. Or, if I get a girlfriend/boyfriend I'll find the love I'm looking for. I need to fight to believe the gospel over these idolatrous lies every single day.

The truth is that our hearts were meant to find satisfaction in God and God alone. Our hearts were fashioned in his likeness, and they will be restless until they rest in Him (Augustine). Even though I know this is true, my heart drifts towards my idols every day. Because of that, the Bible calls us to fight to believe, to fight for our joy in Christ. Jonathan Dodson summarizes:

"Disciples of Jesus are called to fight, not in physical or virtual combat, but for the noble cause of everyday faith in Jesus...We fight to believe that Jesus is more precious, satisfying, and thrilling than anything this world has to offer. This is faith in the gospel-the grand announcement that Jesus has defeated sin, death, and evil through his own death and resurrection and is making all things new, even us."


Jonathan Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship (Crossway, 2012), 59-60. 

Piper and Keller on Justification, Sanctification, and the Dynamics of Faith

Great stuff from two guys who have had a huge influence on my life. This was originally posted on Desiring God.

As a Deer Pants For Flowing Streams

"As a deer pants for flowing streams,

so pants my soul for you, O God.

My soul thirsts for God,

for the the living God."

Psalm 42:1-2

What is your souls foremost desire? What is it that you seek above all? What is your principle necessity for life? 

With these words from the psalmists, we see that the Living God is both his chief desire and enjoyment, and also his primary necessity in order to go on in life. The psalmist did not desire respect, nor power, nor worldly comfort. His only comfort comes from communion with His God. And we see that communion with His God is his foremost enjoyment, and foremost necessity. 

Yesterday was a blistering day in St. Louis. The high temperature got up to 100 degrees. You can imagine how hot it feels during football practice @ 3:00, on the field turf, with absolutely no cover from the sun. During the course of a 2.5 hour practice, the players are obviously going to build up quite a thirst. You should see the scene when a water break is called. Pure relief. To someone who is thirsty, there is no greater luxury that cold water. To a parched man, there is nothing sweeter than tasting the refreshing waters upon his tongue. He desires that water above all else. He will seek that water.

Furthermore, as Charles Spurgeon says about this verse, "He (the psalmist) viewed it (water) not merely as the sweetest of all luxuries but as an absolute necessity, like water to a stag." We all need water to live. The psalmist pants after God because it is a necessity in order for him to live. A day without God and he is destitute, gasping for life, lost. With God, his heart is content, his life is full, his soul satisfied. In the absence of God, life is not true life.

 God is not a genie in a bottle where we come to him every once in a while when we have pressing supplications. God is the principle necessity of day to day life. Our life desire should be to be in communion with Him. Without communion with God, this entire life is worthless. The whole point of creation, both God creating us, and God creating the world, is for us to be in communion with Him, not as a mystical guy in the sky, but as the Living God. Our very life should be found in him. We need God as a deer needs water to survive. Likewise, we should desire and pant after him as such. 

Have we experienced this kind of feeling? Does your soul pant for God, as a deer pants after water? Is communion with God your foremost enjoyment, and also you primary necessity to live? It's easy to become distracted in this world, putting God on the back burners. But, these verses remind us that God is the sweetest of all enjoyments. He is better than the enjoyments of the world. He gives true life. Further, God is what our hearts need. Without him, we are walking dead men. 

Lastly, the good news is that God has sent a Savior, Jesus, in order that our thirsts may be quenched. God sent Jesus, who referred to himself as the Bread of Life, and as the water that will quench our thirsts. This water is free and for all. Jesus invites all who are thirsty, to come and taste, to come and be restored to life. He came to sinners, in order to give them the sweetest enjoyment, and the principle necessity. Why wait?

For myself, I pray that God gives me this thirst, that I would desire communion with Him above all else, and that God would become increasingly sweet to me.

Whiter than Snow: Sin is a Relationship

"The desire to be God rather than to serve God lies at the bottom of every sin that anyone has ever committed. Sin isn't first rooted in a philosophical debate of the appropriateness or healthiness of a certain ethic. No, sin is rooted in my unwillingness to find joy in living my life under the authority of, and for the glory of, Another. Sin is rooted in my desire to live for me. It's driven by my propensity to indulge my every feeling, satisfy my every desire, and meet my every need...Because sin is about the breaking of relationship, restoration of relationship is the only hope for us in our struggle with sin. It's only because God is willing to love us in our struggle with sin. It's only because God is willing to love us in a way that we refuse to love him that we have any hope of defeating sin. It's through the gift of adoption into relationship with him that we find what we need to gain power over sin. And what do we need? A greater love for him than we have for ourselves. His love is the only thing that has the power to produce in us that kind of love for him."

- Pastor Paul Tripp, Whiter than Snow

Infinite Joy

" If there lurks in the most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept if from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased."

C.S. Lewis