If Christ is ruling now, why do “bad” things happen to God’s children? Scripture teaches that Christ is ruling now, but we don’t always perceive it, Heb 2:8. I see it being like being awake during back surgery. We have a skilled and gifted surgeon, but we can’t see what he is doing and it “burns like fire”!
Many times we practically take the wrong attitude about our sins. We think of them being like our overeating at Thanksgiving or Christmas, we will make up for it by eating “good” or fasting in the weeks that follow. But no amount of being “good” will cover the debt of our sin. It is only the obedience of Christ that pays for our sin. Adapted from the sermon, “The Humility of the Son of Man.”
Rick Phillips and Phil Ryken have written excellent blogs on the problem of pornography as an addiction and even more basically, Idolatry. I highly recommend all men to read these articles.
God has some very helpful purposes for trials in the lives of Christians. Romans 5:3ff and James 1:2-4, point out that they are for our being made complete, in Christ. This is seen by what we cling to through life. It is like standing on a ship in calm waters...you will walk around, completely at ease, just as if you were on dry land. But when the strorms of life come, the seas get rough and one hangs on to a rail or something solid, to stay upright. God’s purpose is for us to hang on to Christ, and not let go! Adapted from, "Bring on the Fiery Trials".
In Nehemiah 2:4, it says that he “prayed to the God of heaven.” We understand from the context, it is a short prayer, that shoots up to heaven. These are important, but they cannot replace the solemn labor of prayer, which in fact become the basis of effectual short prayers.
It reminds me of years ago, when I went through Marine PLC Officer Training. They would place us in large circles around white barrels with black “bull’s eyes” painted on them. We spent hours practicing firing empty rifles at them in the different shooting positions (snapping-in). The purpose? To become very familiar with the weapon and sight picture (view of the target in the sights), and “comfortable” in the shooting positions. Then we would go to the ranges with “live” ammunition, where the bulk of the time would be spent on developing and perfecting our shooting. After much time spent in this training, our familiarity and practice made us ready for combat. In that setting, we could snap into the position and effectively shoot what we were aiming at, wasting little ammo and hopefully saving lives.
Effective praying is very similar.
Sears stores use a technique which gently move you to the higher end products. They will grade some of the appliances as “Good” which are lower-middle of the line, “Better” which move up in features and cost, and “Best” which are the “top-of-the-line”. One could apply these categories to the response in Ezra 10.
It says that a large number of the people “wept bitterly” over their sin. This is “Good”. Biblical repentance must start with a sorrow or true broken heartedness over our sin. They confessed the sin of marrying unbelieving (not Jewish) women. They repented and the action of the repentance was to “divorce” or put away the foreign wives and their children. The is the “Better”. Reformation from sinful actions is always better, and in Christ, we can do it. But the “Best”, the “top-of-the-line” of Christian living is obedience! To have obeyed God in the first place, would have avoided all of the pain, sorrow and hardships that their sin produced. So, which have you chosen? The “good” - weeping over your sins? The “better” - reform, turning from your sins? Or the “best” - obedience in the first place (which we can choose in Christ)?
Taken from "A Picture of Biblical Repentance", June, 17, 2007.
This last week my intern and I, set about transplanting 7 rose bushes. I had placed them on a slope in my front yard, with partial shade from a camphor tree. When I planted them, I really did not know much about their needs. These roses had been struggling for 3 years and were not thriving well. There were several problems:
Just Like These Roses
In their new soil, they have open sunlight, no tree roots to choke and compete with them, and no trash dropping on them. Now they can grow, produce blooms as they were designed and give glory to their Creator...just like us, in Christ. Our natural environment is like those roses, in bondage to sin, choked by it, dying, in darkness with no light. We can't do anything about the tree, and we can't transplant ourselves. All that we can do is die under the domination of the "tree/our sin". God in Christ, sets us free, transplanting us as it were, and the bondage of sin is broken.
Live In The Will of God
Peter, in his epistle, ch. 4:2, tells the dispersed believers, that they should "no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God." As I used this as an illustration in my evening sermon, my point was that we should live in our new "soil"/circumstances, not in the old bondage, because we have been set free in Christ. And then we can "bloom" as our Creator designed us, and give Him all of the glory. ref. - June 3, 2007, "Armed with an Attitude".