In Jesus’ Name

This John Piper sermon revolutionized my view of prayer.

• John 14:13-14
• John 15:7-8
• John 15:16
• John 16:23-24
• Zechariah 13:8-9 (1 Peter 4:12)

I’m on a boat!

Did anyone see that sick post-thunderstorm sky the other night? I did, but I didn’t have my camera on me.

I am (finally) almost done with my HBS application and I know I am getting ahead of myself by thinking this, but I hardly know what to do with myself (except that I do – Jer. 9:23-24). I should start posting more often.

I forget that people read the things that I share on my HelvetiReader. Then, once in a while, I go back through my shared stuff looking for something and I realize that people have commented on my stuff. I wish that Google notified you when someone commented. That way, I would remember not to share dumb things and I would be able to respond adequately to people’s comments with “LOL Steven!” and “Adam… what?!?!”

The more I grow up, the more I feel like my family is growing into itself. Except for my sister. She is weird. Yesterday she sent me an email with links to pictures of dogs in hot dog buns. It’s her birthday in two days.

Such is a typical conversation I have with my brother:

me: whoa did you know the proper way to say nigeris knee-jerAlex: loli thought you mistyped the n wordme: wowwwwAlex: but noi did not know thatme: yea so coolje suis kneejeri dont even know what je suis meansAlex: i amlolme: o lololAlex: lolso you’re niger?me: noje mapelle kneejerAlex: your name is niger?me: yesexactlyAlex: oh okbut all this time i thought your name was anname: o yea

Also:

me: yea lolhow did you knowdid i already tell you thatAlex: it’s in your statusand i know who she isme: o lolo you remember?o yea!sgAlex: yeai’m an elephantme: what?Alex: elephants have good memorySOMEONE doesn’t know much about africalol are there elephants in africa?

Things I’m learning at work:

• Niger is pronounced knee-jer, except slurred: kneejer. But, you know, no matter how many times I tell myself it’s kneejer, my instinct is to say nigh-ger when I see the word.
• That’s about it.

Thoughts On Relevancy

I flinch when people talk about relevancy with this misconception about Christ being applicable to worldly things. I don’t think he is. I think he is relevant because he’s real. I think he is relevant because he is light in a world that is falling into darkness. I don’t think he is a God that happens to be into secular things, or in them at all (what is the well that secular music is drawn from?). I don’t think he cares about what we think is cool.

For us, as we strive to live lives of integrity and righteousness, being relevant or in the world does not mean that we dabble in darkness. We must be wary about letting what has been created create us. The best evangelism is to touch God and to burn bright on the inside. We can’t be burning if we’re swimming in filth.

So having something to talk about doesn’t mean that we have to be up to date on what’s cool. “Trying to be cool is the biggest waste of time in history” (David Sliker). We don’t disconnect from life, but we choose to be different. God is relevant because he is alive and he is real. He is fully and sufficiently relevant all by himself. We trust that he will make himself known to others when we live lives that are relevant to him.

At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (Rev. 19:10)

His Plans Are Right

What a great, kind rebuke from Young on Sunday. Job’s friends were confident that Job suffered because of something he had done, because of his unrighteousness. “Come on, Job. Fess up. God’s punishing you right now because you did something baaaad.” But in believing that, Job’s friends got Job and God wrong.

1. Just because Job suffered didn’t mean that he had a crappy relationship with God.
2. God does not change based on what we’ve done and thereby, we don’t get to dictate who he is by our situations. He is the same, always and forever, full in majesty and justice. He is perfect in character – each characteristic of him informs another.
3. We fear God because his plans for us far exceed the plans we have for ourselves, and we know that his plans are right. (Job 23:13-17) Rather than try to figure things out on our own, we must learn to return to our Maker.

Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. (Job 38-41) Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. Lord, renew a mind that’s lost a sense of wonder, and of the favor you’ve apportioned for the ones who wait upon you. (Isaiah 64)

Tried and True

(1 John 2:28-29, 1 Corinthians 3:10-15)

Again, how can we be ashamed on the Day of the Lord’s return?

his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

We can be ashamed because the Day brings all we’ve done to light. All we’ve ever done will be exposed and we’ll know what our conversation with God should be like even before we approach him. That’s a scary thought for me. And by no means do I want to be the one who simply escapes the flame. I don’t want the dullness of my heart towards God to be reflected, and I don’t want to have nothing to talk about with God (some of what Paul gets to talk about: 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20). I don’t want to have mostly regrets about how I spent my 70 years.

If you’re in the same boat as me, start thinking about that conversation that you’re going to have with the Lord. Start asking God for perspective and vision for eternity so that you might work out your salvation with fear and trembling today — that on that Day, you’ll have something more than your weakness and your sin to talk about. (We must live lives that matter 10 billion years from now. 10 billion years from now, it won’t matter if we’re doctors or teachers 10 years down the road.)

Working out our salvation with fear and trembling means decidedly going to war with sin. War, meaning that it’s not a one-shot deal. Nobody wins a war immediately and hardly ever does repentance mean that we never sin again. But we must fight to love the Lord. In fighting we recognize that we are wrong, God is right, we can’t do it on our own, and it’s signing up to fight with him. When we fight with him, our desires change over time and we grow more intimate with the one who intercedes on our behalf.

Soldiers in a war don’t have a report card mentality. God doesn’t grade us by our achievement of any spiritual checklist. He is an extravagant rewarder, but if we live for the rewards alone, we will miss out on what God wants for our lives. Rather, the war mentality is one of fighting to survive. We fight our whole lives to know Jesus because he is the only way. And he is so worth it.

(1 Thessalonians 3:13, 5:23-24)

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and will do it.

A Certain Conversation

(1 John 2:28-29)

How is it that we would be ashamed before him at his coming?

Jesus is going to have a conversation with each of us about our lives and wouldn’t you know that he’s been thinking about that specific conversation he’s going to have with you for thousands of years now. That conversation determines your thousands of years to come. And he knows everything about you.

Our lives now are like a 24/7 reality TV show, only juicier because he knows our thought lives too.

But we get to do some editing. We can erase what we want when we repent and ask for help. We can also keep the things that we want to talk about. The point is, we have to build lives that are confident and unashamed at his coming.

This entails taking God seriously. He reserves every right to ask us about each and every verse we’ve ever read, sermon we’ve read, and song we’ve sung (Matthew 12:36-37). That means taking captive every thought (secret to not sinning) and being perfect as the Father is perfect. These things are not impossible; by thinking that they are, we excuse ourselves from them. But suppose that he should ask us what we’ve done with such a verse after reading it. On that day, we don’t get to say that we decided not to do it because it was impossible. (Perhaps that would warrant a response such as, “O rly? You thought that something I put in the Word was irrelevant? Did you think it was impossible for the Spirit and my grace to help you attain it?”) On that day, “I didn’t know” is not going to cut it.

(Somewhat random, but relevant if you know where I’m coming from – James 3:1)

He will hold us accountable for our lives, and he gives us credit for fighting. Though we might suck at keeping ourselves from idle words and thoughts, he loves it when we care. He loves it when what’s important to us is what’s important to him.

I have more to say about this topic. To be continued.

Stop Being Bored

(1 John 1-2)

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

To finish up from my last post, the lust of the eyes and the boasts of man – that is, covetousness and self-absorption – are apart from God. The lust of the eyes happens when we see something and we decide we must have it without ever talking to God about it. The boasts of man elevate man’s heart and the things of this world. We are tragically self-centered, but we are given the choice of having the golden calf now or of partnering with Jesus into eternity.

When we pursue the love of God, our heart changes and we sin less. It’s hard to stop sinning on our own, but most of the time we try anyways out of unwilling hearts. But Jesus isn’t looking for people who are knit unwillingly to him because they would rather escape hell. (Psalm 34:15)

And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

We know that we have been born again when we practice righteousness. Righteousness flows from a willing heart that’s alive in God. And the beauty of God is that he wants to capture us and to thrill us for the rest of our lives. The Christian life isn’t exciting because of miracles, but it’s exciting because having normal thoughts about God gives life. Disconnect from the things of the world, find friends who want to talk about the Bible, and get yourself to a place where your heart can come alive. (Matthew 11:12)

Shake Everything That Can Be Shaken

As you may or may not be able to tell, I’m not sure which of those words in the title are supposed to be capitalized.

(1 John 1-2)

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

There is a whole system of demonized men and women in the world that is dedicated to helping us feel good without touching God. No, the men and women are not demons themselves, nor is it likely that they are aware that they’re commissioned by Satan to market earthly pleasures. But we are given to this worldly system, and often we don’t realize that its root is wicked.

The cravings of sinful man don’t have to overcome us, though. There is a way to be in the world but not of it. There are such things as legitimate pleasures. Just because we love God doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy things in life. For me, I’m guilty of asking (sometimes semi-consciously) whether or not things are okay (1 Corinthians 6:12, 10:23). But God’s not really about robotic obedience. He cares more that I’m in love with him, instead of caring about what I do or don’t do. What is it that I must have? What am I addicted to? And if there are things that I can’t imagine living without, then I’m not in such a good place.

Christianity isn’t about rules. It’s not about what we can’t do. It’s not about feeling self-righteous when we’ve restrained ourselves from doing something we want to do. Rather, it’s about letting the life and power of the Spirit burn within us to strip away all things that hinder love. We have the light of truth by which we can admit that we’re lonely, bored, and broken people in need of God. Let’s start asking him to help us kick some things to the curb so that we can have one uber open line of communication with the Lord!

To be continued.

In other news, I’ve been putting “Bring Me Forth in Love” with Misty Edwards, Laura Hackett, and others, on repeat of late. Ask me for it if you’d like.

Autopilot? No Thanks.

(1 John 1-2)

When we forget that the Lord has more for us than that which we’ve sought, our minds grow dull. We get bored of knocking at the door of the One who is longing to lavish good things upon us. We stop inquiring of the Lord, and chug along by making Biblical choices rather than those carrying God’s opinion.

But when we abide in the Lord we establish a living, prophetic connection with Him. Our hearts come alive; we begin to receive from the Lord that which gives us the ability to do life well. We’re alive, and we’re not cold, lukewarm, or half-hearted on the inside.

We can attach the name of Jesus to the things that we’re doing but John makes it clear that there’s a difference between what we say and what we do (1 John 1:6). We need to ask ourselves what we are doing in the secret (Here’s a terrifying thought: Luke 12:2-3).

I don’t want to live a life that’s mostly about not sinning or not going to Hell. I don’t want to miss out on who the Lord is. I want to live having loved the Lord well, having sought His power to make me alive, His joy to thrill my heart, His light to ignite and to shine. Or else this blip in time seems a complete waste.

I Miss Grace

Why can’t we just run together like we did in high school? Instead, we lead worship together twice a year and lose contact the rest of the time because we both suck at keeping in touch with people.

I miss those days when I let my passions rule over all things because I knew Grace was doing the same at Central. However naive we were, I think we’d both agree that those mornings don’t count for nothing. I miss the after-words, when I would talk about orange peels, and Grace would talk about quarters. And then we’d write matching Xanga entries. Way back when.

I pray and thank God often for equally yoked friends.