Something to Ponder

A people who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted because their countercultural lifestyles stick out like a sore thumb. When family patterns are reformed, it is so public that everyone notices. Family, friend, co-worker and church member are easily offended by family reforms. – Scott Brown

The Pelagian Captivity of the Church

The Pelagian Captivity of the Church

R. C. Sproul

via Modern Reformation – Print Friendly.

Are You Feeling Guilty?

Ok, so I swiped this from another blog that I read. Thank you Nate over at Presbyterian Thoughts for typing it all up!

What I found so interesting is that my hubby was talking to me about this very issue just last night!  He was sharing about what he is reading, listening to, and learning in his Nouthetic Counseling studies. It is a definitely something to Ponder.

JG Vos, in the 1940s, asked the question, “What mistaken idea about guilt is common today? I believe that his answer is just as relevant 50 years later:

“Today it is very common to confuse the feeling of guilt with the fact of guilt. Popular notions of psychiatry have led many people to suppose that there is nothing to guilt beyond the feeling of guilt, and that if they can manage somehow to get rid of that troublesome feeling of guilt, that they will have nothing to fear.

The legitimate practice of psychiatry deals with neurotic or mentally abnormal individuals only. Such persons may have an abnormal feeling or complex of guilt which destroys their happiness and usefulness, and which is entirely different from their real guilt before God. It may be possible to relieve such an abnormal feeling of guilt by psychiatric methods. But real guilt before God cannot be affected one whit by psychiatry. Guilt remains guilt, regardless of whether we are obsessed by it or unconscious of it.

Real guilt is not a mere subjective feeling, but an objective fact concerning a person’s relation to God. A person may be so hardened in sin that he is entirely unconscious of his guilt, and vainly imagines himself to be a righteous person on the road to heaven. By the special work of the Holy Spirit a sinner is brought under conviction of sin and then realizes himself to be guilty before God and deserving of eternal punishment in hell. Imaginary guilt or the mere feeling of guilt may be removed by psychiatry, but real guilt can only be removed by the blood of Jesus Christ, the sinner’s substitute.”

So feeling guilty? If you are then Jesus is the real answer. He taught us to pray, “forgive us our debts”. So many in our culture attempt to medicate away what only the blood of Christ can heal.

Getting our Kids to Jesus Or Not……

Church-of-England-Congregation-Stand-up-to-Sing-a-Hymn-

When visiting a church this past weekend I once again saw the blindness of the people of God.  I wondered if anyone else noticed.  This particular church is pretty laid back.  The service begins with a few songs and a prayer to allow for the late comers.  I have heard this spoken by the greeters that the first 10 minutes of the service is for people to get their coffee and to dwindle in to the service.   After the first 10 minutes (the couple of songs and prayer) the congregation sings one more song and then breaks for greeting time and to send the children to their classrooms.  The children’s Sunday school hour is during the worship service.

This particular Sunday there was a guest speaker.  Just as the congregation was being told to greet one another and the children could be dismissed to their rooms the title of the sermon and the scripture reference were displayed on the power point screen.

Getting our Kids to Jesus

Matthew 19:13-14  Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

My husband and I simply laughed but it was not because it was funny!  Do people not see????  Do they not understand???  Do they just not care???  Do they seek comfort for themselves over the task and calling of raising godly offspring rather than simply passing the baton along???

Just as the message of getting our children to Jesus and the scripture speaking of letting the children come and not being hindered lights the overhead board, there was a mass exodus of parents escorting their children from the worship service and returning with coffee cup in hand and chatting with one another (even after the music to call us back to worship was being played).

Some may be saying, “Well, they were going to learn about Jesus.”   I do not have a big problem with Sunday school classes or the like, but I do, however, take issue with that comment in this context.   Why does a church plan the children’s Sunday school hour during the worship hour?  Why must the children’s lessons conflict with the worship time?  When are the parents to teach their children how to approach the Lord Jesus in corporate worship?  Why is it not important to worship the Lord as a family unit?   This seems to me to be a hindrance in permitting the children to come unto the Lord.

Most importantly, why did everyone seem oblivious to what they were doing?  While looking at the message of  “getting our children to God”, rather than embracing the opportunity to worship the Lord of Lords and King of Kings together with their children they rushed them off and out of their hair so they could have an experience all to themselves.  What does that teach?

Many questions and thoughts to ponder upon.  Anyone else feel the sadness as I do or do you just see me as over reacting?

Reaping the Benefits of the Law

Here is yet another R.C. Sproul devotion for you to ponder upon as you consider the law of God.

Reaping the Benefits of the Law

by R.C. Sproul

Let’s continue the experiment we began in the previous meditation. Study the excerpts from the apostle Paul that accompany this reading. Does this sound like a man who believed the law of God has no place in the Christian life? Read Paul’s writings carefully and you will find a man whose heart longed for the law of God as much as David’s.

The law drives us to the gospel. The gospel saves us from the curse of the law, but in turn directs us back to the law to search its spirit. The law of God is still a lamp to our feet. Without it we stumble and trip and grope in darkness.

For the Christian, the greatest benefit of the law of God is its revelatory character. The law reveals to us the Lawgiver. It teaches us what is pleasing in His sight. We need to seek the law of God–to pant after it–and to delight in it. Anything less is an offense against the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Coram Deo: Pray this prayer: “Thank You for Your law, which is a lamp to my feet. Give me a heart that longs for and delights in Your law.”

Romans 7:8: “But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.”

Romans 7:12: “Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.”

Romans 7:22: “For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.”

Do YOU Long for the Law?

I have on occasion been called legalistic, a pharisee, and even a heretic. I am not; being one who is passionate about the law of the Lord, striving to live a holy lifestyle, and having an expectation that others who claim to be followers of Christ to live according to his WORD does not a legalistic pharisee or heretic make. If you are a Christian, do you love the law of God? Do you long for the law of God? Do you want his governance or your own, or even the governance of the world? These are things to think upon and evaluate.

I want to share this short devotion on the matter………………

Longing for God’s Law
by R.C. Sproul

A survey by George Gallup Jr. revealed a startling trend in our culture. According to Gallup, the evidence seems to indicate that there are no clear behavioral patterns that distinguish Christians from non-Christians in our society. We all seem to be marching to the same drummer, looking to the shifting standards of contemporary culture for the basis of what is acceptable conduct. What everybody else is doing seems to be our only ethical norm.

This pattern can emerge only in a society or a church wherein the law of God is eclipsed. The very word law seems to have an unpleasant ring to it in our evangelical circles.

Let’s try an experiment. Read the passages from Psalm 119 that accompany this devotion. Try to crawl into the skin of the writer and experience empathy. Try to feel what he felt when he wrote these lines thousands of years ago.

Does this sound like a modern Christian? Do we hear people talk about longing passionately for the law of God? Do we hear our friends expressing joy and delight in God’s commandments?

Coram Deo: Do you long passionately for God’s law? Do you express joy and delight in His commandments?

Psalm 119:97: “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.”

Psalm 119:11-12: “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You! Blessed are You, O Lord! Teach me Your statutes!”

Psalm 119:131: “I opened my mouth and panted, for I longed for Your commandments.”

It is one thing to say we love the word of the Lord but if our lives trend after that of the world our words mean nothing. This evaluation of our life and our longing for the law of God can indeed wane. Sadly enough, I have often found myself saying I love the law of the Lord but finding that my life at the time was not displaying that statement to be true. I must repent and pray for that passionate longing to return! I must be obedient to seek after God, & his word, & his truth.

I want to end this post with one of my favorite hymns. It is one many have not heard and many would cringe when trying to sing.  BUT it is one that I love because it reminds me to long for and to love the law of God.

I have posted this hymn on my blog before but I want to share it once again.

Most Perfect is the Law of God
From Psalm 19:7-11 and Psalm 119:97

Most perfect is the law of God, Restoring those that stray;
His testimony is most sure, Proclaiming wisdom’s way.

O how love I thy law! O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.
O how love I thy law! O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.

The precepts of the Lord are right; With joy they fill the heart;
The Lord’s commandments all are pure, And clearest light impart.

O how love I thy law! O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.
O how love I thy law! O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.

The fear of God is undefiled And ever shall endure;
The statutes of the Lord are truth And righteousness most pure.

O how love I thy law! O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.
O how love I thy law! O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.

They warn from ways of wickedness Displeasing to the Lord,
And in the keeping of his Word There is a great reward.

O how love I thy law! O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.
O how love I thy law! O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.