So I Like Quotes

They're easy when I see that it's been a week since I wrote my last post, and it has only felt like about two days. How did that happen?

~

“How dare you approach the mercy-seat of God on the basis of what kind of day you had, as if that were the basis for our entrance into the presence of the sovereign and holy God? No wonder we cannot beat the Devil. This is works theology. It has nothing to do with grace and the exclusive sufficiency of Christ. Nothing.

Do you not understand that we overcome the accuser on the ground of the blood of Christ? Nothing more, nothing less. That is how we win. It is the only way we win. This is the only ground of our acceptance before God. If you drift far from the cross, you are done. You are defeated.

We overcome the accuser of our brothers and sisters, we overcome our consciences, we overcome our bad tempers, we overcome our defeats, we overcome our lusts, we overcome our fears, we overcome our pettiness on the basis of the blood of the Lamb.”

—D.A. Carson, Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus

Lead Us Not Into Temptation

Do you ever have one of those moments where something becomes a whole lot clearer than it was before, and has a different meaning than you thought it did? One of those "aha" moments where you geek out about it because you're thrilled to finally know the answer?

I had one of those moments recently. (Yes. I do geek out.)

There is a part of the Lord's prayer that has always confused me.

Matthew 6:9-13:

Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven, - This one's easy; we pray to God, and He sits upon the throne exalted in Heaven. Piece of cake to understand.

hallowed be your name. - Also easy. God is holy, and we should acknowledge that.

Your kingdom come, - Easy enough; we pray for God's kingdom to come, for His promises to be fulfilled...

your will be done, - God's will is the better one, and we should conform our will to His and our desires to His. Easy.

on earth as it is in heaven. - God's will is followed and praised perfectly in Heaven. Would that it were so here! Easy.

Give us this day our daily bread, - God is the provider of all things, so it makes sense that we would make requests of Him. He provides for our needs, and gives us the good things we ask for. Easy-peasy!

and forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors. - This one was a little more difficult, because if God forgave me only in the same way as I forgive others, I'd be doomed. But I think it's more of a promise; forgive us, Lord, as we ought to forgive (He has, from the moment we trust in Christ); and let us remember to forgive others as God has forgiven us. We have been forgiven so much; can we not forgive so little?

Now, here's the part that always confused me:

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil. - The "deliver us from evil" part is as easy as the rest, because of course God does that. But what about "lead us not into temptation"? I never really got why that was included. I mean, God doesn't ever lead us into temptation. James 1:13 makes that clear. So why the prayer for something that would never occur? It confused me, so I used to spend very little time thinking about it. It got so I just left it alone, because I could not understand it. Every time I came across it I would think, "Lord, why is it even there??" But I never got an easily understandable answer.

Until now! *Cue happy ending music*

See, the problem was the English language. As much as I love it, it can be very confusing sometimes. Would that I knew Greek and Hebrew! Then I could have spared myself a lot of interpretation troubles.

Look here:

"The fifth petition, which sounds odd to English ears (the more so after reading James 1:13f.) involves several Hebraisms. To 'enter into temptation' means 'to yield to temptation' (cf. 4QFlor 1:8) and the negative ('...bring us not to enter into temptation') qualifies the idea of 'entry' or 'yielding to temptation'. The whole thus means 'cause us not-to-succumb to temptation' rather than 'do not cause us to succumb to temptation'." ("Teach us to Pray" - Chapter 4, Prayer in the Gospels and Acts, M. M. B. Turner)

It was definitely an "aha!" moment for me. It makes much more sense that "lead us not into temptation" would mean "prevent us from being tempted" or "enable us to overcome temptation". Which is awfully cool! (See? I'm still geeking out about it.)

Labels

Hey all.

I am a Puritan, Reformed Baptist, Calvinist, Spurgeonite, Rylian, Piperette, Edwardsian, Carsonite, Framer, Grudemite, Bostonian, Elliotist, Watsonian, Blanchardite, Credobaptist, Sproulite, MacArthurite, Schaefferan, Lewisian, Augustinian, Pinkite. I'm sure there's more, too. I could throw "Challiesan" in there as well, since I agree with pretty much everything he writes.

I am all of these.

But I am none of these, and I hate these labels.

I hate them because they only show a part. More and more I find myself avoiding labels and denominations. Because I do not want to be known as "that girl who followed the teachings of Calvin", etc.

I want to be known as that girl who followed Christ.

I enjoy the works of all those authors I listed above, but they are not my focus.

1 Corinthians 3:5 "What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each."

1 Corinthians 3:6-7 "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth."

Their words mean something to me only insofar as they point to the Truth.

So, I am all of those things. But I am none of them. I do not want to be known as anything in that list. I want to be known as a Christian, one who has heard about Him and was taught in Him. One that follows Christ, not any man or woman who proclaims Christ, even if their proclamation is right. Christ is the Truth, and He is the one I follow. May it be, Lord!

Ephesians 4:20-21 "But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus..."

7 Thoughts on Reading the Bible by J. C. Ryle

1) Read the Bible with an earnest desire to understand it.

2) Read the Scriptures with a simple, childlike faith and humility.

3) Read the Word with a spirit of obedience and self-application.

4) Read the Holy Scriptures everyday.

5) Read the whole Bible and read it an orderly way.

6) Read the Word of God fairly and honestly.

7) Read the Bible with Christ constantly in view.

~ J.C. Ryle

I get quotes of Ryle's every day in my email, and I would have to say that I'm quite a fan of his. ;) He offered some great advice in his day. Here's a quote from him:

Look not to yourselves! You are by nature wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked; you cannot make atonement for your past transgressions, you cannot wipe out a single page in that long black list. And when the King shall ask you for your wedding garment you will be speechless. Look simply unto Jesus, and then the weight shall fall from off your shoulders, the course shall be clear and plain, and you shall run the race which is set before you.

She Says It In So Few Words...

World's use is cold, world's love is vain,

World's cruelty is bitter bane;

But pain is not the fruit of pain.

~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Christian Profiling

Do you ever hear about those people who do this?

I've been thinking lately about this type of thing. Christian Profilers are the ones who hear about something another Christian does, believes, or even wears, and come to a conclusion about whether or not this brother or sister is truly saved.

I think in some measure, and at some level, we have all done it.

For example, on the one hand you have people who would say "she wears low-cut shirts...she's no Christian." while on the other hand you'd have "she believes in wearing long skirts all the time? What a legalist!" This is one example in multitudes.

Our problem is we look at people and form a judgment of them by what we see and hear.

What this idea of profiling comes down to, though, is really a matter of pride. We judge people because we think we are allowed.* We forget that judgment belongs to God alone, and we are on very slippery ground whenever we put a profile on another believer.

We forget that we are so limited. We can only see what is on the outside, the surface. We cannot look on the heart as God can.

1 Samuel 16:7 "But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”"

We cannot see the true state of anyone. Our hearts are deceitful; just as Samuel made a mistake, persuaded by what he saw, so we can be fooled by our perceptions. We might forsake fellowshipping with a true believer because they dress or act differently than we do, or we think they should; also, we might spend more time with someone who we thought was saved, who in reality is a "wolf in sheep's clothing". We are so limited. We are so blind.

But God is not blind. He sees what we cannot see. So we should leave judgment up to Him. We should stop profiling others, and welcome fellow believers regardless of whether or not they look or dress like we think they should.

God sometimes rejects what we think He should choose. But He knows better. It is not outward appearance that matters, but the inward state.

1 Corinthians 1:27 "But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong..."

* Note: I made a distinction in the past between the type of judgment I'm talking about here, versus the judgment/accountability between believers. Found here.