All posts tagged: Religion & Spirituality

In Christ Alone

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I will not boast in anything No gifts, no power, no wisdom My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. On Christ the solid Rock I stand All other ground is sinking sand On May 28, 1972, the Duke of Windsor, the uncrowned King Edward VIII, died in Paris. On the same evening, a television program recounted the main events of his life. Viewers watched film footage in which the duke answered questions about his upbringing, his brief reign, and his eventual abdication. Recalling his boyhood as Prince of Wales, he said: “My father [King George V] was a strict disciplinarian. Sometimes when I had done something wrong, he would admonish me, saying, ‘My dear boy, you must always remember who you are.’ ” It is my conviction that our heavenly Father says the same to us every day: “My dear child, you must always remember who you are.” The record shows in Colossians: He is my all in all! 1:14 in Christ we have redemption 1:16 in Christ all things were created …

Things that are Better

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Ecclesiastes 7:1-29

A good name is better than precious ointment… verse 1

It is better to have a regular quite time than to be a party junkie… verse 2. The house of feasting often shuts out thoughts of God and eternity

Godly sorrow is better than all the laughter in the world… verse 3

It is better to be sensitive and sympathetic to the hurts and needs of others around you, than to be thoughtlessly lost in diversion and amusement… verse 4

It is better for a man to be rebuked than for him to listen to all the pop culture and make me feel good sermons in the world… verse 5

God’s in Charge, Not You – the less you speak, the better

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Watch your step when you enter God’s house. Enter to learn. That’s far better than mindlessly offering a sacrifice, Doing more harm than good. God’s in Charge, not you – the less you speak, the better Don’t shoot off your mouth, or speak before you think. Don’t be too quick to tell God what you think he wants to hear. Don’t even presume anything God’s in charge, not you—the less you speak, the better . Over work makes for restless sleep. Over talk shows you up as a fool. Over-asking is a little immature God is in charge, not you – the less you speak, the better When you tell God you’ll do something, do it—now. God takes no pleasure in foolish gabble. Vow it, then do it. Far better not to vow in the first place than to vow and not pay up. God is in charge, not you – the less you speak, the better Don’t let your mouth make a total sinner of you. When called to account, you won’t get by …

Overcoming Temptation

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For decades I have applied this battle plan to sexual temptation but hardly at all to the sins of selfishness, anger, self-pity, blaming, and sullenness. I have engaged my will head-on with sexual lust. I have heard Jesus say, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell” (Matt. 5:29). Nobody spontaneously tears out his eye. That is an act of will overcoming all kinds of natural disinclination. That’s what I do when any illicit sexual thought tries to gain the ascendancy in my mind. I go on the attack with A.N.T.H.E.M.: AVOID. Say NO! within five seconds. TURN to something magnificent, like Christ crucified. HOLD the pure thing in the mind until the temptation is gone. ENJOY the greater pleasure of the blood-bought promises of God. MOVE on to meaningful Christ-exalting activity. There is nothing passive in my will when the lion of lust comes out of the bushes. I …

7 Dimensions that make for Effective Praying

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Prayer – what is prayer? I love the definition in “My Orthodox Prayer Book.” Prayer is doxology, praise, thanksgiving, confession, supplication and intercession to God. “When I prayed I was new,” wrote a great theologian of Christian antiquity, “but when I stopped praying I became old.” Prayer is the way to renewal and spiritual life. Prayer is aliveness to God. Prayer is strength, refreshment, and joy. Through the grace of God and our disciplined efforts prayer lifts us up from our isolation to a conscious, loving communion with God in which everything is experienced in a new light. Prayer becomes a personal dialogue with God, a spiritual breathing of the soul, a foretaste of the bliss of God’s kingdom. In short, prayer is not just asking and receiving from God it is life with God, intricate, deep, living, a thing not only to enjoy – but also understood. There are all kinds of prayer in the Bible, but for our purpose today I would like to leave you with 7 of them from the book of James …

Spiritual Warfare 101

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Part 7 Dealing with Demonic Affliction Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Acts portray Jesus and the apostles as using the command-control mode to address sickness, the weather, paying taxes, speaking with personal authority, and so forth. The rest of the New Testament, following the main approach in the Old Testament, exemplifies and commands a different mode. Is there a similar switch for dealing with demons associated with ailments and afflictions? We certainly will not be surprised to find a mode shift. Scripture is ‘silent’ on the issue in the same way it is silent on paying taxes, performing resurrections, or stilling storms by words of command. The silence thunders. The mode of addressing demonically induced sufferings reverts to the classic mode: Live the Christian life of receptive faith and active obedience in the midst of life’s hardships…. The modern demon-deliverance ministries are predicated on two fundamental errors. First, they misread the biblical record and fail to distinguish between moral and situational evil. They cast out ‘demons’ of moral evil, something neither taught nor illustrated anywhere in Scripture. Second, they …

Spiritual Warfare 101

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Part 6 Sin and Suffering Proponents of EMM make two major arguments: Because Jesus and the apostles cast out demons, we should do likewise. Because EMM is not forbidden by Jesus or the rest of the NT, there is no reason not to use it. Powlison argues that the Bible does not teach us to wage spiritual warfare using EMM. Rather Scripture teaches us a different way to live the Christian life and fight our ancient foe. The Dominion of Darkness Entails Sin and Suffering One key to understanding spiritual warfare in the ministry of Jesus Christ is to notice that he mounted a twin-pronged offensive against the powers of evil—against moral evil and situational evil. Jesus employed two modes of warfare to address two different facets of the evil works of the devil. Moral evil = the evil people believe and do. Situational evil = the evil we experience (suffering, hardship, unpleasant and harmful events, death) The two meanings of evil are closely linked; Satan employs both for his evil purposes. God consistently portrays inhabiting …

Spiritual Warfare 101

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God’s Sovereignty in an Evil World God uses evil for his glory and the comfort of God’s people. EMM advocates simply do not articulate this understanding of God’s sovereignty in the mist of evil. Consequently, their understanding of spiritual warfare becomes skewed. The demons become increasingly autonomous; sin becomes demonized; the world gains the look and feel of superstition rather than biblical wisdom. EMM advocates rightly seek to reestablish a worldview that recognizes spirit beings, both good and evil. But the drift in EMM thinking toward demonological explanations creates a world more precarious and spooky than the Bible’s world. Ironically, in the end, the EMM worldview has more affinities with the occult worldview than the Bible. The Bible gives an opposite, theocentric explanation. There the love of God—love for his name’s glory and his people’s welcome—strikes the deciding blow in the battle. Psalms and Proverbs are the supreme manual for spiritual warfare, for fighting both flesh-and-blood and spiritual enemies. Knowing that the devil is God’s devil brings us incalculable joy and confidence in battle with our adversary. A Different …

Spiritual Warfare 101

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Part 1 Reblogged from Between Two Worlds Several years ago I read David Powlison’s book, Power Encounters: Reclaiming Spiritual Warfare. (Sadly, no longer in print—though I believe a second edition may be forthcoming.) I found it extremely helpful and persuasive. I took notes, and thought it might be worth posting them here. Reclaiming: Spiritual Warfare “A great deal of fiction, superstition, fantasy, nonsense, nuttiness, and downright heresy flourishes in the church under the guise of ‘spiritual warfare’ in our time…. But the warfare we need to wage engages and implicates our humanity, rather than bypassing it for a superspiritual, demonic realm.” Reasons for the Urgency We live in a society where the modern agenda has largely failed. We live in a society that has become increasingly pagan. Missions, anthropology, and modern communications make us aware of the practices and beliefs of animistic cultures. We live in a society of high-profile bondage to “addictions.” Bizarre or troubled behavior, often related to experiences of extreme abuse, seems to be appearing more frequently. Many people have sometimes experienced an …