Hungry Grace

When most people suspected Saul of Tarsus' conversion as being a trick to roast Christians, Barnabas saw true signs of the grace of God underneath the unchanged exterior of a notorious enemy of Jesus. Barnabas became Saul's advocate when very few would (Acts 9:26-28).

When Paul would later look upon John Mark as spineless and useless for the ministry due to his desertion of them at Pamphylia, Barnabas perceived signs of the grace of God underneath a timid and sometimes wavering young man. Barnabas became Mark's advocate when very few would (Acts 15:36-40); when it meant separation with Paul (btw. Paul would later seem to recant his estimation of Mark - 2 Tim. 4:11).

When Peter needed a trance and a thrice-repeated command from Jesus himself to accept the Gentiles as candidates for the gospel, and the elders of Jerusalem needed the appeals of Peter, Barnabas "witnessed the grace of God" in the Gentiles and "rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord" (Acts 11:22-23).

Barnabas was convinced that the power of the grace of God given through Jesus can and does change people. Moreover, Barnabas trained his eye to see the smallest seedling of grace sprouting in the expansive, hard, and hostile ground of people's lives...and proceeds to celebrate and encourage it where he sees it.

Thank you Barnabas for believing and modeling the gospel for us. Thanks for teaching us that the grace of God empowers a person to see hope in hopeless people: in people who are hostile towards God and man (Paul); with people who are weak, flaky, and cowardly (Mark); with people who are indifferent and unlikely to find the right path (The Gentiles). People like us.

Whenever the testimony of experience says, "look at how sin abounds," the testimony of grace boldly shouts back, "grace does much more abound."

In fact, grace has a voracious appetite. Grace looks at sin in broken people and salivates; the hunger pangs overwhelm; there is no sin not viewed as edible; no depravity viewed as unworthy of consumption. Grace is hungry.

Moreover, even the smallest bit of grace has both the hunger and capacity to consume the greatest of sin and sinners. And so the smallest amount of grace present in a person consumed by their own junk, is grounds for expectation.

I pray this morning that I would have far more confidence in the grace of God to change myself and others then I have had in the power of sin to keep us the way we are. God, train my eye to see grace when others only see ruin.

Selah.

Roman Catholic Responses (Randy)

A Roman Catholic (Randy) has offered a critique (HERE) of an article I've written and is hosted at www.monergism.com entitled Surprised by What? A Defense of Sola Scriptura - HERE .

Randy:

Jake Magee responds to some conversion stories in Surprised by Truth. He is actually pretty fair and rational. He takes seriously the fact that well-formed, intelligent protestants came to believe Sola Scriptura is false. He also takes seriously the consequences. If Sola Scriptura is false then "Protestantism has been dealt a fatal blow."

Marriage Bootcamp (Audio)

Marriage Basics - Here

Marriage Problems - Here

Marriage Solutions - Here

Marriage Tips - Here

Marriage Is...

Some thoughts on God's Intention for Marriage from Genesis 1 & 2.

Marriage is invented by God, not by society

Without a design for marriage, there is no set definition for it. Unless God tells us what counts as marriage, culture may define what counts as marriage. The Bible teaches us that God designs and therefore defines this union (Gen 2:24).

Marriage is monogamous, not polygamous

Monogamy means that two particular people are bound together. Polygamy refers to someone having multiple spouses at one time or throughout their lives (Serial-marriages).

Marriage is heterosexual, not homosexual

Marriage is to be entered into and enjoyed by two people of the opposite sex.

Marriage is a covenantal, not contractual

Contracts are founded on services provided, covenants aim at the creation and protection of relationship; contracts emphasize personal rights, covenants emphasize personal responsibility; contracts tend to dissolve when one party fails, covenants tend to absorb the failures for the sake of the union; contracts have a very limited shelf-life. Covenants are long-lasting.

Marriage is complimentarian, not egalitarian

Some would insist that gender should not define how a husband and wife should relate to each other, to their families, and to their world. This is called egalitarianism. In contrast to this position, the Bible teaches that God created husbands and wives to behave in a particular way that expresses their gender. Men and women are created the same in value, but not the same in function. Their differences are designed to compliment themselves, their union, their family, and the world. That’s complimentarianism (Gen 2:18-25).

Marriage is God-imaging, not Man-imaging

Marriage is not an end by itself. It’s a means to the end of imaging God (i.e., displaying God). God created Adam and Eve in His Image; marriage unites men and woman to portray God in a unique way that a man or a woman will not do by himself or herself. Marriage exists to glorify God by pointing to his redemptive plan of salvation through Jesus (Eph.5:32).

Marriage is kingdom-building, not self-service

God created both male and female to marry, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and “subdue it” (Gen. 1:26-27). Together they create culture for God by joining together for the goal of making God known through their relationship, making babies (creating other humans), and working to ensure the extension of God’s dominion in and through themselves and their children. Human family is a delivery system for the expansion of God’s family.

Marriage is pro-sex, not pro-abstinence

“The two will become flesh...” The Bible teaches that a vibrant sexual relationship between husband and wife is the seal and sign of the greatness of marriage (Gen. 2:24; Eph. 5:31-32), an ongoing expression of service of two people to each other for mutual satisfaction (Pro.5:15-20; Song of Solomon; 1 Cor 7:1-5), and therefore a way to glorify God.

A Crash Course on Prayer

Audio - HERE

Before You Judge Another, Ask Yourself...

"Do not judge so that you will not be judged. 2 "For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you." (Matthew 7:1-2)

Contrary to how many interpret this passage, judgment isn't forbidden in Scripture, bad judgments are. “First take the log out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brothers” (Matt 7:5). A few verses later, we are commanded to judge the actions of putative prophets (7:15-20) to determine their spiritual condition. In the law, to refrain from pointing out sin in others is an act of hatred: "Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt” (Lev 19:17). Which is to say true friends will point out the junk in our lives out of concern for us. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Proverbs 27:6). The Psalmist invites such scrutiny in his own life as he realizes that it’s for his own good. “Let the righteous smite me in kindness and reprove me; It is oil upon the head; Do not let my head refuse it, For still my prayer is against their wicked deeds” (Psalm 141:5). Because Paul loved Peter and the church, he rebuked him openly (Gal 2:11). If a church loves their pastors, they’ll rebuke those pastors (1 Tim. 5:20). If a pastor loves his church, he will rebuke the church (2 Tim 4:2).

So judgment (by which Scripture means assessing and confronting moral failure in the lives of people) is not only permissible in Scripture, it’s commanded. Refraining from judgment is bad. However, Jesus warns sternly about hypocritical judgment and indicates the ease with which we can exaggerate the faults of others and minimize our own. Therefore, before you confront another, ask yourself these questions to determine whether your judgment will be right or wrong:

• Am I judging out of genuine concern and passion for God's glory, or because I'm concerned about my own?
• Deep down, do I judge another's sin to feel better about myself?
• Am I really seeking the good of the person I pass judgment on?
• Have I labored in prayer and Bible study to ensure that my judgment is correct?
• Have I scrutinized my failings with the same intensity that I have another’s?
• Do I respond to another's judgment in the way I expect others to respond to mine?
• Am I as quick to point out goodness in others as I have been to point out their faults?
• Am I quick to see and admit fault in my best actions?
• Am I strategic in how I address wrong, seeking God for the best way to effect restoration?
• I’m I broken over my brother’s faults?

Paul’s sums the heart, approach, and execution of moral confrontation in Galatians:

Galatians 6:1-4 “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. 2 Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another.

Feasting on the Will of God (Matthew 4:3&4)

by JM

"If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread" (Matthew 4:3).

Here's another way of capturing the temptation: "since you have the power and position of deity (being co-equal and co-majestic with the Father), shortcut this period of dedication to the Father." "Jesus, there's no need for complete surrender to the Father, partial obedience will do. It's legal: you're the son of God."

Jesus answered and said,

"it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."

Jesus is the Son of God. This was not at issue in the temptation. The passage would be better rendered, "Since you are the Son of God, command...." Satan's tactic was to eclipse Jesus' humanity with his divinity, and therefore to undermine Christ's identification and mediation for a fallen humanity (this is why a thousand heresies seek to darken the relationship of Christ's divine nature and human nature). As Son of God, Jesus needed no fasting, no testing, no tempting. But as Son of Man, he must learn obedience through the things which he has suffered.

Our second Adam must not live on bread alone, but every word of God. Which is to say, given the options of (1) excercising his authority in such a way that fails to fully acknowledge the Father as a man, or (2) relinquishing the power and the comfort of Sonship so as to maintain a complete and undiluted devotion, Jesus declares he'll always choose the later.

"Sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me...I have come to do your will of God" (Hebrews 10:5-9)

Jesus says in so many words, "I will go hungry, undergo demonic assault, experience mockings, scourgings, crucifixition, and death if it means staying true to the Father, because doing the will of God is my ulitmate food, affirmation, comfort, glory, and life."

Consider the application: "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus..." (Philippians 2:4).

Do you find great delight, as Jesus did, in obedience to God even when such obedience may mean a fasting from your will and comfort (which may be legal and moral in certain contexts)? Do you find such great delight in God's Will that even when disobedience is easy and pleasurable and within hand's reach, yet you choose the fast? This question is remarkably profound, especially in light of the reference Jesus uses: Deuteronomy 8:3 -

"He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD."

Notice that the Israelites' fast was compelled by God. God eliminated the possibility of the Jews eating anything except Manna (a type of Jesus - John 6) and drinking from anything except the rock (another type of Jesus - 1 Cor. 10:4).

Why the compulsion? Why the elimination of "freedom?"

Because there was no significant hunger for God resident within His people that would compel them to eat manna, and manna only, even should quail sweep through the camp in great abudance (consider that even when God did send quail, this was done out of judgment and not mercy). Given the option of quail, they'll abandon manna everytime. Given the option of sin or Christ, some will choose sin every time. In short, they had no true freedom. Their appetites were shackled by sin.

Consequently, God enforces limitations on the Jews until they recognize such limitations to be liberations; until they realize that the greater glory is seen when a man or a woman enforces these limitations on themselves rather than God giving no other choice. Like the Son of Man who, although perfectly within his right to assert his divine nature, refuses to exercise that right because of how it would have undermined the Father. The God/man hungered for the Father's glory more than his own, even though such a regard would cause unimaginable physical and spiritual angst.

Do you, as me, desire for that heaven-born appetite that will forgo all earthly pleasures should they even hint towards undermining the all-sufficiency of the Father? Do you, as me, find the ancient Israelite lurking within your heart, quick to hand Jesus over for thirty piece of silver and abandon manna at the sound of rustling feathers in the distance? Let's be quicker to embrace the pain of abstention at the slightest hint of sin than we have been to embrace sin at the slightest hint of pleasure. May God match our appetites with his glory.

Selah

Jake

Walking By The Spirit

"Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16)

Here are some necessary conditions for Walking In the Spirit:

1. Right Goal - Obedience to the Glory of God
2. Right Theological Foundation - Obedience founded on Justification
3. Right Means - Obedience Fueled and Reinforced with the Instruments of Grace (Word of God...)

Sin: worse than hell. Christ: better than heaven

Anselm used to say, "that if he should see the shame of sin on the one hand, and the pains of hell on the other, and must of necessity choose one, he would rather be thrust into hell without sin, then go into heaven with sin."

Luther: I'd "rather be in hell with Christ, than in heaven without him."

Old Women in Pulpits

Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was asked publicly why the churches of his day had so few young men in the pews. He instantly shot back, "Because there are so many old women in the pulpits."

Loving Cameras rather than Pictures...

Every poet and musician and artist, but for Grace, is drawn away from love of the thing he tells, to love of the telling, till, down in Deep Hell, they cannot be interested in God at all but only in what they say about Him.

Lewis, The Great Divorce, 85

The Art of Manliness

Summer Grilling - HERE

Who taught me to like tobacco and alcohol?

'You are always dragging me down,' said I to my Body. 'Dragging you down! replied my Body. 'Well I like that! Who taught me to like tobacco and alcohol? You, of course, with your idiotic adolescent idea of being "grown-up". My palate loathed both at first: but you would have your way. Who put an end to all those angry and revengeful thoughts last night? Me, of course, by insisting on going to sleep. Who does his best to keep you from talking too much and eating too much by giving you dry throats and headaches and indigestion? Eh?' 'And what about sex?' said I. 'Yes, what about it' retorted the Body. 'If you and your wretched imagination would leave me alone I'd give you no trouble. That's Soul all over; you give me orders and then blame me for carrying them out.' - C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock.

God Is - The Nature of God

God Is... The Nature of God - HERE

"God's grace, God's forgiveness...the free gift of salvation is at best just a footnote on the gospel."

Brian McLaren - A Generous Orthodoxy

Lesser Temptation, Greater Sin

"The less the temptation is to sin, the greater is that sin."

"When Satan says it is but a little one, do thou answer, that oftentimes there is the greatest unkindness showed to God's glorious majesty, in the acting of the least folly, and therefore thou wilt no displease thy best and greatest friend, but yielding to his greatest enemy."

"There is a great danger, yea, many times most danger, in the smallest sins.... Greater sins do soon startle the soul, and awaken and rouse up the soul to repentance, then lesser sins."

Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, Banner of Truth Trust, pgs 41-42)

When Jesus Makes You Feel Bad

We’ve heard it before: Jesus is nearly equated with anti-depressant mediation. Accepting Jesus is like taking a Valium.

"Come to Jesus, and you’ll…(you fill in the state of euphoria)."

Again, "Know Jesus, Know Peace. No Jesus, No Peace."

Nice platitudes… I guess...

When a person comes to faith, there isn’t a removal of feeling bad and the installment of feeling good. Rather, the Christian life is gradual reversal of what you feel good and bad about. As non-believers, we generally feel good about sin and bad about righteousness. When God changes our hearts, we begin to feel bad about sin and good about righteousness. These feelings intensify gradually.

But it’s precisely this reversal that throws a person into a deep, nagging, and sometimes overwhelming struggle of soul (i.e., sadness). One might even argue that a person can sometimes feel "worse" as a believer than as an unbeliever. The more a person loves righteousness, the more he or she hates the sin within; which is to say, the more he or she feels "bad." Paul models this well:

Romans 7:15-24 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate…For I know that nothing good dwells in me….For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want…Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

The mere fact that you feel worse off now then you did when or before you first believed doesn’t at all mean that you are actually worse off not then when or before you first believed. Rather, it may be an indication that you are better off. Sometimes it’s an unhealthy person that doesn’t feel any pain. Pain can be a sign of health.

Imagine for a moment a man whose body is ravaged due to a head-on accident. One of the most significant injuries is a severed spinal column which has caused paralysis and lack of sensation, and therefore a lack of pain. Though the rest of his body is broken, he doesn’t feel it. Imagine some powerful scientific feat in which doctors are able to reattach his spinal cord. Upon this reattachment, pain signals begin to flow to his brain. Consider that though he is healthier after this procedure (due to this spinal cord being reattached), he experiences far more pain now then when he was significantly less healthier. The presence of pain may give the patient the illusion that he is worse off after the procedure than he was before it. Instead, pain is a signal of new found health.

The fact that a Christian experiences times of spiritual angst should not immediately dismissed as a sign of immaturity, but maturity. A sober man understands drunkenness, not a drunk. A person "sobering up" in the Christian journey will have a more sane and acute of the sin that remains. This leads to reinforce his convictions about salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. He is moved to boast louder in the cross and renounce confidence in the flesh.

Pastor Jake

Reading on Your Knees

I searched out these references to Whitefield's and Muller's approach towards Holy Scripture.

"We can visualize him at 5 in the morning in his room, on his knees with his Bible, his Greek New Testament, and a volume of Matthew Henry spread out before him. With intense concentration he reads a portion in English, studies its words and tenses in the Greek, and then considers Matthew Henry’s exposition of the whole. Finally comes his unique posture of ‘praying over every line and every word’ in both the English and the Greek, feasting his mind and his heart upon it till its essential meaning has become a part of his very person. When we shortly see him preaching forty and more hours per week with virtually no time whatsoever for preparation, we may look back upon these days and recognize that he was then laying up a store of knowledge on which he was able to draw amidst the tumult and hast of that later ministry” (Arnold A. Dallimore, George Whitefield: God’s Anointed Servant in the Great Revival of the Eighteenth Century, pg. 22)

George Muller (1898), after reading Whitefield’s biography and concluding that the source of his evangelistic power to be his reverence and approach to the word of God and his passionate prayer life. So, George Muller took up the practice of reading his Bible on his knees. What Whitefield was in Evangelism, Muller was with Faith (e.g. 50,000 cases where he could trace distinct answers to definite prayers). (A.T. Peirson: George Muller of Bristol: His Life of Prayer and Faith, pgs. 137-139)

Grace

Thomas Brooks offers ten particulars of renewing grace over and against restraining grace.

1. True grace makes all glorious within and without: A lion in a cage is a lion still; he is restrained, but not changed. But now true grace turns a lion into a lamb.

2. The objects of true grace are supernatural.

3. True grace enables a Chrsitian, when he is himself, to do spirtual actions with real pleasure and delight, To souls truly gracious, Christ's yoke 'is easy, and his burden is light;' his commandments are not grievous, but joyous."

4. True grace makes a man most careful, and most feaful of his own heart.

5. Grace will work a man's heart to love and cleave to the strictest and holiest ways and things of God, for their purity and sanctity, in the face all dangers and hardships.

6. True grace will enable a man to step over the world's crown, to take up Christ's cross; to prefer the cross of Christ above the glory of this world.

7. Sanctifying grace, renewing grace, puts the souls upon spiritual duties, from spiritual and intrinsical motives, as from the sense of divine love, that does constrain the soul to wait on God, and to act for God; and the sense of the excellency and sweetness of communion with God, and the choice and precious discoveries that the soul hath formerly had of the beauty and glory of God, while it hath been in the service of God.

8. Saving grace, renewing grace, will cause a man to follow the Lord Fully in the desertion of all sin, and in the observation of all God's precepts.

9. True grace leads the soul to rest in Christ, as in his summum bonum, chiefest good.

10. True grace will enable a soul to sit down satisfied and contented with the naked enjoyments of Christ.

Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, Banner of Truth Trust, 154-162.

Devilish Doubt

"Satan does not labor more mightily to persuade hypocrites that their graces are true when they are conterfeit, than he does to persuade precious souls that their graces are counterfeit, when indeed they are true."

Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, Banner of Truth Trust, 155.