Growing in Christ
The Religious Affections
Year in Review, Year in View
03 years ago
A practice I’ve had now for a couple years is taking an honest evaluation of the year behind, and looking at what is to come. This consists mainly of looking at growth and weaknesses revealed in the past year, and setting a course for the year ahead to see growth in those areas of weakness as well as areas I desire to see further growth in. This also consists in taking a “temperature” of where I am in my relationship with God and determining where he’s leading me to grow.
In case you don’t want to read through the rest of my post at this point and would rather just skip to answering (which is totally understandable!) here are the questions to think about:
What are the major things God has done in your life this past year?
What are the areas of growth you’ve seen? (In your walk with God, your desire for God, godliness, humility, service, etc.)
What are the areas of weakness or sin you’ve seen in the past year?
What does God’s word say about those areas of struggle?
What are the steps you can take to grow this next year?
What are the areas you feel God is leading you to grow in this next year?
So last year I sensed that the Lord was wanting to impress a deeper experiential relationship of his glory in my life. I tend to lean on the intellectual realities of God more by nature (that’s God’s gifting to me + personality = personal struggles). This growth was mainly seen through reading The Life of God in the Soul of Man by Henry Scougal on January 1 (it’s a short and compelling book, easily read in an afternoon), and through reading Jonathan Edwards, especially his The Religious Affections. It also was seen through a growing captivation with God’s glory in Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6) by consistent, daily Bible reading and prayer. So, while I’m not what I’d like to be in this area, by God’s grace, I have grown.
This past year it became evident that I was weak in leading my wife. I tend to only do things that are convenient for me, and make me happy. I’m a selfish dude. But by prayer, and the work of the Holy Spirit my wife notes a significant change of growth in this area. She feels better cared for, and thinks I have a clearer vision of leading our home both in our relationship (in all marital areas) and in our church. This has honestly been by God’s grace. I’m not as lazy – though I am certainly still lazy! Much of it was the internal battle of “I don’t want to do X right now. But God calls me to, and so we’re going to do X right now because God is more valuable than what I want right now.” This is typically the battle I feel about praying.
In review of this past year, my wife and I see that we need to grow in two main areas: 1) Prayer and 2) Communication. Ironically, these are connected, but are also areas that we’ve already seen growth in. It is usually the case that those areas you feel conviction about to grow in are areas the Holy Spirit has already been working on. Sanctification is God’s work – keep that in mind – guided by the Holy Spirit, set clearly by the Word. We want to pray more together, and a part of looking expectantly for growth in this area is seeing God’s faithfulness to make us grow in enjoying prayer recently. It is my responsibility to lead us to pray together regularly. This isn’t legalism because we don’t think we have to pray to make God happy, rather, we get to pray, and it’s God’s joy for us to do so. On communication, this is also an area of leadership for me. We do date nights every week for a number of reasons, and I have a history of just winging the date. However, by God’s grace, I have been growing in preparing for our date nights, setting them in stone ahead of time (that means monthly planning), and coming in looking to get to know Michelle (my wife) better, see where she’s at with God, see where we’re at, and see how we can care for each other, grow in Grace, and enjoy God. A couple months ago we crafted a “mission statement” for our marriage that helps identify areas we see God focusing us on at this season of life (I’m happy to post this if any body’s interested in reading it). So in the year to come I need to press into growing in leading our conversations around the home and on dates. I need to grow in killing my flesh of that says, “Dude, just relax and wing it!” (which is a veiled way of saying I want me to be the object of attention) and grow in walking by the Spirit to lead intentionally in our home with how we spend time, what we talk about and when.
Anyhow, in the year to come, I’m seeing that God is pressing on me to grow in my intimate knowledge of Scripture. I read a lot, but I don’t (much to my shame) spend a lot of time reading Scripture. So this year to come, I’m going to spend a significant amount of time reading and learning more about the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible). The Law of Moses is the foundation of the Bible – a proper understanding of it (or an errant one) can have massive effects on how one understands the rest of the Bible. So I’ll be reading the Pentateuch and the Epistle of James accompanied by helpful commentaries (to be determined soon for the Pentateuch, and I’ll be reading Thomas Manton’s commentary on James).
I’m also switching to using the Bible Reading plan in the ESV Study Bible. (I’ll post this soon should anybody want a printer-friendly version.) I found the Discipleship Journal plan a little difficult with large selections from the history and prophets for every day while having small sections from the NT. This was a little unbalanced for me, and the ESV SB plan was a little more balanced with (essentially) single chapters from 4 sections.
I’m also looking to read some more Jonathan Edwards, particularly The Freedom of the Will and The Religious Affections. The Religious Affections was such a helpful book this past year I’ve got it on my “yearly” list for the next few years. I’ve also tentatively added The Christian in Complete Armor by Gurnall for this next year – a daunting task, but why should we set easy goals?!
I’m also looking to get some modern books regularly flowing through my queue. I’ve found that I can read modern books much faster than older ones (not surprising eh!) and would like to get through some books by folks I wouldn’t normally read (i.e. Rob Bell, Ken Wilber, etc.).
Anyhow, I’ll post a final list when I’ve solidified it, but those are my thoughts at the present moment about the year to come!
Enjoying God Through Friendships, Pt. 1
03 years ago
The following is from my devotional time and meditation this morning. It is in a long line of things that God has been teaching me about delighting in him in the past two weeks (which I may post about sometime soon). I hope it encourages you as it did me.
For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. ~ Philemon 7
There are three things that I gain from this passage:
- A Christian derives joy and comfort from the lives of other believers, particularly when they show forth the love of the Savior Jesus Christ.
- This is the same joy that I see him elsewhere describing himself as “overflowing with joy” (2 Corinthians 7:4) because of the Corinthian’s example. The heart of a Christian is entranced by, and filled with, the glory of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:8), and thus is brought into an experience of that joy not only through seeing the source, but also in seeing others reflecting the source; not only in the river of life, but also the tributaries (Psalm 36:8; 16:11,3). Just as a person delights in the face of their friend actually before them, they still rejoice, in a sense of being reminded, in seeing a picture of their friend. So Christians delight in seeing a beam of the face of their Lord in another.
- And from this they also derive comfort because it is only in the love of Jesus that they find rest, ministry and care for their souls. And so their friend that they see the glory of Christ in (and therefore take joy in them) also becomes a minister of that fountain of love to them. We rest only in Christ, and so when others care for us, we are only truly comforted and satisfied in their affection for us if its source comes from Christ. And the heart awakened by grace to the beauty of God will sense this love as a smell of their home and lover.
Both of these are the case for a Christian because they do not count themselves very high, but do count their need for Christ as very great. The humble Christian counts all his needs and weakness met in Christ alone, and so when seeing others is brought to joy, delight, and comfort when he sees Christ in them.
- The Christian’s great aim is to so love his brothers that they are refreshed. Not only do we see an example in this passage in Paul of how to delight in our brethren, but also in Philemon on how to bring delight to our brethren. We bring this delight to our brothers and sisters through love. Love is the great aim of the Christian life; a soul ravishing, soul exploding, soul-pouring love. And I cannot help but wonder at this point if Paul is pointing to Philemon and saying that he is an example of a Christian living out 1 Corinthians 13. For since that chapter is bout how to properly relate to each other in the body of Christ, and because Paul says that the use of Philemon’s love was to refresh “the hearts of the saints” through his love, I am sure that here we have a Biblical example of 1 Corinthians “in action”. Thus, we should see that we do not simply follow 1 Corinthians 13 to be loving in a general sense, but to bring our brothers joy in the Lord. Joy and love have the same aim in the Christian life: delight in God.
- Even the best and most useful of gifts and works in a Christian are but merely instruments wielded by God’s own hand. All of the good that Philemon served was because he was used “through”. I gather this from the last two words of the passage,that these things came “through [Philemon]”. The ending of this passage not only indicates the human agent, but speaks to me of the divine agent under and behind the ministry and example of Philemon. Thus, even here in the encouragement of Paul, we see that a Biblical understanding of church life and Biblical friendship is filled by God himself; filled by God’s joy in God, and thus we circle around into point #1 above.
The Littleness of Holiness
03 years ago
I picked up in, where I left off in January this year, The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards recently just to get back into it. Man, I can’t believe I put this book down! What a treat! God has been teaching my soul great things through this. Below is a great passage about how a true view of holiness in God affects our own personal evaluation of ourselves, and our own grace in holiness. It took me a couple reads through this to understand and get what he was talking about, but it was worth the effort and meditation. So, I’ve highlighted the key passage (in my estimation) in the second paragraph, and this may help orient you to get the passage better by reading it first. But I hope this serves you as much as it has served me:
That grace and holiness is worthy to be called little, that is, little in comparison of what it ought to be. And so it seems to one that is truly gracious: for such a one has his eye upon the rule of his duty; a conformity to that is that he aims at; it is what his soul struggles and reaches after; and it is by that that he estimates and judges of what he does, and what he has. To a gracious soul, and especially to one eminently gracious, that holiness appears little, which is little of what it should be; little of what he sees infinite reason for, and obligation to. If his holiness appears to him to be at a vast distance from this, it naturally appears despicable in his eyes, and not worthy to be mentioned as any beauty or amiableness in him. For the like reason as a hungry man naturally accounts that which is set before him, but a little food, a small matter, not worth mentioning, that is nothing in comparison of his appetite. Or as the child of a great prince, that is jealous for the honor of his father, and beholds He respect which men show him, naturally looks on that honor and respect very little, and not worthy to be regarded, which is nothing in comparison of that which the dignity of his father requires.
But that is the nature of true grace and spiritual light, that it opens to a person’s view the infinite reason there is that he should be holy in a high degree. And the more grace he has, the more this is opened to view, the greater sense he has of the infinite excellency and glory of the divine Being, and of the infinite dignity of the person of Christ, and the boundless length and breadth, and depth and height, of the love of Christ to sinners. And as grace increases, the field opens more and more to a distant view, until the soul is swallowed up with the vastness of the object, and the person is astonished to think how much it becomes him to love this God, and this glorious Redeemer, that has so loved man, and how little he does love. And so the more he apprehends, the more the smallness of his grace and love appears strange and wonderful: and therefore is more ready to think that others are beyond him. For wondering at the littleness of his own grace, he can scarcely believe that so strange a thing happens to other saints: it is amazing to him, that one that is really a child of God, and that has actually received the saving benefits of that unspeakable love of Christ, should love no more: and he is apt to look upon it as a thing peculiar to himself, a strange and exempt instance; for he sees only the outside of other Christians, but he sees his own inside.
