10 days

I will be married in 10 days. Next Saturday I will no longer be single. Sarah, my fiance, will no longer live by herself. Instead, we will both enter into the holiest of covenants between men. Marriage is a remarkable statement of the nature of God in salvation. I hope that Sarah and I bring him much glory in how we live out the covenant. To God be the glory, -joe

daily meditation: salt to taste

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
Colossians 4:6

Have you ever tried something that lacked salt and seemed bland, then added a dash to bring the flavor out? In the same way, don't make your life and words flavorless.

-joe

daily meditation: real famine

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD,
    “when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
    but of hearing the words of the LORD.
They shall wander from sea to sea,
    and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD,
    but they shall not find it.
Amos 8:11-12

A great famine has come. Will we be the storehouses of Egypt or the barren wasteland of Canaan? Store up the Word for yourselves so that when the hungry come, you can dispense freely.

-joe

daily meditation: hardly a prophet

Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, "I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'
Amos 7:14-15

Untrained and outmatched, yet speaking truth. It is the foolish in the world who are chosen to shame the wise. The Spirit is the only maker of prophets.

-joe

daily meditation: mercy for the remnant

Hate evil, and love good,
    and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts,
    will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
Amos 5:15

What shall bring mercy to the remnant (those faithful sheep)? Hate evil. Love good. Establish justice. Make it true of the Church, both local and global.

-joe

daily meditation: blessed are the peacemakers

"Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil,
     but those who plan peace have joy."
Proverbs 12:20

We have been given the ministry of reconciliation as ambassadors of Christ. As one of my pastors, Larry McCall, has often said, Christians must "wage peace."
-joe

daily meditation: change the heart, change the man

"A wise man's heart inclines him to the right,
     but a fool's heart to the left."
Ecclesiastes 10:2

How are Christians able to make godly decisions in times of distress, pressure, and myriad of choices? God has given them a new heart. That new heart is wise.
-joe

daily meditation: he keeps us

"I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness;
     I will take you by the hand and keep you;
I will give you as a covenant for the people,
     a light for the nations"
Isaiah 42:6

He keeps us from falling away from grace for a reason; we are to be a light to the nations. He calls us in righteousness so that we may live to make his holiness known.

-joe

daily meditation: the bread and wine

Proverbs 9:4-6

"Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!"
     To him who lacks sense she says,
"Come, eat of my bread
     and drink of the wine I have mixed.
Leave your simple ways, and live,
     and walk in the way of insight."

If we are called to eat of the bread and drink of the wine that wisdom has prepared in order that we may live, then let us go get it from the one who gave it. Namely, Jesus. He is the bread. He is the wine.

James says if anyone lacks wisdom he should ask for it and it will be given. I assure you, it is given. Wisdom, in all its greatness, is wrapped up in the person and works of Jesus Christ. Eat of him. Drink of him. And, then, live.

-joe

daily meditation: slow seduction and a quick fall

Proverbs 7:21-23

"With much seductive speech she persuades him;
     with her smooth talk she compels him.
All at once he follows her,
     as an ox goes to the slaughter,
or as a stag is caught fast
     till an arrow pierces its liver;
as a bird rushes into a snare;
     he does not know that it will cost him his life.

Too often we think that temptation happens only in the instant before our sin. In reality, temptation seduces us slowly, feeding us small lies and empty promises over days, weeks, months, and years. It is this slow seduction that makes our fall seem so sudden.

Beware the steady voice of the adulteress. She calls daily in the streets. Shut your ears to her words so that none of them can get it. Fill yourself, instead, with sweet Gospel truths so that you can "say no to ungodliness and worldly passion."

-joe

big-bellied promises

God has made promises which, in the end, will stand tall and erect over all the commands he has given us. He will not allow his word to fail. And this...this (in the words of John Bunyan) is one of the absolute, will-not-fail, big-bellied promises of God. It contains within its belly all the conditional promises based on our obedience. It holds them because Christ accomplished them for us so that this one mighty covenant would stand:

"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
(John 6:37-40 ESV)

My constant failures cause me to doubt, but this gives me hope.

-joe

daily meditation: by the blood

"For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross."

Those that deny the necessity of Christ's blood have misunderstood the Gospel. He shed his blood so that we could be reconciled to God. Without it we don't get to be called sons and daughters of God. Don't gloss over it.

-joe

daily meditation: new heart

The gospel in the book of Ezekiel:

"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

And he does that when we believe. Rips it out. Replaces it. By his death and resurrection we die and rise again.

-joe

daily meditation: the crucifixion

From John's account:

"After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said ( to fulfill the Scripture), "I thirst." A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit."

It is finished, my friends. Completed and done. Rest in the finished work of Christ.

-joe

daily meditation: Christ's death

To quote one of my favorite bands, "redemptive ends through tragic means," is a short summary of the good news of the gospel. Christ's death is nothing less than tragic. But, it was necessary and good and gives us much in the way of hope.

"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?"

Of the many things that Christ's death accomplished, here is one to think on today: You died, too. Your old self is dead. Your sinful, fleshly, worldly, hard-hearted, disobedient self is no longer. Christ's death accomplished your death.

When you feel the presses of sin welling up, remind yourself that you were baptized into death. That stuff is gone. Reckon it to be true and live with newness of life today.

-joe

predicting the argument

Argument starters:

Predestination.

Free-will.

Creation.

Evolution.

Baptism.

Roman Catholicism.

Abortion.

You mention any of those things in mixed company (mixed being those of varying political, religious and social leanings) and you will inevitably find yourself embroiled in a tasty little debate.

I am, unfortunately, one of the worst culprits of this disease. By God's grace, I am beginning to win the battle more and more and someday, hopefully, I will no longer engage in fruitless debates.

More and more I continue to turn the conversation back to the realities of Scripture and the truth of the Gospel. It's not that I don't have thoughts about the truths of predestination, the goodness of creation, the abuses of the Roman church and the horrors of abortion. I have lots of things to say about them. But not in a barely coherent "conversation" about such things. No one ever goes away from those things renewed in the Gospel.

I saw the inklings of one yesterday and attempted to calm the breaches by encouraging the folks to turn to Scripture and the church fathers for their opinions rather than simply stating that God could "never" do this or that. Some of those things are stated clearly in Scripture as something God does, in fact, do.

The discussion bore on past the comment and my advice will likely be unheeded. But, for their sake, I hope they do spend more time in the Word than in arguments. I know what it has done to me and I hope it does the same for them and you.

Be quick to listen and slow to speak. Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.

-joe

daily meditation: the resurrection

A few weeks ago my life group leader, Josh, gave me a short book, A Gospel Primer, and assured me that it was one of the better books out there. And, though there is nothing especially "great" about it, I had to agree. It's simple. It's concise. And, it is convicting.

It is those things because it is just the Gospel, spelled out in three different ways. It urges those who read it to daily meditate on the Gospel and so here I have decided to provide short, daily meditations on different aspects of the Gospel so that we might better live in light of it. (It will also force me to be disciplined in my own daily meditations.)

So, without any further ado, today's meditation on the resurrection:

"But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ."

The implications and good news that result from the fact of Christ's resurrection are far-reaching but perhaps the two greatest things that come from it are that Christ is now seated at the right hand of God and we have been given newness of life.

Christ finished the work and conquered death so completely that he rose again and lived. He came alive to show us the image of our own deaths and resurrections in him. He sat down to give us a view of the rest of God that we will one day enter.

We are alive, together with Christ, and the same spirit that raised him is at work in us. That is an unbelievable thing. The same exact spirit that had the power to raise the Son of God is working in us to live lives worthy of the gospel.

The resurrection is essential because death without life would be useless. But, Christ has been raised and we have been raised with him. Rejoice in this today. Live in light of it and look to the risen Savior today.

-joe

our complacency towards Scripture is solved by...

"In the beginning was the Word..."

Christ, the magnificent word of God.

The complacency towards Scripture in the church is unsettling to me (actually, it is frightening) and that small snippet of the Word (about the Word) makes my case.

The Bible is the written word of God, recorded for us so that we can know God to the fullest extent possible on this side of eternity. And yet, we spend so little time with it. We spend so little time reading and meditating and praying through it that our vision of Christ cannot be a very big one.

I lump myself in this mess. It scares me how little I cherish my time in the Scriptures. And it makes me nervous that the Word doesn't make me tremble in awe more often.

When people saw a vision of God, as recorded in the Bible, they were terrified. They were awestruck. And yet, here we sit with a perfect portrait of Christ in our little, sinful hands and we barely even glimpse at it.

What is the solution? What is the answer to our dilemma?

The most obvious is to read and study and pray the Word more often. But me saying that doesn't do as much as me quoting this:

The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever.
The decrees of the LORD are firm,
and all of them are righteous.

They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the honeycomb.
By them your servant is warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
But who can discern their own errors?
Forgive my hidden faults.
Keep your servant also from willful sins;
may they not rule over me.
Then I will be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.

May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

The answer is more than simply telling ourselves (and others) to read more. Much of the answer lies in our speaking the Word into each others lives. So, this week, make it a goal to speak Scripture to each other.

It doesn't even matter how much you know. You might only know a tiny part of John 3:16 or the 23rd Psalm. You know what? Those are part of the definition of God. Speak them. Speak them often.

And, hopefully, our speaking the Word, which pierces to the soul and spirit, will do more for us than any amount of do-better-ism that we can muster.

And so, I urge you to consider how you can urge one another on toward love and good deeds by speaking the living and active Word (which is Christ in written form) to one another.

In Christ who sustains,

-joe

a new computer means

I finally broke down and bought a cheap little netbook so that I could get back into writing (and to prepare for finishing up my degree via WGU.)

That means that I will be back to regular blogging with all sorts of craziness from the road and from the Bible. Be prepared.

Odds are that it could get real crazy.

(Oh, and my friend Andrew Jones has a weird new blog that I found humorous: Expanded Vocabulary)

Merry February.

-joe

the lessons of Jonah

My immediate response to my latest driving assignment led me to some serious repentance. Man, God is always pushing for that.

You see, technically my training on the road ends today. I should have no more time with my trainer and I should have two days off until I have to return to take final tests and paperwork.

These two days were very precious to me. I wanted very badly to attend the wedding of a friend tomorrow. He is a stout believer and I love to see friends unite under the headship of Christ. (I was also supposed to usher, so there's a broken promise.)

Secondly, I want to see my church. I want to talk to my church family and encourage and be encouraged at a gathering of believers. I wanted to shake hands and smile and laugh and find out all the ways God has been active in their lives.

And, I really wanted to see my family. Especially my nephew. Man, I miss that kid like crazy.

None of that is going to happen now. I will miss the wedding, miss church and miss my family.

My first lightning bolt response was intense anger. I had spent the last few days in prayer about the weekend because it was looking oddly like it wouldn't happen. Last night I was nearly convinced of it and spent a lot of time petitioning God to be merciful to me. Then, at noonish today, I was informed that I would be spending the weekend driving to Lansing, Michigan. Most of that time would be spent sitting at a truckstop (36 of the 48 hours.)

I instantly shot up a prayer that sounded something like this: "Why would you deprive me of these joys? Am I being unreasonable to demand them? Have you no pity? What is a job, anyway?"

God's solemn answer came like a train wreck. Jonah had a shade tree grow and whither and he cursed God for it. What is a job other than a shade tree? What are these small joys but fruit from that tree? God had graciously provided the job and I became insolent as soon as it didn't provide the fruit I wanted. And so God answered me with a question, "Do you do well to be angry?" And I immediately saw my atrocious sin.

My trainer is not a believer. He, like Nineveh, is an unrepentant city. I have felt little compassion for him and have at times thought that he didn't even deserve the offer of grace. That's twisted and ugly, but it is the truth.

God withered my tree so that I would be aware of my sin and perhaps repent and preach the Gospel. I ask that you would pray for me these next 48 hours and also for the soul of my trainer, the Ninevite. May God be merciful to us both.

-joe