Enthralled with God

The human heart was made to be enthralled with God. God made the human being to be able to taste the joy He experiences in fellowship with Himself. As a redeemed sinner the frustrating thing is that the gaze of my soul is often preoccupied with me or some other created thing. The problem is that this is very boring and horribly unsatisfying to the soul that was created to be filled by the eternal glory of God. I need help! ...we need help.

As believers in Jesus Christ we are called to live somewhere that is not our home. Home is where our souls are in a constant state of complete enthrallment with God, simply put, heaven. This is paradise as it was meant to be, but this is not where we live now. Right now we are called to live in a sin sick world where we are constantly being tempted away from God. If we sit around doing nothing, the gaze of our hearts will be fixed on us. If we try to fight on our own human strength we will be overrun by our flesh the world and the devil. However, God loves to give good gifts to His children. Ask God, plead with Him to help you take your eyes off of yourself and fix them on Him, if it is His will you will taste the joy of basking in God's glory.

For the glory of God

Seth

Nothing Else WIll Do

Hello all! Sorry it has been so long; these last few weeks have been crazy. The plan is for me to put up a new post every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

Tonight I would like to post some lyrics to a song I am working on. Feedback is encouraged and helpful! I will try to get a recording up soon.

Nothing Else Will Do:

With everything in me I've got to fight this lie

Sin against God will never satisfy

I need You Jesus Christ

Come keep me from running back to chains

Sin no longer masters me Your grace reigns

Jesus come fill my life

Chorus

Because nearness is joy

And pleasure forevermore

This world will never satisfy

I was made to worship you

And that is life

Nothing else will do!

You made me to enjoy you

My pleasure and Your glory forever glued

You were faithful, but I didn't stay true

Separation from the joy of Your glory

Was the punishment for all my deeds

And your wrath was poured out, but not on me

Jesus came and stood in my place

Releasing the torrents of Your grace

Bringing me spotless into the holiest place

Through Your pain my soul is satisfied

In Your presence, I'm alive

You were rejected and I am reconciled

Three days later sin felt defeat

As its head was crushed under Jesus' feet

The grave is empty, and we are free

Hallelujah death has lost its sting

God's made a way for man to be redeemed

And satisfied as He receives glory

For the glory of God

Seth

Spiritual Laziness

1 Timothy 4:7b "Rather train yourself for godliness."

I have talked about it before on this blog, but is seems that I am quite forgetful. One of Jonathan Edwards' resolutions goes something like this, "Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live." This is convicting to me because I am naturally very lazy. My flesh believes that happiness is found in ease. However the bible, which is ultimate truth and trumps my feelings, says differently. Psalm 16:11 lets me know quite plainly that "fullness of joy" and "pleasures forevermore" are found in God's presence. The nearer we are to God, the happier we are. This would be a depressing truth without the gospel! We are sinners and can never be close to God as long as our sin is accredited to us. But Christ came and took the punishment for our sins as He covered us in His righteousness. One of the breathtaking truths of the gospel is that everyone who has been saved by Jesus Christ is seen as righteous before God. However, we are not righteous yet. Defeated sin still remains and woos us away from obedience.

Now we come back to my problem. 1 Timothy 4:7 makes it clear that I will not come by godliness by ease. Even though I have been set free from sin, part of my sin nature remains within. Without God I am powerless to fight against this nature, but if I fight with the strength God provides, there is victory. Yet as I am quickly finding out, this does not mean I am exempt from effort. Jesus has saved me and bought me. Through Him God looks with favor upon me, nothing I can do can earn that favor. But by the strength God will give me I must work hard for the sake of godliness.

Practically this means that for me a "quiet time" a day isn't enough. Jesus shed His blood to bring me into this soul satisfying relationship with God and I cannot be content with giving Him a slice of my time. In a sense this is hatred toward myself. I was made to be constantly enthralled by God and I cannot do that if the majority of my time is spent with singular focus on me.

By God's grace I must fight spiritual laziness by training myself toward better prayer, meditation, service, worship, reading, and enjoying my Savior. Please pray for me toward this end and please strive after it yourself.

For the glory of God

Seth

Post Scatter Debrief

Well, the uncharted waters have been charted successfully. What a week it was! It was beautiful to look around at each stop (back yard bible clubs, the Dream Center, and the Boys and Girls club) and see people sharing the gospel left and right. It was amazing to hear stories each night of how God had provided opportunities to spread the good news He has given us. I can honestly say that this trip (even though we didn't go anywhere) provided more opportunities to share the gospel than any other trip I had been on.

My big prayer before the trip was that the gospel would be ready on the lips of every team member; God answered that prayer abundantly. I think almost every person who went on the trip got to share the gospel with their life and words.

A lot of seed was scattered, but it is up to God to cause the growth. May we pray toward this end.

For the glory of God

Seth

Uncharted Waters

This next week our church (The Bible Church of Little Rock) is embarking into uncharted waters for us; a missions trip to Little Rock. This is going to be amazing! It will feel like a missions trip because we will be staying in church member's homes across Little Rock, not our own homes, but we will get to minister to people in our own city! I like the way our Worship Pastor said it, "it's like we are throwing a gospel grenade into Little Rock and living with the shrapnel."

A short term missions trip is awesome! It takes you out of your normal routine and life and thrusts you into a week or two or three or however long of focused gospel work. In trips of summers past, as we have gone to places like New Mexico, West Virginia, Iowa, Mexico, Ukraine, and others, we usually come back enthralled with God and what we have seen Him do with the gospel, and wanting more. Yet as time elapses after the trip that once enthralled heart becomes once again distracted and interested in the normal routine of life (which if we are to be honest is usually filled with stuff that won't satisfy and doesn't matter).

The goal with this trip is to kind of jump-start ongoing personal gospel ministry by bringing the organization and focus of a short term missions trip to the city in which we live. The hope and prayer is that God will allow the gospel to go forth in a powerful way and that real lasting relationships will be formed. Please join us in prayer toward this end.

For the glory of God

Seth

A Focus for School

In 1 Corinthians 8:1 Paul says, "Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies." Now here he is talking specifically about the knowledge that it is ok to eat things sacrificed to idols (a big controversy in the Church at Corinth), but as I thought about that statement, something very obvious and helpful hit me.

Multiple times in the gospels Jesus says that the greatest two commandments are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. This should be the goal of everything I do, but it never hit me that it applies in a huge way to knowledge and learning.

On the 1st of August I will (Lord willing) be heading up to Louisville to begin a new chapter of my life at Boyce College. I will be doing a LOT of learning! I will be learning from my professors and fellow students both inside and outside the classroom. Yes I am going to school to be trained to be a Worship Pastor, but in a much deeper way I hope to be learning how to love God and people better.

The better I can become at music, (hopefully, and by God's grace) the less distracting the music will be and the more it will aid others to see God and the gospel through song. The better I become at Bible study the closer I can get to saying what God would have someone hear instead of saying what I want to say. The more God humbles me, the more equipped I will be to put others interests ahead of my own.

By the transforming power and grace of God, I want to go to school to be better equipped to love others the way Christ loves them; in a selfless way that leads them to glorify and enjoy God, not me. May the knowledge I receive at school transform into love not arrogance.

Please pray for me in this regard!

For the glory of God

Seth

"You are not your own..."

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.

In this passage God, through Paul, is specifically addressing using your body for sexual immorality. Understanding that your body no longer belongs to you can be one of the greatest helps in fighting sexual sin, and really any sin! Think about it! The passage above states that you have been bought with a price; what was that price? It was the cross!

It can be so easy for Christ's death to become something we get used to, but we need to fight against this with everything in us; I need to fight against it with everything in me. Jesus came from the glories of heaven to this earth and after living a spotless life died the death of a criminal. So much worse however, was the fact that Jesus bore the wrath of God for the sins of everyone who would believe in Him! Think about it! The God who's wrath we kindled by our sin, took that wrath on Himself so that we would only know His grace! That is the price He paid!

Christian, you do not belong to yourself! Your time isn't yours, your eyes aren't yours, your mouth isn't yours, where you go isn't yours, how you spend your free time isn't yours. You have been bought by the highest price! So use your time, body, and everything else in the only way that makes sense in light of that sacrifice; use them to glorify the one who has loved you more than you will ever know!

For His glory

Seth

You Reap What You Sow

At times in my life as a Christian I am painfully reminded of a vicious truth; what I sow, I reap. Now this can be applied in a whole slew of ways, but I am specifically talking about it in relation to prayer and the reading of/meditation on scripture. When these things are mostly absent from my life for a few days, the effects are obvious, and a painful reminder of how much I desperately need that concentrated time of communion with God.

This past Saturday and Sunday I was absent from that alone time with God, and I was seeing the effects of it today. I found that I was more irritable, lazy, and selfish than usual (or more realistically I just saw more of what is in my heart spill out). As I saw this I was reminded once again that if I sow to the flesh I will reap the fruits of the flesh. This provided me with an opportunity to repent. Also, it gave me a wonderful opportunity to stand in awe of the endless grace God has poured out on me. I am so unfaithful, yet I know that not even I can separate myself from His love. Hallelujah for the cross!

Holy Spirit, please continue to grow me in discipline. Take away my worldly value system so that I see Christ as more valuable than anything else. May the time I get to spend in communion with my heavenly Father be precious in my sight, and may I fight my flesh which is ceaselessly trying to convince me that there are better ways of spending my time. Help me to sow toward you so that I reap the fruits you will produce in me. Jesus, thank you for your measureless sacrifice on my behalf. Thank you for interceding for me! Father, please forgive me for my sin against you. Thank you that nothing can separate me from your love!

For your glory and in Jesus' name

Seth

Identity

What do you want people to see you as? In what do you find your identity? Is it an ability God has given you; a talent? How about the friends you hang out with? Maybe it is your possessions; what you have or how much you have? What we want to be identified with or regarded as says a lot about us, and scripture is not silent about the topic. If you are a Christian, have you ever considered what God says about how people should regard you?

1 Corinthians 4:1 says, "Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God."

According to this passage, people should regard me in two ways:

1. As a servant (or slave) of Christ.

A servant belongs to and is completely submitted to the will of his master.

2. As a steward of the mysteries of God (or the truth about God revealed in scripture).

Convicting? I know it is for me! How many people see you in light of these two things? Do you strive to find your identity in your slavery to Christ and the stewardship of His truth?

May the Holy Spirit help you and me to re-wire how we want others to regard us. May our identity be Christ and truth.

For the glory of God

Seth

Recently...

Recently...I have started way too many posts off with "recently," but the truth is that a lot of what I write about has happened recently. Maybe I should use a synonym...

In all seriousness though, recently God has been convicting and humbling me through this truth. (It's a shocker!) All glory belongs to God! Now this has been drilled into me from when I was little, but the other night as I went through 1 Corinthians 3, I read this; "I (Paul) planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth."

Those two verses hit me hard. It is so easy for me to look at the different opportunities God has given me to plant or water and think that I am going to say something awesome or clever or articulate some sort of truth that will cause someone to grow. I needed to be reminded that I can plant and water all I want, but those things are nothing if God doesn't cause the growth. I needed to be reminded that all glory belongs to Him because He is the one who causes the growth. I needed to be reminded of my complete and utter dependence on the all powerful God of the universe.

I hope that the realization of this truth will drive me and you to our knees in prayer. I need to fervently pray that God would help me know the best way to plant and water and that He would cause the growth.

The planter and the waterer are nothing; the God who causes the growth is everything. Who gets the glory?

For the glory of the One who deserves it,

Seth

A Call to Worship

Hello all! This is a call to worship I am currently working on. As you will see I tried to incorporate 3 themes into the song.

1. I know that when the Church meets there will be Christians coming from all sorts of places in their relationship with God. Some will be fiercely battling the sin that so easily entangles, some will have come from defeat. Hallelujah, the fact is that no matter where a true Christian is, they are invited to come and experience the blissful joy of worshipping God.

2. It is only by the boundless grace of God that we are worthy to come and worship. Christ opened a way for sinful humans to worship the sinless and holy God by covering us in His righteousness.

3. When we come to give praises to God as a congregation we will be coming with a lot of "baggage." Coming from our busy lives into a "worship service" isn't easy because of everything we have to deal with in life. We need to humbly go to the Holy Spirit and admit our need for help and ask Him to take all distractions away.

With that in mind, here are the lyrics.

Shout!

All you weary from battling sin

All you discouraged from giving in

All you steadily running this race

Come and bask in God's glorious grace

None of us worthy to come worship here

It's by His grace that we draw near

Sinner come stand with all the redeemed

God's praises we lift up, His mercies we sing

Pre Chorus

For He has bought us with His blood

Chorus

So we shout!

And give you glory God

And we sing with one voice

As Your blood bought children

For on the cross

You stood in our place

We are trophies of your grace

So we shout to you

Spirit we ask you to come to our aid

Banish distraction, doubt, and dismay

Fix our attention on Christ and His cross

Enlighten our hearts to see all else is loss

For the glory of God

Seth

A Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Dear Holy Spirit,

You are great and almighty, yet how often I fail to acknowledge you. My body is your temple, yet I so often act as if it belongs to me; going where I want to go, doing what I want to do, and don't give a thought to Your awesome presence and the Father's will. I am so sorry for the way I mistreat, dishonor, and sin against you.

Spirit, I am completely helpless without you! If you don't help me see the infinite value of Christ, I will seek to glorify trash. If you don't help me set my mind on things above, I will be taken by the passing pleasures of this world. If you don't convict me of sin, I will become calloused to it and seek to worship the creature rather than my Creator. If you do not keep me from sin I will wander into the basest of evil. I need you more than my next heart-beat or breath; let me never forget!

Thank you so much for praying for me when I cannot find the words. Thank you for your conviction when I sin. Thank you for the strength you give me every day to fight the sins that would crush me if I fought on my own. Thank you for enlarging my spiritual mind to see deeper into your never ending depths.

Holy Ghost, please take me deeper into the depths of the Father's grace and Christ's sacrifice. Please strike my heart with the awesome reality of the gospel every day. Please sanctify me to be more like Christ.

I pray all of these things in Jesus' name and because of His sacrifice,

For Your Glory

Seth

The Scars that Gave me Life

Yesterday I was reading John's account of the resurrection of Christ and the fact hit me that the glorified body of my Savior still bore the scars of His crucifixion. Those scars will be a reminder to all for eternity of the price He paid to purchase a "people for His own possession (Titus 2:14)." The thought moved me to write a little poem.

One day I'll finally see the one who purchased for me life

And I'll see the precious scars, in His hands and in His side

More precious still the unseen scars etched upon His heart

From the wrath that was mine to bear that should've torn me apart

But here I stand before the throne no scars to call my own

Just the mark of His love and grace tattooed on my soul

Isaiah 53:4-5

Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrow He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our wellbeing fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.

Hallelujah for the One who this day bears the scars that brought many to life.

For the glory of God

Seth

Black and Blue Knees

Recently God has been doing some major work on my heart as prayer is concerned. I am starting to understand that when I am not spending time in prayer before God I am saying that I don't think I need Him and that He isn't all that important or worth taking time to talk to. See any problems? I certainly do!

God is the one who keeps my heart beating and my lungs breathing, to think for one second that I don't need His power and strength to do anything physically is suicide; much less spiritually! Yet I will so often stride into a meeting with someone where I will attempt to communicate deep and profound truths and go in proud and without prayer. How arrogant!

May God sanctify me to the place where I am often knocked from my arrogant feet to black and blue knees because I am so moved by my weakness and His fulness and strength. May I see that prayer is more worth my time than anything I try to do. May I know intimately the joy of talking with my Creator, Savior, and truest friend. To quote Pastor Jason Vaden, may I pray like it is my next breath of air.

For the glory of God

Seth

Watch Your Mouth!

Recently God has been showing me more and more how His word needs to govern every aspect of my life, not just the where it is easy or convenient. This has been so good because I am beginning to taste the joys of obedience to Him. One of the areas that I recognized I hadn't let God completely govern was my speech, and from my limited observation, it seems as though a lot of people my age have the same problem.

From scripture it is obvious that a Christian's speech is never to do two things:

1. Tear down

A person who has been rescued by Christ has no place tearing another person down with his or her tongue. Our words are to be gracious, edifying, and uplifting at all times. This means that sarcasm or humor at the price of the degradation of someone else is offensive to God and must not be a part of our speech.

2. Joke about or make light of what God has made serious

Joking about or making light of the things God has made serious is an offense against our pure and holy God and I lose sight of this at times. To joke about anything God has made serious is offensive to God and so we must stay run from it. However, the sacred and serious gift God has given us that I see gets made light of and joked about possibly the most (besides God Himself), is sex. Sex and everything that surrounds it is the end of countless jokes, even in Christian circles. On an arrogant campaign to be the funniest person around, so many Christians, or so called Christians, let their humor run wild in this sacred realm. Just because something makes you laugh, doesn't make it right. If you feel guilty that you are laughing than what you are laughing at probably isn't right and is an offense to God because it violates your conscience.

I am guilty of both of these categories, but by God's amazing grace I am repenting and turning away from my sinful speech and striving to honor God with the tongue He has given me.

Christian, will you allow God to govern the way you live in every aspect of your life? Then surrender your speech (and everything else) to Him. Do not take my word for what He says, pick up your bible and go and see, and may it change you in every way.

For the glory of God

Seth

"If You Love Me..."

In John 14:15 Jesus says these words to His disciples and to us, "If you love me you will keep my commandments." This is a verse very well known to the church, but I hope the conviction it brings will never loose its sting. The truth is our obedience says volumes about our hearts. Here we find a big problem. On our own we only disobey revealing hearts that hate God. This is why Jesus is our only hope.

Jesus was perfectly obedient. His obedience, even to the point of death on a cross (Phil. 2:8), revealed his boundless love for the Father (John 14:31), and on the same hand His love for us. Our only hope of salvation is to be covered in His perfect obedience. Hallelujah for the cross which purchased both forgiveness and our obedience for us.

Yet we are not off the hook! God sees us in Christ's righteousness and that is a beautiful truth, but as we see God's never ending love for us we should be able to do nothing else but show love back. How do we do this best? By striving toward the perfect obedience we are covered in. If we love Him, we will keep His commandments.

Christian, do you love Him? Than stop treating His commands as spiritual suggestions (as I am often guilty of) and start seeing the as His loving demands on your blood bought life. Love Him with everything you have by the spirit by striving to obey in everything He has commanded. That is how you say "I love you Father."

For His glory

Seth

A Very Small Thing

This past week I got to go to Cincinnati with my family. We got to do a lot of amazing things while we were there like going to the 3rd highest rated amusement park in the country (King's Island) and the #1 zoo in the country (The Columbus Zoo). As my family and I walked around these places filled with people, I noticed something going on in my heart...I wanted to be liked, accepted, thought well of by all these people that I didn't even know!

I am naturally a people pleaser. I don't like it when people are upset with me and I always want people to like me and accept me. But there is a huge problem...if I follow and obey Christ, I won't be accepted and liked by most people because most people don't accept and like Christ; in fact they hate Him. What I had fallen into was valuing the opinions of men higher than the opinion of God.

God started to convict me of this and I began to repent...but He wasn't done. On our way back from Cincinnati we got to visit a church in Louisville and the pastor got up and preached on 1 Corinthians 4:1-5. In this passage Paul tells the church of Corinth that (along with many other things) he considers it a very small thing to be examined or judged by them or any human because God is His ultimate judge. Now Paul is not saying that he considers it a small thing when someone brings a sin of his to his attention...in fact in the very next chapter he tells the church to judge and kick a man out of the congregation who was in sin. What he is saying is that it isn't a big deal if people don't think highly of him because of what he looks like or how he speaks or you fill in the blank. It wasn't a big deal because he had been accepted by God in Christ and was now working through the Spirit to be faithful to do all that God had for him to do. If people thought less of Him for this...no big deal! Needless to say I needed to hear this, and maybe you do too!

Knowing that God is our judge frees us to consider the approval of man a very small thing. If you are in Christ you are accepted by God! Now strive to obey God in everything submitting to every whim of His will and know that it isn't a bid deal what people think of you for it.

For the glory of God

Seth

Spiritual Laziness

Toil, strive, practice, run; these words all have a common theme: work. Isn't it interesting though, that these are some of the words you will find in scripture that go along with or describe the Christian life. God gives it to us straight! As a people who have been redeemed from our old ways and are now going against our flesh, the rest of society, and the devil, we have work to do.

Now to be clear, this work is the result of the grace we have been given, not the cause of it. There is nothing we can do to earn the grace of God, we are sinners and all our good deeds are as filthy rags before God, so we need to get that idea out of our minds forever. In our sin, nothing we can do is pleasing to God, but Christ is. Jesus lived a perfect life fully pleasing to God, and He graciously covers all people He brings to Himself in this righteousness. We are pleasing to God only because of Christ, so now because of this grace and through the strength God gives us, it is time to work.

We need to...

1. Work toward a deeper relationship with God through communion with Him. Let me just say it and take whatever objections may come; asking God to speak to us outside of His word is spiritual laziness. In His Word, God has given us everything we need to know both for our relationship with Him and for life. But lets face it! Studying scripture is work! Perseverance in the study of the Bible is an area that I struggle, but when God gives me victory I am able to reap the sweet benefits of hearing Him speak to my heart through the word. So let us work hard through the spirit to seek God through His word.

Communion, however, is two ways. It takes work to hear from Him, and it takes work to talk to Him. We have to be totally honest with the one who sees our hearts, and this takes a lot of effort because most of the time we aren't even honest with ourselves.

2. Work to put off sin. We must work to kill the sin that remains in our lives and keeps us form a deeper relationship with God. As Hebrews 12:1 puts it, "let us also lay aside every encumbrance and sin which so easily entangles." Christians, in the words of John Owen, "be killing sin, or it will be killing you."

May the Holy Spirit fill us with the strength we don't have to work hard after a deeper relationship with our God.

For His glory

Seth

Following Like a Sheep

In John 10 Jesus makes a beautiful analogy. He calls Himself the good shepherd, and His people sheep. He is the good shepherd because He loves and intimately knows His sheep and lays His life down for them. In verses 27-28 Jesus says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of my hand."

Now sheep are creatures that instinctively follow. Are we different? Earlier in John Jesus said that everyone who has sinned is a slave to sin, so all sinners are following sin. Sheep will also follow what they think will lead them to better pastures. Again, are we so different? Don't we sin because we think we can trust it? Don't we sin because we think it will fulfill us and make us happy? This is a lie, but without spiritually opened eyes we cannot see this. But for all God's people who have had their spiritual eyes opened; for all those for whom the Shepherd has laid down His life, we have been given the gift and the strength to turn from following sin and begin following Christ.

Let us briefly consider the one who we are following. Jesus is completely trustworthy. He has died in our place and nothing can pluck us form His hand. He is good and loves us with a love too great to fathom. He will lead us where we need to go. Considering all these things, why would we ever question Him when He tells us to follow in a specific way? Now I am not talking a feeling that you have or something like that, I am talking about how He tells us to follow Him in His word. If our leader is completely trustworthy, when He commands something, no matter the cost to our lives, we must like sheep, trust and obey.

For the glory of God

Seth

"Who knew I had to become a slave to be free?'

What is freedom? It seems like most people would characterize freedom as being able to do whatever they wanted to do. Is this really freedom?

In John 8:34 Jesus says "everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin." Acknowledging that the bible says that everyone has sinned, everyone is a slave to sin. So unless God acts to free you from your slavery to sin, whenever you do what you want to do, you are actually just obeying your master; sin. This is a sobering thought, and if we were left here we would be hopeless. if we stopped here all of humanity would be held captive by sin and loving their master's chains. But God who should have punished us for our sin, made a way for us to be free. He sent His son to redeem his people through his blood. Jesus literally bought us from sin and set us free to live a life of worship to God.

So what is freedom? Not doing what you want to do, but doing what He wants you to do. It is beautiful slavery to the perfect will of God and His good commands. It is life as it was meant to be lived, in blissful worship of God.

"Who knew I had to become a slave to be free?" -PRO

For the glory of God

Seth

A Few Thoughts on Worship: Part 3

What makes worship acceptable before God? Noel Due puts it this way, "it is not the offerer who receives approval because of the offerings, but the offerings because of the offerer." It doesn't matter what offering you bring to worship God (praise, money, service, etc...), if your life is not approved by Him, the offering is trash. This would be an incredibly depressing truth if Jesus was not in the picture.

Jesus was the only human to ever live a life completely pleasing to God. We all fall short and deserve to be judged and punished for it. But, in God's merciful plan, when Jesus died on the cross He switched spiritual places with everyone who would believe in Him. On the cross Jesus bore our sins in His body and covered us in His perfect life; His righteousness. Now, through the blood of Christ alone, we can stand before God blameless! What a Savior!

Christian, you can never do enough to earn God's acceptance. On your own God can't even look upon you because of your sin. Do you see the beauty, majesty, grace, value, and glory of Jesus Christ? Trust in the sacrifice He made for you on the cross and live a life of worship to God knowing that you are acceptable in His sight not because of you, but because of Jesus.

For the glory of God

Seth

"I Do Not Seek To Do My Own Will"

I hope to put part three of the worship series up on Tuesday, but I felt like this was worth the interruption.

Last night God showed me a huge flaw in the way I think and function on a day to day basis; needless to say it was a bit devastating in a good humbling sanctifying way. I am currently reading through John and last night I came to John 5:30 where Jesus says, "I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent me." As I read this, the Holy Spirit lovingly convicted me and I asked myself this question; how often could I say a similar thing about myself? How often could I say, "I do not seek my own will, but the will of Him who...made me, saved me, loves me, is for me, the list could go on and on. The truth is that the little decisions I make day to day are usually governed by what I feel like doing. As I thought about this more and more I began to see the horror in it. The bible says that my heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Most of the time when the Bible talks about the heart it is referring to what is felt, thought, and wanted. So when I am governed by what I feel, the result will be evil because my heart is evil. Now will this always look like evil? probably not, more than likely the evil will come from my motives and desires; but it will be evil none the less. Now Jesus who was perfect sought only to do the will of God alone, so what in the world am I doing? This drove me to my knees as I repented and asked for strength to stop being governed by what I feel and start being governed by the will of God. When I do this I can have complete assurance that I am doing what is right and glorifying to God.

As followers of Christ we are called to renounce ourselves and our wills and submit to God and His will. Christian, are you still being governed by what you want to do, or are you asking God in every situation big and small, "Lord, what would you have me do?"

In light of our sin and continued rebellion against God and His will, what can we say but hallelujah for the cross and the blood of Christ which made a way for us to be forgiven, freed, and strengthened to seek His will instead of ours.

For the glory of God

Seth

A Few Thoughts on Worship: Part 2

The thoughts I am going to share today are again from the book "Created for Worship" by Noel Due.

Today we will look at one of the reasons why God created us to worship Him. Before I continue I just want to say that God is way bigger and his reasons for doing what He does so much grander than I can try to begin to understand much less explain; these are just a few aspects of God and one of the reason why He created humans.

Because we are sinful humans, it is a temptation to look at God as egotistical. Why does He require the beings He made to worship Him? Isn't that selfish and arrogant? I struggled with this unvoiced question for a long time until by God's providence I got to hear John Piper preach about it. In the sermon, He said this; "If God in some mock humility did not require us to worship Him, it would be the most unloving thing He could do because worshipping Him is what brings us the most pleasure and the most joy." I was blown away! It made so much sense and was all over the Bible (Psalm 16:11 and Philippians 3:7-8 to name a couple). This truth blew me away, but Noel Due put a spin on it that I hadn't seen till until now. He points out that God did not create the human being out of a necessity to be worshipped, but he created us because out of the generosity of His heart He wanted to create a being that could experience the blissful joy that He experiences in communion with Himself. This is amazing! God created us to worship Him so that we could experience the joy that He experiences in communion or worship of Himself within the Trinity.

When we understand this truth it should do at least two things.

1. It should help us to see how disgusting our sin really is.

Our sin at it's root is exchanging the blissful worship of God with the base practice of worshipping self and things in creation. Can you see what we are saying to God as we do this? We are saying that worshipping Him isn't good enough. It is better to worship ourselves and the other things. This is the reason we deserve His wrath. We have caused Him infinite grief, so we deserve infinite punishment.

2. It should help us to see the glory of Christ.

When we see that when Jesus died and rose from the grave He not only granted us forgiveness of our horrid sins, but also a restored relationship with God, it should make us see the infinite value of Christ. Through Him we can worship the One we were made to worship and experience the incomparable joy that goes along with that worship.

For the glory of God

Seth

A Few Thoughts on Worship: Part 1

I am currently reading a book called "Made for Worship" by a guy named Noel Due. This book has been extremely helpful as God shapes my understanding of worship. A few truths brought about in this book have rocked my view of worship; hopefully they will do the same for you as I share a few this week.

My whole life I have been surrounded by the idea that I was made to give God glory and enjoy him forever. My parents had me memorize parts of the shorter catechism, so at an early age I knew that this was the chief end of man. What I didn't realize however, is that the function of the human being is worship. Just as a car is meant to drive, a picture frame is meant to hold pictures, and a chair is meant to be sat in, the human is meant to worship. In light of this truth we can see that because we were created to worship, we are worshipping at all times. The question is, what are you worshipping?

Now, when a lot of people think of worship, they automatically think of singing. Singing, or praise, is a type of worship, but worship is so much bigger than that. It encompasses your whole life, everything you do! So, what does it look like to worship God? It is a life lived in complete submission to His will and commands. It means obeying Him in everything, and enjoying Him in everything. It means valuing Him more than everything else.

This kind of worship has only been done perfectly by one human; the God-man Jesus Christ. He is your only hope to be forgiven and freed from your idolatry (worshipping anything else but God). He is also your only hope of experiencing the joy of true worship of God. Repent of your sin, turn to Jesus, and enter the joy of living in complete submission to God; living like you were made to live.

For the glory of God

Seth

Evidences of a Heart Invaded by the Holy Spirit

Why do so many people who profess Christ have no evidence of a heart invaded by the Holy Spirit? It is obvious that this is a problem. Here in Little Rock we have Christian Schools and Churches and a home schooled community filled with people who say they follow Christ but don't actually follow Christ.

I have been blessed to be studying in Titus recently and what I found in chapter 3 was convicting and beautiful at the same time. Paul tells Titus to remind the church in Crete to (among other things) be obedient, ready for every good deed, and to show consideration for all men. The reason he gives them for doing these things is breathtaking. He says this, "For we also were once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another." The next word in the passage is one of the most beautiful words in scripture because after the list of sins above (which we can all own up to) we deserve nothing but Hell (the just penalty for our sins). The next word is "but." Despite what we deserve, God's undeserved kindness and love appeared, and He saved us through Christ our rescuer! The passage goes on to say that we have been brought to life (regeneration) and are being being renewed through the Holy Spirit who has been poured on us.

When the eyes of an unbeliever are opened to see Jesus and the sacrifice He made for their sins on the cross, and they put their faith in Him, the Holy Spirit is poured on that person and their dead heart is raised to life with Christ. After this, the Holy Spirit starts renewing them. This means He starts convicting them of sins, He starts giving them a hatred for their sins and a love for righteousness, He gives them the strength to make war on their sins, and gives them a zeal for good works.

A heart invaded by the Holy Spirit is a heart that has been freed from it's slavery to sin, and is now a slave to Christ. A heart invaded by the Holy Spirit hates it's sin or has a deep desire to want to hate it's sin. Jesus does not forgive someone and leave them in their sins! Out of a deep love for them, he begins to help them rid their life of sin, a task none of us can do ourselves.

May we be a people who belong to Christ, filled with the Spirit, zealous for good deeds.

For the glory of God

Seth

The God Who Listens and Answers

Answered prayer can be one of the biggest faith builders can it not? Sometimes God answers prayers over long periods of time; sometimes he answers no; sometimes he answers way after you pray, and sometimes he answers immediately.

This weekend I was playing ultimate frisbee with some brothers and sisters in Christ from churches all over LR. After we were done, my friend Blake gave me the idea to invite people from the group to come and invite their friends to serve with us tonight at the Little Rock Juvenile Detention Center. The word went out, and I began to pray that God would bring people as He willed. Every other Sunday and one Friday night a month some people from The Bible Church have the opportunity to go and worship, hang out, and share Christ with the inmates at the d-center. This ministry is hard, awkward at times, and has some major schedule conflicts with other ministries at the church. Because of these things it is often understaffed. The more people that go, the more the gospel gets to go out in one on one conversation with the inmates. God gave me a huge desire to see this ministry extend to people outside just the local expression of the universal Church that I attend. Saturday night I was reading Hosea 1 and read this in verse 11, "And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall gather together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head..." God immediately brought to mind how Christ is the Head of the body, and how even though there are different likeminded churches across LR, and I am glad because each has unique ways God uses them all, we all have the same head and can serve together as the body. This just pushed me to pray harder for God to bring people from different churches together to join hands with us as we bring the gospel to needy kids in the d-center.

As today progressed, to be totally honest, I had given up, but God was working. A few hours before we were going to head down to the d-center, I got a text from a sister in Christ I had never met saying that she had been told about the ministry by a mutual friend and wanted to come and bring some friends! To say the least I was ecstatic! A while later I got a call from a friend who said that he couldn't come tonight but wanted to know next time we were going so he could come and bring some people.

Little did I know that tonight was the biggest group of inmates I think we have ever had. God knew that we needed some more people, and brought people who were so excited to be there and to serve. God did some amazing things tonight! I wish I could post all of the testimonies that were given of different ways God allowed the gospel to go out, and the different responses to the gospel; it was incredible. Another awesome thing was that there were three or four churches represented by the people who came. God completely answered my prayers and answered them in such a miraculous way that only He can take credit for what happened. I pray that this ministry will grow and that more and more people will come and love on and share the life transforming gospel with these precious kids.

May the revival I see happening in Little Rock continue to push people to their knees and continue to push people to be the loving hands of Christ all throughout this city.

For the glory of God

Seth

How Hard Do You Pray?

Aaron Wilson preached a sermon on Matthew 13:1-23 last night at Youth. I had heard messages on the parable of the Sower and the four soils before, but something struck me afresh as God spoke through Aaron. 1 Peter 5:8 tells us to be of sober spirit and to be alert because the devil prowls around like a lion seeking someone to devour. Jesus paints a similar picture in Matthew 13 when he talks about how the seed (the gospel) falls on or beside the hard path (a hard heart) and how the birds that are circling above (the devil and his company) swoop down and take the seed away. God used these things to awaken me once again to the reality of the war I am in every single day. Ephesians 6:10-20 gives us a very vivid picture of this warfare about which satan loves to help us forget. It talks about how our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against "the spiritual forces of wickedness." Paul closes this great encouragement to put on the whole armor of God (so that we may stand firm against the devil) with a plea towards prayer and petition. The believers in Ephesus (and we as believers) were commanded to pray at all times in the Spirit.

Looking at these things I have come to a convicting conclusion; my prayers are too few and too weak. Satan and his company are putting a lot of effort into this warfare and a lot of times I am not even aware that I am on the battlefield. Left to myself I will be crushed by the efforts of the evil one, but by the strength that the Holy Sprit offers, I may resist him. Also, my prayers are too few and too weak for those who I know will hear the gospel or have heard it. The devil is going to fight to take away that gospel seed before it penetrates the heart and I need to be in hard prayer that God would soften the hearts of those individuals and let the gospel take root.

How am I going to try to apply this?

1. Ask God to open my eyes that I may see the battle I am in.

2. Strive to pray at all times in the spirit out of a desperate need of God for protection and strength to fight.

3. When I know I or someone else will have have the opportunity to share the gospel, I will strive to pray hard for the hearts that the seed will be falling onto that they will be soft and receptive.

4. Realize that to make time for more (and much needed) prayer, I will probably need to give up time listening to music in my car, being on twitter, facebook, xbox, etc...

Considering how hard the devil is working against the gospel and against your spiritual growth, how hard are you praying?

For the glory of God

Seth