Husbands love your wives

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,” Ephesians 5:25

 

            As I contemplate my call to be a husband, I am made more aware of how I need to be made more like Christ.  I vowed on my wedding day to love my wife unconditionally.  To love her unconditionally I must love her like Christ because He is the standard for unconditional love.  When I was dead in sin, Christ laid down His life for me (Romans 5:6-8).  Even when my wife doesn’t deserve it and is hard to love, I must still love her because love is not based on feeling.  Love is not about convenience, but about giving up every thing and laying my life down because that is how Christ has loved me.

Humble Orthodoxy

“It’s a humbling thought, isn’t it, to know that we are saved in spite of — certainly not because of — ourselves?” World on the Web

Lately I have been amazed by this old truth, a near and dear reality check that I need continually.

he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, – Titus 3:5

I come empty…I come bringing nothing…I come humbly amazed at the depths of grace and mercy that are at my disposal.

“Paul states they they have not in any way contributed to their own salvation.  They have received this blessing solely through God’s mercy.  From these words we see that we can bring nothing to God, but that he goes before us, through the initiative of pure grace, with no reference to any of our good deeds.  For when he says not because of the righteous things we have done, he means that until God regenerates us we can do nothing but sin.” John Calvin

Writing a Book

I have a draft of a book and it’s found on this blog.  My dream is get the book published.  If anyone else has a similar dream, an editor of IVP has some helpful tips here.

Titus 3:3

“For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.”

I’ve memorized this verse before, but today during my quiet time it struck me in a way like never before.  Here are a few bullet points on how God revealed Himself to me through this verse.

• No one is too sinful to be saved.
•  This is my cause for the humility that is referenced in verse two.  I have no merits and this verse paints me as I truly am, not as I view myself. Because God has treated me better then I deserve, I should treat others better then they deserve.
• This verse does not just describe my actions, but also my heart.  It can be applied to anyone, no matter what they have done because everyone has experienced these things in their heart before they confessed Christ.  There is no denying this, just look at babies for example.

Joy and the California fires

“7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. “  1 Peter 1:7

“A tried faith is much more precious than tried gold. Here is a double comparison of faith and gold, and the trial of the one with the trial of the other. Gold is the most valuable, pure, useful, and durable, of all the metals; so is faith among the Christian virtues; it lasts till it brings the soul to heaven, and then it issues in the glorious fruition of God for ever. The trial of faith is much more precious than the trial of gold; in both there is a purification, a separation of the dross, and a discovery of the soundness and goodness of the things. Gold does not increase and multiply by trial in the fire, it rather grows less; but faith is established, improved, and multiplied, by the oppositions and afflictions that it meets with.” Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry on marriage

“The love of Christ to the church is proposed as an example of this, which love of his is a sincere, a pure, an ardent, and constant affection, and that notwithstanding the imperfections and failures that she is guilty of.” Matthew Henry on Ephesians 5:25

Spirit and Truth

I come humbly before you now,
Asking you to use this time,
When I peer into your word
For a greater vision of you,
That you will meet me.

Let my time in your word
Be my greatest joy and delight,
As I see the God who is rich in grace
Evidenced by sending His Son to die for me,
So I can be filled with the Spirit and His child.

Give me an expectant heart for your presence,
Help me to hear your voice in every verse,
Open my eyes to see your cross on every page.
I am nothing and have nothing
Unless you fill me now.

Through your word I see your cross more clearly,
This is the only way I truly know hope and peace.
It does not matter if I come to your courts
For an hour or fifteen minutes,
But only that I am transformed by your Spirit and Truth.

My confidence

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 2 corinthians 3:4

“It was not self confidence.  It was not the consciousness of superior excellence, but a conviction of the truth of the Gospel and of the reality of the vocation that he had received from Christ.  This confidence that he was what God had called him to be — an able or fit minister of the Gospel – was not a trait of natural character; it was not a conclusion from his inward and outward experience.  It was one of the forms in which the Spirit of God who was in him revealed himself, just as that Spirit manifest himself in Paul’s humility, faith, courage or constancy.  It is easy to find out whether such confidence is a matter of being puffed up with one self or whether it is God’s strengt in the soul.  If it is the former, it comes with pride, arrogance, indifference, and contempt of others.  If it is of God, it is accompanied by self-abhorrence, meekness, long-suffering, a willingness to be the least and lowest, and by all other grace of the Spirit.” Charles Hodge

Some hope for this fallen world

This can be filed under things that I didn’t think I would read in 2007, especially in America.

“Orlando is fighting crime with prayer. Last Wednesday, police chaplain Andrew Wade launched Operation Armor All – 40 days of prayer for a drop in crime. Over a hundred people attended, including the mayor, the chief of police, two city commissioners, a circuit judge and members from 37 local churches.”

Read the whole thing here. 

Question of the day

In my efforts to being more involved with knowing about what is going on with current events, I have tried to make it a habit to check the World website.  Who knows, maybe one day I will subscribe to World.  The lead article on the World blog was about choosing a Christian college.  There were a list of questions for someone to ask who is considering a Christian school and the first question isn’t just applicable for choosing a college, but how we view all aspects of our life.  Here is my paraphrase of the question:

should Christians be separatists from society, appeasers of it, or transformers of it?

If I am to be a leader that is rooted in Christ am I separating, appeasing or transforming the society?  How do I seek to do the latter?