Living Faith Church - Blog

Hard Thoughts of God

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:00:00 -0400

Last week Steve, Brad, and I had the opportunity to take a Pastor's College class taught by CJ Mahaney, president of Sovereign Grace Ministries. The topic was pastoral ministry, but during the course of the discussion the doctrine of adoption came up, and I wanted to pass along one of the quotes.

In his book, Communion with the Triune God, Puritan pastor John Owen wrote an encouragement to Christians to commune with God the Father in His love for His children - in other words, an encouragement for us to fully enjoy the reality in our relationship with God that He does indeed love us. Here's the quote:

"It is exceeding acceptable unto God, even our Father, that we should thus hold communion with Him in His love - that He may be received into our souls as one full of love, tenderness, and kindness, towards us. Flesh and blood is apt to have very hard thoughts of Him,-to think He is always angry, yea, implacable [i.e., cruel or hard to please]; that it is not for poor creatures to draw nigh to him...Now, there is not any thing more grievous to the Lord, nor more subservient [i.e. helpful] to the design of Satan upon the soul, than such thoughts as these...

"How unwilling is a child to come into the presence of an angry father! Consider, then, this in the first place-receiving of the Father as he holds out love to the soul, gives Him the honor he aims at, and is exceeding acceptable unto him...Men are afraid to have good thoughts of God. They think it a boldness to eye God as good, gracious, tender, kind, loving...Assure yourself, then, there is nothing more acceptable unto the Father, than for us to keep up our hearts unto Him as the eternal fountain of all that rich grace which flows out to sinners in the blood of Jesus." *

What would characterize the way you think about God during the course of a day? Or, more specifically, this day? Hard thoughts about Him, thoughts that view Him as dissatisfied with you, angry with you, or just uncaring about you? Or good thoughts, biblical thoughts like, "As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on me today!" (Psalm 103:11), or "Like a bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so does God rejoice over me!" (Isaiah 62:5)? Sin and Satan tempt all of us - yes, even pastors-in-training! - to have hard thoughts about our Heavenly Father. But that doesn't mean they are accurate and true thoughts about Him! If hard thoughts of your Heavenly Father have kept you from enjoying His love or entering His presence, I would encourage you to spend some time in passages like the ones quoted, or Romans 8:31-39, Galatians 4:1-7, or Ephesians 2:1-10. May we be a church full of people who "eye God as good, gracious, tender, kind, loving" - towards us!

John Owen, Communion with the Triune God (Crossway Books, 2007), p. 127-128.

By This We Know Love

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:00:00 -0400

This Sunday we're going to be learning a new song called "By This We Know Love". Here's the chorus:

By this we know love that He laid down His life
God's very own Son, came from Heaven to die
Suspended He hung, as he shed His own blood
What grace in His pardon, by this
We know love. *

The chorus of the song is taken, at least in part, from this verse in 1 John: "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). It's an amazing verse! The apostle John calls us to turn from measuring God's love for us by our own love for Him, and instead measure His love by what He has done: sending Jesus as a "wrath-bearing sacrifice" (i.e., a "propitiation").

Imagine you've been given the task of painting someone's portrait, a fully colored, finely detailed portrayal of your subject's features. You gather your paints, assemble your brushes, purchase a canvas, and arrange for the person to meet you at a nearby wooded pond, a perfect setting to create your painting. When you arrive, the person greets you and asks, "Where shall I sit?" You respond, "Actually, I prefer not to paint the portrait by looking at you, but at your reflection. If you could lean over the edge of the pond here, I'll just paint what I see in the water." Your subject obeys, and you begin painting. The task is difficult. Leaves and branches occasionally fall into the water, marring the surface; the wind causes ripples that obscure the likeness. Once a rainstorm even passes by, the droplets completely obliterating any hint of a reflection in the water. Undaunted, you press on, and soon the painting is done. "What do you think?" you ask.

"It's terrible!" your client responds. "It doesn't look anything like me! It's distorted, the colors aren't right, the proportions are all wrong - I don't even recognize myself! How could you have ever expected to paint an accurate portrait by looking at a distorted reflection?"

How often do you paint a portrait of God's love for you by gazing at the reflection of your own love for Him? When we look at how much love we feel in our hearts towards God, we'll never get the full picture of His love for us! The image we paint will always be distorted, partial, and incomplete - our love for God, even on our best days, can never compare to the eternal love of an infinite God. Praise be to God that His love is the standard in our relationship with Him, not ours! And that love was displayed for us most clearly in the death of God's Son on our behalf.

By this we know love that He laid down His life
God's very own Son, came from Heaven to die
Suspended He hung, as he shed His own blood
What grace in His pardon, by this
We know love. *

Longing to gaze more clearly at the cross, the perfect picture of God's love,

Josh

"By This We Know Love", music and words by Judah Groveman © 2009 Sovereign Grace Worship (ASCAP).

Quotes on Adoption

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:00:00 -0400

Since we're learning new songs that focus on the doctrine of adoption this month, I thought I'd pass on to you two great quotes I came across on the topic. May God use the truth of this doctrine to deepen our certainty that He views us with closeness, affection, and generosity!

In a recent blog post on adoption, CJ Mahaney writes:

Just as human adoption is deeply personal, the doctrine of God's adopting grace is deeply personal. It is assuring. It reminds me that God loves me. "Adoption is a family idea," wrote J.I. Packer, "conceived in terms of love, and viewing God as father. In adoption, God takes us into his family and fellowship-he establishes us as his children and heirs. Closeness, affection, and generosity are at the heart of the relationship." (1)

Do the words closeness, affection, and generosity describe your experience of God? If not, perhaps you are more aware of your sin than of the adopting grace of God. If not, perhaps you are more aware of justifying grace than of adopting grace.

The second quote is taken (slightly paraphrased) from the book "Communion with the Triune God", written by the 17th century Puritan pastor John Owen. After writing that believers have communion (what we might call fellowship or personal relationship) with God the Father in His "free, undeserved, and eternal love" (2), Owen tells us what this love then requires of us. And what is the first requirement of God's adopting love? Receive it!

Communion consists in giving and receiving. Until the love of the Father be received, we have no communion with him in it. How, then, is this love of the Father to be received, so as to hold fellowship with Him? I answer: by faith. The receiving of it is the believing of it. (3)

O Father, help us believe Your love for us so that we may receive it and live daily in the good of it!

(1) J.I. Packer, Knowing God (IVP, 1973), p. 207
(2) John Owen, Communion with the Triune God (Crossway Books, 2007), p. 107
(3) Owen, p. 111.

The Doctrine of Adoption

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:00:00 -0400

"See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are." (1 John 3:1)

In the past few years I've had the opportunity to have two "first day of school" experiences, one in 2003 when I started my time in the Virginia Tech Corp of Cadets as a wide-eyed, shaven head freshman, and the other last August at the Pastor's College - thankfully with a lot more hair but still a bit overwhelmed by my surroundings and wondering what was about to happen. The two first days couldn't have been more different! During Day One at the Corp of Cadets I was an identity-less name on a clipboard: New Cadet Blount, Training Company 3-2. Take your nametag, tuck in your shirt, and move along! Despite being surrounded by several hundred people, I felt more alone than I can ever remember.

Not so my first day at Pastor's College! When I arrived everyone recognized me, knew my name, and my home church. I was greeted with hugs by strangers who told me they had been praying for me. Tables of food awaited my entrance into the building; while I ate and met my classmates, my truck was taken by a valet, washed and detailed, and the keys returned at the end of the meal. I was overwhelmed with the care shown to me personally. I wasn't a number or a name on a list!

Which one of these two experiences describes the way you think about your relationship with God? God intends for the doctrine of adoption to move us from viewing our lives as "names on the clipboard" in His mind, a footnote on page 1068 of the Book of Life, to hearing His voice personally assuring each one of us, "Welcome! I love you as My child." Adoption means we have been welcomed personally into God's family, with God as our loving Heavenly Father (1 John 3:1), Jesus as our elder brother (Hebrews 2:11), and the Holy Spirit as the guarantee that we belong in the family (Romans 8:15). No Christian will ever be greeted in Heaven with these words, "I'm so glad you made it! Remind me of your name again?"

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! And so we are.

Praying with you to know more of the depths of God's adopting love for us,

Josh