Christian Living Today

I know. I am behind in my reviews. As I get caught up, I will be posting. Lord willing I will not remain behind for long. For those of you who are interested in reading other people’s comments on “The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment,” I’d suggest you read not only Tim’s post, but the comments of some of his other readers. There were some great discussions to accompany this chapter!

I have yet been able to breeze through (or even read lightly) Jeremiah’s words. In fact, while “Real Christianity” was an extremely relevant and practical and useful and. . .I could go on and on . . .book for today, “The Rare Jewel” is timeless. If you haven’t read it, please consider putting it on the top of your reading list!

In Chapter eight, Jeremiah Burroughs introduced his next subject - The Evils of a Murmuring Spirit. In that chapter he listed five evils - hitting some very basic facts. In this chapter he brings in eight more evils, these, I believe, a little less obvious but not a bit less devious. If we can walk away from these two chapters with but little fear of the sin of murmuring, if we can breeze over them without shuddering and strengthening our resolve to fight the sin of discontent, we really ought to look at our Christian profession.

Do you pray? If so, your prayers acknowledge God’s sovereignty. However, if you have a discontented spirit, your actions and attitudes are in full rebellion against His sovereign will. In other words, your murmuring is in direct contradiction to your prayers.

Burroughs put it this way, “When at any time you find your hearts murmuring, then do but reflect upon yourselves and think thus: Is this according to my prayers, in which I held forth the sovereign power and authority that God has over me?”

Proverbs warns us to guard our hearts, yet if we murmur, Burroughs shows we are actually attacking our own hearts. Not only does grumbling waste our time, it also wastes our abilities. Not only are grumblers mentally unfit for service as they brood over their unhappiness, they are physically unfit to serve their God because they are too wrapped up in themselves.

Furthermore, discontentment causes us to overlook our current blessings while we make plans (which are often wicked and displeasing to God) to escape our current situation. Perhaps, however, the most wicked thing is the unthankful attitude which permeates our discontent. Burroughs says those “who are discontented, though they may enjoy many mercies from God, yet they are thankful for none of them, for this is the vile nature of discontent, to lessen every mercy of God. It makes those mercies they have from God as nothing to them, because they cannot have what they want.”

No one likes to be called a fool, but a murmuring Christian is, perhaps, the biggest fool of all. Not only does our discontent blind us to our present benefits, it always costs us - we always lose, never gain. Burroughs said, “. . .many mercies are denied to you, because of your discontent. . .”

Worse yet, murmuring begets other foolish attitudes which diminish God’s mercies and our joy. As bad as this is, the worst part is a discontented, murmuring spirit provokes God’s wrath and brings God’s curse upon our lives.

Think about it - who is the most discontented creature in God’s creation? Satan, of course. When we complain, we mimic him! We are best to remember our pilgrimage here below will be accompanied by affliction. Jeremiah Burroughs put it this way, “While we are in this world. . .afflictions must befall us; and if we will complain and be discontented at every cross and affliction, why, we must. . .be discontented all the days of our lives!”

Our proper response to affliction must be to lie quiet under God’s sovereign hand. Otherwise we may find our situation infinitely worse. For by our complaining and whining we may, in fact, cause God to remove or decrease His bountiful care and protection over our lives. How unspeakably horrid that would be!

I close with the author’s penetrating words: “Oh, what an ugly face has this sin of murmuring and discontentedness.! Oh, what cause is there that we should lay our hands upon our hearts, and go away and be humbled before the Lord because of this. . .Oh, that your hearts may break before God, for otherwise you will fall to it again! Oh, the wretchedness of man’s heart!”

The economy continues to top our concern list in many parts of the country. A recent quote by Christian money counselor, Dave Ramsey, really hits to the ‘heart’ of the issues. According to a recent blog post on “Take Your Vitamin Z”, Dave attributes our country’s spending / debt frenzy to our personal lifestyles. Sometimes this guy hits awfully close to home! I’d encourage you to take a look at his website for extremely useful advice and resources.

Money management is not the only area where Americans are slack. Many Christians across the land fail to practice regular, faithful family devotions. One church, in particular one person, David Ward, is addressing the issue in what could be the most practical way. Perhaps you have not established regular family devotions because you just don’t know what you should do. Maybe you’d like a little insight - maybe more than a little insight. Check out the new website “Family Worship Guide.” While they will not be fully functional until August 30^th, download the current family worship guide and you’ll be set to start.

New Christian books continue to flood our shelves. And, while I have encouraged my readers to READ, I think the warning given on the 9Marks blog is well worth your time. Just because we read does not mean we are gaining something useful. Just because we read Christian books does not mean we are reading something Christian. Yes, you read that right - and I wrote exactly what I was trying to say. Take a look at that blog post.

Are you becoming a Hindu? While your first reaction might be ‘no’, if that reaction is not accompanied by a shudder, maybe you do not really understand what Hinduism stands for. Lisa Miller, a writer for Newsweek, disagrees. And, as Al Mohler points out in his August 26^th blog post, maybe we are closer than we would every think, let alone admit.

If you have read many posts here, you have probably noticed my frequent mention of Pastor John MacArthur, Pastor John Piper, and a few lesser known but (in my opinion) equally gifted men who are one of God’s greatest gifts to our generation. God has used these men, along with my own pastor and my personal studies, to bring ‘the light of the knowledge of God’ into my life.

Last February Grace Community Church celebrated Pastor MacArthur’s fortieth year serving California’s Sun Valley. While I did not attend this celebration, the book published in honor of their pastor’s years of preaching, “Truth Endures,” has been a blessing to me none the less. In fact, I have enjoyed every page I have read.

This book begins with an interesting biography of John MacArthur, written by Iain Murray. The rest of the book is a collection of the congregation’s favorite sermons. The first, his first, is amazing in many respects. Its breadth. Its depth. Its boldness. Its timeless quality. In fact, I found it so appropriate for today, the rest of what follows is, in bulk, taken directly from this sermon, “How to Play Church,” preached February 9, 1969. I encourage you to read or listen to it in its entirety.

“The following verse is on an old slab in the cathedral of Lubeck, Germany: ‘Thus speaketh Christ our Lord unto us, ye call Me Master and obey Me not, ye call me light and see Me not, ye call Me Way and walk Me not, ye call Me Life and desire Me not, ye call Me Wise and follow Me not, ye call Me Fair and love Me not, ye call Me Rich and ask Me not, ye call Me Eternal and see Me not, ye call Me Gracious and trust Me not, ye call Me Just and fear Me not; if I condemn you, blame Me not.’

“God has established the requirement for entrance to the kingdom of heaven. It has nothing to do with a building; it has everything to do with Jesus Christ. Calling Christ, “Lord” or anything else is not enough; doing the will of God is the answer.

“You say, ‘Well, what is the will of God?’ Paul told Timothy that ‘God, our Savior. . .desires all men to be saved” (1 Tim 2:4). That’s the will of God. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6). That’s God’s will. In John 6:40 Christ says, “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day.” . . .Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him,” and that means faith in Jesus Christ. You don’t get into the kingdom by sincerity, by religiosity, by reformation, by kindness, by service to the church, not even simply by naming the name of Christ; you get there only by personal trust and faith in Christ.

“Many people are going to hell, eternally disappointed because they thought their religious performance was enough to save them. . .”

I wonder how many times we have heard someone say (or even said ourselves), ‘My God would never. . .’ or ‘To me, God is. . .’ or even ‘I’m a pretty good person. Granted I’m not perfect, but when compared to . . . I’m sure God will take that into account.’ Are we deluding ourselves?

Pastor MacArthur continues, “Millions of people depend on their morality, their good deeds, their baptism, their church membership, even their religious feelings. There will be many church workers in hell, many pastors, and sad to say, many teachers in so-called religious schools. . . .

“Luke 13:25-30 adds tremendous weight to this point: ‘Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us!’ then He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’; and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you evildoers.’ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out. And they will come from east and west and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.’ What a picture of that same day - of those who are cast out because all they had was the name of Christ without the reality of faith in Him. . .

“Do you have only a form of godliness? Do you know the Lord personally? Do you see yourself at the Great White Throne with your feeble excuses? . . .Christianity is not a formality. Christianity is not a religion - it is a personal love relationship with Jesus Christ. Do you have that love relationship? Do you know that same Christ? . .

“There was an actor in a drawing room function who was asked to recite something for the audience. He stood up and being gracious to his audience said, “I’ll recite anything you would like me to recite.” No one suggested anything at first. But an old preacher who happened to be there, sitting in the back of the room, stood up and said, “I’d like to hear you recite the twenty-third Psalm.”

“Well, the actor was a little shocked at that, but he had made himself available to recite anything that was requested, so he did what the man asked. He happened to know the Psalm, so he said he would recite it. He repeated the twenty-third Psalm with complete eloquence - it was a masterful interpretation. His diction was beautiful. When he finished, the entire room of people erupted into spontaneous applause.

“The actor, figuring he’d get back at the old gentleman for suggestion he recite something from the Bible, said, “Now, sir, I’d like to hear you recite it.” The old gentleman hadn’t bargained for that. But because of his love for Christ he stood up and repeated the twenty-third Psalm. His voice cracked, it broke, and it wasn’t very beautiful. The interpretation wasn’t really that good either. When he finished there was no applause, but there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.

“The actor, sensing his own emotion, stood up and said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I reached your eyes and ears, and he reached your heart. The difference is this: I know the Psalm; he knows the Shepherd.’”

Do you know the Psalm or do you know the Shepherd? Are you serious about your walk with Christ or are you playing church? Are you in a relationship or just practicing your religion? We MUST take these questions seriously for they have eternal consequences.

God is love. We’ve all heard that. In fact, some focus so much on God’s love, they fail to remember the equal truths of His justice and holiness. This failure often leads to a shallow view of the ’sinfulness’ of our sin.

However, God’s love is also the keynote for the Christian. It is what separates Christianity from every other religion in the world. Ask any believer of any other religion if their God loves them. Their answer will be ‘no’.

In fact, take a look at a little history. Every pagan god in every age has been / is a demanding creature who requires great sacrifice and great servitude from his/her creatures. He/She is the frowning countenance overlooking their life. He/She is the avenger needing to be appeased.

Consider the parable of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Notice how the prophets try to ‘appease’ their god, try to obtain his ‘attention’ and ‘favor’. “So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. . .” (2 Kings 18:28)

Notice those words, “as was their custom”. What was their custom? Cutting and gashing themselves with knives until “the blood gushed out of them.” Horrid you say?

Horrid indeed. However, little changed in false religions today. While people may not run around bleeding everywhere, consider the devotion to Allah which prompts the zealots to commit suicide to please their ‘god’.

My point - while we must never over-emphasize God’s love at the expense of His justice and His holiness, God’s love is what makes Christianity so unique. As Jesus told His disciples, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

As Christians we deeply need this love. God made us to be utterly fulfilled in the loving environment of the Church. We need to show this love to all who cross our path, regardless of the risk. This is what Christ was saying to His disciples.

In fact, if you wonder just how you’re doing fulfilling His command, look at your relationships. You can tell if you are building relationships based on the right things if your relationships are such that you are not seeking to ‘get’ something but are looking to God for your reward.

Do you love someone? A spouse? A friend? A parent? A child? A sibling? The excerpt which follows (from the small book, “Grant Me Wisdom,” a collection of devotionals based on Matthew Henry’s writings) sounded an alarm bell in my heart.

Our culture has so redefined ‘love’, even Christians do not really know what real love looks like. While our pastors and teachers often remind us of ‘real love’ by pointing to 1 Cor 13, the words by Matthew Henry which follow are so simple, yet so profound. How far my love often falls from the targe - at least if real love is my target!

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up.” 1 Cor 13:4

“Love is longsuffering. It can endure evil and provocation without being filled with resentment or revenge. It will put up with many slights from the person it loves and wait long to see the kindly effect of such patience. It is kind. It seeks to be useful, and not only seizes on opportunities for doing good, but searches for them.

“It does not envy. It is not grieved at the good of others. Envy is the effect of ill will. The mind that is bent on doing good to all can never wish ill to any. It is not bloated with self-conceit. The Syriac renders it: “does not raise tumults and disturbances.” Love calms the angry passions instead of raising them. Others render it: “does not act insidiously,” does not seek to ensnare them.

“It is not apt to be cross or contradictory. Some understand it as dissembling and flattery. Love abhors such falsehood and flattery. It does nothing out of place or time, but behaves with courtesy and goodwill toward all.”

Now that is a high calling, and, I suspect, most of us rarely get close to really loving someone - not if we measure our love by God’s standard.

Having taken an indepth look at the positive aspects of Christian contentment, Jeremiah Burroughs now turns to the shame and disgrace which covers the discontented Christian. In fact, he boldly (and biblically) says a murmuring spirit is evil.

In this chapter Burroughs lists five reasons such an attitude is sin. First, he shows us the source of our murmuring is a sign of a corrupt soul and a very serious sin - something much more dangerous to our eternal future than any affliction could ever be.

“A murmuring heart is a very sinful heart; so when you are troubled for this affliction you need to turn your thoughts rather to be troubled for the murmuring of you heart, for that is the greatest trouble. . .a murmuring spirit is a greater evil than any affliction, whatever the affliction.

Second, he points to God’s view of this attitude. Using Jude 14 and 15 as his text, Burroughs shows God considers discontentment a chief sin. Worse yet, we often take a light view of this sin. To this attitude he replies, “You think you are not as ungoldly as others, because you do not swear and drink as they do, but you may be ungodly in murmuring.”

In his third point, the author says discontentment is, at its heart, an act of rebellion against God. While the life of a contented Christian is a living act of worship, a discontented heart cannot worship God. “Murmuring is but as the smoke of a fire: there is first a smoke and a smoldering before the flame breaks forth; and so before open rebellion. . .there is first a smoke of murmuring.”

Perhaps Burroughs’ most hard hitting point in this chapter is his forth point. Here he reminds us of our origin. As guilty sinners before a holy God, we deserve wrath and judgment. Yet God has condescended to not only offer us, but purchase for us, mercy and forgiveness through Christ’s work on the cross. “If I saw what the evil of sin was, that sight would swallow up all other evils, and if I were burdened with the evil of sin, it would swallow up all other burdens. . .the work of God [is] to disengage the heart from [worldly attachments]. . .how contrary is a murmuring heart to such a thing!”

Is Christ, then, of no value to us? Are we, as recipients of these great and precious promises (which vastly outweigh any inconvenience we may experience now), complaining? “If you could but. . .look back to see what the work of God was in converting you, there is nothing that would prevail more. . .what shame and confusion would come upon the spirits of men and women; if they could but compare the work of corruption in their murmuring and discontent with the work of God that was upon their souls in conversion.”

Burroughs’ final point shows how inappropriate discontentment is in a Christian. As Christians, we have the unspeakable privilege of a personal relationship with Christ. Is He not worth more than all the world? Furthermore, such an attitude is uncalled for. We are heirs to the kingdom and members of His body. Discontentment is below us!

“You were a firebrand of hell, and might have been scorching and yelling and roaring there to all eternity, yet. . .God. . .raised you to a have a higher elevation. . .than there is in all the works of creation. . .Oh, how low and beneath this position is a murmuring and discontented heart. . .the cross and trouble that befalls you, say, ‘Bow down that we may. . .tread upon you!’”

Not only this, but an ungrateful, whining attitude is far from glorifying to God. Since Christians are to be dead to the world and alive to Christ, we should not be so impacted by the winds of change. As Christians we were never promised a life of ease on earth, but we were promised to never be left to face our trials alone, to never be given more than we can bear, and to spend eternity with our Lord. “I am discontented because I have not these things which God never yet promised me, and therefore I sin much against the Gospel, and against the grace of faith.”

Thus, as followers of Christ, we must be patient in affliction. Our lives should glorify our Father in Heaven as we triumph in our trials. When we falter, not only should we look to the promises to bolster our faith, we should remember those who have gone before and endured so much more than we will ever be asked to face!

“Go for the gusto.” “Just do it.” “You only go around once.” Our culture expounds its philosophy in catchy one liners. And, while words are not necessarily bad, if we buy the message they contain, they can be extremely dangerous.

A recent sermon by Pastor John MacArthur put this into perspective. His sermon, “Your Best Life: Now or Later?” pointed out an important aspect modern-day Christians in many parts of the country have completely forgotten. God never promised us a rose garden experience here on earth!

We have been promised blessings beyond comprehension in the life to come. 1 Cor. 2:9 reminds us, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” In this life, however, we have been promised sorrows, tribulations, persecution, pain, suffering, rejection, sickness, trouble, difficulty, trials, and even physical death.

Not one of these things would make the ‘top 10′ list of any American! However, Christians are blessed and are called to act like they are blessed. In 1 Peter 1:3-5 we are called to praise God for the promise of what is to come. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Pastor MacArthur unpacked this verse to show us the source of our promised inheritance, the motive behind this promise, the means of our hope, the nature of our future, and our guarantee.

First, the source of our inheritance. “God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” - It is the work of God upon His people which allows them to look forward to a promised inheritance.

Second, the motive behind our promised inheritance. “According to His abundant mercy” - We certainly don’t deserve this blessing. Remember, we are all sinners at heart. Left to our own devices, each of us would boisterously shake our fist in God’s face whenever His will and our will clashed (which is quite common, even now that we are His children).

Recently I have been reading through Genesis and meditating a bit on mankind’s fall into sin. One of the things which has struck me is God’s mercy. Think about it. Why did God not annihilate the human race? Why did He treat Adam and Eve so gently? Why did He warn Cain of the dangers lurking at his door? Why didn’t He kill Cain after the death of Abel? Why did He offer any protection to that murderer? Why did He give Seth after Cain’s violent departure from his family? And so on.

John MacArthur described mercy as the grace of God working in respect to the misery our sin produces. Ephesians 2:4-7 says it so clearly: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”

Third, the means by which our future is secured. “has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” - In other words, God has caused us to be born again through Christ’s work on our behalf. Any honest Christian can look into their heart and see their natural tendencies. They are NOT good. Paul put it this way in Eph 2:3, “among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” It goes back to God’s mercy.

How does God bring us to be born again? “by the power of God through faith for salvation” - It is God’s word which works upon our hearts, chipping away at the sin and breaking down the barriers to open our minds to understand and to replace our sin-hardened heart with a heart of flesh.

Over and over we run across Scriptures like this, words which remind us of the importance of filling our hearts and minds with God’s Word. We are so quick to hurry on by. We need, we must stop and think! God’s word is so powerful. It is the tool which brings us to the cross, but it is also the tool which keeps us strong and helps us grow. We must not neglect it.

Fourth, the nature of our inheritance. “incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away” - Look around you. What do you see which will last? What can you touch which will not disappear in the end? Nothing. However, God has promised our inheritance will never fade away. If it were of this world, it would perish. Because it is other worldly, it is permanent.

Last, the guarantee of our inheritance. “power of God” - Nothing can withstand God’s power. Here we have the guarantee He is protecting and safe-guarding our inheritance. In Phil 1:6 Paul put it this way, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”

So confident were the writers of Scripture in this promise, Jude ended his brief letter with these words, “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”

Do you live like this? Do you act like your motto is: “You only go around once” or does your life reflect your confidence that “the best is yet to come”? In a materialistic minded generation, it behooves us to think about how our lives reflect our priorities. Furthermore, in a world which puts so much emphasis on getting everything you can out of right now, a Christian whose hope is in the life which is to come is going to stand out - if for no other reason because they are content with whatever God brings into their life.

I believe this is something about which most of us should think long and hard.

As my time is still greatly constrained, I am going to share another insight from Matthew Henry. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am using a compilation of his work entitled, “Grant Me Wisdom,” for part of my daily devotions. I have been blessed many times by this godly man’s insight. However, sometimes something he says strikes a resounding chord in my heart. This post of worship (since I continue to study this subject as time allows) melded well with my recent meditations.

 “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.” (Ps 100:4-5)

 ”In all acts of religious worship, whether in secret or in our families, we come into God’s presence and serve Him, but it is in public worship especially that we enter into His gates and His courts. By holy joy we really serve God. Gospel worshipers should be joyful worshipers. We must come before His presence with singing, not only songs of joy, but songs of praise. We must take it as a favor to be admitted into His service and that we have instituted ordinances and the opportunities of waiting upon God in those ordinances.

“The matter of praise, and motives to it, are very important. Know what God is in Himself and what He is to you. Knowledge is the mother of devotion and all obedience; blind sacrifices will never please a seeing God. Let us know these things concerning the Lord, Jehovah: That the Lord, He is God, the only true and living God. He is an eternal Spirit, incomprehensible and independent, the first cause and the last end. He is our Creator: It is He who has made us and not we ourselves; therefore we are not our own but His. He is our sovereign ruler; we are His people. He is our bountiful benefactor. We are the sheep of His pasture, who He takes care of, the flock of His feeding. He is our God of infinite mercy and goodness.”

His words fit so well with what I shared recently from a sermon by Pastor John MacArthur. Worship is based on knowledge! We must know our God. Even more, it is our knowledge of God which leads to our proper worship. However, this does NOT mean we are forced to become stoics, dry intellectuals, or talking heads - in other words, emotionless people. In fact, the more we learn about God, the more we understand who we are and who He is, the more we comprehend the great gulf He has breeched to make us His own - the more our joy and praise will overflow into worship which is in spirit, in truth, and fully pleasing to our God!

I am indebted to a long line of godly men and women. Because they have faithfully studied God’s word and then taken the trouble to record the truths God revealed to them through their studies, I can take advantage of their collective wisdom.

Many times throughout my posts you have read a quote from one of these men or women. However, I have never focused a post on the words of one writer entirely. Today I will change that.

Lately, however, I have been reading through a collection of Matthew Henry’s words. This daily devotional, “Grant Me Wisdom,” is a 365 day compilation of Matthew Henry’s thoughts (mostly from his sermons or books) on various verses. Each day has been packed with rich insights. While every day has convicted or encouraged me, a recent reading seemed to be written for me - thoughts which I needed to think, written much more succinctly than I could compose. Thus I am sharing it in its entirety.

“Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:3

“This is an exhortation to mutual love. Love is the law of Christ’s kingdom, the lesson of His school, the clothing of His family. The means of unity is lowliness and gentleness, longsuffering, and bearing with one another in love (vs 2). By lowliness, we are to understand humility as opposed to pride; by gentleness, that excellent disposition of soul that makes men unwilling to provoke others and not easily to be provoked. Longsuffering implies a patient bearing of injuries without seeking revenge.

The best Christians need to make the best of one another, to provoke one another’s graces and not their passions. We find much in ourselves that is hard to forgive, so we must not think it much if we find that in others which we think hard to forgive, and yet we must forgive them. Without these things, unity cannot be preserved.

The first step toward unity is humility. Pride and passion break the peace and make all mischief. Humility and gentleness restore the peace: the more lowly mindedness, the more like- mindedness. The nature of that unity is the unity of the Spirit. The seat of Christianity is in the heart or spirit. It does not lie in one set of thoughts or in one form and mode of worship, but in one heart and one soul.”

We all worship. Either we worship God or we are idolaters. The very thought that a modern day Christian could / would be an idolater is foreign to us. In fact, I suspect most Christians would be indignant if someone suggested they might be practicing idolatry. Yet, I fear, idolatry may be more prevalent than we realize - even in our own lives.

We worship what we care about. The things which matter most to us are the objects of our affection, our thoughts, and our time. If we say we worship God, but we do not spend our time seeking to know Him better - who are we fooling?

Where do you spend your time? We all have obligations, no doubt. Many people and many things wrestle for a piece of us. However, before we run to the age old excuse, “I didn’t have time,” to excuse our lack of Bible reading (and study) and prayer, remember, we always make time for what matters most to us!

That is why I have found this ongoing study on worship so convicting. Where do I spend my time? For what do I make time? What do I think about? When I have time to relax, where can I be found? What will I be doing?

Questions like these are ones we all need to ask ourselves for the answers are extremely revealing. Yet, many would say, what does this really have to do with worship? After all, I attend church faithfully every Sunday. Some may even say, “I am a worship leader.” I know　I am worshiping God.

My only question to you (and myself) is: Are we worshiping God based on His standards - the standards Paul lays out in Romans 12:1-2? Our we presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice? Is our worship an outpouring of our understanding of God? Do we equate worship as an emotional ‘state’ which our music brings us to? Or does reading God’s word bring us to worship?

As we looked at in part one - Paul says we should worship because we comprehend God’s mercies to us. In fact, Paul does not just ‘suggest’ we worship - he urges / begs / beseeches / sends out a clarion call to us to worship. In other words, Paul is saying we must want to understand God’s mercies to us so we will worship!

This goes back to what we have talked about in several previous posts. Do we want　to read God’s word? Do we seek to know Him better? Do we think　about Him and what He has revealed to us in His word? Do we read sound theological books to further increase our understanding of what He has shown us? If not, we do not really want　to worship God - and, that is a VERY bad sign!

Furthermore, many equate worship with their church music on Sunday. In fact, many churches call their music time their ‘worship service.’ However, this falls far short of what Paul is calling us to in this passage.

How does Paul define worship? He calls us to ‘present your body a living sacrifice.’ I have heard several preachers talk about the sacrifice which keeps crawling off the alter, as if Paul is telling us to place ourselves in a prone and passive position. I wonder if this isn’t a good example of a poorly exegeted passage.

If we look at verse two (and following), Paul makes it clear this is not some kind of passive, do nothing, mindless act. It is anything BUT this kind of response. The living sacrifice to which Paul is referring is the dedication of all our human faculties, of every aspect of our lives, to God’s will and service. In other words, we are to die to our own agenda and shape our lifestyle in such a manner that whether we eat or sleep we do all to God’s glory. In this manner our whole life becomes an offering to God.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? At least in theory! However, if you are like me, the idea sounds great but I find myself wondering: How on earth am I supposed to do that? How am I to go about living my life, doing the things I must do, caring for the people I serve, working at my job, loving my husband and children (and everything else which life requires of me) and yet manage to become this living sacrifice?

Again Paul does not leave us in the dark. He says, ‘do not be conformed to this world’. What does he mean? At its most basic level, there should be a break between me and the world.

We all know the danger - we live in the world, we find ourselves thinking and acting like the world. As a pastor friend has said many times, “If you throw a glove into a mud puddle, the puddle doesn’t become glovey, the glove becomes muddy.”

Point taken! If we immerse ourselves in the world, the world doesn’t become godly, we become worldly. Wait! You may say. Scripture also commands me to be light and salt. How am I supposed to do that if I am not involved in the world?

The solution is not removal from the world. The solution is immersion in God! Paul says it this way, “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The verb translated ‘transformed’ is a passive, present imperative. In other words, the subject ‘you’ is being acted upon from outside in a continuous sense.

Thus Paul is telling us the transformation which is to be occurring in our lives (and which will counteract and protect us from being ‘conformed to this world’) is a work the Spirit is doing in us all the time. However, this is not going back to the passive, do nothing but put yourself in a prone position sense. There is a little preposition which throws a TON of responsibility back into our court.

We are to ‘transformed by.’ By what? By the renewing of your mind. In other words, we are to be doing something with our minds which, then, results in a transformation which the Spirit does upon our hearts.

It goes back to the usual tension between God’s work and our responsibility. God is at work, AND we are to be at work. What, then, are we to be doing? How do we renew our minds? Simple. The Bible is God’s word to us. It was given for the express purpose of revealing to us the God we are to imitate. In other words, the Bible is the ‘mind of the Trinity.’ Thus if we want our minds renewed we must go to the source (Col 1:9).

It is simple, really. God has given us the tools, the ability, and the opportunity. We were not left in the dark to stumble about trying to find God. He has revealed Himself to us. Furthermore, He has revealed Himself in such a manner we can easily learn more about Him. AND, if we are but willing to take the time, we will find our lives becoming more and more that living sacrifice which is a pleasing worship (reasonable service) to our God and Savior. It really is no big mystery!