Never Ending

One of my professors at seminary this semester, Dwight Pentecost made a very simple but very powerful statement in class the other day:

The wealth of Scripture is inexhaustible.

It was made in the context of his reviewing a passage in Hebrews and how he now views it, how his thoughts about it have changed, and changed for the better in his opinion. For the purposes of this post, it really doesn't matter what the point he was making is (another story for another day). The point is the power and grace and faithfulness we get from a loving God when we seek Him in awe and obedience. A seminary professor since 1955, 94 years old, and God, through patient and devoted study and reflection, is revealing a little more of His truths on a daily basis. Incredible how loving and patient with us our Lord is.

God will never tire of revealing Himself to His children

How lucky I am to serve such a wonderful God.

One Smart Guy

I think one of the smartest guys in the Bible is the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8. Not because he had an intuitive grasp of the Word of God (he didn't), not because he was a eunuch (I am not going there), not because of the ability he had that let him rise to a high position of a court official to the Ethipian queen (although he did). He was smart because of what he did when he met Philip:

³⁰Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?"

³¹And he said, "Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

Acts 8:30-31 (NASB)

The eunuch knew he didn't understand the Scripture he was reading and invited Philip to teach him. How smart, how wise is it to understand our limitations, our short comings, our deficiencies, our ignorance. How wise is it to be willing to be teachable, and to invite those who can educate and edify us to do so.

None of us fully understands the Word of God, the teachings of Jesus. All of us can stand a little more schooling. How wise it is to seek it out, and when finding it, invite the learning and the learned into our minds so as to invite the Lord more deeply into our hearts.

Self Control

I continue my read of The Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges. I am enjoying it and would recommend it as an easy, but thoughtful read. The chapter on self control was interesting to say the least. I will not do it justice by summarizing, but a key take away is that self control is essentially sound judgment (the ability to discern the right decision or action) and inner strength (the ability to carry it out). Self control comes from a lack of self indulgence.

The beauty of Bridges' book is that it is soundly grounded in Scripture, making it a profitable read for self examination and development.

¹⁶All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; ¹⁷so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NASB)

Self control is required in both body (think of gluttony or laziness) and mind (think of pride and lust). Bridges quotes passages of Scripture, I like these two as good summaries of what to do to develop self control:

²³ Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)
¹¹But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.
1 Timothy 6:11 (NASB)

While I usually use the NASB, I like the NIV action verb for the Proverbs passage more, guard. We are to guard against sin, to guard our hearts. When necessary we are to flee the sin (and this is something none us want to admit a need to do, even less actually do it).

What did I learn from this chapter? Self control requires judgment, strength, diligence. Self control requires the wisdom of when to stand and fight, when to run in flight, from sin.

Above all else, while the control required is self control, we cannot achieve it alone. We need turn to Scripture for wisdom and guidance, we need turn to the Lord for strength and conviction.

True Rest

A few days ago I wrote about True Surrender. Here is another thought group from a page in my journal:

You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.
Deuteronomy 13:4 (NASB)

Then she said, "Wait, my daughter, until you know how the matter turns out; for the man will not rest until he has settled it today."
Ruth 3:18 (NASB)

What I am hearing running through both these verses is the concept of resting in the Lord. In the first, a clinging to Him, a following along, a desire to be close to the peace and security only God can give us. In the second, a restless drive that does not abate until you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord, and then comes your rest in Him. In either case, I think the rest that comes from being in fellowship with the divine presence underlies both passages.

When I think of the times I am restless in my surroundings it is usually because I have not surrounded myself with the will of the Lord, but have enmeshed myself in my own thoughts, cares and concerns. I am not getting the rest because I have not waved the flag of surrender to Him.

I will look to use this post as a reminder in the future to settle it and get my rest in Him.

Watching the World, 140 Characters at a Time

If you are on Twitter, you know what I am talking about. I have been tinkering with it for the past few weeks and find it interesting. I do not think I will ever be twitterfreak like some folks I know, but I am closing in on a 1000 tweets (I know, a rookie), have more followers than I have Facebook friends (it is a whole different dynamic), I have sent a twitpic or two (I think I finally figured that out) and do enjoy the faster paced communication than you get on fb.

While I am not into microblogging at the speed of sound, it is interesting to blurt out bible verses and quotes about my faith to a large group of followers and watch them occasionally retweet to an even larger audience. Doing the same with someone else's Scripture or faith tweet and making the same snowball effect happen. Putting a hash tag on a tweet to flag it for people who follow that type of action. It is definitely an in the moment type of communication and who knows who will stop by and read something I tweet about the Lord.

Am I making an impact with it? Who knows?

But it is not for a lack of trying. Follow me.