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“There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.” 
― John Calvin

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“There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.” 
― John Calvin

Sense-Less

I know a man who, because of a tragic accident has been left mostly blind and without many senses; he can no longer taste or smell. He is strong and able, and loves life, but his senses are very limited.

My friend still gets out, with the help of his wife, and travels, yet he can’t see the beauty of a mountain range or a sunset. He still eats but cannot taste the food or smell its aroma. In his sever limitations he often does not know what he is eating. In short he experiences life on a limited level, he does not experience the full delight of many things as most of us do.

This is a picture of many people and the limitation in our sense of Jesus Christ for both professing believers and those who do not believe. We may read our Bible, pray, attend church and do “good deeds” year after year, and yet experience no true delight in God. We “eat” His Word, reading diligently, listen to sermons, yet never “taste” and “see” that the Lord is good, i.e. delightful (psalm 34.8). We “breath” yet never enjoy the “aroma” of God, the sweet “smell” of His goodness, grace and mercy. We “look” but never truly “see” the beauty of God (Psalm 115.5,6). We perform the mechanical, intellectual actions of “eating”, “seeing” and “smelling” but never experience delightful “sensing” of God. All the Bible reading, praying, and “deeds doing” become “senseless” acts with no flavor, no aroma, no beholding; simply — no delight, just actions and motions; like my friend who eats without tasting, breaths without smelling and sees without beholding.

This is tragic because there is so much richness and fullness in Christ that infinite joy is lost when we do not enjoy His fullness in His Word and in the world.
Something radical must happen to gain these spiritual senses; spiritual taste buds, and spiritual noses and spiritual eyesight that apprehend and sense what they are engaged in. What we need is new tongues, new noses and new eyes, or as Jesus said a “new birth” brought by God that awakens all the senses to God and enables full enjoyment and delight in the One in whom these senses were made to delight. Without the new birth and new senses we are doomed to a senseless life without God our Creator.

Ask God for these senses that turn mere eating into flavorful tasting, breathing into smelling and seeing into beholding, all the greatness of God!

The Good News & Why We Need A Savior

The Good News & Why We Need A Savior

Being a Christian and being saved is not simply about "choosing to follow Jesus". Or "accepting Jesus into your heart". It is about trusting and loving the Savior for the work He has done to remove the abiding wrath of God that is upon every one of us.

Salvation is not primarily about finding your purpose or having a friendship restored with God. It is about the forgiveness of heinous crimes against our Sovereign King, namely treason against our Maker, a mocking of His worth.

Yes our relationship with God is in need of restoration, but we must understand the type of relationship that is broken between ourselves and the King of the universe. Greg Gilbert helps us understand better when he writes,

"It wasn’t (a relationship) between equals, or a partnership of some kind. No, the relationship we have broken is that of creature to Creator, subject to King. If we think of sin as some sort of lovers’ quarrel or a spat between friends, we’ll lose

            sight of why it required the death of God’s Son to restore. A lovers’ quarrel

            doesn’t require all that. You just have to say “I’m sorry” and “That’s okay,” and

            it’s over. The treason of a rebellious subject against his righteous King, though,

            is different. That requires something rather more to restore."

If we are going to rightly understand our need of a Savior and the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we must understand the gravity of our personal sin against God. Our natural disposition is one of rejection, hardness toward our Maker and bent on self-seeking and finding satisfaction everywhere else but in God. This treasonous devaluing of God is a mockery of His authority and worth. This demands and deserves judgement and infinite punishment. This is why Jesus said we all "are condemned already" before a righteous and worthy God (John 3.18); and that the wrath of God abides on us.

Jesus own words tell us what we need, and it is not simply a restored relationship with God, or a life of meaning and purpose. We need God's righteous and justified wrath against us satisfied. We need forgiveness for our treasonous rebellion. We need forgiveness for our blindness to God's greatness and worth. We need to be spared, "saved", from the righteous punishment that we have each earned by our sin. We need God to declare us innocent, not guilty, even righteous.

And that is the Good News, the Gospel; Jesus' death and resurrection has accomplished this humanly impossible task. He has made a way for those who will trust Him and love Him, to be forgiven. He bore the wrath his people deserved because of their sin. He satisfied the righteous judgement against them. This is The Good News! Believe it, trust Him, love Him for what He has accomplished on your behalf and for what you do not deserve or earn, forgiveness for such heinous crimes against an infinitely loving and good God and King!

Reading Romans 12 verse 10, God calls his children to imitate Him, imitate his love, which is a devoted love. Devotion to others in the body of Christ, in particular the local church is a mark of a born again believer. How different would the church landscape in the US be, if we believed and obeyed this command of our king? Would the words "church hopping" be removed from our vocabulary? I have to believe so!

two reasons why Christians should rejoice when they face trials of various kinds

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/loveofgod/2010/11/19/1-chronicles-13%E2%8...

Thanksgiving, Gratitude & Grace

(Feature article in the Erie Times News Reflections column 11.20.2010)

As the holidays approach hearts and minds begin to turn to those things we often take for granted the rest of the year: friends, health and family; we begin to count our blessings. One of the most beneficial things about this is that we have an opportunity to focus on what matters most and experience a great gift, thanksgiving or gratitude.

Of all the things for which we have to be thankful, God deserves the most. Do you feel true gratitude to the One who created and sustains you and offers eternal joy through Jesus Christ?

True gratitude is more than saying “thank you”. You can say “thank you” with no gratitude in your heart, like when a ten year-old receives a pair of socks for his birthday. He may say “thank you”, but no gratitude is in his heart.

Gratitude is a feeling not an act of will power. When it rises in our hearts, we like it. It is part of happiness and a form of delight.

But gratitude is also more than feeling happy that you got something you wanted. You may give that ten year-old a laptop and he runs off bragging how much better his laptop is than his friend's. His happiness is in getting the gift, but he is still ungrateful because he is not grateful to you the giver.

So true thanksgiving is more than saying “thank-you” or delighting in a gift, it is a feeling of happiness directed toward a person for giving you something good or doing something good for you that you did not earn or deserve. Gratitude is a response to grace.

Unless you see yourself as undeserving and receiving goodness without earning it, you will not experience true gratitude, especially to Jesus Christ.

Experiencing gratitude to God is not a trivial matter, but eternally important! It is an indicator of your heart’s ability to see the truth of God’s worth and your unworthiness. The evidence of God’s greatness is clear, revealed in creation (Romans 1), and in Jesus Christ who came, died and rose to bring those who will trust him to God for eternal joy (1 Peter 1.23, Psalm 16.11).

If we do not experience happiness rising in our hearts toward Jesus Christ for who he is and what he has accomplished, it is proof we need a new heart and are dead in our sins. We must turn to God, asking him to open our spiritual eyes to see his worth and we must trust Christ.

Your greatest delight will come from seeing God’s goodness and grace in Jesus Christ. When you do, true gratitude will rise in your heart. You will experience true thanksgiving!