What exactly do you expect of 20 year olds? It seems that our expectations of young people is that they are going to be a little (or a lot) distracted and self-absorbed. Many think they will live it up while they are in college on their parents money and then get serious, magically, when they get a real job. What a sad indication of our worldview!

I have been savoring a journal of a young man you have probably heard of–Jim Elliot. Here is a picture of a young man who longs to make much of Christ. He struggles, but so do the rest of us. What I love is that he is so singularly focused. He is truly a soldier of Jesus.

Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. (2 Timothy 2:3-4 ESV)

This book that I am reading is filled with bits of his journal. Enjoy just a taste of this wonderful book that is so encouraging and convicting to me.

“God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn up for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.” Shadow of the Almighty:The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot page 55

In a letter to his future wife he wrote, “So He has, by His concealing of Himself, given me longings that can only be slaked when Psalm 17:15 is realized.” Psalm 17:15 says, “As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.”  (Psalm 17:15 ESV)

Can you describe your longing for God this way or your deepest desires for your life? I know I need to learn from this 20 year old. How about you?

It has been a hard week in our home. The kids have both been sick, fortunately at different times. I have also been sick during this time. Pam is the only one that has escaped so far. Pray for her that she does not get whatever it is.

All of this got me thinking about the gospel in relation to sickness. If the gospel is meant to be the driving force in my life and if it is to impact everything going on with me, what does it have to do with being sick?

1. Being sick reminds me of my dependence on God for everything. I cannot do anything on my own. I like to think I am independent, but that is folly. I need Him.
2. Being sick brings all of my sinful attitudes to light so that I can deal with them. Nothing like feeling sick to see how selfish I am. I really am a big baby when I am sick. I hear that most guys struggle with the same problem.
3. Being sick reminds me that I will not live forever. It reminds me that Christ has accomplished so much more than simply making people well here on Earth. He promises eternal life. I need that. My time here is numbered.
4. My kids being sick, on the other hand, reminds me that my treasure is not here on earth. It is so easy for me to make idols out of my children; I love them so much. But when they are sick it reminds me to look beyond them to the One who has given them to me to take care of.

What do you think about concerning the gospel and being sick? I would love to hear how you seek to treasure Jesus in times like this.

Hello world.

I am still here. I have not disappeared from the face of the earth, though it might have seemed that way.

I have just been working hard on the counseling class that I have started through CCEF. I am loving the class, but it has taken more time and work than I initially expected. It has already been worth the extra work, but I do want to get going on posting here yet again.

So, what have you been reading lately that we can discuss? What is God teaching you? I will be posting some things in the next couple of days, but if you have something to contribute, please do.

I have been reading David Martyn Lloyd-Jones and that has been wonderful. I truly enjoy his writing and the major biography by Iain Murray. More about this soon.

That’s all for now. I just wanted to say, “I’m back!”

See you soon.

John Piper, every year, does a biography message on a saint from the past. In the biography of Edwards he talked about a seminary professor who encouraged the students to find one great and godly man from history and make him your lifelong companion. Piper has done that with Edwards. At this point in my life, that is a bit much.

But I have been thinking about making someone my companion this year, following the model of Piper with his biography messages. It seems like a good idea to walk along the path with a godly saint and see what I can learn. I have kicked this idea around a bit in the past, but have never done it. This year I am going to try.

So, who should it be? This year I want to grow in faithfulness to the word of God, proclaiming that word boldly. I also want to increase my zeal or passion for God. There are many saints from the past I could choose, simply based on those issues, but I am going to focus on David Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

I have always liked his writing, which is really just his sermons transcribed and edited. This year (April until next April) I want to read the two volume biography by Iain Murray (here and here) as well as many of his books.  There is one place you can get mp3s of him teaching, so I will try to listen to as many sermons as I can afford. My hope is that I will understand the man behind all of these messages and learn the lessons I need to from his life.

Pray for me and join me if you wish. It should be an interesting ride. I will post some of the things I am learning here on the blog and on the ministry facebook page. I have already started the reading. If you know of a book or series I must read during this time, let me know in the comments. Thanks and check back throughout the year.

Parenting is hard and long, then they leave and you want all the time back. Which side of this are you? How can we infuse a bit of the opposite side into our current thinking?

Currently Pam and I are in the long and hard portion. Pam just posted on Facebook a good brief view of craziness.

Is it just me or are two of the most challenging times of the day getting the kids ready in the morning and getting them ready for bed? “Focus Kohl focus. What do you need to do next Sweetie? Why is your shirt on backwards? Why have you pushed out half of the toothpaste? Why do you have both feet in one leg of your pants? Why are you putting both socks on one foot? Why are you washing the wall with soap?”

Welcome to the Feather household. As much as I love my kids, bedtime is a bear. I want to like it. I want to be able to pray and rejoice in God’s goodness, but often at that moment I am just trying to survive with my sanity. All of you probably have glorious times of putting your kids to bed, thanking God for such obedient children. I’m glad for you. For me the hour before bed is like me getting closer and closer to being tortured. It is waiting for those who hold me captive to come and get me, taking me to the rack for a good stretching. Only slight exaggeration there.

What makes this time so frustrating? It is simple, really. I want my way and my children want something completely different. Why bedtime? Because we have a deadline that I am trying to meet and all of their energies converge to miss that deadline.

So how is this a gospel moment? Let me count the ways.

1. My kids are sinners, just like me. I don’t know why I get amnesia and think that things are going to go smoothly, but often I assume without any extra work on my part that they will just wise up and stop their actions. Not gonna happen. They come from me. They get their disobedience honestly. The faster I recognize my own sinfulness and the need for God’s grace in my life, the more the gospel is dictating my response to them.

2. I have an agenda. Most often when I am frustrated over something, it is because I have a plan and whatever is frustrating me is simply getting in the way of my plan. I want a calm, restful bedtime for my kids and then to be able to go work on what I want. This is just a tiny little bit selfish, don’t you think? I can have a plan, as long as I realize that God’s plan trumps mine. If my children are particularly squirrelly one evening, God must want me to pay more attention to them. My plan goes out the window and I embrace God’s plan. At least this is how it is supposed to work. Pray for me.

3. My frustrated response. It is going to bother me that things don’t go my way, but my frustration shows that I am unwilling to die to self. I hold on to my ideas so much that even when given the opportunity to bend toward God’s, I fight against it. Not too different than my children fighting against me. I am the child and I am typically unwilling to give up my longings.

There are more ways this hour each night can be a gospel moment, but right now these are my focus. What would you add? Are there ways you fight this?

“Our love must be characterized by a responsiveness that not only loves God but also all those He places in our path.” Page 89 emphasis added

The story is told that John Newton, while he was working along, always welcomed people who came to see him. He would invite them in and basically say, “Let’s find out why God has brought you to me today.” He saw every moment with others as a “divine appointment.” That is a bit convicting for me. Too often, I see people who come to me as a hindrance to what I am trying to get accomplished. They are getting in my way of my agenda. Not exactly pouring out love, am I?

As a Christian who values the sovereignty of God, it is amazing how I forget that He places people in my path. I often get so focused on doing something for God that I forget to pay attention to what He is doing. We are to be a people characterized by love. No one on the planet has been more loved, so this same love should just pour out of us into the lives of everyone we meet. What gets in the way?

Loving God I get. I don’t always do it, but I understand that is important. Loving people, real, sinful people, that is a bit more difficult. To be honest, my struggle comes from the fact that I want my way and difficult people don’t want to do things my way. I have to die to my own wants in order to love the way I have been loved. While I want the results of such a love, I don’t always want to sacrifice like that.

What will help me? Only God. What does it look like?

I need to dig deep into Scripture and pray for wisdom to see His heart toward me. I need to plead with the Holy Spirit to open my eyes to apprehend the amazing love that surpasses knowledge.

“and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:19

With diligence on my part and the illuminating work of the Spirit in my life, only then will I have the ability to love others even when they are difficult. Only then will I see how difficult I have been and how God loves me. That well is deep and will flood over into my relationships with others. I pray this for me and for you. Who do you struggle to love? Who does God have in your life right now to help you see this point?

Let me recommend you check out this post by Joe Thorn and definitely listen to the audio that he links.  It is helpful in thinking about the right way to do theology and also the dangers that can grab us. I just listened to it a few days ago. Great stuff.

“We can never show the love of Christ until we understand the love of Christ. And we can never understand the love of Christ until we understand His death. And we can never understand the death of Christ until we understand why He died. And we can never understand why He died until we understand His holiness and our sin.” Page 53

My struggle is somewhere in that quote. The reason I don’t love like I ought is included in one of those phrases. I don’t understand something. I may know it and be able to state it, but some truth there has not penetrated into my soul. It has not gripped my heart so that I live it. Using the words of Scripture, some part of the word of Christ is not dwelling richly in my heart. (Colossians 3:16)

My particular problem right now is the struggle to love those who are difficult. Recently I read an article by Tim Lane about this very topic. Looking at the quote above from Stetzer and Nation, I think my struggle is that I don’t understand/comprehend my own sinfulness so that I treasure His love for me. See, I look at my sin as minimal and therefore I refuse to see myself as the difficult person Jesus loves. If I can truly see things this way and live out of that, I will be able to be patient and loving to all the difficult people in my life. Not that it will be easy, mind you. It will be hard because I am hard headed and change always takes time to occur, but I will be able to fight that battle when I see Jesus loving sinful, difficult me.

What this means is that my struggle to perfectly love others stems from an incomplete acceptance of the gospel. I believe the gospel. I know it and could give it to others. I even give the right answers when talking to my “Christian” friends. But I am failing to live it out and that means the gospel is on some level just a statement I claim. It is hard, maybe impossible, to clearly see how Jesus loves me every day and still refuse to love others that same way.

“Love like this is hard! I don’t want to love this way! It is not rewarding. I am not able do it so I always fail.” (Who wants to continue trying when they always fail?) “God can do it, but I can’t. He is God after all. People just take advantage of it. They never appreciate what I do.”

Any of these ring true for you? Loving like God tells us to love is a real battle!  I have had all these emotional and rational responses at one time or another. It just seems more difficult than life should be. Doesn’t God want me to be happy some of the time?

But I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s step back a moment and contemplate that love.

In Compelled By Love, the authors point to one passage to show their point.

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 ESV

The love that Jesus the Christ has shown for me is the love that I am to show to others—all others. God’s amazing love for me compels me to love others. My ESV says, “For the love of Christ controls us…” 2 Corinthians 5:14 Paul is saying that Christ’s love for him controls his actions toward others, most specifically those in the Corinthian churches. Instead of living for himself, he now lives for Jesus Christ. He is bound to Jesus because of the cross, but that is a good thing. This bondage is a freeing bondage. In my sinfulness, I am so bound by how people respond to me that I am not free to love others this boldly. I am always looking at how they will respond. I am not free to truly love them unless I experience this love of God. Every Christian has received this freeing love and can therefore love others completely.

But I don’t always want to love others this way. That is where the responses at the beginning of this post come into my life. Is there any hope for me? Absolutely, and you too! We will talk more, but that will be tomorrow.

About our approach to this book…

We plan to read a section every other week and then post on those sections, but each post will be short and to the point. This means the best way is to have a few posts on each section. If any of you want to write your thoughts in a post, send it to me and I will review it and then post it. This is a great way for us to focus our discussion as much as possible. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for reading along.