A Spiritual Diagnostic
Written by J.A. Medders |
Thursday, June 15, 2023
The Christian life isn’t a perfect life—it’s a repenting life. There ought to be patterns of change, sacrifice, and recalibrated loves in your life. Maybe there’s an awareness of sins and attitudes that you were oblivious to before you believed in Christ. Maybe you sense a hitch in your heart and mind when someone is gossiping. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control ought to be growing on the vine of your life.
The apostle Paul urged the Corinthians to examine themselves to see whether they were in the faith (2 Cor. 13:5). Part of gospel ministry, whether you’re a pastor or a women’s Bible study leader, is to help people dismiss their own preconceived and cobbled-together versions of Christ and receive the real gospel, the real Jesus.
We will frequently minister to people who are either convinced they’re Christians (when they aren’t) or terrified they aren’t Christians (when they are). And we are also called to test of our own discipleship and apprenticeship with Jesus, seeing if the alignment of our souls and lives is walking rightly with Jesus. Here are five questions that can serve as a spiritual diagnostic to help evaluate and examine the state of one’s soul in relation to the true and living God.
1. Do you think Jesus is relevant for your daily life?
Many people are content with a version of Jesus as a mere pious figure, a “Jesus” who isn’t concerned with our sins but wants to send positivity to the masses. But the real Jesus has something to say, to offer, and to bring to every area of our lives. His life, death, resurrection, and reign in the heavenly places are precisely what we need—he is exactly who we need. Jesus isn’t a fixed data point in history. He’s living, active, and inviting you into his merciful kingdom.
Ask yourself: Do I genuinely believe the living Jesus matters for my life, right here and now? Do I consider Jesus Christ the most relevant person in my life?
2. Do you live as though Jesus is relevant for your daily life?
It’s easy to say, “Yes, Jesus matters.” But does your life prove it? Lip service is one of the most dangerous practices in the world today. This is why Saint James tells us that we must be hearers and doers of the word (James 1:22).
Think about decisions you’ve made in terms of your job, marriage, kids, finances, entertainment, and friends. Was Jesus the factor in your choice?
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Haste Isn’t A Shortcut
Apart from Christ our feet our cinder blocks when it comes to obedience, and jet packs when it comes to gratifying our lusts. So, God freely offers to you, through Christ, a new heart which transforms your entire moral framework. By faith then, your feet can plod away at faithfulness.
Millions of advertising dollars are spent every year on enticing you to embrace the vice of hastiness. What at first blush might look like a road to greater liberty, ease, and comfort, is instead a quicksand pathway which will quickly bog you down into the swamp of discontent, greed, and lust.
Porn is not a shortcut to sexual fulfillment, although that is what it disguises itself as. Sports betting is an alluring cheat code to generating fat stacks of cash, but the House always wins. Pinterest boards present a minimalist mirage of tidiness, but underpinning (pun intended) that minimalism is often an avoidance of diligence. Every other Silicon Valley start up is aimed at trying to part you from your money with the enticing promise of shortcutting hard work.
Proverbs, in particular, warns us of the sinister nature of haste. Hasty feet are described as sinful (Pr. 19:2). Hastiness in wealth building is unlikely to be paired with moral innocence (Pr. 28:20). Hasty speech is not just foolish, it makes you worse than a fool (Pr. 29:20).
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Run Your Own Race
Written by J. V. Fesko |
Sunday, November 27, 2022
Pray and seek contentment where the Lord has placed you in his holy providence. Put your nose to the grindstone, work hard, and leave the results up to him. Whether in plenty or in want, seek to praise Christ in all situations, and don’t compare yourself to others. Pray that you’re faithful to what Christ has called you to do.In my pre-parent life, I used to have time to run a few triathlons—sprints, mainly. One of the things that I found personally discouraging was the fact that the race event staff would write your age on your calf muscle with a large waterproof marker. At first, it didn’t bother me—I would be cycling or running and I’d see 56, 72, 40, and a host of other numbers higher than my own as I passed them by. As I progressed in the race, however, I quickly realized that for as many numbers higher than my own that I was passing, there were probably more numbers higher than mine passing me by! I saw one woman with 68 on her calf sail by me like I was standing still. It was a bit humbling to have someone double my age smoke me.
I felt a similar sentiment when I was in seminary and later graduate school. There I sat at my desk as my 27th birthday passed me by and I felt like I was standing still. I was still in school, hadn’t done anything significant in my life, and was feeling like many others were passing me. I was sitting in my windowless basement office, single, in a foreign country eating dry cereal for lunch because I couldn’t afford much more. It didn’t help that I knew that John Calvin wrote the first edition of the Institutes by the time he was 27.
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Tulip: Perseverance of the Saints
God is shaping the perfect figure of you into what will be your resurrected body and glorified soul. You’ve been sanctified positionally so the sanctification of your person is sure to continue until it’s completion.
Think of a cup being filled to the brim—or inflating a children’s play castle or a basketball to its entire design. The thing being pervaded is what it is, but it is in the process of functioning fully and living up to its potential and peak performance until completely full.
Such gets at the sense of the Hebrew for “perfect” in Psalm 138:a[1], which reads, The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me. David takes consolation in the idea that God will completely fulfill him and accomplish His purposes in him toward his chief end. The text teaches that our perfect God will perfectly perfect His people. So Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:24, Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
God never discards His people as unfinished projects. First Corinthians 1:8 reads, Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What is the basis of this profound assurance that Christians will undoubtedly have fought the good fight and finished their race? The second part of Psalm 138:8 tells us: … thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever. God’s mercy, ḥesed in the Hebrew, is a word pregnant with promise expressing His covenant loyalty to His people. It is used in Psalm 136 at the end of each of twenty-six verses as a corporate, antiphonal exclamation.[2] God’s faithful covenantal mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). So Christian, you can never lose your salvation and you will grow in your sanctification into the perfect you in Christ. In answer to the last part of Psalm 138:8, Jesus says He will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5)![3]
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