It is good to mourn our sins in confession, regretting the pain we have caused others and ourselves. It is right to have a healthy desire to be taught by God—to have the discipline of a loving father. Yet, in our weakness God shows forth his glory in the love and forgiveness we have in Christ Jesus who paid the penalty of our sins by his death on the cross, and “we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor. 4:7).

Although we may not be acutely aware of every sin, our conscience testifies to our sense of weakness and failure. In particular, our memories remind us of times in our lives when we may have sinned miserably—angry tempers, selfishness, divorce, harshness, neglect of children or parents, and pride are just a few transgressions we may have committed.
We recognize how the trials we have brought upon ourselves have originated in our own sin. Yet the Lord uses them to train us, to discipline us. The author of Hebrews declares:

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? (Heb. 12:5-7)

1. The Discipline of a Loving Father
It is good to self-examine and learn from our failures. Yet, perhaps more important than lessons learned is the question: how is God glorified in this? Is it possible that even in our self-inflicted trials—when we are acutely aware of our fallen, sinful nature—the glory of God is manifested by his work in and for us? Absolutely.
Read More
Related Posts:

Black holes are formed when stars die. They become like Dyson vacuums, sucking up all the mass and matter around them, exhibiting a gravitational pull so strong that even light particles cannot escape. A black hole’s existence is dependent upon the consumption of everything around it. Likewise, humanity’s selfish heart sucks up everything God created good in and around it and uses these created goods to sustain its life. But what the heart usually fails to see is that this insatiable hunger is precisely what will kill it.

We see then that the two cities were created by two kinds of love: the earthly city was created by self-love reaching the point of contempt for God, the Heavenly City by the love of God carried as far as contempt of self. In fact, the earthly city glories in itself, the Heavenly City glories in the Lord.1
The past forty years have seen a few writers—from philosopher Charles Taylor to historian Carl Trueman—declaring that people in the Western world answer the question Who am I? in fundamentally distinct ways compared to history past.2 Christians have been caught up in this shift as well, often unwittingly, and have found themselves together with the rest of the West in the midst of an identity crisis.
The claim of Jesus that no one can be his disciple unless he hates his own life (Luke 14:26), and his call to deny oneself, shoulder a cross, and lose one’s life to find it truly (Matt 16:24–25) descend on clogged ears. We hear him, but only as though muffled by our passions, dreams, and desires for this life, which still functionally serve as determinative of our sense of who we are and where we are going. Lulled into lethargy, we would do well to shake ourselves awake to the call of Christ—or find someone who will do it for us.
Created as Stars
The church fathers give good shakings.3 Ignatius’ Letter to the Romans, which is too often dismissed due to his uncomfortable-to-us desire for martyrdom, is typical of how the Fathers thought about true discipleship:4
Neither the ends of the earth nor the kingdoms of this age are any use to me. It is better for me to die for Jesus Christ than to rule over the ends of the earth. Him I seek, who died on our behalf; him I long for, who rose again for our sake. The pains of birth are upon me. Bear with me, brothers and sisters: do not keep me from living; do not desire my death. . . . Let me receive pure light, for when I arrive there I will be a human being. Allow me to be an imitator of the suffering of my God.5
Ignatius sees the call of Jesus in Matthew 16 as turning inside-out the world’s view of life and self. To find our life here is to build our homes in death; true life, rather, comes through death.
The patristic theologians are always trying to get Christians to see that to be truly human—a human being who images God well—is to follow the God-man, Jesus, the true image of the invisible God (Col 1:15), in self-sacrificial death for the love of God and neighbor. God’s design for the human being is to live like a star, lighting and blessing the people and creation around us in representation of the love and glory of God.
The Lord promised to make Abraham’s offspring like the stars in the heavens (Gen 15:3). Jesus called his people to be salt and light, to shine like stars in the world in their obedience to him.6 And throughout the Bible, stars function as symbols of, among other things, earthly rulers and the people of God.7 Humanity is, like the sun and stars, to radiate as patterns of God’s glory and sovereign rule through their loving, beautiful dominion over the earth. But, since the fall in the garden, human beings have become like black holes instead.8
On Black Holes
Black holes are formed when stars die. They become like Dyson vacuums, sucking up all the mass and matter around them, exhibiting a gravitational pull so strong that even light particles cannot escape. A black hole’s existence is dependent upon the consumption of everything around it.
Likewise, humanity’s selfish heart sucks up everything God created good in and around it and uses these created goods to sustain its life. But what the heart usually fails to see is that this insatiable hunger is precisely what will kill it.
Recent quantum research, pioneered by Stephen Hawking, has shown something previously thought to be unlikely—black holes die.9 The prior consensus was that black holes may exist into eternity as they gobble up more mass, but with the progress of quantum physics and its insight into matter and anti-matter particles, the scientific community has changed its mind.
Even the blackness of space is teeming with life. If we could see into the quantum realm, we would see particles popping in and out of existence. These particles come into being as matter/anti-matter pairs (positively and negatively charged, respectively), which then are annihilated instantly as the matter and anti-matter particles cancel each other out.
Read More
Related Posts:

The gospel and God’s grace to us are not set aside in giving, but God himself, in his grace, is the one with the power to make this grace abound in us. God’s blessings result in good works.[v] And every good work is the work of generosity. In this, we return to Paul’s first reason for giving: it is a grace. Generosity is beautifully cyclical. When we actually cheer as money leaves our wallets, we are a place of delighting as God delights. It is then that we are experiencing the gift God intends to give us, the gift of generosity.

I worked for a few years in development and was trained in best practices for raising money. I was blessed to work for a Christian organization that was committed to raising money in a godly way, but the broader development industry doesn’t have many scruples in doing what they do best: separating people from their money. And they are clever! How does a development professional unlock the giving vault?
Secular Generosity
The secular handbook on getting people to give reveals a lot. There are three universal rules in development:[i]
1)      Appeal to donors’ emotions, not their minds: tell a story that will move them;
2)      Inflate a donor’s sense of importance and appeal to their interests;
3)      Create urgency: donors need to feel as though the need is immediate and significant.
Christian Generosity
The Christian generosity handbook is very different. Having delivered his four strange reasons for giving. Paul is now going to five equally strange instructions for giving in his letter to the Corinthian church. Paul’s instructions contradict the development professional’s handbook at almost every turn. Paul tells us we should give this way:
1)      Thoughtfully
2)      Not reluctantly
3)      Not under compulsion
4)      Cheerfully
5)      Through the power of Christ
Paul explains his instructions this way in 2 Corinthians 9:7-8: “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” It is staggering just how different this is from today’s secular handbook for giving.
Faux Christian Generosity
But shouldn’t we take tithing seriously? The LDS (Mormon) Church takes tithing very seriously. In an official publication, they state that a bishop may move forward with disciplinary action on that member including “information probation, temporarily restricting his privileges as a Church member – such as the right to partake of the sacrament, hold a Church position, or enter the temple.”[ii] That’s a far cry from our evangelical churches today. On the one hand, the LDS Church is to be commended for the seriousness with which they take stewardship and generosity. On the other hand, these guidelines draw very near overturning two of the ways in which Scripture calls us to give: “not reluctantly” and “not under compulsion.”
The Beautifully Strange Difference
Where today’s handbook tells one to appeal to the emotions, not reason, Paul tells us our giving must be thoughtful. Where the secular handbook tells us that any giver, even a reluctant giver is okay, Paul tells us that true generosity requires that there is an eagerness.
Read More
Related Posts: