Saved From the Prosperity Gospel!

Testimony of a couple that was saved from the Prosperity Gospel.

Text excerpt of the interview

If Video doesn’t work, CLICK HERE!

John Piper’s understandable hatred for the prosperity Gospel.

 

Online Hip-Hop Gospel Tract, what’s next?

Okay so you thought you heard it all: first slideshows with pictures and music, then video slideshows, then Christian hip-hop, then sermon jams, and now Online Hip-Hop Gospel Tracts? What is next indeed?

Don’t worry I’m not complaining but rather rejoicing with gleeful surprise! I just came across this site called “Read this Before you die” (click here to experience it). Its a product of Reach Records, a Christian hip-hop record company that puts theological lyrics to hip-hop music. I am starting to really love this Christian hip-hop scene because they are so focused on Christ-exalting lyrics and redeeming the hip-hop culture with the beauty and supremacy of Jesus Christ!

This interactive gospel tract has a great message and presentation style. However I am a bit disappointed in the ending and the prayer, but it still presents the Gospel of Christ faithfully.

Read it, be blessed by it, and then pass it on.

 

Problems with the Humanitarian Humanist Gospel

Humanism: the chief end of being is the happiness of man.

The Gospel: the chief end of being is the glory of God.

Christian Hedonism: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

By Humanitarian Gospel, I mean Gospel missions motivated and fueled by one end: to relieve physical suffering by fulfilling the physical needs of people. So what’s the problem with that?

I would argue that the Humanitarian Gospel has at least the following main problems:

1. A strictly man-centered view of everything, specifically missions.
2. An ignorance to a God-centered view of God, man, sin, suffering, redemption, and therefore missions.
3. A lack of a global vision of all things, particularly the suffering of mankind.
4. A misunderstanding of what evil and good truly are in the eyes of God.
5. A misunderstanding of the true root causes of suffering and its purpose.
6. An overemphasized focus on the importance of temporal, perishable things like food, water, clothes, medicine, and any other goods necessary for the sustainment of physical life.

I list these not in pride over knowing them or joy over revealing them, but with anguish and grief in my heart to the travesty of this empty and desolate Gospel. Indeed a Gospel that is devoid of anything that ultimately honors God.

Here me clearly: I am in no way advocating an end to humanitarian causes. By all means, I would be the first one out there feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving drink to the thirsty, visiting those in prison, healing and praying for the sick, etc. But I grow weary over years of seeing a theology and methodology of missions that builds the houses, cleans the towns, helps the victims, but when asked “why or what for” responds with “because the peoples’ suffering was great and they were in great need”. What about Jesus? “Oh yeah, well we told them about Him too. We asked if they’d like to get to know Him because He can give them food and water and clothes and drink and shelter and medicine and health and happiness”.

I fear we have a theology about the Gospel that says “go to the world and meet their needs because Jesus loves them”. And the sad thing is, this is true! But its missing the most vital part: give them what will make them the most joyful and fulfilled and in the end save their souls, Jesus Christ! He is the reason and end of missions. Missions exists because of Jesus Christ.

Like John Piper said, “Missions exists because worship doesn’t”. Our chief end in missions is to give people what will make them eternally happy: Jesus Christ. To give them what will never perish and what is incorruptible: Jesus Christ. To give them what will redeem them of their sins, forgive their sins, take the wrath for their sins, kill death from their sins, resurrect them out of their sins, wash them from their sins, grant them righteousness that saves, and grant them everlasting life reconciling them back to God: Jesus Christ. For Christ is the bread of life and the living water that will keep men from ever being hungry or going thirsty. “For blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6). And what/Who is this righteousness? None but God in Jesus Christ!

So to respond to my list of problems:

1. A strictly man-centered view of everything, specifically missions - Our view of missions must be centered on God. For missions is about Him, by Him, from Him, through Him, and for Him and His glory. While missions functions to save men and bring them to God, its all for God’s glory alone.
2. An ignorance to a God-centered view of God, man, sin, suffering, redemption, and therefore missions - We must therefore have a God-centered view about…GOD: that He is the most God-centered being in the universe. This doesn’t make Him vain, but it makes Him supremely valuable and worthy of all praise and glory. He does everything He pleases, and what pleases Him most is receiving glory for Himself about Himself; MAN: man is utterly wicked and has been effected totally by the fall of Adam, he is totally depraved and incapable of pleasing God or doing anything good; SIN: sin is not primarily an issue about man, although man is the agent of sin, but sin is chiefly about God, in that sin is man offending the glory, holiness, righteousness, goodness, and power and wisdom of God, sin is transgressing and rebelling against God; SUFFERING: suffering exists because of sin, and sin causes death too; REDEMPTION: the transforming of a man from his sinful nature to his supernatural nature by God’s Holy Spirit for His own glory, where God takes a man from falling short of His glory to giving Him glory by granting Him everlasting life through Jesus Christ His son; MISSIONS: therefore missions is chiefly about God, from God, by God, through God, and for God and His glory. So missions is men who have been redeemed telling other men how they can be eternally satisfied and happy, namely by loving and treasuring Jesus Christ above all things, which then gives Glory to God.
3. A lack of a global vision of all things, particularly the suffering of mankind - Missions must involve a global vision of sin and redemption. It must know that all things, whether perceived good or bad, including pain and suffering or health and prosperity, are included in the huge redemptive, eternal plan of God. God’s plan of redemption has millions of tiny parts that make up the big whole: God glorifying Himself through His Son and the salvation of the Bride of His Son, the Church, the redeemed. So missions must be big, massive, global, and huge in its vision and purpose. It cannot be small, tiny, and banal in its vision and purpose.
4. A misunderstanding of what evil and good truly are in the eyes of God - A false understanding of what evil and good truly are will lead men to a missions that is devoid of any real purpose. Men don’t define evil and good, God does. The humanitarian Gospel says evil is suffering, disease, sickness, and poverty. And good is fighting to prevent or kill those things. Whereas the biblical Gospel takes it further by saying that suffering and the likes are results of what really is evil: sin against God. The most evil thing is not giving glory to God for all that He is and should be recognized as. Evil is the heart of man, which is in a constant state of rebellion, hatred, hostility, and competition against God and His glory. Good is then that which gives God the most glory, namely the worship, treasure, and love for Himself in His Son Jesus Christ.
5. A misunderstanding of the true root causes of suffering and its purpose - True Gospel missions knows that suffering is caused by sin, and sin leads to death. The saved children of God still suffer, but with Christ as their treasure so that they rejoice in their suffering. Suffering then is just a necessary means for the redeemed to give God more glory. Suffering is not merely foreign policy, human rights, economical, moral, or physical issue but a spiritual issue. It is spiritual because it comes from sin. The Humanitarian Gospel sees no purpose in suffering, but only constant arbitrariness. The Biblical Gospel says suffering has an eternally glorious purpose in the redemption of mankind.
6. An overemphasized focus on the importance of temporal, perishable things like food, water, clothes, medicine, and any other goods necessary for the sustainment of physical life - Therefore with a proper God-centered view of all things, including missions and suffering, we should focus then on things not on earth or below, but on things above; on heavenly things. For the products of what the Humanitarian Gospel offers are all perishable things that cannot but prolong one’s life of suffering. While the product of the True Gospel, Christ and all His redemption does, give eternal life in, out of, and eventually forever away from suffering in sin.

Let us seek a Gospel missions that is centered on and fueled by the glory of God. One in which we send truth, for God is truth and truth is of God. Yes, let’s meet the needs of the people. But let’s meet their greatest need: righteousness, that is in the person of Jesus Christ. Let’s give them what will make them eternally happy, Jesus Christ their all-satisfying treasure!

Please watch this clip about Humanist Missions:

 

Truth Should Humble

This is not a post about how Truth fails to humble (which it doesn’t) nor how man has power over the effects and purpose of truth (which he doesn’t). The reason I titled this post “Truth Should Humble” is not because Truth by nature doesn’t humble, but because too often Christians are not humbled by truth.

In this world, typically the more insight a person gains into any topic the more they feel they have grasped that topic. The more they have grasped it, the more confident they feel they understand it. The more confident they feel in their understanding, the more likely they are to become prideful about it. Pride about understanding it. Pride about their seeming ability to figure it out on their own intellect and will power. Pride about simply knowing this one thing. Pride about having something they have conquered mentally. So as knowledge increases, typically pride increases with it.

In reality, that is the reality that reckons that God is Supreme and He alone is Truth, any truth that a person “gets” (both receives and grasps) is meant to humble them. I would even go as far as arguing that one of the main functions of the revelation of truth is to humble a person. Not just to reveal truth, but to warrant a greater outcome: namely that they are nothing and that God is everything.

However, you and I both know that even Christians, who have been graciously given and shown the truth about reality from God, are tempted to become prideful too. Which begs the question: How could the Christian, the one who has been shown not complete but nevertheless accurate knowledge of himself and God, find any justifiable reason to be prideful in this knowledge? Was it the efforts and toil of the Christian that led him to this truth? Was it the work and study of the Christian that revealed to him this treasure? Was it the skill and craft and great genius of the Christian that enabled him to find this truth that was formerly kept secret from ages past (Romans 16:25)?

No! Any truth that has been “found” has been revealed. The nature of revelation assumes the existence of a revealer. The Christian before his current state was in a state of death: spiritually blind, deaf, and hardened to the truth about himself, God, and redemption. The only reason he has been brought to life is because God brought him to life. God is the one who “gave” him the truth. God is the one who revealed to him truth. After all not only did God create truth but He is truth in Jesus Christ the person. Like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 -

6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—

10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. [3]

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

So as Paul says, we in our natural state have not understood God; indeed we cannot. We are incapable of knowing God. Certainly then as we become born again by the Spirit of God, how much do we now depend on God for our understanding of spiritual things? Less or the same? The same! Who gets the credit for any truth now known? God or us? God gives us His Spirit to continue to reveal to us truth. We don’t start out in the spirit and then become perfect by the flesh (like Paul says in Galatians 3).

But too often Christians act as if they have received a spirit of knowledge or they have a ministry of understanding. Yes it is true, that Christians contain the truth about God that mankind needs. But that is all the more reason for us to be humble not to boast about.

So because we have been graciously given truth that is from outside of ourselves, that we were incapable of knowing before, that only came to us by God and through God, and that in its nature seeks to lessen self and increase God, we should therefore be greatly debased and humbled. God is infinitely wise and good, not us. Just because we have now received the knowledge of the understanding and existence of this truth gives us no right to boast about it.

Yet Christians still act as if we have attained to the realization of this truth. We are the ones who figure it out. We were given options: know God and love Him or know God and hate Him and we chose right because we are smart and good. This gives glory and boasting rights to man, not God. God alone is the one who gets all the glory and credit for everything good. It is our flesh that makes us lust for pride. Our spirit receives more truth about God and says now be humbled by this. Our flesh says “No! Boast about this oh man, boast in this knowledge you have. Get recognition for yourself in this. Receive glory and honor for this”. So the flesh gets knowledge and wants pride, the spirit gets knowledge and wants humility. The flesh says me me me. The spirit says God God God!

Truth for the Christian should work this way: as knowledge increases, humility should with it. Knowledge goes up, humility goes up. Knowledge increases, self decreases. God’s wisdom is intended to reveal truth about Himself in order to cause boasting about Himself. Truth is biased towards God. Truth is from God, by God, through God, and for God! After all its His Truth He can do what He wants with it.

This struggle is yet another example of the desperate need for every Christian to “preach the Gospel to yourself everyday” (Jerry Bridges). If the Christian preaches the Gospel of truth to himself daily, then daily his lust for pride and vain glory is defeated. The Gospel defeats pride and boasting in self. The Gospel creates humbling because its about God and His greatness and man and his depravity.

Christian: Be humbled by the knowledge you have been given! Fight pride. As you embark on this journey to know God more truly, seek also to be humbled by Him. Your journey for truth should be in harmony with your journey for humility. Seek both.

Quote: “Knowledge is power!”

Correction: Knowledge of God reveals His power and our lack of it. Be humbled.

 

PreGospel Truth - Lesson 1: All Are Guilty before God!

Romans 3:10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Ever wonder why it takes so long for familiar biblical truth to finally weigh heavy on our hearts? I can memorize a verse of scripture my whole life so much so that I know the ins and outs of it. But then its as if God slaps me upside the head and pierces my heart deeper than ever before, with the very verse I claimed I always knew. And its all new to me. The sermon jam below (in audio player) was my fresh reminder of weighty truth!

And it is this truth: 19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

All the world is guilty before God! Everyone! The whole world is Guilty!

My parents, my friends, my daughter, the cashier at Wal-mart, the guy at the movie ticket box, my boss, my co-workers, my aunt, my grandmother, my in-laws, all are guilty before God and accountable to Him. Everybody I know is guilty before God and has fallen way short of His glory.

All mankind is capable of the most wicked evils apart from the common grace of God. Without Him restraining our hearts of depravity, we would murder. He is so full of grace and goodness and holiness. And all will be left without any excuse. They have the evidence of Creation. Their mouths will shut up under the law with no response or complaint to place on God. He has revealed Himself, His invisible attributes, through the visible display of Creation.

We are required therefore to be righteous. Who is righteous? None but God! Wow! Why did it never weigh on me so heavier before till now? All people are guilty before God without the righteousness that comes through faith in His son. The righteousness He requires is satisfied through faith in His Son.

Believe today for righteousness. Believe! Or be guilty before God!

Excerpted from John Piper’s sermon: Mouths Closed and All the World Accountable to God

 

The Plumbline - Gospel Rap

Alright yall, prepare to meet “The Plumbline”!

If you haven’t heard of Gospel-Centered Theologically rich rap yet, you’ve missed the boat. The latest to hit the Gospel Grapevine is…“The Plumbline”: A bunch of crazy Jesus praising Gospel preaching Christ-exalting Bible-saturated Saints whose passion is for Christ and desire is for their audience to love King Jesus as their all-satisfying treasure! It may be a mouth full but you’ve heard nothing yet. They just released one of their songs and a video put out by my brother in the Lord, Adam. I personally know these guys, and they are sincere; not out to sign a record deal or receive a crowd. They just want to preach the Gospel! Have a listen and be encouraged and convicted.

The Plumbline

And check out their sister ministry: Urban Missionaries

Urban Missionaries

 

Gospel Translations - Translating the Gospel for Free to the World!

Attention all who are bilingual or becoming bilingual and have a passion for spreading the Gospel to all nations and/or all who have been powerfully touched and encouraged by Sovereign Grace Ministries (C.J. Mahaney), Desiring God (John Piper), Ligonier Ministries (R.C. Sproul), and 9Marks (Mark Dever), behold…

GOSPEL TRANSLATIONS!

Gospel Translations is a ministry with one passion: Translating the Gospel in as many languages as possible for free to the World! That should be enough to convince you.

Gospel-Centered materials have been translated so far in: Spanish (85 articles), Portuguese (59), Bahasa Indonesian (18), Chinese (16), Russian (15), French (9), Italian (6), and more added every week.

Watch this short video on who they are, why they exist, and how they are executing their vision. This is truly exciting!

Who they Are?

Or Volunteer to Help

 

The Supremacy of Christ over Biology!

Colossians 1:15-20

“15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by [6] him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

A dear friend of mine turned me on to the glorious and previously unseen truth of this crucial part of our bodies. It’s called: LAMININ. So what is Laminin?

“Laminin is the major non-collagenous component of the basal lamina, such as those on which cells of an epithelium sit. Basically, laminin is a protein found in the “extracellular matrix”, the sheets of protein that form the substrate of all internal organs also called the “basement membrane“….They are a family of glycoproteins that are an integral part of the structural scaffolding in almost every animal tissue…Laminin is vital to making sure overall body structures hold together. (wikipedia)

Okay so Laminin is important and crucial to holding together the structures of our tissue and cells. So what? So…here is what LAMININ, that thing that holds things together, looks like:

…A CROSS. Don’t tell me that’s coincidence. God is Sovereign and His Sovereignty is even found in the unseen parts of creation (And everything He does has purpose and meaning). Although this time, we can finally see it. And thank God we can, because all it does is point right back to the Creator: Jesus Christ!

That makes me think of Luke 19:40 where Jesus is riding into Jerusalem for the Passover Feast Celebration. Some of His disciples begin singing praises to Jesus, and the crowd rebukes them asking Jesus to silence them. Jesus’ typical classic style of response is: “He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.’” In other words, “if my people are silent, even the very proteins would cry out with: Jesus is God, worship Him as King!”

Even biology preaches the Gospel, and testifies to the central defining feature in all of Creation: the cross of Jesus Christ!

Watch this cool video to see Louie Giglio talk of how Christ is Preeminent and Supreme over all things, including our bodies!

 

The Folly of Returning to Vomit

Proverbs 26:11 Like a dog that returns to his vomit
is a fool who repeats his folly.

2 Peter 2:20-22 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

*(May be a graphic post. As you read you will see why; because I want to show the putrid nature of SIN.)

This morning as I was preparing to go to work, I happened to look out my bathroom window. I saw my oldest dog using the restroom and my youngest dog immediately walking up waiting for something. Well if you knew my dogs you would know that can only mean one thing. I thought to myself, “how absolutely disgusting!” Then it occurred to me: you do the same thing but much worse! Then I thought, “wow, how foolish am I?”

Let me explain. Dogs have a tradition of throwing up from gorging themselves or being sick and then immediately eating what they have thrown up. Whether its for sheer medicinal and biological needs or its just their innate fallen sin nature, I don’t know (Its one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen). But the Bible is clear that this type of behavior is comparable to one principle: Just as dogs return to their vomit, so also fools return to their folly. Proverbs is referring to the one who does not learn from the destructiveness and disgust of his folly so he therefore, like a dog in its vomit, returns to his folly. So also Peter in his second letter is speaking contextually of false teachers and those who follow their ways as those who return to their vomit; those who after being cleaned go right back to the mud like pigs.

Peter here is referring specifically to those who have been teaching and living falsely as well as those who are following these false teachers. He refers to them…

• secretly bring in destructive heresies (vs. 1)
• denying the Master who bought them (vs. 1)
• bringing upon themselves swift destruction (vs. 1)
• many will follow their sensuality (vs. 2)
• because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed (vs. 2)
• those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority (vs. 10)
• Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones (vs. 10)
• irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction (vs. 12)
• suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing (vs. 13)
• count it pleasure to revel in the daytime (vs. 13)
• blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you (vs. 13)
• They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin (vs. 14)
• They entice unsteady souls (vs. 14)
• hearts trained in greed (vs. 14)
• Accursed children! (vs. 14)
• Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray (vs. 15)
• They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing (vs. 15)
• waterless springs and mists driven by a storm (vs. 17)
• speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error (vs. 18
• promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption (vs. 19)
• after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first (vs. 20)
• better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them (vs. 21)

I also think this applies to sinners period, even those who have been truly regenerated by the Spirit. Just as it occurred to me this morning: I have tasted of the heavenly gifts and the Spirit and have been born again to be delivered from this slavery to sin unto slavery to righteousness….and here I am returning back to my sin like a dog to its excrement or vomit (Its amazing how God speaks to us, but you have to just run with it and learn).

Then I dug deeper and thought, who else does this list describe? The inner false teacher of every Christian: the FLESH! Isn’t it true? Our flesh is a constant and ever loud voice of deception and hostility towards God. Our flesh lies to us and wars against our spirit on a daily basis (Romans 6-7; Ephesians 6:12). Our flesh daily attempts and usually succeeds to teach and preach to us truths that God hates. Our flesh is often our loudest teacher, and yet it is the one who is the most wrong: Our flesh…

• secretly brings in destructive heresies
• not only denies but hates the Master that has bought our soul
• will bring to us swift destruction, and always does
• gets us to follow its sensuality
• because of it the way of truth is blasphemed
• speaks loud boasts of folly and entices our souls
• promises us freedom but gets us more slavery.

So this passage seems to apply also to every child of God’s inner false teacher. This is why we are called to murder and destroy our flesh daily, like Paul said in Romans 6-7.

If we, who were saved by the Spirit through Jesus Christ the Son for the glory of God go on continuing in sin over and over again, then there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 10:26-31). It is absolute insanity to go on living as a debtor to the flesh when we have been filled and saved by the Spirit! But we give in everyday to this smooth, crafty, wise, and experienced false teacher. We give him our ears, our eyes, our heads and hearts, and our allegiance. Jesus Christ died to set us free from this idol in our hearts to make our allegiance Him. He died to rescue us from our sins. How can we who have been enlightened with the holy of holies and have had light shined into our hearts being rescued from the depths of darkness then return back to this darkness and death? Its because the flesh offers us what we hate to love and should love to hate: SIN!

This is why I believe God has placed an urgency in my heart over the last 6 months to fight and war against the worst enemy in my life: ME! No one else will I fight more in this life than myself. I have no bigger enemy that I should hate than my flesh. It is the height of foolishness to return back to the vomit that we have been rid of. The vomit of sin and hostility towards God that He retracts out of our inner most being. And all we can think to do is go to that vomit and eat it back up. As gross as a dog slopping up its vomit and as insane as a pig running to the mud after being cleaned, how much more infinitely worse is it for God’s children to run back to their upchucked sin and filth we have just gotten rid of? Saints, SIN is the most putrid vomit and filth ever to be found. God hates sin and wars against it everyday. We must have a biblical and Godly view of our sin and our sinful struggles: the refuse of refuse and the filth of dirt and grime and depths of darkness and wickedness! Without an accurate view of the destructive nature and end of our sin, we will not feel the weight of the urgency to hate it, kill it, and live for Jesus.

So today, are you going to run back to your vomit? After being cleaned, will you run back to the mud to wallow in it? Don’t be quick to say no. Remember Peter? Shortly after he told Christ “to whom will we go, you alone have the words of life” he denied Christ three times. We also quickly deny this Christ and willingly give in to our flesh. Detest your vomit today. Hate the mud you came out of. Leave your vomit and feast on the Bread of Life that satisfies and the Living Water that fills. Don’t be a fool and return back to the disgusting state of your flesh. Be wise. Listen to instruction and the way of truth and freedom. Christ and His Gospel are the answer to this rescuing. He is supremely more valuable than the vomit of sin. Run to the cross and embrace the Gospel. Preach it to yourself today!

 

Gospel-Centered & Driven Gratitude

“The greatest ingratitude we can achieve is when we forget that what we have we’ve received!”

Quite possibly one of the greatest atrocities committed by non-Christians and Christians alike is a deep sense of ingratitude toward God and His Goodness. Forgetfulness of the goodness and rich mercy of God is typically the root cause of this atrocious ingratitude. When we forget how truly kind and merciful God has been to not only withhold His righteous wrath and judgment everyday of life but to also abundantly bless all creatures with life, breath, and the ability to pursue happiness, one becomes increasingly ungrateful and enters into a state of constant complaining and inappreciativeness. This is in a sense nothing other than idolatry and blasphemous. It means that we have now become dependent on ourselves for what we need and want out of life and have reduced ourselves to covetousness, jealousy, greed, extreme discontent for what we have been given. Because we forget that what we have has been given to us by a force outside of ourselves: God!

Surely the best solution to resolve this blatant sin attack upon Heaven is: re-embracing the Gospel. To check ourselves to make sure we truly believe the Gospel, its inner and outer workings. One of the most timeless and precious truths of the Gospel is this: that God graciously gave Himself to the world to redeem for Himself a people who did not acknowledge Him nor were they thankful to Him but rather worshiped the creature instead of Him, who alone is worthy of all worship, praise, adoration and glory! God gave His only Son up for our good and His glory when we could never earn it or deserve it. That’s what grace is. When we forget to remind ourselves of this daily, we are in essence refusing to believe and live out the Gospel. This is the root of every type of sin, whether its idolatry, lust, anger, greed, hatred, lack of forgiveness, or passing false judgment its all a result of forgetting the Gospel.

It is the height of pride and arrogance to come to the point in our walk with Christ where we forget that everything we have, everything, has been given to us by God. Everything we experience in life, whether hardship, trial, or great prosperity is all the mercy and grace of our good and great God. In Christ we experience no absence of any good thing. And if we are seeking first His kingdom and all His righteousness and ask according to His will, He will grant the desires of our heart. Think of Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” God who did not even spare His own Son but gave Him to us, will He not give us all things in Christ? What a promise from the great promise maker and keeper!

Saints, trust in God today. Stop complaining and living as if you have earned all you possess by some great work or power you have done. Stop worrying and wondering why you don’t have, why you can’t get, why you can’t find, or why you aren’t allowed to obtain certain things; much of which is probably stuff you don’t need anyway. God gives to His children what they need, who are much more worthy to Him than the birds (Matthew 6). If we can be re captivated by the Gospel and recapture its great sufficiency to provide all we need in this world and the next, our ingratitude will turn into gratitude.

Believe the Gospel. Believe God. Study Gospel Truths. Remember whose you are. Remember who you are. Remember how you became what you are. Remember how you possessed what you have: you received it because it was graciously given to you. And remember the greatest gift of the Gospel: God Himself!