Calling all RS alumni…

Allow the theologian, pastor, and 20th-century prophet AW Tozer to unpack for us a little more what my daughter preached so simply to me earlier this week:

“When religion has said it’s last word, there is little that we need other than God Himself. The evil habit of seeking God-AND effectively prevents us from finding God in full revelation. In the AND lies our great woe.  If we omit the AND we shall soon find God, and in Him we shall find that for which we have all our lives been secretly longing.  When the Lord divided Canaan among the tribes of Israel, Levi recieved no share of the land. God said to him simply, ‘I am your portion and your inheritance,’ and by those words made Levi richer than all his brethren, richer than all the kings and rajas who have ever lived in the world. And there is a spiritual principle here, a principle still valid for every priest of the Most High God. The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One.  Many ordinary treasure may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One, and he has it purely, legitimately and forever.” - The Pursuit of God, p.19

And CS Lewis put it this way…

“He who has God and everything has nothing more than he who has God alone.”

As a dad I pray that my daughter would grow up seeing such a deep and rich and satisfying vision of Jesus Christ that she would need nothing else for her heart to be satisfied. But the question comes back hard…do I?

josh

Ella: Let’s talk about my day.

I love my daughter. Have any truer words been spoken?

God is good,

josh

ps, how was your day?

Be sure and visit his website:  www.jasonchina.net to find out more about what he is doing and how you can support him in prayer and through donation.

And drop him a note through email at jasonrmarquardt[at]gmail.com.

Stop.  Think.  Discern.  Grill session.

Unfortunately, this was far too often the case for me during my high school days.  I would discern something for what it was (sin/evil), choose not to be a part of it, and then lambaste my other Christian friends who were partaking fully in it.

In my defense, I believe my intentions were good, for I could see the havoc it was causing in their life and I so desperately wanted them to experience more than what they were calling “Christianity.”  But again and again I was faced with the question… “How do I handle this situation?”  A movie would get put in that I did not want to watch.  “Am I the only one who feels this way?  Should I speak up?  What do I do?  Get up and preach?  Stay but just not watch it?  Leave?” No matter what I did, it seemed, I would have to make a scene.  GRRHHHHH!!

Time and again I was faced with these situations.  Sometimes I handled them well, other times I didn’t.  But two things I was clear on…(1) compromise was not an option, and (2) I would not be held responsible for others choices when God returned to settle accounts.  In other words, I would be held responsible for my choices.

And again, these problems didn’t arise out of a long list of “things I don’t get to do because I’m a Christian,” (said with a role of the eyes and a drop in my voice like I was really missing out on something.)  Rather, it arose out of a genuine fear of God, a passionate desire to love Jesus more and the world less, to please Him in all I did, and to obey His Word.  For I truly believed that “By them (God’s commands) is your servant warned, in keeping them there is great reward!” (see Psalm 19:7-11)

So the tension exists…two weeks ago, by the grace of God, many of us had our hearts re-sensitized to the things God loves and the things God hates.
Many of us our now living with true Daniel-like vigilance in the guarding of our mind and heart.  And this is wonderful.  Praise the Lord.  Again I say, praise the Lord!

But then we all had to go home.  And for some, I’m guessing, you immediately ran into resistance by friends.  “What’d they do, brain-wash you at that camp?”  “Seriously, dude, lighten up, haven’t you ever heard of grace?”  “What are you now, holier-than-thou? Yeah right, I know what you’ve done before…you think one week makes all that go away?”  And on and on it comes.  And most of this, probably, coming from your “Christian” friends.

So what do you do?  How do you respond?  Where do you start?  While you were at Bible Boot Camp, they were home building mud-pies.  Now there seems to be a chasm between the way they’re living and the way you want to live.  Great, now what?

These are hard questions that will require much wisdom.  Two thoughts:

First, have you talked with your parents about it?  Share with them what you’re struggling with in your heart, and ask them how they would handle those situations.

Secondly, wrestle with this phrase…GRACE-FILLED DISCERNMENT.  What do you think that means?  How can you exercise the seemingly paradoxical nature of it?

Remember, it’s not enough to simply be RIGHT.  You can be RIGHT and be a JERK.  And it’s not enough to equate humility and grace with tolerance and liberalism.  That’s condemned by God’s Word too.  So how do you find the balance?  Chew on it and email us your thoughts, or situations you’ve found yourself in where grace-filled discernment was needed.  We’ll write more soon on some of our thoughts on applying G.F.D.

read.think.pray.live.

josh