Discipleship

The idol you love doesn’t love you back

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We were thinking about idols of the heart last Sunday morning.  Over here there’s a great summary post from Justin Buzzard on idolatry, highlighting the emptiness of setting our hearts on idols that cannot satisfy.

Here’s what you need to know about your idol: That idol that you love? It doesn’t love you back. False gods don’t love you. Idols don’t keep their promises. Anything you worship and build your life on other than God will suck the life out of you and destroy you.

Jesus is the one master who will love you even when you fail him. Your idols don’t do that. Jesus is the one master who loved you when you were at your worst and who reigns over your life with perfect wisdom, power, and goodness. He’s the one master you can trust. Only he can give you freedom.

Thinking about depression

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Depression and diagnosed clinical depression is an increasingly common issue that many people face today.  Why is that and what are depressions root causes.

You can hear Jeremy Pierre, professor of biblical counselling answer questions on Thinking theologically about depression: It’s causes and cures, at this here or by clicking below.

Are you wiser than a miser?

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Someone told me recently of the pastor who stood in front of his congregation and said, “The good news is God has blessed us with enough money to hire a new gospel worker in this church.  The bad news is, that money is still in your pockets!”

Perhaps especially in the current economic climate the issue of giving to gospel work can be a thorny one.  But the principles of giving remain the same, however little or much we have, whatever our circumstances.

Clint Archer has written a timely reminder of 6 principles for giving over here.  On the issue of how regularly we give Clint helpfully says

As frequently as you’re saving, spending, and investing, you should be giving. For some, giving resembles a the once-off ordinance of baptism. Rather, giving should be a regular part of your devotional life.

The principles are

  1. Give to the local church first
  2. Give regularly
  3. Give discreetly
  4. Give generoursly
  5. Give cheerfully
  6. Give sacrificially

Trellis and the Vine podcasts

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Col Marshall and Tony Payne have produced a series of podcasts over here discussing the themes and principles covered in their book, The Trellis and the Vine.

And below is the list of key principles from chapter 2 of the book, that need to be considered in ensuring our ministry is focused on the vine rather than the trellis.

Ministry mind-shifts

1. From running programs to building people

2. From running events to training people

3. From using people to growing people

4. From filling gaps to training new workers

5. From solving problems to helping people make progress

6. From clinging to ordained ministry to developing team leadership

7. From focusing on church polity to forging ministry partnerships

8. From relying on training institutions to establishing local training

9. From focusing on immediate pressures to aiming for long-term expansion

10. From engaging in management to engaging in ministry

11. From seeking church growth to desiring gospel growth

Whose kingdom are you building?

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Following on from previous posts, here and here, Paul Tripp gives a series of principles to help examine the motivations of our hearts here.  How can we determine whether we’re laying up treasures for God’s kingdom or for self?

Tripp gives the questions below as a helpful diagnostic.

  • The absence of what causes us to want to give up and quit?
  • The pursuit of what leads us to feeling over-burdened and overwhelmed?
  • The fear of what makes us tentative and timid rather than courageous and hopeful?
  • The craving for what makes us burn the candle at both ends until we have little left?
  • The “need” for what robs ministry of its beauty and joy?
  • The desire for what sets up tensions between ministry and family?

Discerning the idols of my heart

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A third way to discern idols works best for those
who have professed a faith in God. You may regularly go to a place of worship. You may have a full, devout
 set of doctrinal beliefs. You may be trying very hard 
to believe and obey God. However, what is your real,
daily functional salvation? What are you really living
 for, what is your real – not your professed – god? A 
good way to discern this is how you respond to un-answered prayers and frustrated hopes. If you ask for
 something that you don’t get, you may become sad
 and disappointed. Then you go on. Hey, life’s not over.
  Those are not your functional masters. But when you
 pray and work for something and you don’t get it and
 you respond with explosive anger or deep despair, then 
you may have found your real god.  (Keller, Counterfeit Gods, p. 169)

Mommy Wars

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There’s been a helpful series of posts over at the Desiring God blog, all focusing on the particular temptations that new moms (that’s mum’s with an American accent I guess), are likely to be subjected to.

Lots of what is said there is applicable to both new mums and dads, and there’s things to chew over for parents however old their children are.  find the first post here, and then find subsequent posts at the bottom of the article.

Make real love, make real war

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Russell Moore has commented on the rise of men making use of Internet pornography and computer games in, Fake Love, Fake War: Why so many men are addicted to internet porn and video games.

Men were made to make love and war, and both pornography and Call of Duty feed that need without the risk involved in reality. The gospel is the story of Christ’s love for his bride and his war against  Satan and is dominions – that’s the reality all men have been called to engage in.

Moore concludes

The answer to both addictions is to fight arousal with arousal. Set forth the gospel vision of a Christ who loves his bride and who fights to save her. And then let’s train our young men to follow Christ by learning to love a real woman, sometimes by fighting his own desires and the spirit beings who would eat him up. Let’s teach our men to make love, and to make war . . . for real.

Will you be my Facebook friend – Part IV

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The final post in Tim Chester’s series on Facebook and social networking can be found here.  Again I recommend you read the whole thing for yourself if only for the highly amusing (and highly accurate)  paragraph on Facebook being the creation of nerds for the generation of nerds.

If you don’t get that far consider these words Tim closes with:

Think about what you have written and read on your Facebook wall this week. Think about the tweets you have followed this week. Imagine reading them in six months time. I am guessing, but I suspect that most of what is written will be drivel. Trivia. Empty. “Eating egg on toast. Yum.” “On my way to the station.” “Great party last night.” “Jack just fell over. LOL.” “Love the photos. You’re so gorgeous.” Poke. Listen to the prophet Isaiah:

A voice says, “Cry out.”And I said, “What shall I cry?”“All men are like grass,and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.The grass withers and the flowers fall,because the breath of the LORD blows on them.Surely the people are grass.The grass withers and the flowers fall,but the word of our God stands for ever.” (Isaiah 40:6-8)

The Facebook comments wither and the tweets fall,  but the word of our God stands for ever.