by HARVEYOPP | Mar 27, 2015 | Tim Challies
“The very heart of the human condition is a faulty assessment of self. We think too much of ourselves, and think of ourselves too much. We overrate our importance and underestimate our depravity. Ultimately, we elevate ourselves to the place reserved for God.
In the face of such insanity, we need to know who we really are. We need to have a right assessment of self.
Who am I? It is a question we have all asked at one time or another, at least in one of its variations. And every man has his own answer. Every philosophy and every religion has its own response.
Most of them tell me to look inside. I am told to look within, to search myself for the truth, to search myself for my own identity. But I never seem to find it. I can’t quite seem to pin it down. The mere conviction that I can find answers within stands as proof of my faulty self-assessment. The simple fact is that I cannot know myself as I really am. I am too blind to see myself, too far gone to find myself.
Here is what I have learned: To know myself, I need to look outside of myself. My best assessment of self does not come from within but from without. It does not originate with me but with God.
The Bible is an inestimable treasure because of what it teaches me about God, but it is equally valuable for what it teaches me about me. It does not reveal only the truth about deity, but also about humanity.
If I want to know who I am, if I want to know why I exist, if I want to know where I’ve gone wrong, if I want to know my deepest meaning and purpose, if I want to properly assess myself, I need to look outside myself. I cannot know these things apart from God speaking through his Word. The Bible is different from every other book in this way: Where I read all those other books, the Bible reads me.*
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalm 139:23-24)
The Bible searches me and tells me where I have erred. It examines me and tells me what I need. It tries me and evaluates my every thought and attitude. Ultimately, it reads me and tells me who I am.
Who am I? I will never know until I open the Bible and ask.
*I think I have heard that phrase, or a similar one, attributed to R.C. Sproul, but I wasn’t able to track it down.”
by HARVEYOPP | Dec 11, 2014 | Tim Challies
God promises grace to battle sin and to overcome sin. We believe that God gives that kind of grace to his people. This is not something we deserve; it is not something he owes us, but he gives it anyway. It is undeserved, the overflow of his love for us.
And we long for that grace—the grace to put sin to death, the grace to bring righteousness to life, the grace to be who and what God calls us to be.
God gives that grace, but for some reason—his good reasons—it rarely comes in the form we would prefer. God gives it not in the form we want but in the form we need. We want God to zap away our sin, to instantly and permanently remove it. Those desires, those addictions, those idolatries—we want them to be lifted and to be gone that very moment.
God could do this. He has the strength and the power. And occasionally he does do this, he removes the sin and the temptation to sin in an instant, and it never comes back with the same strength and the same force.
But more commonly God’s grace is not manifested in the instant obliteration of a sin. Instead, his grace is manifested in a newfound desire to destroy that sin. God does not zap away our sin, but gives us a new hatred for it and a new desire to do the hard work of battling it. He does not sovereignly remove it in a moment, but extends grace so we can battle it for a lifetime. He extends grace so we can see continuous, incremental success, knowing our weakness and crying out for his strength. He gives what we need, even if it isn’t quite what we want.
And this, too, is grace. This, too, is undeserved favor from a loving God. This, somehow, must be far better for us than the alternative. “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
by HARVEYOPP | Jun 5, 2014 | Tim Challies
Last night I sat with a group of men from our church and talked about prayer. And, as usually happens, our thoughts turned toward unanswered prayer or prayer that is answered very differently than we had asked or hoped. Why are there times when God seems not to answer? If a good Father would never give his children a stone in place of bread, why does it seem like God sometimes does this very thing?
The best way I know how to answer is to point to the cross. God’s people wanted deliverance from oppression. They wanted a Messiah. They wanted a Savior. Then that Messiah came. That Messiah told them that he was there to deliver them. That Messiah triumphantly entered Jerusalem as the prophecies had foretold. And then that Messiah was brutally murdered. What happened? What did it all mean? Was this the answer to their prayers?
I think of Jesus’ disciples in the aftermath of the crucifixion, as the sun rose on the Sabbath day and their conquering Messiah lay cold and dead in the grave. They must have been perplexed. They must have wondered. They must have been confused and overwhelmed. Or maybe underwhelmed. Was this the answer to their prayers? What had happened to the promise of victory? When would they receive the deliverance they had been promised.
The Sabbath day came and went. And then they came to the first day of the week and an angelic messenger telling them, “He is not here, but has risen.” The fog began to lift.
What Jesus would accomplish made little sense to them when he described it in advance; what he was accomplishing made little sense while he endured it; what he had accomplished became clear only when they could look back on it. They just needed to wait. It all became clear in time.
And we often find ourselves in the same place. When we pray, and pray earnestly, and praying desiring God’s glory and fame, we know that he will answer and will give what we desire most. But we need to be patient. Like the disciples, we need to look to past, present and future with eyes of faith, trusting that in time everything will become clear.
by HARVEYOPP | Apr 23, 2014 | Tim Challies
It is one of the Bible’s many sweet and powerful promises: “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). The question is, though, how do we do this? In very practical ways, how do we resist the devil? Thomas Brooks, in his book “Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices”, offers a list of ten ways the Christian can resist Satan’s temptations.
1. Be Ruled by the Word. Make the Word of God your rule and authority and live in obedience to all it says. It will keep you walking straight and guard you from all manner of temptation. “When men throw off the Word, then God throws off them, and then Satan takes them by the hand, and leads them into snares at his pleasure.”
2. Beware of Grieving the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that gives the Christian the ability to discern Satan’s temptations and to see his hand in and behind life’s circumstances. If you grieve the Spirit, you drive off the one whose ministry involves guarding you against Satan’s attacks.
3. Labor for Wisdom. There is a great difference between knowledge and wisdom, between accumulating facts and applying Scripture to those facts so they become wisdom. It is not the Christian with the most knowledge, but the Christian with the most wisdom, who is equipped to battle Satan’s temptations.
4. Resist the First Stirring of Temptation. It is safe to resist temptation and dangerous to dabble in it. “He that will play with Satan’s bait, will quickly be taken with Satan’s hook.” God promises that we can resist temptation, not that we can resist sin once we have begun to dabble in that temptation.
5. Labor to Be Filled With the Spirit. The Spirit is a Spirit of light and power. The Spirit’s light shines bright against the darkness of sin and his power is sufficient to overcome all evil and temptation. When it comes to fighting Satan’s temptations, it is better to have a heart filled with the Spirit than a head filled with facts.
6. Keep Humble. A humble heart would rather lie in the dust than rise to prominence by sinful means; it would prefer to lose everything than to sin and be left with a guilty conscience. The humble person is neither drawn in by what Satan offers, nor terrified by his threats.
7. Be Constantly on Guard. A secure soul is a soul in a position to be led astray and ensnared. “That soul that will not watch against temptations will certainly fall before the power of temptations.” Satan strengthens his assaults when the soul grows drowsy and careless. So be constantly on guard. “Watchfulness is nothing else but the soul running up and down, to and fro, busy everywhere; it is the heart busied and employed with diligent observation of what comes from within us, and of what comes from without us and into us.”
8. Continue Communing With God. It is as you join in communion with God that he gives you strength to resist Satan’s attacks. “A soul high in communion with God may be tempted, but will not easily be conquered. Such a soul will fight it out to the death.” Take full advantage of God’s means of grace.
9. Do Not Engage Satan In Your Own Strength. You need to draw the power, and even the desire, to resist sin from Jesus Christ and you need to do this every day. “Certainly that soul that engages against any old or new temptation without new strength, new influences from on high, will fall before the power of new temptation.” Commune with God, be on guard, be humble—do all of these things! But do not rely on them in the battle; instead, rely on Christ.
10. Pray Constantly. “Prayer is a shelter to the soul, a sacrifice to God and a scourge to the devil.” So pray and pray constantly. Tell God of your own inability to detect and respond to temptation; tell him that you are utterly dependent upon his grace; tell God that Christ’s blood has been applied to you; tell God that you are his child; ask God to deliver you from temptation for the glory of his name.
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