The Glorious God Who Hears

I was reflecting this morning on Paige Benton Brown's conference message from 1 Kings 8 and in rereading the passage, was struck by these words: 


"But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built! Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O Lord my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you this day, that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you have said, 'My name shall be there,' that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place. And listen to the plea of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen in heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive... If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence or blight or mildew or locust or caterpillar, if their enemy besieges them in the land at their gates, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is, whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any man or by all your people Israel, each knowing the affliction of his own heart and stretching out his hands toward this house, then hear in heaven your dwelling place and forgive and act and render to each whose heart you know, according to all his ways ( for you, you only, know the hearts of all the children of mankind), that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land that you gave to our fathers." (1 Kings 8:27-30, 37-40)


God cannot be contained by even the highest heaven; He is all-glorious, all-holy, all-knowing. And yet, He has regard for the prayers of His people, not only to forgive (glorious truth!), but also to hear and act on the many and varying afflictions, however small, that His people lift up with humble hands toward Him, and all to the praise of His glorious grace! It reminded me of Hebrews 4:14-16:


"Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."


What an encouragement to pray! Through Christ then, let us come before this glorious and lofty God, who hears and forgives His people!

Lessons From the Check-Out

I was THAT mother today. You've seen her before--the one who's desperately trying to decide whether she actually needs those discounted bowls (she didn't), while also attempting to keep 3 children from biting each other's heads off with their words, and all the while, a 4th child is in the grocery cart, wailing at the top of her lungs. She makes a good effort to avoid the annoyed, or occasionally sympathetic, gazes of the others in the check-out line, slams the groceries onto the belt as fast as humanly possible, then makes a beeline for the parking lot the second the card is authorized. I've seen her, too. I've been the onlooker thinking, "Can't that poor woman keep those kids in line?!" Well, today I WAS her.

But I need those kind of shopping days to help keep my pride in check. I need to remember that we all fail as parents at times, that we're all weak, that we all need a Saviour, that there is nothing in myself or my kids that I can rely on--I must depend solely on the grace of God.

This was SO not today!

These words from Elyse Fitzpatrick are so encouraging to me:

"The weaknesses, failures, and sins of our family are the places where we learn that we need grace too. It is there, in those dark mercies, that God teaches us to be humbly dependent. It is there that he draws near to us and sweetly reveals his grace... It is a kindness when he strips us of self-reliance, because it is there, in our emptiness and brokenness, that we experience the privilege of his sustaining grace. It is only when we arrive at that dreaded place of weakness that we discover the surpassing power of Christ. It is only when we are finally freed from those oh-so-constricting straightjackets of self-righteousness that we are able to experience the true comfort and warmth of the robes of his righteousness." (Give Them Grace)

So the next time I'm behind that mother in the grocery store, I want to be patient and remember that I fail, too. I want to give her an encouraging word, rather than an irritated glare. And the next time I AM her, I want to rejoice that I've been counted righteous in Christ, despite my inability to keep the kids in check. He alone is strong, He alone never fails, He alone is always faithful, and His grace is with me in my weakness.

Preserving the Gospel

My husband, Nathan, spent a few years as a cell phone salesman. As most phone stores do, his stores carried a cell phones and also numerous accessories to go with them. Now suppose that Nathan thought the phones were all well and good, but he had a particular obsession with all the nifty cell phone cases in the store. Instead of spending his time pouring over the various features of the phones, he spent all his breaks looking over the cases, comparing the benefits and pitfalls of the different models and designs. And when a customer came into the store, he just assumed they already had a phone and jumped into selling them a great new case. "Phones are nice," he'd admit. "But what's really important is that you get the best case possible. This one here has several great features. And just look at the cool design on the back..." If all he ever talked about were the cases, and if he sold them with enough passion, he might just sell a few to gullible customers who didn't own a phone to put in the case. But while they could certainly find other things to keep in there, other ways to put it to use, that case wouldn't do them any good at all if they were in a bad accident on the highway and needed to call for help.

Now this story seems absurd. What cell phone salesman in his right mind would focus only on the cases? But as Don Carson pointed out at the Gospel Coalition conference this past weekend, in his message "Preserving the Gospel", this is something we often do as believers when it comes to the gospel. His point was that the people around us will catch from us what we are most passionate about, and what we repeat most often. If we assume the gospel, if it's not our primary focus and passion, we won't pass it on to others, intentionally or not. If we talk more about some issue than about the gospel, those around us--our children, our fellow church members, unbelievers--will pick up a passion for that issue, rather than a passion for the gospel, because they will see that this other thing is what we consider to be most important.

Of course, the cell phone illustration is incomplete. Having a cell phone is not essential (I know, because we had no phone and no GPS for our entire trip to an unknown city, and we came back alive and happy!), whereas having the gospel is THE essential. But if it's so important for a salesman to be passionate to sell actual phones, and not just their cases, how much more important is it for us to be passionate about the essential gospel of life!

So I'm asking myself: Is the gospel my passion? Do I care more about feeding on demand, or homeschooling, or healthy eating habits than I do about the gospel? When I talk with other believers, am I insisting on the gospel first and foremost, or am I spending all my time debating what the Bible says about a woman's role in the home? Are we more focused on arguing over mode of baptism, or the continuation of the gifts, than we are on preaching the gospel to each other? And for those of us with kids, are we more focused on the law and its rewards, or on the gospel of grace, when we instruct and discipline our them?

I'm not saying, and neither was Carson, that these issues aren't important, that there isn't a time and place to discuss them, to make distinctions, to decide for one side rather than the other. But without the centrality of the gospel, it doesn't matter how much time we pour into other even very important biblical issues. When I die, the deciding question for me is not going to be "Do you think it is righteous to send your kids to public school?" or even "Were you baptized as an infant?" The question will be "What gives you the right to stand before God and be counted righteous, rather than thrown into hell to suffer his just wrath for all eternity?" And the only answer to that is the gospel that I do indeed deserve his wrath, and yet he, in all his holiness and in all his mercy, sent his perfect son Jesus Christ to live a perfectly righteous life and die in my place to take the punishment for my sins, and to give me his perfect righteousness as my own, as if I had never sinned, nor been a sinner, so that now, I have all of God's approval and love and forgiveness, and the hope of knowing God as his beloved child for all eternity. THAT is what I want to be most passionate about. THAT is the primary thing I want to communicate to my husband (who actually cares far more about the phones than about their cases), to my children, to my brothers and sisters in Christ, to the lost around me every day! And it is only in light of THAT that all the other issues have meaning and importance.

Lord, give me a passion for your glorious gospel that far outweighs the issues of the day, or the issues of my day. Help me to be intentional about beholding your glory in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18-4:6), so that my love for the gospel would increase, not only for my own perseverance in the faith, but also so that my family and my friends and even the strangers around me would see what is truly central and essential, and by your Spirit, be encouraged to pursue it, too!

TGC Women's Conference 2012

As I mentioned last week, I had the great privilege this past weekend of attending The Gospel Coalition Women's Conference in Orlando, Florida with two other women from my church. It was a privilege because I should have been at home taking care of the kids and house, but my husband joyfully insisted on taking over that role for a few days so that I could go. It was a privilege because conferences like that are expensive and I didn't have all the money to go, but some family members generously contributed so that I could. It was a privilege because I thought I'd be going alone, and God provided for two other women to come with me so that we could not only process the conference messages together, but also begin to put it into practise in our interactions with each other (and it was a whole lot more fun - I haven't laughed that much in a while!). It was a privilege because while millions around the globe don't have ready access to the gospel, not only does God grace me with such teaching each Sunday at my local church, He also poured out such an abundance of it at this conference that it made my head spin! Honestly, this past weekend, I felt like I got sprayed by a gospel fire hose!

Between the 8 main sessions, the 3 workshops, 2 pre-conference sessions (there was one more, but it took us a little while to make our way to the conference centre and we missed the first one), and an extra evening "focus gathering", I've come back with enough notes and things to think about to keep me busy for the rest of the summer (not to mention the applications which will easily take more than the rest of this earthly life to put into practise)! I'm planning to work through my notes on each session, at the rate of a couple a week, and make a new shorter set of notes outlining what is most important and applicable about each session (and the conference as whole), so that it will no longer be a jumble in my head. As I do that, I'll be posting some blog entries with thoughts on some of the main points that were made. Others may consider other things more interesting or important, and I'm sure there will be a lot of entries on various blogs about the messages over the coming weeks, but what I want to write here are the things that spoke most to me because that's what I'll be meditating on. Trying to put it in my own words and illustrations and applications will help me process it all. And I hope these notes will also be helpful to you, whether you attended the conference or not.

Thank you, Lord, for the privilege of hearing your Word preached, and may I also explain it clearly for the benefit of others!

Gospel Motivation

I could say much more about internet use, but I have the privilege of attending the Gospel Coalition Women's Conference this weekend, and I'm hoping that in the coming weeks, I'll have plenty to think and write about in relation to things learned there, so I'm going to bring this discussion to a close for now.


I've spent a few posts talking about practical things to consider when using social media, the "how" of social media, if you will. But I don't want to leave you with a 12-step program to break unhealthy internet habits. I want to leave you with the gospel.


If you think that cutting back your Facebook time, controlling what you say on Twitter and how you say it, and guarding yourself against pride in your blogging is necessary because you need to earn God's favour, and be a good enough Christian to merit your relationship with God and prove to the world that you're for real, you've missed the point. We CAN'T do enough good to earn God's favour. In fact, apart from Christ, all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags in His sight (Isaiah 64:6). No amount of scrupulousness in your internet habits (or any other habits) will ever justify us in God's eyes. None of us keep even our own internet standards perfectly, let alone GOD'S standards. So do not change your habits to make God happy with you; it won't work, and in fact, will only lead to self-righteousness, a sin that drives us even farther from grace.


Here is the reason we want to be careful about our use of time, the reason we want to avoid evil and impurity in online entertainment, the reason we want to use our words to build up rather than tear down and to express humility rather than pride: We who are in Christ have been given a free gift of grace so lavish and so undeserved that gratitude toward the Giver moves us to love and obey His commands, seeking to live in a way that glorifies and pleases our Saviour. He gave His life for us; He paid the sin-debt that we could not pay, and overwhelming thanksgiving for such mercy motivates us to want to do whatever it takes to become more like Him. If you are finding it hard to become a better steward of the time and energy that God has given you (and even if you're not!), don't just spend your time planning practical steps to do it. Spend time marinating in the gospel. Meditate on the depths of God's mercy toward you, an undeserving sinner. Pray for intense and joyful thankfulness, the kind that moves us to true and heart-felt commitment to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12; note that in context, the "therefore" relates to Philippians 2:5-11, which is the gospel.)


And when you fail--again--don't give up. Don't wallow in guilt and self-pity. That failure is not the end of your righteous standing before God. Confess it; repent of it, turn again to the cross in thanksgiving for God's unending forgiveness, and press on in reliance on the Spirit, in the confidence that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion, not because of your good work, but because of His steadfast love and faithfulness.  


"The way sanctifying growth takes place is not, in essence, by redoubling moral efforts, writing out new resolutions and intensifying spiritual disciplines. The fundamental means of change is deeper and deeper reflection on the very gospel that rescued us in the first place. It sounds backward, but the path to holiness is through (not beyond) the grace of the gospel, because only undeserved grace can truly melt and transform the heart." - Dane Ortlund in Defiant Grace


"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation." (Romans 5:6-11)


Hallelujah, what a Saviour!