Do We Really Need TV?

"If all other variables are equal, your capacity to know God deeply will probably diminish in direct proportion to how much television you watch. There are several reasons for this. One is that television reflects American culture at its most trivial. And a steady diet of triviality shrinks the soul. You get used to it. It starts to seem normal. Silly becomes funny. And funny becomes pleasing. And pleasing becomes soul-satisfaction. And in the end the soul that is made for God has shrunk to fit snugly around triteness.....TV is mostly trivial. It seldom inspires great thoughts or great feelings with glimpses of great Truth. God is the great, absolute, all-shaping Reality. If He gets any air time, He is treated as an opinion. There is no reverence. No trembling. God and all that He thinks about the world is missing. Cut loose from God, everything goes down.....So there are good reasons to try a TV fast. Or to simply wean yourself off of it entirely. We have not owned a TV for thirty-four years of marriage except for three years in Germany when we used it for language learning. There is no inherent virtue in this. I only mention it to prove that you can raise five culturally sensitive and Biblically informed children without it." (emphases mine)

- John Piper, Pierced by the Word, 18

The Humility of Zeal

Ps 69:9
For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.


Ps 119:139
My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words.

Ga 4:18
But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.

If a thing is worth doing, then it is worth doing with one's whole heart, mind, and strength. If God, in our relationship with Him as Father, Savior, Lord, Helper, and Sanctifier, is the Pearl of Great Price to our souls, then knowing Him and seeking to please Him should so consume us that all else in our current existence must necessarily fade to gray.

Do we presently have sack loads of issues on our backs, encumbering our progress and stripping us of joy? It may be that we have allowed our zeal for God to wane. It may be that we have lost the peculiarity that must mark the child of God for having been so immersed in the world's pursuits. Have we been seeking success and the affirmation of the world and our fallen selves to the snuffing out of the fire of God that once raged within?

Let us once more realize that life lived upon this earth can only have meaning, can only have worth, can only have significance if it is a life that accomplishes the purpose for which it was given existence by the Creator. It may be true that things are crumbling all around you. The things that once gave you fulfillment are no longer doing their job. The loved one has failed you; work has become a routine that wears you down; ministry has become a drudgery; habitual sins constantly erode your sense of joy and peace and diffuse guilt instead. These things are true for many of us, and yet only one thing is needed: AN UNDIVIDED PASSION FOR CHRIST. The difficult circumstances surrounding our lives may remain as they are, but rekindling Christ as our heated core and having Him as our FIRST LOVE, first in terms of position and primacy, are the only means of staying on this earth sane and sound.

Called to Lose

Mt 16:24
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Mt 16:25
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Mt 16:26
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

I used to think back then that Christianity, or my relationship with the Lord, was the key energizing element that would ensure my "success" in this world. I was certain that "the Lord's favor" would get me climbing up the corporate ladder a lot faster than I would have without its help. I'm glad that the Lord has lovingly guided me away from that flawed train of thinking.

What the Christian must realize is that the desire to be a "success" is evidence of sin still residing within the heart. The "success" I am referring to here is the clamor to be Chicken No. 1 in the Pecking Order, having the right to peck at the bottom chickens with no threat of being pecked back. It is the insidious sin of pride disguised as one's right "to be all that you can be". In the milieu of this deception, being a "winner" is the chief of virtues while being a "loser" is mortal sin.

In God's eyes, the one who is a true success is the one whom the world calls loser, underachiever, underdog, pathetic, bottom chicken, all because he has reordered his thinking into pursuing the kind of success that is marked by loving others with a kind of love that considers them better than himself and therefore not competitors. God's winner also has found the world's labels to be utterly meaningless and has firmly decided within his heart and mind that all that matters is for the silence to be broken in the end by these words from the Master's lips, "Well done, good and faithful servant".

Such a man is free in the fullest sense of freedom. No longer is he a rat in the rat race but a bird soaring high on wings as eagles. He is a man of vision, zeal, and creative energy--a dynamo--consumed not by the vain pursuit of pecking rights but by the passion to be just like his Master, a despised servant.

Humility and the Power of the Gospel

"The power of the glorious gospel is not the product of human genius or technique. We are weak and common, plain and fragile, breakable and disposable, but that does not prove fatal to the work of God. On the contrary, we demonstrate that God must be at work, for that is the only logical explanation! Paul’s humility sustained him, as it will all true servants of Christ. Incontrast to our message we are nothing. When we humble ourselves in the presence of the Lord, he will exalt us (Jas. 4:10)."

- John MacArthur, Stand (A Call for the Endurance of the Saints), ch. 3, p. 65-66

The Gospel is for Me, a Sinner!

"Since the gospel is only for sinners, I come to Christ as a still practicing sinner. In fact, I usually use the words of that tax collector in the temple when he cried out, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner' (Luke 18:13). God has been merciful, and I’m quick to acknowledge his mercy in my life, but I say to him that I come in the attitude of that tax collector. 'I need your mercy. I am still a practicing sinner. Even my very best deeds are sinful in your sight, and I am an object of your mercy and your grace.'

And so we come to the Lord and we say, 'Lord, I come still a practicing sinner, but I look to Jesus Christ and his shed blood and his perfect obedience, his righteous life that has been credited to me. And I see myself standing before you clothed in his righteousness.'"

- Jerry Bridges, Stand (A Call for the Endurance of the Saints), ch. 1, p. 23, 26

His Word that Makes Real

Ac 17:28
For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

Heb 1:3
Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Every time I wake up in the morning, I am reminded that, beforehand, God spoke. The continuance of my earthly consciousness and bodily functions are owing to God being pleased to have me live a day more. This is true of the whole universe. What science terms as the laws of physics are actually God deciding to do things the same way, day-in day-out, for all these thousands of years. These laws have no power of their own to function automatically. They derive their ability to be from God. That's why "miracles" should not be outside the realm of reality to a true thinking Christian's mind. They are simply instances wherein God chooses to act a little differently than before--or perhaps not so little, as with the Egyptian plagues.

All this is cause for PRAISE and THANKSGIVING. You are alive today. God took delight in giving you one more day of earthly existence. Honor Him by the recognition of this fact and more other facts about Him in a book called, the Bible.

Thomas Watson on God's Will

1. GET SOUND KNOWLEDGE.
We must know his will before we can do it; knowledge is the eye to direct the foot of obedience. The Papists make ignorance the mother of devotion; but Christ makes ignorance the mother of error. "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures" (Matt 22: 29). We must know God’s will before we can do it aright. Affection without knowledge, is like a horse full of mettle, but his eyes are out.

2. IF WE WOULD DO GOD'S WILL ARIGHT, LET US LABOUR FOR SELF DENIAL.
Unless we deny our own will, we shall never do God’s will. His will and ours are like the wind and tide when they are contrary. He wills one thing, we will another; he calls us to be crucified to the world, by nature we love the world; he calls us to forgive our enemies, by nature we bear malice in our hearts. His will and ours are contrary, and till we can cross our own will, we shall never fulfil his.

3. LET US GET HUMBLE HEARTS.
Pride is the spring of disobedience. "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?" (Exodus 5: 2). A proud man thinks it below him to stoop to God’s will. Be humble. The humble son says, Lord what wilt thou have me to do? He puts, as it were, a blank paper into God’s hand; and bids him write what he will, and he will subscribe to it.

4. BEG GRACE AND STRENGTH OF GOD TO DO HIS WILL.
"Teach me to do thy will:" as if David had said, Lord, I need not be taught to do my own will, I can do it fast enough, but teach me to do thy will. (Ps. 143:10). And that which may add wings to prayer, is God’s gracious promise, "I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes" (Ezek 36: 27). If the loadstone draw the iron, it is not hard for the iron to move: if God’s Spirit enable, it will not be hard, but rather delightful to do God’s will.

Source: Ron Cook, Christian Lifestyle - Part 3: Obedience, PBM

"The Christian Anthem" by Lee Behnken

I first came across this song by Lee Behnken back in 1998. In fact, I've seen Lee play live on two different occassions during one of his visits here in the Philippines.

This particular song cuts me to the heart. It is timely, given the global economic crisis and the recent appointment of the new U.S. president, the one chiefly tasked with the alleviation of the aforementioned burden. It reminds me that no nation can ever continue to stand and prosper, in the ultimate sense of these two words, apart from submission to the sovereignty of God and His Word.

The Humility of Tears

"One of the reasons God loved David so much was that he cried so much."

"It is a beautiful thing when a broken man genuinely cries out to God."

- John Piper, When the Darkness Will Not Lift, Ch.2

Humility Before Honor

Indeed, God desires to bless His children. In fact, not just His children for "...he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust" (Mat 5:45). It is in God's unalterable nature to be gracious. So gracious is He that He "spared not his own Son, but delivered him up, for us all, how then shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Rom 8:32). "All things", however, has taken on a new meaning for most Christians. It has now mutated into the acquisition of the world's symbols of success, of being lauded by others as a person of power and influence, of living a hardship-free existence. This is not what God's blessing must mean to a blood-bought child of God. In fact, we are promised tribulation by none other than our Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. But He doesn't leave us in that predicament. He gave His Word, the Word that fashioned worlds, that in Him we can overcome the pain, disappointments, heartaches, and sufferings that must inevitably befall His disciples. Let us hearken to His words: "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (Joh 16:33)

One of the things that stick so tenaciously to even a Christian is the need for honor. We want to be the head of the pack. We want to be "the man". We want to be the one who "gets things done". There is all the biblical support for being the best that we can be in everything we put our hands to, but this is quite different from that virulent scourge of pride that often ravages our souls and leaves us as either demigods or burned-out vagabonds. What is the way out of this? In light of the biblical warning that "pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Pro 16:18), how do we overcome pride in our souls? The same way all enemies of our souls are overcome: THROUGH CHRIST.

If we have based our self-worth, our hopes, our dreams--our future--on CHRIST, pride must naturally fade away. We are given the injunction to "be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." (1Pe 5:5) What could be a more daunting prospect than to have God resist you--to have Him resist your proud flauntings by a withholding of His grace? But then, what could be a greater source of joy and power than to be assured of a continuous supply of this grace--the grace that feeds you, clothes you, places you within a loving family, gives you the physical and mental strength to hold a job--the grace that saved you from your former wretched life?

The lower you go, the more real His grace becomes! It truly is AMAZING!

Hey, Oscar! (Candle-Burning and Contentment)

Psa 127:2
It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.

Workaholism has become a type of "holiness" to many. It has taken on a sacred meaning in today's materialistic world. Burning the candle on both ends is a sign of one's competence and worth. Or so the world says.

It is refreshing that the child of God does not have to destroy both his body and soul in the pursuit of worldly affirmation. His "good feelings" don't come from his occupational rank, his luxury homes, his fast cars, nor his bank account, for he has learned the wisdom of the ff. passages:

1Ti 6:6
But godliness with contentment is great gain.

1Ti 6:7
For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

1Ti 6:8
And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

What is the wellspring of this godly contentment? It gushes forth endlessly from the Holy Spirit-wrought conviction that nothing else matters in the universe but God. If a person is right with His Creator, everything is settled. Food, clothing, shelter? All that is covered: "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Mat 6:33) What about a little clout? Some fame mixed in? Extra cash? Nah! The child of God would echo Paul's words: "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ." (Php 3:7-8)

Let's not lose sleep over stinking trash.

"Beam Me Up, Scotty!" (The Temporal Nature of Earthly Life)

Consider yourself blessed if you reach the age of 70. But what if you found out that your time on this earth was slated for a much shorter period...say, 35 years? Would you be glad or sad? Joyful or wrathful?

I believe a good part of Christianity is the weaning from worldy entanglements that make "exiting" such a dreadful prospect. If you truly believe, along with the apostle Paul, that: "...to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Php 1:21), then "kicking the bucket" would be way better--infinitely better--than staying a little while longer. Of course, our welcome on this earth is in the hands of the Ruler of the Universe who sustains everything by His word, but we should, even now, turn ourselves off to the affections of this decaying world and set our hearts to anticipating our ultimate rendezvous with Christ.

It takes a little wackiness (indeed, we are a peculiar people) to be in the "Beam me up, Scotty" frame of mind, but you will notice that the variables currently existing in your life will take on a simpler tone, whether they be joys or griefs, if it is adopted. Things will be lighter. Pleasures will be sweeter. Difficulties will be bearable--even welcome--as you consider that they serve to make you more like Christ and that soon eternal bliss in His presence will be yours.

1Jo 2:17
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

Ps 90:12
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

The Winner's Choice

Psa 34:18
The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

Psa 34:19
Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.

A Christian does his soul well if he would accept that troubles are the norm and not the exception. Yet there is a way to make the seasons in the valley seasons of joy.

Psa 84:5
Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.

Psa 84:6
Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.

Psa 84:7
They go from strength, to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.

Joy in times of adversity is sustained by virtue of the grounding on which one's hopes are based. Hoping in God is not a downgrading of one's life vision, as what the world system and the Enemy would have you believe, as if it is the last alternative of the loser in his many attempts at fulfillment using methods that should've worked for a man made of nobler stuff. On the contrary, it is the response of the man who has weighed the alternatives and found them pathetic and wanting and has discovered for himself a pearl of great price, the value of which renders the options worthless as chaff.

Upon this solid rock of hope, the Christian finds even in the most arid of deserts, where there is loneliness, disappointment, and death, springs of comfort and delight issuing forth from the promise of God to deliver and transform. The valleys of God make men--men of joy, hope, and the power of a Christlike nature.