"syndoulos"

Hymn Pt. 12 "I Will Glory In My Redeemer"

“I will glory in my Redeemer
Whose priceless blood has ransomed me
Mine was the sin that drove the bitter nails
And hung Him on that judgment tree
I will glory in my Redeemer
Who crushed the power of sin and death
My only Savior before the Holy Judge
The Lamb Who is my righteousness
The Lamb Who is my righteousness

I will glory in my Redeemer
My life He bought, my love He owns
I have no longings for another
I’m satisfied in Him alone
I will glory in my Redeemer
His faithfulness my standing place
Though foes are mighty and rush upon me
My feet are firm, held by His grace
My feet are firm, held by His grace

I will glory in my Redeemer
Who carries me on eagle’s wings
He crowns my life with lovingkindness
His triumph song I’ll ever sing
I will glory in my Redeemer
Who waits for me at gates of gold
And when He calls me it will be paradise
His face forever to behold
His face forever to behold
His face forever to behold”

“I Will Glory in My Redeemer” by Steve and Vikki Cook.
©2001 Sovereign Grace Worship

Hymn Pt. 11 "Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken"

“Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee;
Destitute, despised, forsaken,
Thou from hence my All shalt be.
Perish every fond ambition,
All I’ve sought or hoped or known;
Yet how rich is my condition!
God and heaven are still my own.

Let the world despise and leave me,
They have left my Savior, too.
Human hearts and looks deceive me;
Thou art not, like them, untrue.
And while Thou shalt smile upon me,
God of wisdom, love, and might,
Foes may hate and friends may shun me;
Show Thy face, and all is bright.

Go, then, earthly fame and treasure!
Come, disaster, scorn, and pain!
In Thy service, pain is pleasure;
With Thy favor, loss is gain.
I have called Thee Abba, Father!
I have stayed my heart on Thee.
Storms may howl, and clouds may gather,
All must work for good to me.

Man may trouble and distress me,
‘Twill but drive me to Thy breast;
Life with trials hard may press me,
Heaven will bring me sweeter rest.
Oh, ‘tis not in grief to harm me
While Thy love is left to me;
Oh, ‘twere not in joy to charm me
Were that joy unmixed with Thee.

Take, my soul, thy full salvation;
Rise o’er sin and fear and care;
Joy to find in every station,
Something still to do or bear.
Think what Spirit dwells within thee,
What a Father’s smile is thine,
What a Savior died to win thee;
Child of heaven, shouldst thou repine?

Haste, then, on from grace to glory,
Armed by faith and winged by prayer;
Heaven’s eternal day’s before thee,
God’s own hand shall guide thee there.
Soon shall close the earthly mission,
Swift shall pass thy pilgrim days,
Hope soon change to glad fruition,
Faith to sight, and prayer to praise.”

- Henry Francis Lyte, 1824; Composer: Rowland H. Prichard, 1855, alt.
Text: Luke 18:28

The Call to Patience in Sanctification

I recently gave a devotional on “The Parable of the Talents” (which was later retitled “The Parable of Stewardship” by me) to my fellow co-laborers at the prayer-based worship ministry Alabaster. The passage I spoke from was Matthew 25:14-30. In short, it was a devotional on not forgetting the sermons we’ve heard the past few months on passionate living and on emulating Christ the Supreme servant; also to be aware of the complacency that easily seeps into our youth group who are often tempted to just “go with the motions” and look forward to the closing of the Bible than the opening of It, and to serve faithfully with the “talents” that God has graced us with - lest we be deemed unfaithful by our Master and forever condemned (v.30).
D.A. Carson puts it well (HT: C. Lazo for quote):

“Out greatest freedom is to become slaves for Christ.”

At the same time I proposed that the Master’s response of “… I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master,” was somewhat preposterous and would be surprising for me had I been present and perhaps even for those present at the time. Reasoning? Because although “…I will set you over much” is a bit surprising in itself in terms of a servant being rewarded for doing only what he was being asked (because it’s the obligation of the servant), it’s still understandable that a person be rewarded for his labor. However the following “enter into the joy of your master” is something that made me ask myself “Why the heck should it matter to me that the master is joyful with me?” Although not expressed out loud by most proclaiming Christians, I think our lives often display that sentiment- we don’t see Christ our Master as the all satisfying reason for why we should be servants.

So that in effect was my mess of a devotional. But the thing that hit me afterwards was how quickly I wanted CY to change. How abruptly I wanted sanctification to take place in CY (despite only a total of four people hearing the devotional). How far more aware I was of the flaws of CY than I was of the evidences of grace. In effect, I had forgotten that sanctification is a process, not an event. (HT: Mahaney) John Newton knew this and articulates it:

“I have been thirty years forming my own views; and, in the course of this time, some of my hills have sunk, and some of my valleys have risen: but, how unreasonable within me to expect all this should take place in another person; and that, in the course of a year or two.”

I must remember that sanctification isn’t something that will occur in the span of one devotional, one message, a week, months, or even years! I should look to myself and realize that years were invested into me for me to even be where I am now (which is truly truly truly, not far at all T_T).

And above all that ^^^, I should be even more overwhelmed that God has patience with me at all.

SOLDIERS: RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

SOLDIERS: RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

“AND THE THINGS THAT YOU HAVE HEARD ME SAY IN THE PRESENCE OF MANY WITNESSES ENTRUST TO RELIABLE MEN WHO WILL ALSO BE QUALIFIED TO TEACH OTHERS. ENDURE HARDSHIP LIKE A GOOD SOLDIER OF CHRIST JESUS. NO ON SERVING AS A SOLDIER GETS INVOLVED WITH CIVILIAN AFFAIRS- HE WANTS TO PLEASE HIS COMMANDING OFFICER” - 2 TIMOTHY 2:2-4

[Before I continue, this was found at my friend’s house and it was something that our late mentor at church left for him before leaving for seminary. These were the ORIGINAL rules composed by the ORIGINAL leaders (Ben, Ryan, Eddie, Zeb) on bright red laminated cards and our current group of guys found it quite humorous as well as something worth following. Perhaps something to talk about and laugh about when you SoCal kids come back!]

Rule 1: YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT WHAT SOLDIERS TALK ABOUT IN SOLDIERS.

Rule 2: YOU MUST LISTEN AND OBEY COMMANDING OFFICERS (B.R.E.Z.)

Rule 3: YOU MUST LEARN TO BE OPEN AT SOLDIERS.

Rule 4: IF IT’S YOUR FIRST TIME AT SOLDIERS BE READY TO FIGHT (SHARE).

Rule 5: YOU ARE NOT HERE FOR YOUR OWN FUN AND LAUGHS, WE ARE HERE TO GROW AND BE FED BY THE LORD’S WORD.

Rule 6: YOU ARE NOT HERE TO BE JUDGED, WE ARE ALL EQUAL AND STRIVE TO KNOW GOD AND KNOW EACH OTHER BETTER.

Rule 7: AS SOLDIERS WE DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT GET INVOLVED IN CIVILIAN AFFAIRS (sounds familiar).

Rule 8: AS PART OF SOLDIERS, FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH EACH OTHER AND KNOW THAT ANYTHING SAID OR KNOW ABOUT ON ANOTHER STAYS IN SOLDIERS!

Rule 9: YOU MUST LEARN TO LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD, EVEN IF YOU ALREADY DO, YOU CAN ALWAYS DO BETTER! AND IF YOU NEED HELP ASK ONE ANOTHER.

Rule 10: LIVE YOUR LIFE FOR GOD AND ONLY GOD. NOTHING SHOULD STAND BETWEEN YOU AND HIM. IF THERE IS, SPEAK UP! YOU GOT NOTHING TO BE AFRAID OF HERE IN SOLDIERS. AND ANYWHERE ELSE BE GOOD SOLDIERS FOR GOD AND KEEP EACH OTHER ACCOUNTABLE!! AND DON’T FORGET TO “SWORD FIGHT” EVERYDAY!

[All rules and emphasis are original and are not fabricated by me the typer :P. I’m still amazed that at the time, the leaders who made these rules were still in high school (I think) and yet they had such robust and commanding convictions to man up and be leaders for the younger guys. We are blessed to have Soldiers as a young guys group continually now in the present. …I wonder if they had deep cravings for Jade as well…]

“Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.” -1 Corinthians 16:13-14 (ESV)

Ever a debtor of God's grace in Christ

“It belongs to the very essence of the type of Christianity propagated by the Reformation that the believer should feel himself continuously unworthy of the grace by which he lives. At the center of this type of Christianity lies the contrast of sin and grace; and about this center everything else revolves. This is in large part the meaning of the emphasis put in this type of Christianity on justification by faith. It is its conviction that there is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only ‘when we believe.’ It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be true as long as we live. Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in Christian behavior may be. It is always on His ‘blood and righteousness’ alone that we can rest. There is never anything that we are or have or do that can take His place, or that can take a place along with Him. We are always unworthy, and all that we have or do of good is always of pure grace. Though blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, we are still in ourselves just ‘miserable sinners’: ‘miserable sinners’ saved by grace to be sure, but ‘miserable sinners’ still, deserving in ourselves nothing but everlasting wrath. That is the attitude which the Reformers took, and that is the attitude which the Protestant world has learned from the Reformers to take, toward the relation of believers to Christ. There is emphasized in this attitude the believer’s continued sinfulness in fact and in act; and his continued sense of his sinfulness. And this carries with it recognition of the necessity of unbroken penitence throughout life. The Christian is conceived fundamentally in other words as a penitent sinner.”

- Benjamin B. Warfield  (Perfectionism, Volume 1 , chapter 3)

(As encouraged to me, if this was dense for you, as it was for me, read it aloud slowly and thoughtfully. It was worth the effort. …Darn you Roosevelt.)

Note to self: Warfield makes a rich, important, and richly Gospel centered point: we never get beyond needing grace, needing Christ, needing all the rich benefits purchased for believers on the Cross. Any teaching that in any way implies that Christ is where we start, that grace is simply the starting point and we get pass it and go into the deeper and better stuff, is sub-Christian and unbiblical. Must remember that I am in need of the Cross and the grace that It bestows as much as I needed it the day that I first became a believer.

Spiritual Academia Reminder.

“Ad Fontes. Do we read the Bible as often as we read books about the Bible?”

HT: DeYoung and Castaldo.

"How Pomo"

Pomo? A term coined by Jon Acuff’s friend and it has stuck for the last few days so I thought I would use it at least once. What does it mean?

Pomo = Post Modern.

And today this is how I got the chance to using it:

1) Read a blog post by Phil Johnson titled “Cussing Again” which is, you might have guessed, about cussing and how immorality should not characterize our fellowship with others. Johnson exposits succinctly.  http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2009/10/cussing-again.html

2) That blog had a few links.

3) I clicked one of them and got here:  http://davidwmfisher.blogspot.com/2007/10/post-modern-christianity-brings-freedom.html «< has foul language.

…and then I realized the emergent have gone crazy. “…how pomo.”

Note to self: Strive to be forever edifying in my words. And don’t be pomo =_=.

2nd Note to self: Postmodern/ emergent esque blogs are almost funnier than the Message Bible- must take a look at those more often for some laughter (jk).

“But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” - Ephesians 5:3-6 (ESV)