Ask anyone who has ever had an affair if they thought they would have ever done such a thing, and my guess is that most would say that they never could imagine crossing into such sin. I have so often heard people say they would never do such a thing. Whether or not it is because they think they love their spouse too much to do so, or their reputation or they are just too strong or smart to fall into such sin, all of it is a false security that is rooted in pride. Never say that you will never fall into any type of sin.

In Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth, he writes to believers who are living in a sexually saturated and idolatrous society. He says in 1 Corinthians 10:12:

Therefore let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

And Proverbs 16:18 says:

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

As mentioned earlier this pride creates a false since of security. The reason it is a false security is that it is based on our strength not God's grace. The sad thing is, is that this pride is so often looked at as a good thing and not the sin that it is. William Law addressed this subject in his book A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life when he said:

If we could suppose that God rejects pride in our prayers and alms but bears with pride in our dress, our persons, or estates, it would be the same thing as to suppose that God condemns falsehood in some actions but allows it in others. For pride, in one thing, differs from pride in another thing, as the robbing ofone man differs from the robbing of another.

I came across this statement this morning by Sinclair Ferguson while reading In Christ Alone:

It is painful to our pride to discover that the Christian life is not rooted in what we can do, but in what we need done to us.

I pray that you see this now before it has to become painful or too late for your marriage. Pray for grace daily and seek Him and his ways, and not your own understanding or strength.

There are books that challenge me on many levels—intellectual, moral, and spiritual. But there are a few books that always seem to leave me wondering if I am even saved. They are hard to read; not because of any convoluted logic, wordiness or ethereal vocabulary, but because the holy character of God and His expectations for his creatures come forth so clearly. They may not be easy to read, but they need to be read regularly.

Scripture is like that for most of us. There are chapters in Galatians, 2nd Corinthians and Hebrews that hurt. As a minister, I find that much of 1st & 2nd Timothy pierces my conscience. The cavalier response to this is that it “hurts so good.” And it does, in a way. I appreciate the hurt, not because I am masochistic, but because I know that the power of the Living Word of the Holy God hurts as it disciplines, corrects, reproves, rebukes and rebuilds me. God help us if we ever get to a point of being able to read or hear the Word without discomfort!

Scripture reading should be high on our list of daily activities. But we must also make time for devout reading, for the reading of sermons and teachings that open the Word and provoke critical reflection on our walk with God. There are two books that I am (re-)reading right now, and I must confess that I find them painful. The first is The Reformed Pastor by the puritan evangelist, Richard Baxter. This is an excellent book for anyone in ministry. It provides an insightful reminder to check our hearts regularly, and to ruthlessly evaluate the motives behind our ministries. It is also an excellent book for church members, to be encouraged against the incessant urge to criticize pastors and teachers. It offers a compendium of prayer points we can offer up for those who minister to us.

The second book is William Law’s A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. I tell you truthfully, I tremble when I read this book! It takes a while to enter into the cadence of Law’s style and language, but the message of God’s holiness and our obligations as His children penetrate immediately. Nearly every paragraph provokes a spoken prayer to be found in Christ and Christ alone!

These books are not an easy read, largely because of the conviction the Holy Spirit brings through them to our conscience. They remind me of just how desperately I need Christ. They rebuke any thought that I might have grown or matured to a place at which I could merit salvation. They also remind me that we all stand in the same condition before God, that each one of us is in as desperate a need for His grace and mercy as any other. We forget that frequently, and end up evaluating each other after human standards. And we need to repent of that.

We engage in a daily battle of ideas, philosophies, and practices—both within the Church and in all of life. It is a necessary battle for Christians, because Bible truth is actively resisted in this world. The devil’s deception is so subtle that any one can slip and be deluded for a time. But our battle is not with flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers and rulers of the darkness, and their foul teachings and systems. We must strive to remember that, and guard against the constant temptation to criticize others in the effort to be seen as right, worthy of recognition, power, and approval.

In the theatre of theological disagreement, we can—and will—bump up against each other, bruise one another, and sometimes hurt one another. That is not our goal—it must not be. I certainly repent before God and His people if I have caused harm to any. I pray to God that my focus will be solely to purge the lies of the devil and to edify His people. But I too am a fallen man, needing grace and mercy. That is why these devout readings are good, because they lead one to a place and time of prayer and repentance.

They say that confession is good for the soul, and that is surely true. A dear friend of mine used to encourage me to keep short accounts with the Lord. As difficult as these readings may be, they help remind me to close those accounts quickly. I encourage you to find readings that will help you as well. The time is short, and we know not the hour of His coming. But He is coming, and that right soon. May God have mercy on us all!

William Law

(from A Devout and Holy Life)

[Coloseni 3.23]

Nu face nimic, niciodata, din dorinta de a a intrece alti oameni, ci intotdeauna din dorinta de a-L multumi pe Dumnezeu, pentru ca e voia Lui sa faci toate lucrurile cit mai bine cu putinta.

William Law

Cuvîntul Meu, care iese din gura Mea, nu se întoarce la Mine fara rod

Yesterday I had another conversation with another friend of mine (all these conversations...you might think I am emergent...). He studied koine Greek at a Theology School and we talked about how to use or not to use Greek word and/or grammar studies for a regular Biblestudy. In his "Lectures to my students" Spurgeon wrote, that in his opinion, preachers only quote the Greek to impress their hearers. So my friend and I talked about the tendency to do that and asked ourselves in how far it really does benefit the hearers.

One thing that is often overlooked among evangelical fundamentalist lay preachers is the fact, that koine Greek is a dead language. That means that we depend on findings of other writings to give us insights on when which words or tenses were used. The more writings we have to compare, the more we will understand the language of the Bible. Now that means that we understand the language of the Bible today better than 50 years ago. Which is a real problem when my Greek lexicon is that old... It also means that we will understand the language of the Bible better 50 years from now then we do at this present time. So we should be careful not to build our theology on word studies in the Greek.

Which language does God speak? Does he speak Hebrew, Aramaic or koine Greek? No. God is Spirit. His language is not a human language, but a spiritual language. Everything human is earthly. Everything earthly is temporal, imperfect. Just as God cannot and does not live in a building build by human hands and is not served by human hands, he cannot be fully contained in human language. Not even the Bible languages. But also generally speaking are the thoughts, ideas and realities behind the words bigger and better than the words themselves. Words are only shells. Even Bible words.

George MacDonald writes in the Chapter "Truth is of the Spirit, not the letter": "God has not cared that we should anywhere have assurance of his very words - not merely because of the tendency in his children to word worsip, false logic, and corruption of the truth, but also because he would not have his people oppressed by words. For words, being human, therefore but partially capable, could not absolutely contain or express what the Lord meant. No matter how precise the words used, to be understood the Lord must depend on the spirit of his disciple. Seeing it could not give life, the letter should not be throned with the power to kill. It should be only the handmaid to open the door of the truth to the mind that was of the truth."

William Law writes: "...every kind of virtue and goodness may be brought into us by two different ways. They may be taught us outwardly by men, by rules and precepts; and they may be inwardly born in us, as the genuine birth of our own renewed spirit. In the former way, as we learn them only from men, by rules and documents of instruction, they at best only change our outward behavior, and leave our heart in its natural state, only putting our passions under a forced restraint, which will occasionally break forth in spite of the dead letter of precept and doctrine." He goes on to say, that this is still the first stage in spiritual growth, just as the law (the letter) was a schoolmaster to the gospel. And that after all Scripture cannot do more than point us to the living Word. Words in themselves are dead. Even written words. Even New Testament words - apart from the life-giving and life-changing Spirit.

Andrew Murray comments on this: "In answer to the scruple that this appears to derogate from Scripture, we are reminded of the difference between Christ, the living Word, and the letter of Scripture. We are told that this is the very way to exalt Scripture when we own it to be the faithful and only direction to Him who is the true light of men. Just as the highest honor a disciple of John the Baptist could confer on his teacher was to leave him and go to Christ, so the Scriptures, the more we study and rejoice in them, will only have their full effect upon us as they daily point us to Christ."

I wonder how much I have fallen into the same trap as the scribes, who wouldn't accept the living Word when it came to them, because it didn't fit their interpretations of the written word. Jesus is bigger than the Bible. That might sound shocking or even heretical. But in reality, everyone who doesn't agree with that statement is an idolatrer - because he doesn't only worship the Jesus of the Bible but Jesus and the Bible. And that's wrong.

I guess that it comes down to the question of the way in which God inspired the Bible. Verbal or dynamic? I've gotta think more about that later. Now it's too late...

"There is nothing that makes us love someone so much as praying for them."

William Law, 1686-1761
English theologian and author