Wednesday, June 30, 2010

"My Dear Child"


My oldest daughter is away for a few days visiting with some very dear brothers and sisters in San Antonio. Trips are a frightening prospect for her, and her purpose for this one is to actively exercise trust in her Father. I am being forced to rest in Him as well and entrust my dear one into His hands. While we were driving to Round Rock where we were meeting our friends who would take her to San Antonio, she read the following letter to me. Our pastor had read it recently during Bible study, and she found it on the internet and printed out a copy. It expresses beautifully my affections and desires for her in a way that I never could. The grace of our precious Saviour has turned this dear daughter of mine into His child and my sister in Him. What a joy it is to share daily life with a believing child! To bear each others burdens, spur each other on to obedience, share glorious times in God's Word together...
I'm praying for my girl these few days that she will experience the grace of her Saviour in a way that she never could in the comfort of home. I pray that He will show her how very sufficient He is for all her needs, and far exceeds anything she could imagine. And if I could write as beautifully as the great Jonathan Edwards I would tell her this...

"My dear child,
You may well think it is natural for a parent to be concerned for a child at so great a distance away, so far out of view, and so far out of the reach of communication; where, if you should be stricken with any dangerous sickness, which should issue in death--you might probably be in your grave before we would hear of your danger. But yet, my greatest concern is not for your health, or temporal welfare--but for the good of your soul.

Though you are at so great a distance from us--yet God is everywhere. You are much out of the reach of our care--but you are in His hands every moment! We have not the comfort of seeing you--but He sees you! His eye is always upon you. And if you may but live sensibly near to God, and have His gracious presence, it is no great matter if you are far distant from us. I had rather you should remain hundreds of miles distant from us--and have God near to you--than to have you always with us, and live at a distance from God.

And if the next news we would hear of you, would be of your death, though that would be very sad; yet, if at the same time we had the best grounds to hope, that you had died in the Lord--how much more comfortable would this be to us--than if you died without the grace and favor of God!

It is comfortable to have the presence of earthly friends, especially in sickness, and on a death-bed; but the great thing is to have God as our friend, and to be united to Christ, who can never die--and from whom our own death cannot separate us.

My desire and daily prayer is, that you may meet with God where you are, and have much of His divine influences on your heart, wherever you may be; and that, in God's due time, you may be returned to us again, in prosperous circumstances in your soul.

I hope that you will maintain a strict and constant watch over yourself, against all temptations, that you do not forsake or forget God; and particularly, that you do not grow slack in secret piety. Retire often from this vain world, from all its bubbles and empty shadows, and vain amusements; and converse with God alone. Seek for that Divine grace and comfort--the least drop of which is worth more than all the riches, gaiety, pleasures, and entertainments of the whole world!

May you be sensible of your dependence on the care and kindness of God--and of the vanity of all human helps. May you seek His face, to trust in Him, and walk closely with Him. Commending you to the care and special favor of our heavenly Father,"

Your very affectionate father,
Jonathan Edwards, July 26, 1749
Northampton, Massachusetts


You can read Lydia's testimony of God's amazing grace in her life here: http://pursuingapureheart.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-tesimony.html

I love you my dear daughter and sweet sister. I look forward to you being back home with us very soon!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Don't Follow Your Heart!


Point #1 Sin is a lie.
Point #2 Sin resides in the heart.
One verse ties both these truths together "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" Jeremiah 17:9

In our culture and the world at large the constant mantra we hear is "Follow your heart." It's the theme of EVERY Disney movie my kids have ever seen, it's all over Oprah, and it rings in my ears from my own thoughts. But according to Scripture, our heart is the last voice we should follow. Jer. 17:9 tells us that our hearts are liars. Would you listen to someone you knew to be a liar? Would you go to your local con man for wisdom and direction in your life? Of course not! You can't trust them. They're not interested in what's best for you, only what benefits them. And so it is with our hearts. Our hearts are the seat of our desires and seek only pleasure and comfort. They give no thought to the consequences that may come. So why on earth would we follow a liar?
An example:
King David....I'm sure we all know the story of how King David's lust brought death and destruction into his life, but how close are you and I to following our hearts into the same plight? King David knew the law of God regarding adultery, so what was he thinking up on that rooftop when his eyes fixed on Bathsheeba? I don't think he was thinking. He was listening intently to the liar inside of him that told him that this moment of pleasure would have no consequence, no one would find out, he needed Bathsheeba to make him happy, etc. He must have believed the lie of his heart because he acted and started a spiral of sin, deception, and grief that lasted the rest of his earthly life.
By God's grace David was brought to repentance for his adultery and murder and graciously forgiven. We have the account of that repentance in Psalm 51 where David cries for God to create a "clean heart" in him. That's the only remedy to our lying hearts. The cleansing and renewing that only Christ can bring.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the deceitfulness of the heart, mostly my own heart. I have seen seemingly faithful believers who appeared to be walking with the Lord fall into sin and walk away from the faith. What in the world would cause someone who knew the Truth and lived according to it for so long to abandon it? Answer: the deceitfulness of the heart. They believed the lie that their sin was more precious than the Saviour. They abandoned eternal joy for momentary fulfillment. Either they completely walked away from the Truth revealed in God's Word or they twisted it to accommodate their sin. How close am I to stepping off of that cliff? What lying sin is in my heart that could rise up and compete with the blessing of salvation? "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right (steadfast) spirit within me"! Ps. 51:10

So, how do we guard against the liars inside of us? First of all, there are precious promises to those of us that the Lord has saved from sin. Philippians 1:6 says, "And I am SURE of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." And Jude 24 and 25 praises the One who is "ABLE to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. AMEN"!! We know that if we have truly been saved our God can and will keep us from ultimately being destroyed by sin. The reality of those who have walked away from the Gospel and followed their hearts is that they were never really His to begin with, and their apostasy is just the outward manifestation of that. At the same time, we are exhorted in Scripture to be vigilant and watchful ourselves, not just lay back in our security.

WE MUST CLING RELENTLESSLY TO THE TRUTH FOUND IN GOD'S WORD IN ORDER TO COUNTER THE LIES OUR HEARTS FEED US.

Proverbs 9 gives an excellent example of the two voices that are constantly competing for our attention. Lady wisdom and the woman Folly.

Wisdom says:
"Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!"
To him who lacks sense she says,
5"Come, eat of my bread
and drink of the wine I have mixed.
6Leave your simple ways, and live,
and walk in the way of insight."
Wisdom offers Truth to those who don't have it. Farther down the source of wisdom is revealed...
" 10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight."
THAT'S THE TRUTH!

NOW, HERE'S THE LIE:

13 The woman Folly is loud;
she is seductive and knows nothing.
14She sits at the door of her house;
she takes a seat on the highest places of the town,
15calling to those who pass by,
who are going straight on their way,
16 "Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!"
And to him who lacks sense she says,
17 "Stolen water is sweet,
and bread eaten in secret is pleasant."
18But he does not know that the dead are there,
that her guests are in the depths of Sheol."

Did you notice that she offers the same thing that Wisdom does? They both say, "Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!" They both claim to have understanding. One is real, the other is a liar. Lady Folly packages her lie as Truth. And what does she say? "Stolen water is sweet..." In other words, sin will bring you happiness. Go ahead, follow your heart, there are no consequences, enjoy your sin! The Truth is "the dead are there...her guests are in the depths of Sheol."

I think the struggle that I often have regarding my lying heart is whether or not I really BELIEVE what God tells me in His Word. It's sad, but very true. I tend to discount His warnings to "cut off my right hand, and gouge out my right eye" if it causes me to sin. I don't believe that dabbling with sin, especially in my mind, is really as dangerous as He tells me. And when I do this He responds with His faithful discipline, because He loves me too much to let me go on believing my lies. But like David, the consequences of His discipline are often scorchingly painful. I want to learn to Trust His Word and preach it to myself BEFORE I start following my heart.
It's interesting that immediately preceding the verse about the deceptive heart in Jer. 17:9 it says this,
"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
WHOSE TRUST IS IN THE LORD.
He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and it is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit."
That's true happiness and life! That is the result of believing God's Truth rather than my own heart. Read all of Jer. 17 sometime, there's so much rich Truth there!
While we're guarding our own hearts, there is a crucial place in this struggle for other believers. Hebrews 3:12 says, "Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But EXHORT ONE ANOTHER EVERY DAY as long as it is called "today", that none of you may be hardened BY THE DECEITFULNESS OF SIN. For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end." Because sin is such a liar, we can fool ourselves into thinking that we're safe in our sin. That's why we need the Church, i.e. other believers actively spurring us on to faithfulness to the Lord and abandonment of our sin. I could write a whole other post on that concept and I think I just might, but this one is already frighteningly long so I'll leave it at that. Just don't forget this, we NEED other BELIEVERS, we NEED the BODY OF CHRIST, Christ Himself made it that way!
One final Scripture that most of us know, but that states clearly how to battle the liar inside of us...
"TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND DO NOT LEAN ON YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING, IN ALL YOUR WAYS ACKNOWLEDGE HIM, AND HE WILL MAKE STRAIGHT YOUR PATHS. BE NOT WISE IN YOUR OWN EYES; FEAR THE LORD, AND TURN AWAY FROM EVIL. IT WILL BE HEALING TO YOUR FLESH AND REFRESHMENT TO YOUR BONES." Pro. 3:5-8

And when you don't trust Him and follow your deceitful heart...

"MY SON, DO NOT DESPISE THE LORD'S DISCIPLINE OR BE WEARY OF HIS REPROOF, FOR THE LORD REPROVES HIM WHOM HE LOVES, AS A FATHER THE SON IN WHOM HE DELIGHTS" Pro.3:11-12

Trust the Lord, FOLLOW HIM, NOT YOUR HEART, and guard against the sin that endeavors to appear more beautiful than your Saviour!