Do You Know Theology, Or God?

Piper really gets this spot on! :D

"You can read theology 10 hours a day, 40 years long and not know God as beautiful, all satisfying and highest treasure of your life" ~John Piper

No Zeal In The Reformed?

I would agree that in the Reformed spheres, there is certainly a need for more spiritual zeal. HOWEVER, it IS there. Here are some quotes from some of the most prominent Reformers to prove it:

 Charles Spurgeon- You do not know the beginning of true zeal, for the foundation of Christian zeal lies in the heart. The heart must be heavy with grief and yet must beat high with holy ardour. The heart must be vehement in desire, panting continually for God’s glory, or else we shall never attain to anything like the zeal which God would have us know.

Charles Spurgeon- “If you want that splendid power in prayer, you must remain in loving, living, lasting, conscious, practical, abiding union with the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Jonathan Edwards- “The happiness of the creature consists of rejoicing in God, by which also God is magnified and exalted.”

Jonathan Edwards- “To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here.”

John Calvin - “There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.”

John Calvin- “The gospel is not a doctrine of the tongue, but of life. It cannot be grasped by reason and memory only, but it is fully understood when it possesses the whole soul and penetrates to the inner recesses of the heart.” 

R.C. Sproul- “I was new Christian. My conversation had been sudden and dramatic, a replica for me of the Damascus Road. My life had been turned upside down,, and I was filled with zeal for the sweetness of Christ. I was consumed with a new passion. To study the Scripture. To learn how to pray. To conquer the vices that assaulted my character. To grow in grace. I wanted desperately to make my life count for Christ. My soul was singing, "Lord, I want to be a Christian.”

John Piper- “But to enjoy him we must know him. Seeing is savoring. If he remains a blurry, vague fog, we may be intrigued for a season. But we will not be stunned with joy, as when the fog clears and you find yourself on the brink of some vast precipice.”

John Piper- “Minimizing the importance of transformed feelings makes Christian conversion less supernatural and less radical. It is humanly manageable to make decisions of the will for Christ. No supernatural power is required to pray prayers, sign cards, walk aisles, or even stop sleeping around. Those are good. They just don’t prove that anything spiritual has happened. Christian conversion, on the other hand, is a supernatural, radical thing. The heart is changed. And the evidence of it is not just new decisions, but new affections, new feelings.” 

What Will Thou Do In The Valley?

“Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness,” ~2 Corinthians 9:10

“Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food”

God gives us all that we need for a spiritual relationship with Him. Simply put, Him, the Bible, and us.

“supply and multiply the seed”

He has the power, and WILL multiply what He has given us.

“you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness”

BUT, before He will “multiply the seed”; we have to put in effort. For example, we cannot expect a deep, spiritual relationship with God if we do not regularly read our Bibles, etc.  This reality is further emphasized by the following passage:

“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.  For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.  And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” ~Galatians 6:7-9

To put this passage into more easy-to-understand terms:

God is not a God of the lazy, but a God of those who put in effort. If you put your effort into things that are of a sin nature, you will get results of a sin nature. But if you sow according to that which is good and comes from God you will get results that are good and come from God.  This won’t come instantly however. You may have to go quite a while of simply putting in effort before you get the results. But don’t worry, it WILL come, even if it takes a while.

If we think about this in terms of a spiritual relationship with God; we will come to realize that we need to put effort (such as reading our Bibles, prayer, etc.) into a spiritual relationship before we can expect results (spirit of wisdom, revelation in the knowledge of Himself, enlightened eyes of understanding, knowing hope, etc. See Eph. 1:17). 

In my personal opinion, I think we all go through ups and downs in our spiritual relationship with God; or at least I know I have. But one thing I have learned time and time again is that I need to SOW before I can REAP. So badly do we want to reap without sowing; but I am afraid that is not the way life works.

So I encourage you, if right now you are in a valley and not a mountain, read you Bible, pray, get in touch with you God and at the proper time you will reap a harvest if you do not give up.

Tips On Improving Your Devotional Life: Life Application

Hey y'all!

So I was recently realizing that I need to improve my devotional life and work on applying the Bible to my actual life. Reading the Bible is great and all, but not as much if it does not show in your life.  So here are some of the things I did to improve my devotional life and apply the Bible to my life:

1. Keep A Bible Journal- Jot down what comes to your mind as you read, whatever the Bible inspires you to write.  It really helps your get more out of what you are reading and this is the first step of improving your devotional life and learning to apply what your learn to your life. At the top of the page write whatever chapters you are reading, this will help you reference whatever you write on the passage.

2. After you are done with Bible reading for that sitting skim over what you wrote, what can be learned from it?  

3.  For each thing that can be learned sum it up in 1-3 words and write it down.

4. Think of a practical way that you can apply it to your life, not something vague like "make an effort" but something more specific.  For example lets say your want to improve your prayer life.  Don't put down something vague like "Pray more often" or "Have longer prayers".  Instead put something a bit more specific such as "Keep a prayer journal", or "Ask at least one person per day if they have any prayer requests".  It is important to be specific otherwise it is very easy to forget.

                                     

5.  At the end of the day write down how you did for each "project". Rate how well you think you did on a scale from 1-10, write down what you learned.  Oh, but be careful not to do to many "projects" at once; otherwise you will have way to many projects on your plate at once!

I hope that helps!  Lets me know if there is anything else you would like me to write about! :D 

The Grand Scheme Of Things

So..... Last night I had a bit of a burst of inspiration while reading the Bible(which was probably also influenced from what I have been reading of John Piper and Charles Spurgeon) and so I wrote down everything! It mostly has to do with the relation between heaven and earth and then sort of switches points towards the end. Anyway, enjoy! :D

"The Grand Scheme of things.... Heaven, I think, is an everlasting place of worship. On earth, we have only fractional communion with God, and to further that should be our goal. But in heaven there is no sin, therefore nothing separates us from the Holy One. Only the great, ultimate communion and delight in the Lord exists. But not just that. -The delight is expressed more than ever before even thought possible here on earth. And that is worship, and that is the ultimate joy. The Holy Spirit will be "released" everywhere and in everyone. We will eat, drink, breath, and live in the Holy Spirit forever. We will have God our Father, Christ our brother(and Lord), our friends, family, and be in full communion with them all through the Holy Spirit, joined together in worship forevermore and through all eternity. 

This is heaven, and we get a taste of it here on earth. That taste is to drive us; motivate us. And the joy, that is, the taste, brings forth a love for Christ that is to inspire us to live for HIm, and be the instrument He uses to bring more into His joy.

Until we realise this(this is the part I am most not sure of) or at least to some extent, the connection between heaven, earth and a relationship with God I am not sure if we are REALLY Christians. IF this view is not enough, if the thought of worshiping God for all eternity does not sound like the best heaven but is nauseating, how can we possible be in a relationship with God? Doesn't He say "Depart from me, I never knew you" ? Granted, there are times when the seriousness of sin overwhelms us, and that sin temporarily removes us from the same joy we found once before; but this is not to be the case all the time. Both are necessary for only a person who realises he needs to be healed can be healed."

Biblical references: Hebrews 2:10-12, James 4:9-10, Psalm 51:17, Matthew 5:4, John 5:6-8, Mark 2:17, Matthew 9:12,

And also,  please comment; its what keeps me going! Why write to produce good, if no one will read it and therefore it will not produce good?