At what point does a young man reach a christly maturity that allows him to enter the ministry.  There are so many sins of immaturity in the young men that I know.  (before I go on I should say that I feel the most guilty of all of my friends.)   We are proud, we have not aged to that humility that the men that we look up to have.   We do not love the word like we should we have yet to fully reach a sober love for The scriptures.  we are beginning to respect them and to adore them and to think of them as more than a tool to beat down those who we disagree with.   The question that people like me are dealing with is should we wait unitel all immaturity is gone or should we see ourselves as a constant work in progress.  Do our short comings and sins prevent us from serving in the minsitry of the Gospel. 

I work now in the ministry with young people and struggle because ulitamately I am not called to work soley with a group of teenagers.   i am called to lead a congregation as a shepard and a preacher.  I am firmly convinced that God has called me to this highest calling for two reasons.  One I have been convinced in my own heart that this is something that God has called me to do.   Two men around me that know and love the Lord have told me that they see this calling in me as well.  This means that In my life I have an inward and outward calling to the ministry of the Gospel.   The church that I am at is even in the process of liscencing me and will ordain me in May. 

I have become firmly cionvinced that one will never be ready for ministry just like one is never ready for marriage or children. It will become abundantly clear in our minds when the time is right for us to eneter the ministry at some capacity.  The movement from ministry of some capacity to the high post that we all asspire to attain will happen by a natural progression.

Currently Reading Baptists: Key People Involved in Forming a Baptist Identity (Beginnings in Britain) By Tom Nettles see related

 Can we say that there is and Idolatry in Evangelicalism.   If one is completely focused on the process of  sharing the Gospel and his motive and zeal is to see men be saved, but then leaves it at that.   Has he made the Gospel an Idol above the very being that the gospel is about.

 Or is the Gospel by nature of itself.  Never able to be Idolized.

ps.  Rick Chamness is the greatest houseguest in the world.  And the most handsome.  And the most intelligent.  And the most witty.  And the best at whatever.  

The temptation in a new light

I have recently been reading a book Called Christ in the Gospels.   While it is very short in length and quite quick to make a point its points are deep in there examination on the New Testament figure we call Jesus.   But there were a couple of quotes that I thought were extremely well pointed and should give us a place of meditation. First we shall begin to look at the Temptation of Our Lord.

The Temptation of Jesus 1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."  4Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"  5Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6"If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written:
   ”‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands,
   so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" 7Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" 8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9"All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." 10Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'"11Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

The man that I am reading say's this in his summation on the temptation. 

"The lord in his own mind stood committed to a radically different (and more costly) conception of Messiahship--- A Messiahship which in the end was to involve crucifixion and death.  The temptation to take the easier path, and to “mind not the things of God."  But the things of man" was to recur at a later stage. When it was put into words by St. Peter. He too was rebuked as Satan.  Between the two rival interpretations of the Messiahship the contrast was absolute.

I love this view that the temptation boils down to this Satan will give Christ everything that he was meant for and everything that was meant for him (the nations) and he doesn't even have to suffer the physical torment of the cross let alone the spiritual torment of the Atonement, all he is required to do is bow down to his master.  But this flies in the face of the very essence that was "Messiah".  This is not why Christ came he did not come to take the easy path.   Furthermore this answers a key question sometimes raised about the temptation.   How do we relate to his temptations?  The first and I think also correct thing is that we are tempted not to trust in god's provision.  Yet I think that that in itself boils down to the main principal.   It is the main problem of the human condition the main attack of Sin.   Take the easy road don't do things that will be hard.   Think about the text.

1.  Satan's temptation  don't trust in God's provision and suffer as he sees fit but make yourself bread it is so much easier to satisfy your self in that way than to wait on God.

2. Satan's temptation.  Don't struggle with the unknown and take it by faith that if it were necessary God would save you, but instead throw yourself from the temple and remove all the unknown and test him.  I give you a Quick and easy way to know the character of God.

3.  Satan's temptation.  I will give you everything you were going to inherit from the father and you don't have to suffer you don't have to die. You will not suffer my wrath as you would Yahweh's.  All you have to do is worship me as Lord.

Or go on to Peter later on in the book.  He tells Jesus not to go to Jerusalem because it is there that he will die.  His argument screams Jesus don't go there you will die stay here where it is safe comfortable and easy.

This relates to the Christian o so wonderfully it screams at our nature.   Our biggest temptation is not to trust god but to do for ourselves, not to take up our cross, not to die to our selves, to take the broad road for it is easy, to allow ourselves to remain in our sin.  Why because mortification hurts, Taking up the cross is to suffer.  The narrow gate includes a hard path.   Fighting for the freedom we have been given is a brutal battle with an enemy that is like a lion that waits to devour us.  

Christ saw a difference he was the suffering servant and calls us to be suffering servants along with him.  He calls us to the difficult path because hard is good.  The reason he would not take hold of the temptation was because the ease of it came at to high a cost.  It is never worth the forsaking of God for an easier life.   I see this as a call not to seek out suffering but to welcome it with open arms when it arrives.  Jesus never ran to suffering but he never ran away from it even when he new beforehand that it was coming.  There is no avoidance permitted in the life of the believer.

Currently Reading ESV Bible, Classic Thinline Edition By Crossway Bibles see related

On the malnourishment of the Childern of God

              The other day I was reading calvin and his immense trust and love of scripture is awesome but that has nothing to do with this post.  I instead would like to share my sin and show the analogy of how I have set myself up for failure.   It is a common known fact that children need a well balanced diet of protein carbs and plenty of calories though not to many or they will get fat . In other words children need food.  adults need food to we need to eat things that are healthy and good for us we need the basic food groups but i want to focus on the  concept of a child because it is the analogy that fits this the best.  If a child spends all of there time eating candy and ignoring the good food that has been presented to them than that child will not die but will become unbalanced, malnourished. even though the sweets that they eat have some good things in there this is not a good plan when we think about raising our families.  In other words you can have a living child without a good diet but you cannot have a healthy child without a diet. 

               I realized as i was reading Calvin on scripture that for the majority of the semester I have been on a sweets binge I have talked about Christ fervently, I have openly discoursed holiness, and scripture I have read books that are filled with the glories of christ I have even slowly managed to memorize some verses in first peter.  but I am malnourished and unhealthy.  Why? because while I have done all these things and have centered my life around the things of God I have failed to eat of the bread of life to drink of the rich fountain.  I am a living child of God and I am setting myself up for failure. I have ignored the commands o my father "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. (joshua 1:8) More over I am just stupid because I simply have hardened my heart to hear the word of the lord

The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."  Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."

What all this comes down to is that i have come to realize again that studying the church fathers wrestling with their works is good. prayer is essential, and fellowship is a vital part of the christian life, but all of these things are not the foundation on which I was told by my god that I would be nourished. I have failed to mediate on the statutes of the lord. I have proven Robert Robertson self analysis to be trueof myself.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

I am prone to wander and leave the god i love

My prayer is two fold first for myself that the lord would bind my wandering heart to his word and through his word because only there is the revelation of jesus christ found that my faith might be found to honor and praise and glory at that revelation.  and second if any of you whom i love would read this examine your diet are you malnourished are you full of calvin and empty of Christ or for those who despise Calvin are you full of the words of man and void of the words of God. let it not be so for as our savior said man does not live on bread alone. and his words are to be trusted.

the broken and malnourished servant.

J.E. Briggs