I Asked the Lord that I might Grow

A hymn by John Newton:

I asked the Lord that i might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek, more earnestly, His face.

I hoped that in some favored hour,
At once He'd answer by request;
and by His love's constraining pow'r,
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry pow'rs of hell
Assault my soul in every part.

Yea more, with His own hand
He seemed intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

"Lord why is this," I trembling cried,
"Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?"
"'Tis in this way," the Lord replied,
"I answer prayer for grace and faith."

"These inward trials I employ,
From self and pride to set thee free
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou may'st find thy all in Me."

A Value of Study Abroad

While waiting to go into class today I was reading a flyer on the wall about the benefits of studying abroad. One of the benefits listed was that studying abroad shows that you are an independent person. From my Christian perspective, I hope that studying abroad shows me to be the exact opposite.

I think I have become and hope to continue to become more dependent on Christ as I study abroad. Embarking on this journey without a single person that I know, my weaknesses are most exposed, I am more forced to depend on Him. I see the chance to lean on Him more as one of the most valuable aspects of this experience. I pray that I will continue to become more dependent on Christ, the True Vine, apart from whom we can do nothing.

The Only Ethics that Work

Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."

I think there are two ways of looking at this statement by Jesus. One way of seeing it is that the keeping of the commandments is proof that we love Him. While this idea is true this view is also problematic because we are not capable of keeping Jesus' commandments. If we look at this statement as only being about proving our love for Him we will always think that we are letting Him down. Jesus is not saying, "if you really love me then you will prove it by obeying my commandments."

What Jesus is giving us here is the only possible way to obey His commandments. He is giving us a cause and effect statement. Love for Christ (the first and most important commandment) will outflow into obedience of all other commandments. Our temptation to transgress His commandments is fueled by our God-given desires gone astray. We cannot remove our desires and we can only resist them for so long. The only solution is to direct all of our desire, affection, and love at Christ. He will satisfy us, and as we are satisfied by Him we are transformed.

The Life of the Godly

Just something from John Piper that really speaks to me:

"The life of the godly is not a straight line to glory, it's more like a dark and seemingly unknown trail through the mountains. There are rockslides, slippery curves, and hairpin turns that make you go backward in order to go forward. God not only reigns in all the affairs of men, and not only is His providence sometimes hard, but in all his works his purposes are for the good and happiness of His people. God is plotting for our joy, He is plotting the course and managing the troubles with far-reaching purposes for our good and for the glory and Jesus Christ."

Morality Necessitates Inherent Value

All morality is dependent on statements of value. Whether rules against, murder, theft, or rape all exist to preserve what is accepted to have value. Those who prescribe to Philosophical Naturalism, the idea that nature is all that exists, are incapable of making logical objective statements of value.

If nature is all that exists, then humans are fundamentally a walking bag of chemical reactions. Our existence is as important as an alka-seltzer fizzing in a glass of water. Therefore, from a naturalistic standpoint, human life has no inherent value and there is no logical reason to preserve it.

If one wants to believe in morality they must accept that certain things have inherent value which is not measurable in nature. This means they can no longer be a Philosophical Naturalist because they are acknowledging the existence of something which exists outside of nature.

For the Christian, statements of value are easy to make. God is the ground and source of all value, only He has inherent value. All other things derive their value from Him. Man is valuable because we are created in His image. The earth is valuable because it was created for His glory.

The Vineyard

This morning I went to my first Irish church service. The church is called the Vineyard and I think it was planted here by a group of churches that was started in California. Thankfully, they have contemporary worship and it seems to be a solid and vibrant church. I plan on checking out one of their small groups this Wednesday, which I'm really looking forward to.

I Surrender

We sung the song "I Surrender" at the 17three retreat a couple weeks ago. I had not sung this song in a very long time, probably since freshman year in Young Life leadership training. The song had much more meaning as I sung it this most recent time.

I began to think about the word "surrender." The word "surrender" has fairly negative connotations; we think of losing, giving up, being weak, and failing. In the context of this song those words are exactly what "surrender" connotes. The song talks about giving ourselves up completely for the sake of Christ, because we know that He is best. We realize that everything else in the world is "loss" compared to knowing Him.

It's not easy to surrender, it requires us to admit our problems, and forget about our personal goals. Surrendering is to entrust your future to someone else. As I sung the song I thought, "Why would I want to surrender?" and immediately my heart told me, "His love makes it worth it." I can joyfully surrender knowing that surrender is the only way to get more of His love that I crave.