Tag: christianity

X-Ray Questions: Abolishing slavery

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Practical, X-Ray Questions4 Comments

In an effort to help us root out the idols of our hearts, I am doing a series entitled X-Ray Questions. Last time I introduced the series and gave one question to ask ourselves. You can read that post here.

This week we will continue to explore our hearts. This time our question focuses on exposing the desires that rule us.

X-Ray Question

(2) What do you want, desire, crave, lust, and wish for? What desires do you serve and obey?

This summarizes the internal operations of the desire-driven flesh in the New Testament epistles. “My will be done” and “I want ___” are often quite accessible. Various desires rule people, and sometimes another person’s will has control over you in peer pressure, people-pleasing, slave-like, or chameleon behavior. In such cases, your heart’s craving is to get whatever good they promise and avoid whatever bad they threaten: “I crave to be included, appreciated, accepted, and admired by you.”

Understand

Understand that if we seek satisfaction in man, we will be controlled by a desire to please man and will become a slave to their approval. This means that our desire to please man will be elevated over our desire to please God. We will choose those things that please man every time because we are enslaved by the desire for their approval. As a slave, we are not truly free and will find ourselves in a more miserable state.

Repent

Repent by finding your satisfaction in God and desiring nothing but Him and His salvation (Pss 17:14-15; 73:23-28). Only through God’s salvation are we freed from the desires of the flesh. We no longer need to find our approval in man, and no longer remain a slave to sin (Rom. 6). So then, when we find ourselves desiring man’s approval and acceptance, preach the Gospel to yourself. It is through the Gospel that we are freed from our enslavement to sin and reconciled to God.

Scripture

Reflect on these Scriptures as you seek to root out this idol in your life: Pss. 17:14-15; 73:23-28; Prov. 10:3; 10:28; 11:6-7; Gal. 5:16-25; Eph. 2:3; 4:22; 2 Tim. 2:22; Titus 3:3; 1 Peter 1:14; 2:11; 4:2; 2 Peter 1:4; 2:10; James 1:14; 4:1-4.

All X- Ray questions taken from David Powlison’s book Seeing with New Eyes.

Conviction: The incredible true story

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Evangelism, PracticalLeave a comment

Today in class my teacher presented us with a list of four reasons we as pastors (and everyone else) should be sharing the gospel. His list was as follows:

  1. Obedience to Scripture – “Evangelism for the pastor is not a gift, nor is it an option. It is a command; one he should be careful to obey!” (MacArthur Pastoral Ministry, 253)
  2. Love for Christ – We talk about the things that we love the most. If Jesus is not much on my lips, he is not much on my heart.
  3. Love for mankind – If we don’t share the gospel, we are saying that we don’t care about the eternal salvation of the lost. In word we say we love mankind, but functionally our actions do not show it.
  4. Personal Example – As ministers (this includes family leaders), we are called to set the example for the rest of the body. If we are not evangelizing, we cannot expect our congregates (or family) to evangelize either.

After pondering these points, I found myself convicted. I claim to love Christ, but is He the first topic of discussion when it comes to talking to non-believers? I claim to love mankind, but do I prove it through my actions? I want to be an example, but am I?

My Prayer

Lord, please help me to be obedient to Your Word, actively show my love for Christ by speaking of Him often, love mankind just as you do, and be an example for others. Amen!

X-Ray Questions: Discovering the root cause of sin

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Practical, X-Ray Questions4 Comments

In order to help get at the root cause of sin in our lives, I will be providing “X-Ray Questions” from David Powlison’s book Seeing with New Eyes. These questions are designed to expose the sinful desires and idols of our heart. Idols are not just tangible statues people setup in their homes. Idols are anything in our lives that replace God. Timothy Keller, in Counterfeit Gods, says,

An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, “If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure…If anything becomes more fundamental than God to your happiness, meaning in life, and identity, then it is an idol (xviii-xix).

Over the next several weeks, I will be posting a question or two for you and I to reflect on. These questions are designed to help us discover and root out the idols in our lives. My hope is that instead of placing external limitations on ourselves to rid sin from our lives, we will look within and discover the idols that are ultimately causing us to fall in particular areas.

X-Ray Question

(1) What do you love? Hate? This first “great commandment” question searches out, heart, soul, mind, and strength. There is no deeper question to ask of any person at any time. There is no deeper explanation for why you do what you do. Disordered loves hijack our hearts from our rightful Lord and Father. (See Matt. 22:37-39; 2 Tim. 3:2-4; Luke 16:13-14)

Wait on the Lord Always

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn DevotionalsLeave a comment

 

“Wait on the Lord.”

— Psalm 27:14

It may seem an easy thing to wait, but it is one of the postures which a Christian soldier learns not without years of teaching. Marching and quick-marching are much easier to God’s warriors than standing still. There are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit, anxiously desirous to serve the Lord, knows not what part to take. Then what shall it do? Vex itself by despair? Fly back in cowardice, turn to the right hand in fear, or rush forward in presumption? No, but simply wait.

Wait in prayer, however. Call upon God, and spread the case before him; tell him your difficulty, and plead his promise of aid. In dilemmas between one duty and another, it is sweet to be humble as a child, and wait with simplicity of soul upon the Lord. It is sure to be well with us when we feel and know our own folly, and are heartily willing to be guided by the will of God.

But wait in faith. Express your unstaggering confidence in him; for unfaithful, untrusting waiting, is but an insult to the Lord. Believe that if he keep you tarrying even till midnight, yet he will come at the right time; the vision shall come and shall not tarry.

Wait in quiet patience, not rebelling because you are under the affliction, but blessing your God for it. Never murmur against the second cause, as the children of Israel did against Moses; never wish you could go back to the world again, but accept the case as it is, and put it as it stands, simply and with your whole heart, without any self-will, into the hand of your covenant God, saying,

“Now, Lord, not my will, but thine be done. I know not what to do; I am brought to extremities, but I will wait until thou shalt cleave the floods, or drive back my foes. I will wait, if thou keep me many a day, for my heart is fixed upon thee alone, O God, and my spirit waiteth for thee in the full conviction that thou wilt yet be my joy and my salvation, my refuge and my strong tower.”

Charles H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening : Daily Readings, Complete and unabridged; New modern edition. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2006), Morning, August 30.

What is the Gospel? An Introduction

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Evangelism, Practical, What is the Gospel?2 Comments

The Gospel, or the good news of Jesus Christ, is a life changing message we must seek to understand because it is mankind’s only hope in this life and the next. Without the Gospel, mankind would be damned to eternal punishment, having no hope for salvation. And without the Gospel, mankind could not fulfill their purpose, namely, to exalt and glorify God.

It is only through the death of Jesus Christ that sinful men have access to God. Jesus’ blood redeems mankind, making them holy and repairing their relationship with God. No amount of work or religious activity can restore man’s relationship with God. It is only through the saving power of the Gospel.

Since the Gospel is the only means for salvation and a restored relationship with God, it is important that we understand the content of this message and how we might obtain Jesus Christ’s salvation.

In the series that follows, I will discuss the Content of the Gospel, the Functional Centrality of the Gospel, and how the Gospel provides us with a right relationship with God.

photo © Daniel Steger for openphoto.net CC:Attribution-ShareAlike