Earnest

Francis Schaeffer wrote a very readable commentary on the first half of Romans called "The Finished Work of Christ." I highly recommend it. Schaeffer was one of the last century's greatest Christian thinkers and apologists. Below is an excerpt from the book, expounding on Romans 8:23:

"In English law,it used to be the custom that when a portion of land was purchased, the person who was selling the land handed . . . a handful of his soil to the person who was buying it. That handful of soil was the "earnest," or promise, that the whole had been purchased. When you and I are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, this is an earnest of the fact that the whole has been purchased by the blood of the Lamb. The earnest is already ours. He dwells within us in the person of the Holy Spirit. He is the proof that the whole has been purchased. And what is the whole? The whole is the redemption of our bodies. Because the Spirit indwells us, we can be sure that the Lord has purchased our whole being, and the He will one day claim it by raising us from the dead."

In life we endure all sorts of physical trials, from being fatigued to migraines to the painful wasting of dreaded diseases. Ailments are immediate, that is, they directly confront our senses, and therefore factor largely in our day to day life. There are two facts, however, that can (hopefully) somewhat dull the edge of physical suffering.

First, if we are true followers of Christ, the most important healing has already taken place. What good is a healthy body with a sick and withered soul separated from God? How much better to have, through faith in Christ, a soul that is well, forgiven and at peace. Whether we are hale or frail, our salvation is the most important thing.

Second, those who are Christ's can be assured, as Schaeffer's quote explains, that there certainly WILL come a time of healing for the body as well. And not just a healing, but a re-making. Redemption doesn't end with our soul's salvation. Redemption's work is completed when we are united with Christ and our mortal bodies are reworked and remade into immortal bodies. Cool. In Christ, pain is temporary, peace is forever.

Wondrous

Ferguson On Prodigals

I love this paragraph from Sinclair Ferguson's larger discussion of the Parable of the Lost Son in Luke 15:

"Although this story is probably the best known and loved of all Christ's parables, the lesson it teaches us as Christians is often overlooked. Jesus was underling the fact that - despite assumptions to the contrary - the reality of the love of God for us is often the last thing in the world to dawn upon us. As we fix our eyes upon ourselves, our past failures, our present guilt, it seems impossible to us that the Father could love us." ~ excerpted from Children of the Living God

As for me, I spend too much time introspecting, and not nearly enough time dwelling on the affection of my heavenly Father.

Moment of Salvation

John Piper, on the mysterious co-working of God's sovereignty and human will that brings about our regeneration:

"Our first experience of this is the faith in Jesus that this life brings. There is no separation of time here. When we are born again, we believe. And when we believe, we know we have been born again. When there is fire, there is heat. When there is new birth, there is faith."

"Your act of believing and God's act of begetting are simultaneous. he does the begetting and you do the believing at the same instant. And - this is very important - His doing is the decisive cause of your doing. His begetting is the decisive cause of your believing."

"The instant there is fire, there is heat. The instant there is fire, there is light. But we would not say that the heat caused the fire, or the light caused the fire. We say that the fire caused the heat and the light." ~ John Piper, Finally Alive

Those Pesky, Repetitive Songs

Don't you hate those worship songs that repeat the same lines over and over and over again?

Oh wait. Psalm 136.

Legally Adopted

"We are born into God's family through the work of the Spirit. But we are also brought into that family by a decisive, legal act on God's part. The apostle Paul thought this latter dimension illuminated Christian experience, and he used the concept of adoption to describe it."

~ Sinclair Ferguson, Children Of The Living God

Nothingness In God's Name

From The World Tilting Gospel by Dan Phillips:

"Some professing Christians are naturally indolent, lazy, retiring, introspective, self-involved, perhaps even selfish - and the rotten teaching they get magnifies and calcifies those tendencies. They refuse to trust and obey; they feel no need to try and to dare and to engage. Worse, they do all this nothingness in the name of the Lord."

Emphasis on "rotten teaching". . . let's hear it for solid, Biblical preaching.