Jonah and the plant

Moving my way slowly through Jonah, I am convicted at the end of this brief (yet powerful) story about priorities.  God gives Jonah a dressing down, because his are all screwed up.  Namely, he gets more disgusted over the loss of a plant than the potential loss of 120,000+ people.  Listen in:

Jonah 4.10 ¶ Then the LORD said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly.

Jonah 4.11 But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”      (NLT-SE)

Do you notice that God equates their feelings?  He uses the same word.  Jonah feels sorry for a plant, God feels sorry for the city.  So the question I ask myself this morning is this – what gets me upset?  What do I spend most of my time feeling sorry for or about?  Stuff?  Circumstances?  Myself?

Or am I outwardly focused and concerned that I am surrounded, ironically, by a little metro area here in central Minnesota that numbers around 120,000?

I’d like for God to break my heart for “people living in spiritual darkness,” and I’d like for that to grab the attention of my pity (to “feel sorry for”).  It is the cold heart, too wrapped up in the cares of the day and not the destiny of people, that functionally acts this way:

We are God’s chosen few,
All others will be damned;
There is no place in heaven for you,
We can’t have heaven crammed.     (Jonathan Swift)

May God give us a great vision for our cities – whatever city that is for you – and may the kind of revival we see in this story be repeated in our time and places.

David Wells, professor, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, has written a brief, insightful article over at The Resurgence.  His point is this ::

Go and read the Whole Thing.

Psa. 92.5  O LORD, what great works you do!
And how deep are your thoughts.

This is a reminder that I need, oh, just about every day moment.  Namely, I am not the god of the universe.  God is the God of the universe.  That is a helpful thought when things don’t go my way, and I am tempted to grumble.

That this thought would strike at this moment is quite timely, coming on the heels of two hospital visits this morning. One was to a close friend and ministry partner entering into a 5-7 hour surgery at this moment, to remove cancer from her body; and another was to our neighbor, who just had a quadruple bypass and needs to know Jesus.

Many are the plans of the LORD, often they are different than ours, and how great is every one of them.

John Calvin reflects ::

It is no doubt true that God has displayed incomprehensible depth of power and wisdom in the fabric of the universe; but what the psalmist especially has in view here is to check our tendency to murmur against God when he does not pursue our plan in his providential management.

When his ways do not agree with the general ideas of men, we ought to contemplate them with reverence, remember that God, to better try our obedience, has lifted his deep and mysterious judgments far above our conceptions.

May we enter into the frame of the Psalmist, who felt this way when reflecting on these truths ::

Psa. 92.1    It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing praises to the Most High.
2  It is good to proclaim your unfailing love in the morning,
your faithfulness in the evening,
3  accompanied by the ten-stringed harp
and the melody of the lyre.

Psa. 92.4    You thrill me, LORD, with all you have done for me!
I sing for joy because of what you have done.
5  O LORD, what great works you do!
And how deep are your thoughts.

Ever since reading Mark 11 a few mornings ago, these words from Jesus – “Have faith in God” (Mk. 11:22) – have stuck with me, working their way ever deeper into my soul.

It was a sweet providence that I then happened upon these words from the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, in Morning by Morning, as he comments on this verse.

Faith gives feet to the soul, enabling it to march along the road of the commandments.  Love can make the feet move more swiftly; but it is faith that carries the soul.  Faith is the oil enabling the wheels of holy devotion and of practical holiness to move well; and without faith the wheels are taken from the chariot, and we drag ourselves along.

With faith I can do all things; without faith I will be missing both the inclination and the power to do anything in the service of God.  If you want to find the men who serve God best, you must look for men of faith.

Little faith will save a man, but little faith cannot do great things for God.

Poor Little-faith could not have slain “Giant Despair” [Spurgeon refers to characters from Pilgrim's Progress here]; it required “Great-heart’s” arm to knock that monster down.  Little-faith will go to heaven most certainly, but it often has to hide itself in a nutshell, and it frequently loses all but its jewels.

Little-faith says, “It is a rough road, beset with sharp thorns, and full of dangers; I am afraid to go;” but Great-faith remembers the promise, “Your bars shall be iron and bronze, and as your days, so shall your strength be”; and so she boldly ventures.

Little-faith stands despondently, mingling her tears with the flood; but Great-faith sings, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you,” and she crosses the stream at once.

Do you want to be comfortable and happy? To enjoy the journey do you desire cheerfulness rather than gloom?

Then “have faith in God.”

If you love darkness and are satisfied to dwell in gloom and misery, then be content with little faith; but if you love the sunshine and would sing songs of rejoicing, covet earnestly this best gift: great faith.

I will be attending the Together 4 the Gospel Conference this year in April with my great friend, Chris Lent.  As a lead-up to the conference, they are doing a series of videos, moving through the study of each speaker.

The most recent man they profile also happens to be a friend of mine, Thabiti Anyabwile.  Enjoy the tour.

And HERE is our new page on Vimeo.

Update: If you are getting this via a feed, you may need to click through to see the video.

“God’s grace is his active favor bestowing the greatest gift upon those who have deserved the greatest punishment.”

– William Hendrickson, Commentary on 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus (London: Banner of Truth, 1959), 370.

(HT: Thabiti Anyabwile)

Mount Everest

Do you hope for fruitfulness in your life today?

I do.  I long to do much for the glory of God, the advancement of his kingdom, the spread of the Gospel, the increase of the fame of Jesus.  In other words, I want to be fruitful. In response to such longings, my heart is inclined to work harder, do more, and expend more effort to “make it happen.”

But Jesus says this to his disciples when they wonder about fruit-bearing (see: a fig tree with no figs) ::

“Have faith in GOD.” (Mark 11:22)

Four simple words.

Powerful beyond measure.

The instruction of Jesus is to turn from self, and to trust God. Rest in him. Take note of what this means – the response to the desire for fruit is not to focus on the fruit, or to focus on self, but to focus on God.  Jesus says our concern should be faithfulness, leaving the fruit to the Father.

And here is the thing: he could have left it at that, but he didn’t.

Mark 11.23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Maybe today you are facing the seemingly impossible, something that feels a bit like having to throw a mountain into the sea?  It is something you want to accomplish for the glory of God.  You want to bear spiritual fruit as you do it.  It feels like there are obstacles to completing it.  Jesus tells us that we can, we should, we must turn to God in that moment and have confidence – a bold confidence – that HE IS ABLE.

Brother or sister…

Phil. 4.19 [Our] God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

As the day now begins, let’s turn to him together.  Let’s trust him together for what we need, that we may be “steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)

“Father, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Resting in him with you,

Pastor Matthew

Peabody Library

For those who are close to me, it is no secret that I (and our whole family really) love books.  I love to hold them, smell them, read them, enjoy them, spend time with them, grow because of them, and own (in an Adler kind of way) them.

I agree with Erasmus who wrote, “I’d rather read a book than eat.” (translation: have the right priority for where you spend your money)

Because I (and we in the Molesky clan) love books, that means we love libraries.  Tony Reinke points to a website today with an amazing collection of photos of some of the most stunning libraries around the world.  Go and check them out.

As you do, I’ll be repenting over my inordinate love for books…..

In his newest and insightful book, Counterfeit Gods, Tim Keller addresses the idols that fight (and many times win) to take the prominent place that God should hold in our lives.

In the last chapter, while discussing how to make Christ central, he provides a unique, helpful, and biblical description of rejoicing ::

“Rejoicing” in the Bible is much deeper than simply being happy about something.  Paul directed that we should “rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4), but this cannot mean “always feel happy,” since no one can command someone to always have a particular emotion.

To rejoice is to treasure a thing, to assess its value to you, to reflect on its beauty and importance until your heart rests in it and tastes the sweetness of it. (emphasis mine)

“Rejoicing” is a way of praising God until the heart is sweetened and rested, and until it relaxes its grip on anything else it thinks that it needs.

Praying with you that we will see the beauty of, rest in, taste the sweetness of, and hold only onto Jesus today.

Many of you know we have a black Lab named Arwen (yes, after the elf princess from Lord of the Rings).  A good friend of mine, Tim Loucks, sent this to me the other day:

I am continually blessed by the Biblical reflections of Jon Bloom.  He has an excellent post today about Joseph, faith, and difficult circumstances.

He begins ::

Genesis chapters 37-41 only tell the low and high points of Joseph’s Egyptian slavery and imprisonment. But he spent at least 12 years there before he suddenly became Prime Minister. And during that terribly lonely, desolate time, things seemed to go from bad to worse.

This imaginative reflection takes place about 9 years into his sojourn.

And from that reflection ::

Faith-fueled peace doused the anxious fire in Joseph’s chest. “I trust you, my God,” he whispered. “Like my forefathers, I will wait for you. I have no idea what my being in an Egyptian prison has to do with your purposes. But I will keep honoring you here where you have placed me. Bring your word to pass as it seems best to you. I am yours. Use me!”

And he concludes ::

Sometimes faithfulness to God and his word sets us on a course where circumstances get worse, not better. It is then that knowing God’s promises and his ways are crucial. Faith in God’s future grace for us is what sustains us in those desperate moments…..

Our current circumstances, however dismal or successful, are not our story’s end. They are chapters in a much larger story that really does have a happily ever after.

Don’t rob yourself of this extremely helpful and encouraging reflection on the life of Joseph, but go and read the whole thing.

My good friend Carl Larsen showed this to a group of us boys tonight.  I suggest clicking through and watching the 1080p version on YouTube.

Enjoy!

Click The Picture For Larger View

One of our Sunday Classes at Calvary Community Church this semester is entitled “World Religions.”  This week I am teaching, and the task is to define Christianity.  That is an interesting challenge, given the current state of evangelicalism in our country and world today.

Ironically, this topic came up just this past Sunday when we had some couples over for lunch after church.  Our conversation drifted toward the church, and they asked a number of questions about what we believe, as opposed to what they’d heard we believed.  How would you answer that question, “What do you believe?” Or, “What do you believe about X?” Or, “What is Christianity?”  What would be some of the first things you would say?

Our goal at Calvary is to get the Gospel at the core of all we do.  We long to be a Gospel-centered people.  It is why we are moving so methodically through the book of Galatians on Sunday mornings.  It was why we relaunched our small group ministry this past fall as Connection Groups, and had all our groups begin with a book study on Living The Cross-Centered Life.  The Gospel defines Christianity and what we believe.  And you can’t talk about the Gospel without talking about Jesus Christ.

Graeme Goldsworthy says it this way ::

“The gospel is saying that, what man cannot do in order to be accepted with God, this God Himself has done for us in the person of Jesus Christ.

To be acceptable to God we must present to God a life of perfect and unceasing obedience to his will. The gospel declares that Jesus has done this for us.

For God to be righteous he must deal with our sin. This also he has done for us in Jesus.

The holy law of God was lived out perfectly for us by Christ, and its penalty was paid perfectly for us by Christ. The living and dying of Christ for us, and this alone is the basis of our acceptance with God.”

- Graeme Goldsworthy, Gospel and Kingdom, p86  (HT: Of First Importance)

If you are in the St. Cloud area, come join us at 9:15 a.m. this coming Sunday morning at Calvary Community Church as we spend a little more time talking about Jesus and the Gospel in order to answer the questions.

Ray Ortlund on Desire….