Explaining sin

Just felt like sharing one of John Piper's quotes that i found most helpful..

"Sin is what you do when your heart is not satisfied with God. No one sins out of duty. We sin because it holds out some promise of happiness. That promise enslaves us until we believe that God is more to be desired than life itself (Psalm 63:3). Which means that the power of sin’s promise is broken by the power of God’s. All that God promises to be for us in Jesus stands over against what sin promises to be for us without him. This great prospect of the glory of God is what I call future grace. Being satisfied with that is what I call faith."

The Love of God

God tells me "I LOVE YOU" every day, every moment. "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." So everything that happens to me is a gift from God and is good. I was listening to John Piper's "God is the gospel" sermon this morning and one of the things he was saying was that God uses all things in our lives to glorify Himself and, therefore to show us He loves us, since His glory is the most satisfying thing for our soul. Sometimes it's hard to see that. But i realized that's just me lacking faith in the promises of God. And it usually happens when i don't delight in one of His greatest gifts to me: His Word, that feeds me, washes me and puts me back on the right track. "His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.".(2Peter 1:3-4) God loves me so much! He gave me the one thing that can truly satisfy my soul, which is the knowledge of Him and the revealing of His glory.

Yesterday was an amazing day. I was reading the first 3 chapters of Galatians in the morning and God just answered a lot of questions i had. After that, i was flying the whole day. I've done work with songs of praises in my head and went swimming in the evening. As i was walking home through the park, i saw a rainbow! A whole rainbow, over the sky, sitting on dark and very beautiful clouds. I've never seen such a perfect sky. I wanted to call everybody, but realized i'd forgotten my phone at home. The rainbow accompanied me the whole way home though. I was very excited and realized that had i walked the other way, i would have never seen the rainbow! When i got home, i grabbed my phone and my camera and went outside to make phone calls and take pictures. I was so loud on the phone that people were getting out of their houses and started looking at the rainbow and stopping other people in the street to look at it. It was great! Then i remembered Mrs Parker was sending an email about seeing a rainbow just a couple of days ago! Thinking that God planned all this to happen before creation blew my mind. It made me think of a parent who knows their child so well and can, at any point figure out what would get their kid excited!



"Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky."
(from "The Love of God" by F Lehman)

PS: Rainbow 2 days in a row!!

Why can't we be friends? :)

I absolutely LOVE to hang out with my Christian friends. And i'm so happy the Bible says that's good. God knows me so well, it's amazing! Dave P. was telling us at the small group yesterday how he was attracted to Christians because he would see them interact, how well they would get along and how they would love each other. I guess John 13:35 says it all..

I also love the Bible and just digging into stuff like (lately) dispensationalism/covenant theology or pre/post/amillennialism. It's SO exciting and great to just study theology, see what different people believe and, especially, how they back it up, how they argue for what they believe. And then, of course, there are some people who don't think about stuff, they just believe whatever because that was preached somewhere and it made some sense. And that's OK too. I'm just so attracted to arguments made by people who've really thought, meditated, wrestled with a certain issue. They make a lot of sense and i really like that. Maybe because i'm a relatively new believer, it helps me to talk to people who've figured some things out. And especially with people who can correct me on the (so many) wrong views i have.

Sometimes it's confusing though. Because some issues are disagreed upon, even by people who really study the Bible and know the Bible well. Yesterday, after listening to arguments made by people who felt really strongly (with contradictory views) about some issues, i felt sad. I know doctrine divides and i'm pretty sure that my feeling sad was irrelevant, but i found myself wishing we would all think the same way about all the things that are in the Bible. And by 'we all' i mean all people who are committed to submitting to the Word of God, regardless of what our culture/environment/family, etc has taught us, people who view life through the lens of Scripture.

God has a perfect way of showing us He is involved in our lives. For me it's giving me answers to questions i have. He ALWAYS gives me answers when i obey and am ready to submit to Him and His Word. I somehow landed on the Pulpit Magazine 's website a little bit ago and the main article there reminded me of these thoughts i had last night. The article was written today. My main thought reading it was that God has an amazing way of correcting my man-centered view of things. If i want to pray something that will definitely be answered, i pray that God would be glorified in my life. And it always happens!

God's gifts

For almost 25 years i basically fed/served/worshiped the(my) flesh. So it's become fat, loud, demanding and very self-centered. Looking back on the work God has done in my life, i see miracles. The fact that He can make my flesh shut up is a miracle. The fact that He gives me a desire to serve Him against my flesh is a miracle. The fact that i'm still feeding my flesh and God still works and changes my heart is a miracle. The fact that He shows me that when i feed it, it stands in the way of me being changed in the image of Christ and makes that a motivation for me to want to be changed is a miracle.

I'm the kind of person who needs to understand everything. One of the main reasons i never liked church when i was growing up was that nobody and nothing there would make me think. The Romanian orthodox church encourages a lot the "believe and don't question" attitude. This is one of the reasons "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" makes so much sense to me. I love God and i really appreciate the work He's doing in me, but i'm so much happier when i understand it. When i open the Bible and read about it. Pastor Rick said in the sermon he gave yesterday that one of the reasons He knows the Bible is the Word of God is because it is so right about his (my,our) heart. And it is! For me it's so great to experience God in my life and then read about it. It's so edifying to have that confirmation from the word of God, it brings unity and consistency in what's going on.

The fact that God confronts the sin in our heart is just the greatest gift. I realized that the other day when i was talking to my mom about our call to confronting brothers/sisters when they are sinning. I was thinking how horrible it would be if God would not show us our sin (by the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts or by making others come and confront us) and after we would die He would meet with us, pull out our folder and show us all the things we've done wrong. The fact that He's showing us that every day so we would have the chance of asking for forgiveness and learn from it is the greatest thing! And what a gift that He humbles our hearts that we would see when we are wrong!

God is so perfect! Another great thins i was thinking He's doing is: the more i learn about Him, His nature, His purpose, His plans, the more i hate my flesh. My loud, demanding, selfish flesh. Every thing that confronts it, slaps it, makes it shut up by the authority of His Word is like a breath of fresh air to my soul. I love listening to sermons that confront my sin. I love teaching that talks about the nature of God, because they expose my heart to God's light and nothing is more humbling. I want to see my sin, so i can repent of it. God's light on my heart makes me see i have nothing to be proud of, but on the contrary: i don't deserve anything i have. God's light on my heart dissolves my self-centeredness and pride. And His grace makes me long for His light, for His truth. It is a miracle that i want to starve my flesh and that i only want to hear about God's perfect grace.

Currently listening : "All hail the power of Jesus' Name"