The main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow our self to talk to us instead of talking to our self. Am I just trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Far from it. This is the very essence of wisdom in this matter. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problem of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in Psalm 42] was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself, ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been repressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you’. Do you know what I mean? If you do not, you have but little experience.The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’–what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’–instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet priase Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God’.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures, pp. 20-21; emphasis added.
Christians are confident people. Not self confident. We’re confident in the blood of Jesus. His death in our place that gives us confidence to enter The Most Holy Place. The presence of God that was previously marked No Entry can now be entered boldly. What should we do - draw near! Come on in. We have a perfect prayer life since Jesus is always interceding there for us and he calls us to enter in ourselves And then, we live in he light of this. What does confident living look like? Hebrews 10v23-25 : Let us… v23, Hold unswervingly to the hope we profess Why? because he who promised is faithful. that is : because God’s promises are reliable. v24, consider how to spur one another on towards love and good deeds. To stir up outbursts and overflowing gospel-life. v25, not give up on meeting together, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the day approaching. Notice the logic : Don’t quit meeting because you need to encourage one another. So what is the point of meeting together? For encouragement. Not because it’s nice and fun - though it can be that too.What encouragement? v23 - holding to hope : faith in Jesus’ blood. This isn’t fuzzy feel-good self-esteemism to make you feel good. He means the encouragement that leads to a deeply-convicted soul. To souls that are really alive to the guilt sin and the glory of God. This is a Hebrews-3-stype speaking God’s word to one another. Rooting out sin. Calling one another to hold on to the gospel. It’s not a Christian meeting if we don’t have God’s word open.What’s the goal? v24 - to live love and live good. Not just to know the truth but truth-applied. All theology - all knowing of God is to be life changing. And notice that this discipleship is a community project. LET US do this. Confident Christians love the church, there’s no such thing as solo-Christianity. Take a coal out of the fire and it quickly grows cold. We’re all in this together and the bond between us will be what we find about gospel-hope in the Bible.
Use your time to open the Bible together. The community of the shadows God’s people were to talk about God’s word wherever they went and whatever they were doing. How much more in the community of reality should we? Let us delight to open the Bible together. Always carry one around so that you never miss an opportunity to be encouraged, to or to encourage someone else with the word of God. Our meeting together is not Christian meeting if God’s word is not heard.
Ask one another - what is God doing in your life? Ask one another - what’s encouraged you recently to hold onto Jesus? Confident Christians love the church by encouraging others to hold onto hope in Jesus’ blood.
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For the month of June, ChristianAudio.com is offering a free audio download of 3 Edwards sermons which they titled ‘The Best of Jonathan Edwards’. Use the code JUN2007 during checkout. The sermons are:
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
A Divine and Supernatural Light
His Farewell Sermon of 1750
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Interesting thoughts on controversy in the Church:
Tom Wells on controversy: “It is the unhappy lot of any man who cares a fig for truth to be called on to engage in controversy. He may embrace it as a purse of gold or despise it as a putrefying sore, but he can no more escape it than he can escape the atmosphere or the common cold. In a fallen world, truth and controversy are bedfellows. . . . A man may spend valuable time bemoaning that fact, but what is needed is a way to come to terms with it as a godly man, a way to carry on controversy with a minimum amount of damage to his opponent and to the interested bystander and the maximum amount of good to the cause of God and truth.”
Wells’s main points are that in controversy, we must do the following:
- show respect for the persons with whom you differ
- give your opponent accurate definitions of your key ideas
- when in doubt, put an orthodox construction on your opponent’s words
- suspect a man’s judgment before you suspect his sincerity
- be ready to believe that the truth is larger than you have understood it to be
From J. C. Ryle:
Controversy in religion is a hateful thing.
It is hard enough to fight the devil,
the world, and the flesh,
without private differences in our own camp—
But there is one thing
which is even worse than controversy,
and that is false doctrine tolerated,
allowed, and permitted without
protest or molestation …
Three things there are which men
never ought to trifle with:
a little poison,
a little false doctrine,
and a little sin.
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Today, we are going to celebrate the first Baptism’s of our Church. This is an incredibly exciting time watching brothers and sisters in Christ obediently following our Saviour’s command. As I sit at home and ponder this event, I can only imagine the God glorifying celebration that takes place in heaven. We are to understand that God has adopted us and we are His children. This hits close to home as my oldest daughter is getting Baptized. I must say that I am so thrilled to see her grow in her love for God and to desire to be Baptized. My love as a Father pales in comparison to the love our Father God has for us. God is Glorified in our obedience and I believe He is Blessed by it. May heaven rejoice and the Church be encouraged to see our brothers and sisters walk by Faith.
In His Grace,
Eric
