Author: pastortravislv

I am a husband, and father of three, serving as pastor at Providence Reformed Church in Las Vegas, NV. We came here on July 1, 2015.

The Hiding Place: A mini Review

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Without question, one of the best books I have ever read, The Hiding Place should be required reading for any Christian. This gripping account of the life of Corrie Ten Boom is full of stories of the great power and glory of God, experienced by those who were going through the darkest times of World War II.

One of my fears in picking up this book was that it, like other World War II memoirs of those who were brutalized by the Nazis, would be full of gruesome tales and vivid descriptions. While the reader certainly understands that horrible things took place in the camps, Ten Boom and her coauthors simply do not focus on using horrible events to shock their readers. Instead, in an amazingly Christlike way, Corrie and Betsy looked through the horror of the circumstances to the ways in which God was with them.

Christians who read this book will learn more vividly some of the glorious truths of the Bible. Readers learn how to give thanks to God in all circumstances as they watch Corrie learn to be thankful for fleas and an ant. Christians will learn of the power of God’s word to truly sustain those who rely on it through hardships. Believers will learn of the great hope of heaven which allows us to walk through the hardships of this life. Christians will see self-sacrifice, familial love, and even how to love their enemies in a way that is seldom taught in our world today.

If you are a believer who has not read this text, which looks a little like Little House on the Prairie meets World War II Germany, I cannot urge you strongly enough to set aside a few hours and allow your heart to be touched by this gripping, true tale.

Sticks and Stones (Ecclesiastes 7:21-22)

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Ecclesiastes 7:21-22

21 Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. 22 Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.
.

Have you ever had one of those moments where you just cannot get over what someone has said about you or to you? “How dare they say that,” you wonder. Then you let it roll over in your mind, again and again. What should you do? Should you confront them? Should you force an apology from them. Should you work up a really good response that will put them in their place?

Sometimes the poignant wisdom of the book of Ecclesiastes cuts right through our pretense. The verses above are a perfect example. O how easily we are offended by people’s disrespectful words. Yet we are quick to excuse our own. When we talk coldly about or to others, there is a good reason. When we do it, it is because we are just a little extra tired, or we are frustrated, or we are having a bad day. But those others who speak unkindly toward us, they are just plain mean and should be put in their place. Wait a moment. Could it be that they are human too?

Yes, there are mean people who will say mean things to you and about you. Yes, it hurts, and no one should be silly enough to pretend that it does not. However, let’s be very real. People say bad things to us or about us. We also have said bad things about others. I would that this were not true, but it is. We are sinners. We treat others sinfully; that is just part of being a sinner. So maybe Solomon knew what he was talking about here. Maybe we need to grow a little thicker skin. Maybe we need to realize that, while words hurt, we are all guilty of using them recklessly. Maybe it is time that we be careful not to think of ourselves too highly or others, even those who offend us, too lowly.

Dear Lord, you know how thin skinned I can be. You know that I have a tendency to be deeply hurt by the careless remarks of others. Yet, you know also how easily I will let careless remarks come from my own lips. Help me, I pray, to take this counsel from your word to heart. Help me to not listen too closely to anything other than your word. Help me to not care too deeply for the opinions of others. Let me serve you, and in doing so, let me willingly bear the words of others as Jesus did. Let me not value the kind words of others too highly. Let me not feel cut too deeply by the criticism of others. Let me simply serve you and live for your blessing, “Well done.”

Empty-Handed Before God

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The following scene unfolds in the book, The Hiding Place, when Corrie’s aunt learns that she has only a short while to live. Her family tried to comfort her with thoughts of how much good she would bring with her to her Heavenly Father. Jans understood better, and her prayer is worth our attention.

***

But our well-meant words were useless. In front of us the proud face crumpled; Tante Jans put her hands over her eyes and began to cry. ”Empty, empty!” she choked at last through her tears. ”How can we bring anything to God? What does He care for our little tricks and trinkets?”

And then as we listened in disbelief she lowered her hands and with tears still coursing down her face whispered, ”Dear Jesus, I thank You that we must come with empty hands. I thank You that You have done all—all on the Cross, and that all we need in life or death is to be sure of this.”

Mama threw her arms around her and they clung together. But I stood rooted to the spot, knowing that I had seen a mystery.

[From: The Hiding Place, chapter 3 (sorry, no page numbers from audio recordings)]

***

Part of becoming a believer in Christ is grasping that you truly bring nothing, absolutely nothing, to the table. You do nothing to earn even a smidgen of God’s favor. His love, his mercy, his allowing of you into his family is 100% of grace.

What is Worse than Idolatry (Jeremiah 16:10-12)?

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Jeremiah 16:10-12

10 “And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ 11 then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, 12 and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me.
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When we think back to the days of Israel and Judah, we often are tempted to ridicule them for their foolishness. These people who saw the deliverance of God, who experienced the presence of God, who were the special chosen nation of God, willingly turned away from the living God and to man-made idols. Instead of worshipping the God who had rescued their nation from Egypt and showed his power time and time again, the people bowed down to statues.

So, as we begin thinking about Israel, we immediately begin feeling superior. We do not bow down to false idols. But, looking at verse 12, there is something even worse than worshipping statues [this should get our attention]. How could there be something worse, more dishonoring to God than for his people to turn and offer their allegiance to blocks of stone or metal or wood? How could something outrank idolatry on God’s sin list when not making or worshipping idols is number two on his top ten list (cf. Exodus 20)?

In verse 12, God says, “. . . you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me.” There it is. What is worse than bowing to a statue? What is worse is when you follow your own stubborn will and refuse to listen to God. God has given us his commands. God has made his will quite clear to his people. Yet, we often simply refuse to obey him, and instead trust in ourselves, our abilities, and our own supposed wisdom.

Christians, this is a powerful text for us, and it should bring us to our knees. We often look back at Israel’s sin, and adopt an air of superiority. We often think that we are at least smarter than that stiff-necked and rebellious people who turned from the worship of the true God and who bowed down to statues. Yet we are guilty of the sin that God says is even worse in verse 12. We disobey God, choosing instead to listen to our own counsel. We neglect his word, God’s revelation of himself and the source of his communication to us. We look at what God commands us to do in his word, and we think that we are somehow excused from following him. We allow ourselves to follow our own will instead of following the will of God.

What shall we do? This text calls us to repent. God’s word reveals his will. It is time that we follow it. If God says that we must not fail to worship him regularly, we must joyfully obey. If God’s word says that we do not participate in gossip, we must obey. If God’s word says that we must faithfully give to support the ministry, we must obey even in times of financial crisis. If God’s word says that we must be faithful to our individual spouses, we must be faithful. If God’s word calls us to pray, to fast, to seek God’s face, then we must. If God’s word calls us to raise our children in the fear and instruction of God, then we must. If God’s word calls us to avoid even a hint of sexual immorality, then we must. If God’s word speaks of gluttony as a sin, then we must treat it as such. It is time for us to look to God’s word, and with the joy that only a servant of God has, bow to our Lord and yield to his holy and perfect will.

Lord, I read this text, and I see the significance of living apart from your will. I so easily fail you, following my will instead of yours. This is despicable. Help me, I pray, to turn from the things that my sinful heart would desire. Help me to surrender to you, as such surrender is the pathway to perfect joy. And help me to rely on you, for this obedience only comes through faith in Christ and through the help of your Holy Spirit.

Calvin on Trusting God.

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While reading Calvin on Psalm 62, I ran across the following:

“We may throw out a passing and occasional acknowledgement, that our only help is to be found in God, and yet shortly display our distrust in him by busying ourselves in all directions to supplement what we consider defective in his aid.”

Then, 6 pages later:

“Does danger, in short, spring up from any quarter, then just let us call to remembrance that divine power which can bid away all harms, and as this sentiment prevails in our minds, our troubles cannot fail to fall prostrate before it. Why should we fear — how can we be afraid, when the God who covers us with the shadow of
his wings, is the same who rules the universe with his nod, holds in secret chains the devil and all the wicked, and effectually overrules their designs and intrigues?”

Spurgeon on Reading

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Below is the Spurgeon quote from Sunday’s message:

Spurgeon on Paul and reading.

Paul, His Cloak, and His Books
http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0542.htm

Delivered on Sunday Morning, November 29th, 1863, by the Rev. C. H. SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

We do not know what the books were about, and we can only form some guess as to what the parchments were. Paul had a few books which were left, perhaps wrapped up in the cloak, and Timothy was to be careful to bring them.

Even an apostle must read. Some of our very ultra Calvinistic brethren think that a minister who reads books and studies his sermon must be a very deplorable specimen of a preacher. A man who comes up into the pulpit, professes to take his text on the spot, and talks any quantity of nonsense, is the idol of many. If he will speak without premeditation, or pretend to do so, and never produce what they call a dish of dead men’s brains—oh! that is the preacher.

How rebuked are they by the apostle! He is inspired, and yet he wants books! He has been preaching at least for thirty years, and yet he wants books! He had seen the Lord, and yet he wants books! He had had a wider experience than most men, and yet he wants books! He had been caught up into the third heaven, and had heard things which it was unlawful for a man to utter, yet he wants books! He had written the major part of the New Testament, and yet he wants books!

The apostle says to Timothy and so he says to every preacher, “Give thyself unto reading.” The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains, proves that he has no brains of his own.

Brethren, what is true of ministers is true of all our people. You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritanic writers, and expositions of the Bible. We are quite persuaded that the very best way for you to be spending your leisure, is to be either reading or praying. You may get much instruction from books which afterwards you may use as a true weapon in your Lord and Master’s service. Paul cries, “Bring the books”—join in the cry.

Conviction of Self-Reliance (Jeremiah 2:26-28)

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Jeremiah 2:26-28

“As a thief is shamed when caught,
so the house of Israel shall be shamed:
they, their kings, their officials,
their priests, and their prophets,
who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’
and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’
For they have turned their back to me,
and not their face.
But in the time of their trouble they say,
‘Arise and save us!’
But where are your gods
that you made for yourself?
Let them arise, if they can save you,
in your time of trouble;
for as many as your cities
are your gods, O Judah.

Today I find myself working through a difficult emotion. As I read the passage above, I find myself convicted, and it is simply unpleasant.

God speaks some very right and very hard words against the people of Israel. The priests, the leaders, all the people have turned their backs on God. Instead of trusting in God, they have trusted in other things. They have bowed down to statues and not to the living God. They have rejected God for the sake of their own desires.

Yet, when trouble comes their way, the people of God suddenly turn and find God again. They cry out to God, “Arise and save us!” However, these are the very same people who felt no need for God earlier. Thus, God responds to them by telling them to go back to crying out to their statues, since those are what they worship.

Now, here is where I was convicted. I need to cry out to God more. It is way too easy to let myself go through the day without really seeking God. Sure, I will pray at the prescribed times, but then I, if I am not careful, will walk through the remainder of the day as if I am the one who can handle it all myself. I act like the child who says, “No daddy, I can do it myself.” I rely on my strength, my wisdom, my education, my giftedness and somehow do not cry out to God.

How different is that from the guys who rely on the statues and their own wits to get them through the day? I don’t think it is as different as I would like it to be. One cries out to a block of wood. Another depends on his own abilities. Either way, both of us are relying on someone or something other than God for the good outcome that we desire.

I am grateful to God for conviction. I need it. It reminds me that I am not “all that.” Conviction makes me hurt, and it makes me realize that something is wrong that I need to change. So, here comes a new day. Here comes a new opportunity. Today, if I am going to please God, I need to look toward him, cry out to him, and depend on him. I am incapable of doing anything good on my own. I am fully in need of his grace to make it through even a moment of this life.

Gracious God, you know how weak I am and yet how proud I can be. You know how often I rely on my own skill instead of relying on you. Help me. Help me to serve you faithfully. I cry out to you. Please forgive me for self-reliance. Please forgive me for not being prayerful enough. Help me to seek you. I know that, apart from you, I can do nothing. I bring no ability to the table. Only through your power, through your Spirit, can anything good happen. So, I ask you to take my life this day and make it into something that pleases you. I ask that you will empower me to serve you faithfully and work through me to show the world how great you are. And lead me to prayer and dependence on you that will keep me close to you always.

Bibliography from Holiness Presentation

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Below are some books related to holiness and sanctification:


Adams, Jay E. Christ and Your Problems. Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 1971.

_________. How to Help People Change: The Biblical Four-Step Process. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986.

Bridges, Jerry. The Practice of Godliness. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1996.

_________. The Pursuit of Holiness. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2006.

Lundgaard, Chris. The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin. Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 1998.

MacArthur, John. Our Sufficiency in Christ. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1998.

Mahaney, C.J. Living the Cross Centered Life. Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2006.

Miller, C. John. Repentance and Twentieth Century Man. Philadelphia, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1980.

Owen, John, the Mortification of Sin in Believers. 1656 [book on-line]. Accessed 1 September 2009. Available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/owen/mort.html; Internet.

Owen, John, Kelly M. Kapic, Justin Taylor, and John Piper. Overcoming Sin and Temptation. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2006.

Piper, John. The Dangerous Duty of Delight. Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2001.

_________. When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2004.

Sproul, R.C. The Holiness of God. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1985.

Tripp, Paul David. Insturments in the Redeemer’s Hands. Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2002.

The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges – A Mini Review

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Jerry Bridges writes a piercing, challenging, and practical charge for Christians to give their lives to be holy as God commands. In The Pursuit of Holiness (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2006), readers will find practical helps, biblical conviction, and realistically high expectations.

What I Liked

Bridges clearly points Christians toward a higher level of following Christ. Far too many believers fail to live a holy life because they have compromised their understanding of what it means to be holy. The command of God is not for us to be more holy than our neighbors, it is to be holy like God. As Bridges writes, “This is where holiness begins—not with ourselves, but with God. It is only as we see His holiness, His absolute purity and moral hatred of sin, that we will be gripped by the awfulness of sin against the Holy God” (20). One major help for any believer to grow in holiness will be to see God in his true, awesome, terrifying, holiness.

Bridges rightly calls believers to seek to be holy by submitting themselves to the word of God. He writes, “We express our dependence on the Holy Spirit for a holy life in two ways. The first is through a humble and consistent intake of the Scripture. If we truly desire to live in the realm of the Spirit we must continually feed our minds with His truth. It is hypocritical to pray for victory over our sins yet be careless in our intake of the Word of God” (75). Bridges also claims, “Obedience is the pathway to holiness, but it is only as we have His commands that we can obey them. God’s Word must be so strongly fixed in our minds that it becomes the dominant influence in our thoughts, our attitudes, and our actions” (85). Again, Bridges says, “The Bible speaks to us primarily through our reason, and this is why it is so vitally important for our minds to be constantly brought under its influence. There is absolutely no shortcut to holiness that bypasses or gives little priority to a consistent intake of the Bible” (125). It is good, very good, for Christians to hear authors call them to sanctification through the Scriptures.

Though I could point out several other things, I’ll only list one more for right now. Bridges does an excellent job of calling Christians to accept the fact their sin is their responsibility. He argues, “We are to do something. We are not to “stop trying and start trusting”; we are to put to death the misdeeds of the body” (78). Bridges also writes, “So we see that God has made provision for our holiness. Through Christ He has delivered us from sin’s reign so that we now can resist sin. But the responsibility for resisting is ours. God does not do that for us” (57). Again, Bridges powerfully wraps up the book by asking, “Truly the choice is ours. What will we choose? Will we accept our responsibility and discipline ourselves to live in habitual obedience to the will of God? Will we persevere in
the face of frequent failure, resolving never to give up? Will we decide that personal holiness is worth the price of saying no to our body’s demands to indulge its appetites?” (152).

What I didn’t Like

There are a few shortcomings in this book, though not very many. Bridges would have made an even stronger case for personal holiness had he done more to truly identify what it means that God is holy. Bridges aimed at this goal, and brushed up against it on occasion, but he never truly gave the reader a deep sense of awe of God’s holiness. I write this fully aware that Bridges was not trying to write Sproul’s The Holiness of God, but was instead writing a book aimed at calling us to be holy. However, I would have liked another chapter or two on the importance of what it means that God is holy.

At the end of the book, Bridges points out the other shortcoming that I will mention. He (or his publisher) points out that this book focuses mainly on how to put off sin, but does not focus as much on putting on the godly alternatives that will help a believer to live in righteousness. In the final pages, readers find an encouragement to read The Practice of Godliness for this kind of advice. However, if more of how to put on righteousness had been in this book, it would have been stronger.

My Recommendation

The Pursuit of Holiness is a book that any believer could benefit from reading. The chapters are short, easy-to-read, and power-packed. This book would be ideal for small group studies between friends or for personal devotional reading. I highly recommend this book to anyone who desires to have more joy in his Christian life by living more of what God calls him to be.

For You Will Forget the Shame of Your Youth, (Isaiah 54:4-5)

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Isaiah 54:4-5

4 “Fear not, for you will not be ashamed;
be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced;
for you will forget the shame of your youth,
and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
5 For your Maker is your husband,
the Lord of hosts is his name;
and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer,
the God of the whole earth he is called.
.

It has been a little while since I have taken the time to write out some of my thoughts regarding a passage of Scripture from my daily reading. Busyness and excuses aside, I simply have not had the heart to take the time to write in this area lately. However., I need to do more here, to be more disciplined, to write even when I do not feel like it.

Then I read this passage for today: “for you will forget the shame of your youth.” How many of us live with regrets? How many of us still live with a feeling of being less than what God intends for us because of things we cannot go back and change? How many of us feel the sadness of wasted years, of foolish decisions, of sin?

To read God say to us that we will forget the shame of our youth, then, is something that is beyond amazing. Our sin was so great. We had earned for ourselves the wrath of God. We had earned for ourselves the fury of an infinitely perfect, infinitely holy, infinitely righteous judge. Our mistakes, our sin, our foolishness were inexcusable. In fact, God did not excuse them. Instead, if we know Christ, God punished those sins, pouring out his fury for our evil on Christ who willingly and intentionally took upon himself our guilt in order to satisfy God’s fury and allow us to experience God’s mercy for God’s glory.

The result of Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice is more than simply having us set back on neutral ground before God. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, God tells us that he made Christ, who knew no sin, to become sin on our behalf so that we might in turn become the righteousness of God. Thos who confess their sin and cling to Christ as their only hope of being right before God have more than forgiveness, they have God’s promise of perfection. Paul talked about this as the awaiting crown of righteousness for all who have loved Christ’s appearing in 2 Timothy 4:8.

This morning, I celebrate in my heart. I have been a fool more times than I could ever count. I have earned wrath and judgment. For God to then tell me, “for you will forget the shame of your youth,” is for me to hear God speak to me in promise of something totally joyous. I cannot look back on foolishness with any joy. However, I can look back and know that God has forgiven me, that he is changing me, and that he will perfect me in Christ. This motivates me to serve him more and more, to faithfully follow his word, to look forward to that future grace of being made truly righteous in Christ.