“Faith and love are often thought of as easy things to do, but they are not thought of in this way by those who put them into practice.  As they are the only springs of obedience toward God and usefulness toward other people, so they are greatly opposed from within and from without.”

John Owen on Hebrews 6:10 (from abridged version)

Love is hard work– loving each other, selflessly loving our wives and families, loving the lost, loving our Lord, none of these are easy, and often it feels nearly impossible.  Sometimes, our self-love is gratified by the good feelings and returned affections we experience when we love others.  So, during those times  loving seems easy, but  doesn’t that have more to do with loving ourselves?  That’s one love that is not hard.

But what about when our families are noisy and bothersome, what about when our fellow Christians are irritating and awkward, what about when God feels far away and when unbelievers act so offensively and so irritatingly… unbelieving?  What about when there is no gratification to our self-love?  Is there some trick?  Is there someway to make it easy again?  Nope, as Casey Kirkman exhorted us Sunday night: Hold Fast!   This is the work of the Christian, this is the love that is demanded, this is the life to which we are called (Col 3: 14-17).

Hold fast to Christ. Keep going back, keep filling your mind with Him, with His work, with His love, with all He has done for you.  Christ’s love is the foundation of absolutely everything we do, there is no short cut around it, no special program to make it easy, in fact it’s not supposed to be easy (Phil 1: 27-30) so don’t expect it to be!  Expect to have to work at it, to struggle with it.

But God has not left us here alone to struggle against ourselves, our sin, and the world, God has been gracious to give us many things to help us along this Way.  Perhaps it’s good to meditate on these truths so well known to us:

1. God has given us His Holy Spirit!  (John 14: 15-29 – These are awesome words)
2. God has given us prayer and Christ to always be our mediator! (Heb. 4: 14-16)
3. God has given us His Word. (2 Tim. 3: 16,17)
4. God has given us His Church (Col. 3: 14-17, Heb. 3: 13-14, Heb. 10:24, 25)

Love is hard, in fact love is war!  This is not some sentimental mushy nothing!  But it is emotional!  Let us strive to keep stirring each other up to love!  Let our hearts be enlivened. Let our wills be engaged. Let our imaginations be filled with the dreams of God’s kingdom and glory!  Let us press on!  Let us hold fast!  Remember this is a fight, so don’t forget all the weapons God has given us to wage this war!

God bless you in the battle!  The war is already won!

Psalm 116:8, 12

For You have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling;

What shall I render to the LORD
for all his benefits to me?

Beloved Fishermen,
“What shall I render to the LORD for all His benefits to me?”  These words hit me afresh this morning as I read them.

When considering the benefits of God towards us, the Psalmist goes directly to the root of the matter:  God has “delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling… .”  Whatever else is distracting or disappointing or whatever painful, temporary circumstances threaten to eclipse the love and goodness of our God and Savior, these words stand sure, unchanged, unwavering – God has delivered my soul from death.

How much more, as a New Covenant believer, should I be moved by these words.  As a New Covenant believer I have a more perfect view of God’s salvation.   I have the record of the work of Jesus Christ, the completed work, the completed salvation–though I see still but as through a mirror dimly– and I have  the special presence of the Holy Spirit, the promised presence of Jesus Christ, Oh the manifold benefits the Lord has poured out upon me!

Yet still the effects of sin in this world, in me, in my body threaten to cloud out my perception, dampen my zeal, weaken my resolve.  How foolish, how weak “Oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?”

Ah, but what’s the point, man?  the point, my beloved brothers, is that my perception of a thing does not affect the thing itself, it may only affect my response to the thing.  The issue is not how well I perceive, in my sin addled mind,  the benefits of God towards me, the issue is that they are REAL!  They have been proved in Jesus Christ!  God IS gracious and righteous and merciful (116:5), God DOES preserve the simple (vs 6), God DOES deal bountifully with me (vs. 7), in Christ, God HAS delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling (vs. 8).  Through faith in Christ, these things are done! The work is done, though my perception of it will not be complete until the New Heavens and the New Earth reveal it perfectly to me, and I being made perfect will be able to perceive it perfectly.

So the heart of the matter rests with the question that started this post, these benefits being sure, what then shall I render to the Lord, now?  In the face of waning zeal, in the face of all our responsibilities, in the face of exhaustion, in the face of remaining sin…  in the face of all these things which may affect my perception of God’s benefits towards me, what shall I render to the Lord?

It must be resolved, that it will not, it cannot be my perception that drives my answer to this question, it must be the reality of the benefits, the reality of Jesus Christ that drives my answer.

May the Lord our God so fill our minds and hearts with His truth, that by the power of His Holy Spirit, and by His glorious grace we might be able to hold fast to Christ as the sand shifts beneath our feet, so that we might be able to render to our Lord our last breath, our last ounch of strength, our last whisper of worship.  To God be the glory.

Dear Fishermen, I’ve just posted a new blog update!
http://casey-consideringgrace.blogspot.com/

Deuteronomy 5:29
Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!

Brothers, how compelling these words are to me.  How real this struggle is!  In these past weeks God has lavished us with His Spirit.  It feels as if He has been pouring down His truth and love upon us.  I have been warmed to my bones with the power and beauty of our Savior, Jesus Christ. How could we ask for better, this side of heaven, than what we have experienced over the last month?

And yet!  Still, come Monday, or Tuesday, or–rarely–as late as Wednesday, and the stress of work, and life, the cold, and soggy blanket of this world, and the wretchedness of my wandering heart, turn the blaze of my zeal into a sputtering, flickering, pathetic little flame.

Oh that I had such mind always, to fear my God to keep His commandments!

Lord willing, I hope to be preaching this text when I go up to Verona in two weeks.  My mind is full of these words, my heart is overflowing with the beauty of God’s love for us–His desire for our good, His perfect wisdom in His law. How rich, how lovely, how majestic is our God!

But in all His glory He knows us, down here in the dirt, where we are, He knows us.  He knows our weakness.  He knows our fears and our temptations.  He knows we will not always have this mind as we ought.  He knows we will have ups and downs.  He knows His sheep, and His sheep wander.  So, it was a particularly sweet balancing thought to meditate on God’s love last night as Robert Fisher opened up Psalm 23:3.  God restores my soul.

Yes, it is very much better for me to keep this mind, to always burn with zeal and passion!  But knowing that He loves me even in my stumbling, that is fuel for the fire!   O the joy that our beloved Jesus loves us, even in our sins, even in our weakness, and fear, and temptations, even our failures, our Jesus LOVES US!  The One against whom we are sinning, to whom we are so offensive, He Loves us, He restores us, He guides us home–doesn’t that feed the fire?!  That love is the tinder that my heart needs.

May God be pleased to blow upon the flames.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please be praying for me as I prepare to Preach on May 3rd.  I believe Paul Watkins will be preaching this coming Sunday.  Let us lift each other up!

To answer Brad’s questions from his first post:
1)  I’ll probably check the blog every couple days, unless it’s really active, and I’m hopeful I can post weekly.  (That may be optimistic, but I’m hopeful.)
2)  I looking forward to having a calendar we can use to schedule events, and keep up with each other.
3)  All the blogs I look at are already in the blogroll.

UPDATE:  As Pastor Stu just emailed,  Pastor McKinnon will be preaching in Verona on May 3rd. So, of course, I will not be.  But it has been wonderful thinking about this text.  Perhaps I’ll be able to preach it some other time soon.