The Falling Away of Sin

The work of the Holy Spirit in changing us is not to work directly on our bad habits but to make us admire Jesus Christ so much that sinful habits feel foreign and distasteful.
                                           ~ John Piper

I really appreciate this line from Piper. It makes a good point that reveals the natural progression of change that happens within the heart of a believer. As our souls feast on the spiritual manna of Scripture they are fed with food that is nourishing, that builds our characters up and helps train our minds towards what is right in the eyes of God. The Holy Spirit impresses upon our hearts to move towards actions that build up God's Kingdom and not towards those which can help break it down.


As we are filled with the sense of God's love all things that are a contrast to that light which filters through the corridors of our hearts begin to feel magnified, distasteful, foreign and cumbersome. I know through personal experience that sins that I might have rationalized or justified for awhile began to be too burdensome for me to cling to once I opened my heart ever wider to the Spirit's light and instruction. It wasn't even like I felt that repugnant towards them but it was more like they were once leaves, thriving on the vine encircling my heart, keeping it from growing with the love of God and as I started to receive more and more light and love from God the source of the vine's life, my desire for sin, began to be eventually cut off. And like a plant recieving nourishment no more, my desire and attachment towards that which contradicted my faith began to just wilt away and eventually turn deathly brittle, breaking away from the hold they once had on my heart and at last falling away, allowing my heart to grow ever more and no longer be tangled with such destructive attachments and illusions. New leaves, vibrant and lush, watered by God's eternal fountain of living water, sprung up in their place.

Now, I'm not claiming to have the battle of sin all figured out. But really...does it have to be a battle, so to speak? We are all on our own individual paths towards sanctification where we become less and less part of the world and more and more in union with the likeness of Jesus. We have our whole lives to journey down this road for no matter how much scripture we read, how many prayers we lift towards God's throne, none of us will ever be perfect. I have a lot of faults! (Just ask my husband or kids!) But instead of focusing on them, and focusing on the sins that rise up from the tranquility of the day and threaten to lay claim on my peace and distract me from devotion towards God I am choosing instead (and sometimes I'm not always successful) in focusing on Jesus. Not my sins...but Jesus. For if I let the light of the spirit blossom within me, then darkness will have no choice to flee and I will find desire and attachments naturally shrinking back from the light and diminishing into nothingness, dissolved in the presence of the Spirit's love. 

Thomas Merton descibes faith as a "personal and direct acceptance of God Himself, a "receiving" of the Light of Christ in the soul and a consequent beginning or renewel of the spiritual life. "

He makes certain though that Christ is to be not only our main focus, but our only focus. "But an essential element in this reception of the "light" of Christ is the rejection of every other "light" that can appeal to sense, passion, imagination or intellect".  Thomas Merton, The Inner Experience p. 15

Not only do sins lose their hold on us when we focus on Jesus, but other things that might not have been sins but might have taken our attention away from God and distracted us from devotion, start to fall away as well, their taste becoming bitter to our soul's palate as we become accustomed to savoring the rich sweetness of God's glory.
  

When I was thinking of what might be a fitting prayer to conclude this post with I couldn't help but think of Psalm 51. It's all about sin, confessing our sins and allowing God to purify our hearts to move past our sins and then finding ourselves delivered from them and full of praise towards our creator. So, may psalm 51 be a prayer that we all can utter this morning and thank God for the truths it contains. For His unending faithfulness and love and for the mercy and redemption that is found in Jesus.

Psalm 51

¹ Have mercy on me, O God,
   according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
   blot out my transgressions.
² Wash away all my iniquity
   and cleanse me from my sin.

 ³ For I know my transgressions,
   and my sin is always before me.
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned
   and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
   and justified when you judge.
⁵ Surely I was sinful at birth,
   sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
⁶ Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
   you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

 ⁷ Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
   wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
   let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins
   and blot out all my iniquity.

 ¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God,
   and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence
   or take your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation
   and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

 ¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
   so that sinners will turn back to you.
¹⁴ Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
   you who are God my Savior,
   and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
¹⁵ Open my lips, Lord,
   and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶ You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
   you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
¹⁷ My sacrifice, O God, is^[b] a broken spirit;
   a broken and contrite heart
   you, God, will not despise.

 ¹⁸ May it please you to prosper Zion,
   to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
¹⁹ Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
   in burnt offerings offered whole;
   then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Tasting God's Glory

"Our Heavenly Father, revealing his majesty [in the gospel], lifts reverence for Scripture beyond the realm of controversy."
         ~ John Calvin

There's something beautiful that happens when one opens their heart to God's reality. Their heart like a budding flower opens and blossoms, embracing the light of the Spirit. The "light of the gospel" is not just seen, as if by our mortal eyes, but experienced fully be the senses of the soul. When this happens, all the theological questions one might be struggling with fades away in the background, and the only thing that remains is the pure awe one has in finding oneself witness to being in the presence of God's glory.

Nothing else matters but the glory of God!

Jonathan Edwards describes he who is "spiritually enlightened" as one that does not "merely rationally believe that God is glorious, but he has a sense of the gloriousness of God in his heart."








Edwards goes on to say:

"There is a twofold understanding or knowledge of good, that God has made the mind of man capable of. The first, that which is merely speculative or notional...The other is that which consists in the sense of the heart: as when there is a sense of the beauty, amiableness, or sweetness of a thing...Thus there is a difference between having an opinion that God is holy and gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. There is a difference between having a rational judgement that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness...When the heart is sensible of the beauty and amiableness of a thing, it necessarily feels pleasure in the apprehension...which is a far different thing from having a rational opinion that it is excellent."

Has your soul broken open and allowed the light of the Spirit to flood the innermost sacred parts of your heart to behold the glory of God? To taste His glory?....


There was a time I let theological questions get in the way of experiencing God's glory. In fact, I let such questions create a boundary between experiencing God for I  started going about seeking His truth by means of man's knowledge and not God's Word. Man has much wisdom to offer eachother, but when it comes down to it, we are but a breath to God. True knowledge rests in God's Word and through the whispers of His Spirit that awakens us while reading His Word and opening it up to Him through meditation. 

What did I gain from seeking truth from man first and God second? Confusion, restlessness of spirit and an even thirstier soul that felt near to perishing. I learned, that God's glory is less to be understood by the mind but more to be experienced by the heart.

Let's be filled with the Holy Spirit today and savor God in all His glory, letting His light awaken the senses of our soul as we bring lift high our praises!

Heavenly Father,

We are beings created to bring You praise honor and glory. We pray that Your spirit awakens our hearts, letting them bloom so that the light of Your Spirit penetrates every corner of our souls. We seek knowledge of you, but even over knowledge, experience of you. We thirst to taste the glory of God and have its truth echo joyfully in the corridors of our hearts. Cleanse and purify our hearts, renew them as we come to You, laying down the essence of who we are, so that we can become more like who You are. Help us lose ourselves in Your love so that we may shine your light even brighter amidst the world's darkness, helping to vanquish it and bringing about a greater depth of love to those around us. 

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and forever will be. 

In Jesus' precious name,

Amen. 

The End of Self: John Piper

How shall this insidious motive of pleasure in being made much of be broken except through bending all my faculties to delight in the pleasure of making much of God! Christian hedonism is the final solution. It is deeper than death to self. You have to go down deeper into the grave of flesh to find the truly freeing stream of miracle water that ravishes you with the taste of God's glory. Only in that speechless, all-satisfying admiration is the end of self.

                  ~ John Piper

I was thinking this morning of this passage from Piper when in my mind I envisioned a scale and then did a little experiment, perhaps you might want to do it too. It's an interesting visual activity that helps us measure the priority God has in our lives.

Ok, here it goes...picture a scale....

You have stones of equal weight all around you.  On one side put the amount of stones that represents the time you think about yourself each day. Estimate how many thoughts you have and each thought is a stone. We all do it, we all daydream and have conversations and thoughts continually running through our heads. About our dreams, our desires, our plans for the day, what we are wearing, eating, conversations we've had, etc.

And then on the other side put the number of stones representing the number of thoughts you have about God each day. His plans for you, your praises and prayers lifted up to Him, time in His Word, reflecting on His laws and the beauty and gifts of His grace and mercy.

And then...see which way the scale tilts.

Are you more consumed with thoughts about yourself or are you consumed more with your passion and love towards God?

 Don't worry, only you and God know the answer!

I know there are times when the scale can tip either way for me. Some days I am transfixed with God, coming back to His Word again and again, lifting Him up in prayer, His peace penetrating my soul as I encounter Him in the present moment, wishing nothing more than to bring Him glory in word and deed. And then...there are those other times...the scale is dramatically tilted in the opposite direction. When I let my worries and fears, insecurities and bitterness consume me and I lose sight of God...kind of like Peter did when he walked out on the ocean's surface to meet Jesus. He looked away. And then started to sink.

When the scale is tilted in our direction that means we are sinking. Losing focus on the one thing that truly matters, the one supreme treasure that we are to hold dear above everything else ....God!

So it's important, at that point, when we realize we are sinking and losing focus, to come back. How do you come back after you've had a moment of groundlessness..when you feel you've stumbled and tripped? Do you turn to scripture first, prayer? I'd say that I turn to the psalms and then pray...and after that my heart is open enough for meditation. Whatever one's means, it's important to take the steps to get back on the pathway to God. Someone once told me, you can take a thousand steps away from God, but it only takes one step to come back to Him.

So let's take some steps today...away from ourselves and towards God.

Heavenly Father,

We thank You for Your great mercy and grace which makes eternal union with You possible. We pray that You help transform our hearts so that our strongest desire would be to dwell in Your presence, finding supreme joy and peace in you, and not in ourselves. As we learn to fix our eyes on Jesus, in the process may we also learn to lose our attachments to self and world. Shatter our illusions so that we may be inundated with the pure reality of Your presence and Love. 

May we bring You all honor, glory and praise.

In Jesus' unmatched and precious name,

Amen.

God is the Gospel: John Piper

"Until the gospel events of Good Friday and Easter and the gospel promises of justification and eternal life lead you to behold and embrace God himself as your highest joy, you have not embraced the gospel of God. You have embraced some of his gifts. You have rejoiced over some of his rewards. You have marveled at some of his miracles. But you have not yet awakened to why the gifts, the rewards, the miracles, have come . They have come for one great reason! That you might behold forever the glory of God in Christ, and by beholding become the kind of person who delights in God above all things, and by delighting display his supreme beauty and worth with ever-increasing brightness and bliss forever."

                           ~ John Piper, God is the Gospel, p. 38

Right now I'm reading an amazing book by John Piper, God is the Gospel. Piper is always a good read. He is an author and pastor who has an incredible passion and devotion towards God. I don't always agree 100% with his theology, but come many times close to it. (But when do we ever really always agree with any one particular person?) He describes the aim of the book as to establish the reality that the blessings of the gospel aren't the reasons for the gospel. That it is true that they are amazing, beautiful, and to be cherished but they aren't the reason, just factors that help one derive at the true meaning. They are all designed to do one thing: move one closer to God and towards seeing Him as one's highest treasure. 

 God, essentially,  is the gospel, not the blessings that come from receiving the gospel.

May God be our highest treasure! May we not just rejoice in being redeemed, or receiving healing and freedom from the attachments that bind us to our sins and sorrows. May we see God's glory as part of that all...the means and the end. May God be our primary source of adoration and praise, and worship, not the gifts He gives us.

Piper explains it well with this illustration:

The Final good of the gospel is "God himself seen and savored in all his glory. Focusing on facets of a diamond without seeing the beauty of the whole is demeaning to the diamond."

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Heavenly Father,

We thank you for Your great mercy, and Your grace which redeems us and is the doorway to having a relationship with you. Through your grace You sent Jesus, through Your grace we are saved. We thank You for Your abundant and steadfast love. May You be our supreme treasure in our lives. May everything be pale in comparison to beholding You in Your glory. May we long to bring Your name glory as we serve You, praise You and worship Your great name.

In Jesus' precious name,

Amen.