In debt to love

I love CCEF, a biblical counseling college dedicated to restoring Christ to counseling and counseling to the church (that is actually their slogan too!) The resources available on their website have been so helpful to me as I complete a secular education in a counseling-related field. The emphasis on Freudian psychologies, self-actualization and many other psyche-driven interventions in the world of counseling has set off my biblical spoof radar on a pretty consistent basis and so I set out to find a counter attack for these worldly teachings that I just can't buy. Enter CCEF. They are affiliated with Westminster Theological Seminary and provide podcasts, ask a counselor, articles and many other resources. I really think they're helpful for everyone, not just people entering a counseling field. They touch on many practical issues that are a part of life today and that people would seek a counselor's advice and guidance for, but their advice comes from a bible-centered, gospel-saturated perspective.

One of my favorite authors and counselors, Ed Welch (he wrote the book "When People are Big and God is Small" which is an outstanding book! oh and I swear I'm not being paid or compensated in any way to do this post, I am just such a fan!) shares his thoughts about why affection and attraction isn't enough reason for marriage and the right-minded attitudes that constitute love that lasts. Check it out here.

Be Thou My Vision

We sang this song last Sunday at church and it wrecked my soul for how far I am from these words being true and yet how much I want them to be my life's song.

Be Thou my Vision

Words – Dallan Forgail, 6th Century

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;

naught be all else to me, save that Thou art

Thou my best though, by day or by night,

waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light

Be Thou my wisdom, Thou my true word;

I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;

Thou my great Father, I thy true son;

Thou in me dwelling and I with Thee one.

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise,

Thou mine inheritance, now and always

Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,

High King of heaven, my Treasure Thou art

O God be my everything, be my delight.

My Savior, my Glory, my soul satisfied

My Savior, You satisfy

High King of heaven, my victory won,

may I reach heaven's joys, O bright heav'ns Son!

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,

still be my vision, O ruler of all

O God be my everything, be my delight.

My Savior, my Glory, my soul satisfied (2x)

broken cisterns

Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
be shocked, be utterly desolate,
declares the Lord,
for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Jeremiah 2:12-13

Reading this today brought a conviction of the idols that are vying for my affections, challenging the place that Christ holds in my heart. These broken cisterns leave me dry and wanting. Repenting of these idols that don't satisfy, I am reminded that the Lord alone is the fountain from which life comes. And that I must go to this fountain for life.

Women Discipling Women

After growing up in a church and floundering through what it meant to follow Christ in high school, mostly by seeking moralism and religion, the Lord changed my heart to see Him as glorious and wonderful, and to convict me of the sin of chasing after my own worldly interests. This is just a summary of my long process toward truly following Christ, and eventually, he used the life of older women in my church to push me to Himself.

In college, I had the joy and opportunity to be discipled by a wise God-fearing woman who taught me so much about the Word, demonstrated how to live a holy life before me, and showed me how a godly woman should live in our culture. In looking back, the single most important thing she taught me was the absolute necessity of Jesus and the Gospel. Prior to that, the role of Christ in faith seemed more of a good story to me and not the key to my justification, redemption and hope.
Her friendship and counsel over the course of my college years was invaluable to me; her prayers and wisdom helped me through struggles in relationships, theological issues, challenges as a varsity athlete, career decisions and most significantly, my relationship with Christ. Sometimes it was merely the simple act of getting off the college campus for a hot meal and some good conversation that made an incredible difference in my week. Being able to vulnerably share the concerns and struggles in my life and to be pointed to Christ and holiness in a loving way was an immense blessing. Post-college, my mentor is still one of my closest friends and I know the Lord used her in a mighty way to call me to Him at a time of great turmoil and confusion in my life. Praise be to God!

She also demonstrated the Titus 2 mandate given to us women to care for the women who are younger than us. After experiencing this, I am all the more encouraged to share my life with younger women so that they may learn how to live for the Lord where they are in life. Here's a great article describing this challenge written by Susan Hunt:

I had spoken on the topic of biblical womanhood and a college-age woman asked me a thoughtful question: How can I think biblically about my womanhood when I am constantly told that independence is power and that I should seek my own fulfillment and determine my own destiny?

My answer: “Go to godly women in your church and ask them to speak the truth of biblical womanhood into your life. Ask them to show you how to live for God’s glory as a woman.” But then I wondered, “Is this young woman’s church preparing its women to answer her question?” Someone is teaching women and girls what it means to be a woman. Is it the church or the world?

Older women discipling younger women is not just a nifty idea someone concocted, and it is not optional. It’s a gospel imperative. The apostle Paul writes,

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. (Titus 2:3-5)

In light of this passage, let’s consider some questions that will help the church sound the call for women to invest themselves in younger women. I pray that this brief article would challenge women to respond to this high and holy calling.

THE TITUS 2 MANDATE

The mandate of Titus 2:3-5 is that older women are to disciple younger women, teaching them how to grow in godliness in their distinct relationships and calling.

Some of the principles of discipleship embedded in this amazing chapter will help us to understand the specific directive to women in verses 3 to 5.

Principle #1: The church is responsible to encourage and equip women to disciple each other

In verse 1 Paul addresses his instructions on discipleship to Titus, the pastor. Since women training women is an integral part of the church’s ministry, Titus must equip the women in his church to do so. Therefore, it is the responsibility of every church leader to see that women are equipped for this calling.

Principle #2: The church should teach sound doctrine

In verse 1 Paul tells Titus to teach sound doctrine, doctrine that is healthy or whole. This shows us that women discipling women should flow out of and be consistent with the regular preaching ministry of the church. This discipleship should help women apply sound doctrine to daily life and relationships.

Principle #3: The communion of the saints

Yet verses 3 through 5 also tell us that discipleship is not just the responsibility of church leaders (see also Ephesians 4:11-16). As the Westminster Confession of Faith states: “All saints, that are united to Jesus Christ their Head… and, being united to one another in love, they have communion in each other’s gifts and graces, and are obliged to the performance of such duties, public and private, as do conduce to their mutual good, both in the inward and outward man.”

Biblical discipleship is relational. The content of the gospel should be taught in the context of relationships that validate the gospel. Our relationship with God is personal, but that relationship also brings us into community with his other adopted children.

Older men and women have the generational responsibility to share their gifts and graces with younger men and women. They are to tell the stories of their victories as well as their failures and show how their stories are part of God’s grand story of redemption.

The Titus 2 mandate is life-on-life discipleship that guides and nurtures to mature Christian womanhood. It is a mothering ministry. This mothering spirit is evident in Paul’s description of his own ministry to the Thessalonians:

But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. (1 Thess. 2:7-8)

Principle #4: The gospel is our motivation

There are costly challenges in this chapter. Investing in the lives of others costs energy and time. It means taking relational risks. Why should we live so sacrificially?

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ (vv. 11-13).

Christ came and he is coming back. He appeared in grace as a babe and he will come in glory as the King. While we wait for that glorious appearing we are to make disciples. Unless we are motivated by the gospel we will become discouraged and weary.

Principle #5: The gospel is powerful

Paul concludes with an electrifying reminder of the power of the gospel.

[Jesus] gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himselfa peoplethat are his very own, eager to do what is good (v. 14).

Some discipleship is age and gender specific but all discipleship is to be gospel-focused. It is Jesus who redeems and purifies us. For a fallen sinner to become eager to do what is good is the radical work of the gospel. The result of our investment in the lives of others is not dependent upon our own power or experience. It is only the power of the gospel that can transform self-centered sinners into Christ-centered disciples. And one of the wonders of gospel-driven discipleship is that even if we do not see this transformation take place in the disciple, it will take place in us as we disciple others.

See more of the article here.

Back to the books

I've been getting back into some serious leisure reading (is that an oxymoron?) and its been pretty great for my soul. The non-stop action of work and grad school has had me on a pretty long hiatus from consistent reading, so cracking open a good book over the past week has been extremely enjoyable. Its amazing the significant effect of what I put into my mind on my daily life and outlook.
I've almost chewed my way through Collin Hansen's Young, Restless, Reformed. The book is a journalists attempt to uncover the progress of the Reformed Christian movement by traveling across America and interviewing some of the key leaders who have influenced and shaped Reformed Christianity today. John Piper, C.J. Mahaney and Mark Driscoll are some of the big names the author gets to pick the brain of, but he also stops in at university campuses, theological seminaries and conferences to engage some of the twenty-somethings about why Calvinism has changed their hearts toward the Lord and thus, changed the way they live their lives evangelically and morally. I loved the way that, although there are differing perspectives held by a lot of these leaders on secondary theological issues such as the charismatic gifts, covenant theology versus dispensationalism, baptism, eschatology and the degree of cultural engagement a church should take, many of the leader's humility and love for the gospel creates a point of convergence that trumps all these disagreements. A love for the sovereignty of God, a knowledge of the fallen sinfulness of man and the enormous grace given through Christ's life and death and resurrection, a commitment to display and share His glory, an urgent call to evangelize to a fallen world...these leaders are like-minded about what matters most.
Charles Spurgeon sums this up well, as he often (always?) does:
The doctrine of election, like the great act of election itself, is intended to divide, not between Israel and Israel, but between Israel and the Egyptians- not between saint and saint, but between saints and the children of the world. A man may be evidently of God's chosen family, and yet though elected, may not believe in the doctrine of election. I hold there are many savingly called, who do not believe in effectual calling, and that there are a great many who persevere to the end, who do not believe the doctrine of final perseverance. We do hope that the hearts of many are a great deal better than their heads. We do not set their fallacies down to any willful opposition to the truth as it is in Jesus, but simply to an error in their judgments, which we pray God to correct. We hope that if they think us mistaken too, they will reciprocate the same Christian courtesy; and when we meet around the cross, we hope that we shall ever feel that we are one in Christ Jesus.
Amen, Spurg, amen.

A bit of positive affirmation

This video made me laugh. When I showed it to my mom, her response was "you did that type of thing when you were that age".