Being Chinese and Reformed (Reforming)

Endurance

reformed — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:42:41 +0000

Something I have struggled with all my life. Ever since I was a kid I knew that whenever things got tough, I could always quit. I retired multiple times from the youth soccer league.

Even now, when things are tough, I take a break. When things are not going my way, I take a break. What is it that God desires of me?

This is an excerpt from an article describing the roots of endurance is Spiritual. Maybe I had it all wrong. Endurance is not just a physical or emotional, but needs the focus on the Spirit of God.

Christians recognize that this is impossible, even with inspiring examples to point the way. The endurance needed to accomplish these tasks is supernatural in origin–it happens only through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Powerful Spiritual Weapons to Battle the Forces Attacking Young Adults

The emerging generation needs to understand that endurance is not rooted in a compelling vision/mission statement, or a well-defined goal, or a spiffy resume, or flawless communication skills. All of these things have merit, but aimlessness is first and foremost a spiritual problem, not a logistical problem.

Christians must clearly understand what John Piper articulates in The Roots of Endurance:

Our fight and our race and endurance is a radically God-centered, Christ-exalting, Spirit-dependent, promise-supported life. It is not a ‘just do it’ ethic. It is not a moral self-improvement program…. It is a deeply cross-embracing life that knows the Christ of the Bible as the Son of God who was crucified first as our substitute and then as our model of endurance. (p. 29)

If you’re concerned about those who are having a hard time getting a sense of direction, consider engaging spiritually on their behalf through prayer, as the Apostle Paul did for his disciples:

- Pray that the Holy Spirit will help them in their weakness (Romans 8:26, Ephesians 3:16)
- Pray that they will not do what is wrong, but will do what is right (2 Corinthians 13:7)
- Pray that the eyes of their heart will be enlightened (Ephesians 1:18)
- Pray a prayer of thanksgiving for them (2 Timothy 1:3)
- Pray that they may increase in knowledge and depth of insight (Philippians 1:9, Colossians 1:9)
- Pray that they will be able to avoid anxiety but turn their concerns over to God in prayer (Philippians 4:6)
- Pray that they will live a life worthy of the calling they have received (Ephesians 4:1)
- Pray that God will fulfill their every good purpose and that the name of the Lord Jesus may be glorified in them (2 Thessalonians 1:11-12)
- Pray that they will be active in sharing their faith (Philemon 1:6)

If the problem is spiritual, then only spiritual weapons can fight it. So keep praying. As John Bunyan said, “Pray often; for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan.”

Question: What would you be like in 100 years?

reformed — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:57:54 +0000

This was the question posed in a recent sermon. In normal goal setting, we look 5-10 years down the road, maybe even 30 years. But what God desires is not that we be better in 5-10 years, but he desires for his people to be made perfect… made into the image of his son, Jesus Christ. This not only places eternity in our hearts, but reveals to us that what we seek, our profession, our daily lives, our goals must be placed in a perspective in light of eternity.

In work, we look not only to make money, but how God is transforming/reforming our character. In family, we not just raise a family, but in light of eternity how God can transform our character and the characters of our family members. When looking at friendships and other reliationships, we see how God is using them to perfect us in Christ. During times of crisis, depression, disappointment… our response should not just to overcome, not just to satisfy ourselves or fulfill ourselves, but during those times of trial we should ask… how is God using those situations to transform us, calling us to faith in Jesus Christ. This is how God is changing us and molding us into the image of his Son.

This is what we would want to be in 100 years. Not just financially secure, not just secure in friendships and relationships, not secure in a good name, but secure that our life is in the Lord Jesus Christ and that we are being changed from the inside out. This is what we NEED to live for. This is WHY we are here.

Life is preparation for death. Life is preparation for us to be made perfect. In Christ we have both justification and sanctification. We have both regeneration and glorification.

May God transform and renew you in Jesus Christ by the power of his Holy Spirit.

Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 19, Section 4

reformed — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:28:53 +0000

In the previous sections of Chapter 19 we looked at 2 types of laws. The first type is described as the moral law, which was given to the people of Israel in the form of the Ten Commandments. They could be summarized as the two great commandments, love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.

Last week we talked about the second type of law, ceremonial laws. We said because of Christ they are no longer binding on us.

Today we will look at a third type of law. The confession calls them “Judicial Laws” or civil laws.

These laws include various capital crimes, with its procedures and punishments as well as a number of regulations and restrictions, including issues involving land, economics, etc. Are these laws still binding today?

When we look at them we see that they were given to the Nation of Israel for a specific time at a specific place. With the coming of Jesus Christ and the fulfillment of the law, we know that Jesus came not only for the people of Israel but also people from every tongue and tribe and nation. The salvation of God is coming through a spiritual kingdom and not a temporal nation.

Even though civil laws applied only to the Nation of Israel and have been superseded by the Gospel in view of the Kingdom of God, they do offer general principles of justice and is useful for study and understanding God.

Let’s read confess our faith concerning civil laws.

4. To the people of Israel, as a civil entity, he also gave various judicial laws
which expired at the time their State expired. Therefore, these judicial laws place no obligation upon anyone now, except as they embody general principles of justice.

Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 19, Section 3

reformed — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 02:05:41 +0000

In looking at the LAW of GOD, we saw that God gave us the moral law that could be summarized as love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.

God also gave us ceremonial laws. These included the sacrificial system, the dietary regulations… we learn that these were temporary, and that they served the purpose of pointing us to Christ. In the Old Testament, we learn about Christ’s suffering, sacrifice, God’s love and grace through these laws.

But we also learn that when Christ came he fulfilled these laws and as a result we no longer practice them. Today’s confession uses the term abrogate meaning the laws have been fulfilled by Christ and are no longer binding to us.

One example can be seen with the Apostle Peter in Acts 10. Jewish customs forbade eating unclean animals. But God gives Peter a vision to kill and eat. Thus abrogating this restriction. It symbolically showed how God allowed both Jew and Gentile to come to him through faith in Jesus Christ.

Another example comes from Hebrews 9 in which it is explained that Christ is the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, he did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption…

So if someone asks you: why don’t you have to sacrifice goats and calves? you can safely tell them that the sacrificial system of the Old Testament pointed to Christ who is the greater and more perfect sacrifice. His blood is the greater and more perfect offering, as a result we no longer need to offer up goats and calves
and bulls and sheep.

Let’s read today’s confession together and praise Jesus for being our righteousness..

3. In addition to this law, commonly called the moral law, God was pleased to give the people of Israel—as the church under age—ceremonial laws, which contained several typological ordinances. These ordinances consisted partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, his graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits, and partly of various instructions of moral duties. All these ceremonial laws are now abrogated under the new testament.

Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 18, Section 4

reformed — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 02:01:07 +0000

Today’s confession deals with assurance of salvation. What happens when
we are in serious sin? The comfort for true believers is that God himself, by
His spirit will seek and save those who are his.

Two examples of this in scripture:

King David, a man after God’s own heart, commits adultery with Bathsheba, and
then murders her husband to cover up his sins. Even in his deepest sin, God in
his grace and mercy sends Nathan to rebuke him. And in his spirit God brings
David to a place of repentance and restoration. True believers are not left in
despair no matter how great the sin or how perilous the situation.

Second example is that of the apostle Peter. When our Lord Jesus Christ was
arrested and sentenced to be crucified. Peter denied knowing Jesus three
times. Even in Peter’s darkest hour, Christ did not leave Peter in his shame
and guilt but instead brought him to a place of repentance and restoration.

God’s salvation is not conditional on our obedience and we do not lose God’s
salvation in our disobedience. God’s salvation is God’s grace to us by faith in the
work of Christ. Our sins grieve God, grieves his spirit but it is not so great that
God cannot forgive nor are they so bad that we cannot be restored back to him.

4. True believers may have the assurance of their salvation shaken, diminished,
or temporarily lost in various ways: as by negligence in preserving it, by falling
into some special sin which wounds the conscience and grieves the Spirit, by
some sudden or violent temptation, or by God’s withdrawing the light of his
countenance and allowing even those who reverence him to walk in darkness
and have no light. Yet, true believers are never completely deprived of that seed
of God and life of faith, that love for Christ and fellow believers, that sincerity
of heart and conscience concerning duty, out of which—by the operation of
the Spirit—this assurance may in due time be revived; and by which, in the
meantime, they are supported from utter despair.

Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 17, Sections 1 and 2

reformed — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:38:29 +0000

Chapter 17 discusses the Perseverance of the Saints.

Can Believers in Christ, Born again Christians, those adopted into God’s family fall away? Or is it true that once you’re saved, you’re always saved? We can learn three things from today’s confession:

1. True believers cannot fall from grace
2. They will persevere
3. This is only by the grace of God.

God has made a covenant with his people and it is God who will uphold and guarantee it. Those who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, those who have been elected and adopted into God’s family will necessarily be kept by God.

Phil 1:6 being confident of this, he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life.

So what about Christians who fall away or backslide? Jesus told a parable in Luke 15 about how God will seek after the lost. If you had 100 sheep and one went astray. You would leave the 99 to find the 1. And in a similar way God will not let true believers fall away, God himself guarantees the salvation of his people for eternity.
We are again reminded of the promises God has made to us. We can be assured of this because of the Father’s love, the effectiveness of Jesus work for our salvation, and the continued presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Chapter 17 – The Perseverance of the Saints
1. Those whom God has accepted in his Beloved, effectually called, and sanctified by his Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere in it to the end and be eternally saved.

2. The perseverance of the saints does not depend upon their own free will, but on the unchangeableness of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father; on the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ; on the continuing presence of the Spirit and the seed of God within them; and on the nature of the covenant of grace. These are grounds of the certainty and infallibility of their perseverance.
–Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 17, Sections 1-2

Desiring God Ministries in Chinese

reformed — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 22:20:45 +0000

John Piper’s Desiring God Ministries has now a simplified Chinese translation to their site. A wonderful resource for the Chinese. Please share with your friends: Kemushen.com Related posts:Westminster Confession of Faith in ChineseChinese Christianity Network TVReformed Chinese Open statement Related posts: