Octavius Winslow on Following Christ's Example

Pastor Tom Ascol is always raving about how good Octavius Winslow's Morning and Evening Devotions are, so I decided I should read them for myself.

Today's morning devotion just happens to be on John 13:15, "For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you."

After noting Matt. 11, Rom. 15, and Phil. 2 as places the Bible calls us to follow Christ's example, Winslow has come lucid applications:

• Look not every man on his own circle, his own family, his own gifts, his own interests, comfort, and happiness; upon his own Church, his own community, his own minister. Let him not look upon these exclusively.
• Let him not prefer his own advantage to the public good.
  
• Let him not be self-willed in matters involving the peace and comfort of others.
• Let him not forLm favorite theories, or individual opinions, to the hazard of a Church's prosperity or of a family's happiness.
• Let him yield, sacrifice, and give place, rather than carry a point to the detriment of others.
• Let him, with a generous, magnanimous, disinterested spirit, in all things imitate Jesus, who "pleased not Himself."
• Let him seek the good of others, honoring their gifts, respecting their opinions, nobly yielding when they correct and overrule his own.
• Let him promote the peace of the Church, consult the honor of Christ, and seek the glory of God, above and beyond all private and selfish ends.

He explains in closing:

This is to be conformed to the image of God's dear Son, to which high calling we are predestinated; and in any feature of resemblance which the Holy Spirit brings out in the holy life of a follower of the Lamb, Christ is thereby glorified before men and angels.

I found it especially helpful that Winslow points out the danger of forming one's own opinions and doctrines. "Let him not form favorite theories, or individual opinions, to the hazard of a Church's prosperity or of a family's happiness," he writes. It is for lack of following Christ that people come up with hazardous doctrines. It is their failure to submit themselves to His own Word that allows their minds to invent false teachings.

And it is our job as His followers to follow Him in life and thought, teaching what He teaches and protecting those whom He protects.

The Glory of God in Family Worship

Leading Our Families to Treasure Jesus Christ by Faith
(taught last Wednesday for some of our community group men)

God is worthy of all of our worship. Ps. 117 aptly says, “Praise the LORD, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD! “ The beginning of Ps. 145 reads,

I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness. They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

I am thrilled to be able to commend to you God's own vision of His worship in the home, because it is so true and right and good and helpful and because it gives great and true glory to God. God wants His name – His very character and glory – known and treasured in families, not simply individuals, across the globe. There is a real reason that the Scriptures compare the church to the family. Family matters to God. God assumes that families will be worshiping Him. Indeed, God is deeply honored when families stop their so-called “busy-ness” to sit down together to study God's Word, sing His praises, and pray in Jesus' name.

But, in some ways, I am ashamed to have to explain and commend to you the practice of family worship. Its regular practice seems so manifestly obvious in Scripture that its wholesale decline grieves me seriously. It makes me sad to say that, as a child, neither my immediate nor extended family ever once worshiped God together in the home, though most all of them profess Christ.

Apparently, we have this artificial divide between what happens "at church" and what happens "at home." Our cultural background blinds us to the necessity of family worship. We think that "church" is there in a building, and "home" is here in our houses. But, as one professor taught me, the family is meant to be a "domestic church." This is exactly why the New Testament compares a church to a family! If the family wasn't worshipping God, how would this comparison work? Therefore, all of the Bible's instruction about church and worship can rightly be applied to the family.

The Bible speaks often of family worship. Tonight, we will look at the two key OT passages and note some NT support in closing, and I pray that God would write these words on your hearts and teach you how to apply them specifically in your family context.

Deut. 6:4-9

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

So we note a few things here: first, the opening line calls for spiritual hearing because of God's unity. Second, we are told to love God with our entire being. Then third, His words are to be on our hearts. Fourth, the very next application is that we would teach God's words to our children at all times - lying down, rising up, sitting, and walking - and have them written all over our minds and hands and houses. This, then, is truly a vision of the full-on, life-consuming enjoyment of God.

Ps. 78:1-12

1 A Maskil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! 2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, 3 things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. 4 We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. 5 He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, 6 that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, 7 so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments; 8 and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. 9 The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle. 10 They did not keep God's covenant, but refused to walk according to his law. 11 They forgot his works and the wonders that he had shown them. 12 In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.

Note two main things here:

• the purpose of the teaching - that children and children's children and unborn children would put their hope in God (v. 5-7)
• the effects of not teaching your children - these often omitted verses show that untaught, unbelieving children will turn back in the day of battle (v. 9-12)

Now we turn briefly to some supporting verses in the New Testament. Though there are many, we will only note three.

• Eph 6:4 "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord."
• 2Ti 3:15 "and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus."
• Acts 20:20f "how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ."

These verses point out that Paul tells us to raise our children by teaching them about the Lord Jesus, that Timothy read the Scriptures as a child, and that Paul and the apostles taught in houses. So why wouldn't we?

Application
So this necessity of family worship is written on your heart, now what? These notes have proved helpful to me:

1. Keep it simple.
This means in time, parts, and manner. Keep the same time (after dinner, before bed, after breakfast, etc), the same order (Bible, prayer, song, etc.), and the same speech (simple, God-honoring, applicable).

2. Keep it short.
At least at first, it is hard even for adults to get used to 30-45 minute Bible studies late in the evening. Yes, this is more important than television, but no, we don't want to bludgeon our families with Greek exegesis of Hebrews. Believe me, I tried.

3. Keep pressing on.
Starting and continuing family worship, especially from the historical-cultural places from which we come, is difficult. I've found it, indeed, quite difficult. Sin, Satan, and silliness will try to keep you from worshiping Jesus together with your family. Don't give in; and don't let anyone but God win in your family. There really is nothing our enemies would rather see than our families drifting away from God into weak affections and unbelief. When you mess up and forget, or forget to plan, just admit it, ask God and family for forgiveness, and press on. Persevere. “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work,” (2 Cor. 9:8). Let us press on together, brothers. God is infinitely worthy and infinitely sufficient.

Final Notes
You may have situations - work, school, unexpected occurences - that don't allow for this kind of practice every night, but try to do it every night that you can. And once you have this written on your heart, God will remind you and show you and give you the urge to carry it out. Remember, God is able to make all grace abound to you, including the grace to lead and serve your family in worshipping Him together.

Tom Ascol sums it up like this:

Make family worship a priority. Don’t let pride keep you from asking for help. Ask men and women who are doing it to give you suggestions. Get Don Whitney’s booklet on the subject (now available as a message on CD, as well) and read it together. Don’t be intimidated with unrealistic goals or visions of what family worship ought to be. Start simple. Read the Bible, sing a song or a chorus or a verse of a song, and pray. Then do it again the next day. Recognize that there will be days that you are not able to worship together as you like. Recognize that there wiil be days that you are able and you simply choose not to due to laziness, neglect or blatant sin. When that happens, repent, believe the Gospel, and start over, and do that the rest of your life. Once you incorporate family worship into the regular pattern of your life, don’t let house guests divert you from your schedule. Include them, or at least invite them to join you. Evangelism happens during such times. So does discipleship. Your example and testimony can be powerfully used by God in the lives of others who witness it.

One final helpful point: Your formal times of family worship (where you sit down together after dinner, for instance, to read the Bible and pray and sing to Jesus) will drive your informal times of conversation and worship (like conversing as you walk with your children, or talking before bed, or breaking into song). And those are wonderful and glorious as well, because all believers want their entire lives to be filled with songs and meditations and prayers from and through and to Jesus Christ. And so we desire for our families as well. May the God of glorious grace make it so. He is more than able.

Web Resources:
Vision Forum Ministries - a wonderful website and ministry dedicated to "rebuilding the Christian family, one household at a time."

John Gill's commentary on Deut. 6:7

Matthew Henry's commentary on Psa 78:1-8

Pastor Tom Ascol on Family Worship

Joe Thorn on Family Worship

Between Two Worlds - The Key to the Spiritual Health for Your Family

Books:
Family Worship by Donald Whitney
Thoughts on Family Worship by J.W. Alexander
The Godly Family by various authors
The Bible and the Closet by Thomas Watson and Samuel Lee (see the very back for “The Family Altar”).

Praise the Lord for E-Sword !!

E-sword is incredible.

I have been using this free (yes, free), searchable, fully-customizable, loaded-with-extras Bible program for four or five years now, but lately some of the newer plugins are astounding me.

I currently run it with this setup (in case you want to take notes):

• Bibles: KJV, ESV, ISV, several Greek NTs (GNT), Hebrew Old Testament, Septuagint (LXX)
• Dictionaries: Strong's (standard), BDB, Thayer
• Commentaries: John Gill, Matthew Henry, Jamieson Fausset Brown, Keil & Delitzsch, Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
• Extras: Doctrinal Works in the Reformed Tradition, Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, Luther's Concerning Christian Liberty, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Schaff's History of the Church, Westminster Confession, and Fox's Book of Martyrs
• STEP Libraries (which function outside of the program's window): John Bunyan's entire collection, JC Ryle's entire collection, and John Newton's entire collection

Some of the more astounding features are:

• the ability to view your favorite commentaries (Gill, Henry, K&D, Spurgeon) while reading the text
• the freedom to search in English, Hebrew, and Greek
• and the ability to make your own commentary inside the program!!!

Tonight, another download amazed me, and it's something I've been looking for and working on for the last five years: a commentary that just displays intra-Biblical word links. The "Treasury of Scripture Knowledge" in the commentary section is just that. Take, for instance, Revelation 2-3. I was doing a study on the seven churches, and I noticed that Jesus often uses phrases that sound like you've heard them before. Well, I just click on the verse, and the TSK commentary pops up several words that have links to the other parts of Scripture in which they occur.

In case that doesn't make sense, here's an example: Rev. 3:3

Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.

Now I read that verse and realize that Jesus has said in other parts of the Bible that He will come like a thief. Well, I click over the the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and it tells me exactly where He has said that! Amazing!

Praise the Lord for whoever put this commentary together, and for Rick Myers, who built and maintains E-Sword out of his own pocket and time. Christ the Lord is truly using him.

Joel: God Never Finally Opposes His Children

We were talking in community group last night about our pastor's sermon on Joel last Sunday, and we stopped to linger over the idea and application of God's opposition of His people. In using the word "opposition," we determined from Joel that often the Sovereign Lord makes life difficult, quite difficult (Paul says in 2 Cor. 1 that he "despaired of life itself"), for His children. God "opposes" them for a season, so that He would work humility and repentance by His grace.

Consider the book of Joel. Its three short chapters speak often of weeping and wailing, of locust plagues, of repentance, and of the day of the Lord. That's some pretty sobering, apocalyptic stuff. But note the renewal and repentance that comes to those who follow God's command to "Put on sackcloth and lament, . . consecrate a fast, call a solemn assembly, . . . cry out to the Lord," (1:13f, 2:15f). God then says to His people in Joel 2:19-3:1,

"Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. I will remove the northerner far from you, and drive him into a parched and desolate land . . . Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done great things! Fear not, you beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit; the fig tree and vine give their full yield.

Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before. The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame.

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls. For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem. . ."

Grain and new wine! Enemies driven away! Rejoicing in God! Vats overflowing with wine and oil! Land restored! Plenteous, satisfying food! Dwelling with God! Knowing Him! No more shame! The fullness of His Spirit! Calling on His name for salvation! Escape from judgment! What blessings He promises after repentance! What happiness heaven will hold for those who repent and believe!

God's opposition, then, is never finally against His own children. "He disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness," says Hebrews 12:10. But we must understand His discipline correctly. It is not easy, and it not happy at the time. It is much like how our parents disciplined us when we were young, except that God is wiser and more loving than our earthly parents. He even works locusts and plagues and disaster and famine for the good of His chidren.

Consider one more text with me - Romans chapter eight. 8:28-29 reads, "For we know that God works all things together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose, for those whom He foreknew He predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." So each and every thing in the life of God's child is meant for their good, which is growing in and exalting Jesus Christ. Later Paul writes that nothing in all of creation can separate believers from the love of God in Christ Jesus - not tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. And what God means here is, those things are coming! Don't be dismayed when they do! He still loves you who are in Christ!

One final note - these things are taught in plenty in the Old Testament. So let us read it and enjoy the God who loves His children so wisely and so fully.

Links Updated!

Just a quick note: I finally went back over my list of links and update them. I've added some key sections and links, most notably the "Find Gospel Churches" section to help folks when they visit or move to new areas, and deleted some older stuff I don't read anymore. I also put a helpful short list of links to freeware programs I use. Lots of my friends could use free versions of Bible, photo editing, web content management, and audio ripping software, so I put up the best ones I know of.

And remember, those links are not up there just for fun - I honestly use them. This is my homepage, so I hope it's helpful for you, too. Check them all out and make your own list. God has given us an amazing resource in the internet, and we would be wise to learn from each other in our use of it.

Gospel Blog

Of First Importance - great new blog with Gospel quotes from solid, believing writers meditating on Gospel truths, every day of the week.

(HT: JT)

Reading for Free and Reading for Freedom

Everyone should read. Reading is thought-provoking, mind-building, imagination-freeing, and boredom-curing. If you can read and you're not reading regularly, then you are wasting your mind and time and life on other, far less important things. You also are failing to work your brain-muscle like the rest of your muscles and failing to use the faculties God has so graciously given you.

Wonderfully sharp blogger Tim Challies posted the other day about this very subject, and I found his post and the one he links to (Bob Kauflin's) very encouraging. They note the edifying nature not only of the content of reading, but also of the very act itself. The point out helpful tips and treasures from their own reading experiences, and give exhortations and encouragements to read all the more.

But not only is reading a freeing exercise, reading is also free. More free books, even good books, are available online than ever before, and the number is only growing as copyrights continue to expire. I want to highlight two of these sites for you:

• CCEL.org - a vast, well-indexed, searchable site full of Christian writers (not just theologians and pastors), includes writers like Athanasius, Chesterton, Luther, Calvin, and Spurgeon
• GraceGems.org - a simple "treasury of ageless sovereign grace devotional writings," mostly by the Puritans
  

Without writing and books and reading, we would know very little about the world around us or the God who created us. Sadly, though, we would often rather watch mind-numbing television or play brain-slushing video games than sit down and read a good book. This simply must change - our minds are dying and our language simplifying, and we can't figure out how to understand or explain the the God of the Gospel or His world in which we live. Let's get back to reading. May the God who speaks help us.