8.5 Lives

Up a little later than I usually am, I went to the kitchen to close up shop for the night. When what did my wondering ears hear, but a growling, yarling cat on my front porch? So away to the back I went to grab a bat. Now I banged on the door - and a yarl and a meowr and a klikkity-clank later, the demon-possessed cat was gone. Or so I thought.

Seconds later I heard now two cats, hissing and fighting in my driveway, running this way and that. I peeked out the window to see them racing up our street at breakneck speed.

So listen here, you blog-reading, demon-possessed cats:

Don't come up around my house, late at night or any time, because I will wear you out with one of my bats and take 8.5 of your lives. This is my house, and I will rule this little part of the earth and subdue it. You might run over here, but you'll bleed back.

Late Night Bojangle's, Sweet Tea, and a True Friend

My love for Bojangle's is well-known throughout the city of Raleigh. During my college days, I was found at a certain Jo-Bangle's location no less than four times a week. Yes, that's four times each week at the same location.

But as I look back, I realize something about my time spent at my favorite restaurant - it wasn't in vain. It wasn't just about chilling out (though that was fun) or great, greasy food (my arteries hurt) or even the heaven-approved sweet tea (mmm, like syrup); it was about the friendships. The friends who sat around with me at Bo's taught me and let me teach them, they built me up in the Lord Jesus and in His written Word, and they sharpened and encouraged me regularly. I love those guys.

Tonight was a recollection of many such nights. A true friend, who sticks closer than a brother, accompanied me for some basketball then Bojangle's, and we enjoyed every minute of it. Nearly two hours were spent at Bo's, and it seemed nary five minutes. Such is the fellowship between two brothers.

Through his faithful practice of brotherhood, my friend reminded me tonight of Proverbs 10:11 and 13:14, "The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence . . . The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death."

I praise God for placing His fountain of life in the mouths of my righteous-by-the-grace-of-God-in-the-cross-of-Christ brothers. He has so often revived me through them. Revive me again, Lord Jesus, I need You again and again and again.

"For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light."
Psalm 36:9

God's Grace in a Bicycle Crash

So I was rolling down my neighborhood street the other day on my bicycle, just going for a cruise and trying to get some exercise - then the chain comes off, my foot slides off into the asphalt, my leg bends, my knee collides with the ground, the bike falls on my leg, and my entire upper body slams into the road. It was a whole lot of "Yaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!" and not a lot of fun.

As I sat on the curb of the road, bleeding from several joints, I was able, by the grace of God, to see how much worse that crash could have been. This blog is often spent on polemical (argumentative) theology that I wanted to tell you, dear reader, about the abundant, simple, personal grace of God in my life. In this case, it was in a bicycle crash.

I could have gotten a concussion from slamming my head into the asphalt, but I didn't. God protected me with a bike helmet.

I could have broken my glasses, shattering the glass into my eye and forehead, but I didn't. God protected me with my bike helmet.

I could have broken a shoulder or an elbow, but I didn't. God protected me by choosing a safe, slow-riding time for the bike chain to come off.

I could have broken my knee or ankle, but I didn't. God protected me by causing me to fall in a safe manner.

God has tons of grace - grace that does much more than protect His people from bike crashes! - grace that saves and enables and strengthens and sustains and forgives and redeems and keeps and brings us to Himself forever. So the other day, I thanked the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for such a small display of His all-controlling power and grace.

Start a Bible Study in Your Neighborhood?

I was just reading David J. Hesselgrave's Paradigms in Conflict: 10 Key Questions in Christian Missions Today (one of the missions books for my class) and found this quote particularly inspiring for thinking on to reach our neighborhoods and cities and nations for Jesus:

"[Calvin] Hanson's ministries were varied, but looking back at the Christian leaders who came out of those early morning Bible studies, Hanson says, 'I have little doubt that that simple Bible study was the most effective thing I ever did during my years in Japan.' "

Amen?

Hope this stokes our fires to study the Bible with all kinds of people around us.

So This is Why I Go to Bojangle's

Look, unless you don't know me at all, you probably already know that I love hanging out at Bojangle's. I love the tea, I love the biscuits, I love the chill atmosphere, I love the free refills and the hours spent with my friends there (you know who you are) - but this is what I hadn't realized so fully until minutes ago - I love hanging out there for the glory of God in meeting whoever He sends my way.

It's like I set up shop there. I take my Bible, another good book or five, maybe my laptop, a pen, and a notebook and sit down at a table in the corner near a power outlet and a window. I go through the line and get my sweet tea and maybe a biscuit, and then I'm off to work. I even try to meet people as they come and go. Novel idea, huh?

What I didn't know is that, this whole time, I have been trying to hang out for the glory of God because I believe it is important to be out in our real world and meet real people, many of whom are really lost.

This is what JT's post on Jim Eliff's article taught me. "Hanging out for the glory of God" is - yes, actually is - a valid means of ministering to the lost and dying all around us. So pick a spot - go ahead. It doesn't have to be Bojangle's, but it should be somewhere in public.

Worshipping Man at the Mall

On some nights and weekends, I work at a local mall. This weekend, my mall is having a "model & talent search," so yesterday they decided to set the stage up five feet from my kiosk. Needless to say, I've gotten a good look at this modeling extravaganza.

What's sad is that everyone claps and claps and laughs and laughs whenever some little cutie struts the stage. It is ridicule-worthy. What is to applaud when a child simply wants attention? Why are we clapping for children who simply say a few lines and walk across a stage? What is the big deal?

Then I realized that this is the worship of man, plain and simple. The Bible says in Romans 1:21-23,

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

We fail to honor God, even though we know Him, and fail to give Him thanks, so we become worthless in our thinking and our hearts become blind and wicked. We think we are wise and knowledgeable, but we actually have become fools. Then we trade in the infinite glory of God for worthless worship of mere man. We trade out gold for shrapnel, filet minion for rat poison, living water for sewage.

And we do it every day. We care more about what people think of us than what God thinks of us. We want to think about novels and poetry and romance books more than we want to think about God's own Word. We look for ways to make ourselves look better to others instead of trusting God to make us happy in Him. Our foolish hearts are very dark indeed. Come Lord Jesus, come change us by Your Spirit, that we would worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

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.

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.

Am I an Other-Centered Teammate?

ESPN.com's NBA blogger, Henry Abbott, wrote this line about former college basketball standout, one of tonight's lottery picks, two-time national champion at the University of Florida, Joakim Noah:

David has been using Joakim Noah, in conversations over the last two or so years, as the prime example of a great teammate. His biggest point is look: every time the TV cameras are on, there's Joakim talking up someone besides himself. And it's true. It's always: look how great Corey Brewer is. Look how great Al Horford is. Let me tell you how hard my dad worked. Stuff like that.

David is of the opinion, and I'm inclined to agree, that it's a rare player indeed who makes it his primary mission to lift up his teammates. And players like that are catalysts for teams that are teams.

I read this and realized two things very quickly:

1. I am not this kind of teammate.
I'm not often "talking up someone besides myself" or making it my "primary mission to lift up my teammates." I love basketball, and I love my summer league teammates. They are great guys. They really are. I genuinely enjoy being around them. But when someone asks me about last week's game, I say something like, "We lost. I didn't play well." I have almost nothing good to say about any specific teammates. This is terrible, and a terrible witness for Jesus.

2. This particular "great teammate" is most likely not a Christian.
I don't know Joakim Noah personally, but, from everything I've ever heard him say about his off-the-court time at UF, his life certainly doesn't show an overwhelming love for Jesus. I won't go into details, but anybody who's watched the last two NCAA men's basketball tourneys knows what I mean. Joakim is simply concerned about other things.

So I was forced to ask myself some hard questions:

• Since I love Jesus, why am I not a more loving teammate?
• Why am I not more thankful when I play basketball?
• Why don't I point out God's graces in others more often than I talk about myself?
• How have I failed to apply the word of the cross to my own life?

Lord Jesus, please apply Your Gospel to my heart by Your Spirit and make me a thankful, encouraging, loving, unifying, and humble Christian and teammate.

Fairbanks

Once upon my time, I was in a rock band. Yes, that's right, a rock band. And that is exactly what we did:

We rocked. Hard.

In case you're interested in exactly how hard we rocked, here are two websites for your perusal and amusal:

The Old One (no music, lots of funny pics, old graphics)

The Newer One (not really a whole website, just new music)

Let me know how much you enjoy the FBX.

We Never Get Beyond the Gospel

God uses Tim Keller to help my soul, and I hope yours. Keller says:

For a long time, a frighteningly long time, I understood the Gospel as being the elementary, basics, you know, the Gerbers of the Bible, just the basic elementary stuff of that people needed to know to become a Christian, just the basic minimum; and theology was the advanced stuff. So the Gospel was the basics, the elementary stuff; and theology was the advanced stuff, the deeper Biblical principles, deeper Biblical themes. How wrong I was. All theology has to be an exposition of the Gospel . . .

We never “get beyond the gospel” in our Christian life to something more “advanced.” The gospel is not the first “step” in a “stairway” of truths, rather, it is more like the “hub” in a “wheel” of truth. The gospel is not just the A-B-C’s of Christianity, but it is the A to Z of Christianity. The gospel is not just the minimum required doctrine necessary to enter the kingdom, but the way we make all progress in the kingdom.

We are not justified by the gospel and then sanctified by obedience but the gospel is the way we grow (Gal. 3:1-3) and are renewed (Col 1:6). It is the solution to each problem, the key to each closed door, the power through every barrier (Rom 1:16-17).

It is very common in the church to think as follows: “The gospel is for non-Christians. One needs it to be saved. But once saved, you grow through hard work and obedience.” But Colossians 1:6 shows that this is a mistake. Both confession and “hard work” that is not arising from and “in line” with the gospel will not sanctify you—it will strangle you. All our problems come from a failure to apply the gospel. Thus when Paul left the Ephesians he committed them “to the word of his grace, which can build you up” (Acts 20:32).

The main problem, then, in the Christian life I that we have not thought out the deep implication of the gospel, we have not “used” the gospel in and on all parts of our life. Richard Lovelace says that most people’s problems are just a failure to be oriented to the gospel—a failure to grasp and believe it through and through. Luther says (on Gal. 2:14), “The truth of the Gospel is the principle article of all Christian doctrine… Most necessary is it that we know this article well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually.” The gospel is not easily comprehended. Paul says that the gospel only does its renewing work in us as we understand it in all its truth. All of us, to some degree live around the truth of the gospel but do new “get” it. So the key to continual and deeper spiritual renewal and revival is the continual re-discovery of the gospel. A stage of renewal is always the discovery of a new implication or application of the gospel — seeing more of its truth. This is true for either an individual or a church.

Amen! Lord, help me! Help my family and my church understand and apply and preach Your Gospel, in all its fullness, in every area of life, with Christ as its goal and center and Savior! Amen!

These Are a Few of My Encouraging Things

1. Through the Bible, prayer, family, and friends, God has often refreshed me lately. What a joyous gift it is to know Him and so often see Him work and answer our little prayers. How sweet it is to see the Bible come alive.

2. The gift of a new, used car from our family is a massive earthly blessing we really need but in no way deserve. God answers even our unspoken, broken-car groanings and saves us time and money, too.

3. Dinner with our Turkish friend last night was another huge blessing. I ran into him the other night at Bojangle's and re-introduced myself after a two-year absence. I invited him to dinner, and he happily accepted. We had a fun time last night talking about the (American) holidays, as well as the cultural differences between Turkey and the US. We had the opportunity several times to talk about Jesus.

4. Meeting Rick at the local car-care place was quite unexpected. Rick took my car in for an oil change, and when I came back later he asked if I was a Christian. When I responded, "yes," he said he knew by the way I ended our earlier conversation with, "Yes, I'll come to get the car soon, Lord-willing." Before leaving, I encouraged him to check out Treasuring Christ Church because of what the Bible says about the importance of the local church. God was certainly working there this morning.

5. The guys from church have been quite excited and helpful lately. I really enjoy our time together. They are eager to get together and study God's Word, and that fires me up, too.

6. God really moved on me the other day through Luke 14 to help the homeless and poor in our neighborhood. It has started small, with Joey on the corner, but we pray that our opportunities for mercy will increase as God's mercy increases.

7. Todd is back in town. Toddsky is one of my favorite buddies, and also is somewhat of a wanderer. He's been gone from our town for a year now and just returned the other day. It is a blessing from God to be able to talk and hang out with him more often, and I look forward to more of it.

8. The semester is almost over. I'm ready for a break.

So there you go, I pray that God uses these to encourage you of His power and grace in all of your life as well.

Luke 14 and Who We Invite to Dinner

Jesus said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
Luke 14:12-14

The John Piper sermon on this text from 1980 (see directly below) got me thinking about this text again. My wife and I had also recently read it in our nighttime Gospel reading, so it was more fresh in my mind. But seriously, do the applications get any clearer? Is there anyone who can understand English who doesn't understand the simplicity of this command?

I doubt it, but instead of the grammar being hard for us, the truth is hard for us. It is hard for us to listen to Jesus on this one. We say, "Yeah, Jesus, that's good for You, I know You invited the poor and crippled and blind, and I'm so thankful, but I just can't do it . . ." We become experts at giving Jesus excuses.

The plain truth of this text is that those who invite the ones who cannot repay them will be blessed of God Himself on the last day and forever. Conversely, those who look for repayment from men will stand ashamed at the last day, and, like the rich man of Luke 16, go to hell forever.

So let's believe Jesus. His repayment is better than all that relatives and friends and rich people could ever give us. His repayment is Himself. Let us believe together and press on to know Him even in the way we eat dinner.

Tipping, Justice, and the Gospel

After reading Justin Taylor's post on Christians and restaurants, and the two articles to which he referred (Daniel Holland - "The Dreaded Church Table," and Greg Koukl - "The Ambassador and the Witness"), I felt convicted, stunned, and recharged to get out into restaurants and make Jesus look good, if partly by tipping well.

But, thanks be to God, Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile has brought his readers back to a Biblical worldview with his responding post. He gives us four principles by which to think and act, and I will briefly summarize:

1. Employers should pay their employees a fair, livable wage.
Thabiti points out that restaurant employers get away with robbery and greed by paying their employees less than minimum wage. The Bible rebukes this practice in places like Leviticus 19:13, Luke 7:10, 1 Timothy 5:18, and James 5:3-5. He also reminds us that the fair pay discussion ought to be about wages and tipping, not either/or. And I would add, speak to your restaurant manager about this the next time you get a chance.

2. Resist inappropriate social stigmas of every kind.
Don't tip out of guilt or shame. Thabiti writes, "The current system of tipping is built, in part, on an ethic of shame and guilt. People who do not tip “generously” are in danger of the wagging finger, disapproving look, and apparently of religious profiling and scuttle-butt in the Applebee’s kitchen. It’s interesting to me that we think the name of Christ is brought into disrepute because of tipping. Isn’t the Christian the counter-cultural agent in society? Isn’t the Christian the bearer of news even when they don’t have tip money? Perhaps this is another place where we should be questioning the association of Christ and money."

3. Advance true biblical witnessing.
Thabiti points out that even those who have very little money are called to be good witnesses to their wait staff, so it must not solely depend on money and tipping. In fact, he says, Christian employees and customers ought to be, regardless of the reaction, clearly associated with the name of Jesus and His (Biblical) Gospel.

He writes, "If we’re going to be out among the lost, well let’s get to Jesus. Let’s have them occupied with either receiving, considering, or rejecting the Savior rather than receiving, considering or rejecting our sitting in their section because of perceived tip inadequacies. Wouldn’t it be better if the kitchen conversation was: “Oh man… here come more praying Christians. They’re kind… but I’m going to hear about Jesus and my need for the umpteenth time. I know the gospel already and I’m tired of having to face it.” If that’s the lament, then perhaps we’re being ambassadors and our being out in public has some social and spiritual value."

4. Priorities in Giving.
Thabiti rightly points out that, in the giving of our money, God comes first, in the form of our local church and other missionaries and ministries, then our families, then what? Should we only tip waitstaff? Why not teachers? Garbagemen? Public servants?

These are wise, well-rounded, Biblical words from an elder I certainly respect. Let us believe that the Gospel of God is fuller than tipping and manners alone can explain and speak about Him - often, so very often - to our world.

You Are Not Hopeless Enough

And neither am I.

Bob Kauflin, Director of Worship Development for Sovereign Grace Ministries and one of the pastors at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD, blogs about his battle with hopelessness and the truth with which God changed in his life.

Back in the mid-90's I went through a significant battle with hopelessness. I would wake every morning with this thought: "Your life is completely hopeless." My day went downhill from there. For about three years I experienced frequent panic attacks, itching and numbness, shortness of breath, and a hollow feeling in my chest.

There were a number of contributing factors, but a major root was the fear of man. I "feared" that others wouldn't share the same high opinion I had of myself. I "feared" they would reject me, or think of me unfavorably. Those thoughts, repeated hundreds of times every day, led to bouts with anxiety, depression, and hopelessness.

One morning I was confessing to a pastor and good friend from another Sovereign Grace church that I felt hopeless all the time. He looked at me with compassionate boldness and said, "I don't think you're hopeless enough." At first I thought he was kidding; but then I realized he was completely serious. He went on. "If you were completely hopeless, you'd stop trusting in what you think you can do to change the situation, and starting trusting in what Jesus Christ has already done for you at the cross.

A light went on. I realized that I hadn't been embracing the fact that apart from Jesus, I truly do have no hope (Eph. 2:12). For months following that conversation, every time I would start to feel anxiety or hopelessness, i would say to myself, "I am a hopeless person. But Jesus Christ died for hopeless people." I began to see that my inability to live in the good of the Gospel was rooted in my desire to find hope in something I had done rather than in what my Savior had done. I wanted some kind of credit, some kind of recognition, some kind of acknowledgment that God knew what he was doing when he chose me to be his son.

Fortunately, the Gospel brings better news than that. My acceptance before God isn't rooted in anything I've done or ever will do.

This is a feeling we all can certainly relate to, but especially those of us bent toward legalism (which, in one way or another, all of us are). Jesus Christ is once and forever my standing before God and not myself or my works. If you trust Him, know that He is rock-solid, freeing, and grace-filled. Meditate on Him the next time you read the Bible, spend time with God in prayer, or feel tempted to look at yourself for your assurance, forgiveness, or satisfaction.

But Can You Wait?

In our neighborhood (I don't know about yours), we have several "wanderers." They are the men and women of our area who, whether they have a home or not, always seem to be wandering the streets. I'm not saying this is, of itself, necessarily good or bad, but simply fact. In Hebrews 11, the Bible actually commends similar wandering because it is by faith in Christ's superiority. Last night, God gave me another opportunity to talk to one of our neighborhood's wanderers, who is also one of my friends. Let's call him T.

Our conversation came to a head about midway through. After we discussed faith in God's provision, T was explaining to me why he was having such a hard time going without a job or a house. "Man, I want to be married and have a family and have a home, like you, Britt. And, look at these shoes (he grabs his actually fairly nice pair of basketball shoes), I need better shoes. I just, I like nice things. I can't live like this," he explained.

I simply looked him in the eye and said, "But can you wait for it? Even if you never have your own house for the rest of your life, Jesus has promised us mansions better than this world could ever offer, better than the richest man in the world has ever had. Can you wait for it and look there instead?"

So, can you wait? Can I?

Are You Immersed in "Christian Subculture"?

"And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples."
Matthew 9:10 (see also Matt. 11:19, Mark 2:15, Luke 5:30)

"The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’"
Luke 7:34

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus is pictured as the Son of God who spends time, even a great deal of time, with the known sinners of His day. In this Desiring God National Conference 2006 video, Pastor Mark Driscoll says,

"Many Christians don't have significant experience outside their Christian world. They listen to Christian radio; they listen to Christian music; they watch Christian television; they read Christian books; their kids go to Christian school; they go to Christian church; they go to Christian events; they go to Christian concerts; their friends are Christian; they go to community group or home Bible study with their Christian friends; they vacation with their Christian friends; and meanwhile their neighbors don't know Christ.

But the Bible says we're supposed to love our neighbor and we're supposed to practice hospitality, which is the welcoming of our neighbor. Well, to do that, we need to get to know our neighbor. And I think that is an attentiveness to the lives of lost people."

I am very convicted by this, and I suspect many of you are, too. It is sad that so many of us think that holiness before God consists in being around or not being around certain people and situations rather than in the blood of Jesus alone. This legalism is both sickening and deadly, and our very own "evangelical" churches are the ones who have perpetuated it.

So I asked myself, and I ask you now, "When was the last time you spent significant time with an unbeliever? A sinner? A tax collector? An atheist? And if you can't remember, or you haven't, why not?"

(The best thing I've ever read on Christian liberty is a paper by Martin Luther, called Concerning Christian Liberty.)

How a Saint Spends a Sabbatical

"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."
1 Corinthians 10:31

In this article, Pastor John Piper explains how he spent his 5-month sabbatical. I was encouraged in a number of ways to learn how a father in the faith, a mature man in Christ, spent his time off. Check it out for real-life examples of:

• family worship
• personal devotion
• Godward sightseeing
• thankfulness to God and others (and God for others)
  
• a God-centered view of history
• a God-centered, church-helping view of scholarship and writing
• balanced reading across many genres
  
• dates with the wife and time with the family
  

Many would consider a sabbatical to be a vacation. It wasn't for Pastor John; he didn't waste his sabbatical.

Only Grace Can Save Your Life . . .

"If it is by works, then it is no longer by grace," says Paul in Romans 11, yet I for one don't spend enough time thinking about God's grace over against my own works.

Check this out. May it help you meditate on Biblical grace and be freed from legalism.

(Hat Tip: Tim Challies)