Overcoming Sin

I had a great time with the 'Saints Alive' and 'SayIt' youth groups last night and thought I'd post the quote I shared with them. For a long time I had wrestled with how to understand Psalm 119:32,

"I will run in the way of your commandments

when you enlarge my heart."

Then, while reading Overcoming Sin and Temptation, which is a recent compilation of three classic books by John Owen (1616-1683) edited by Kelly Kapic and Justin Taylor, I came across this passage in Kapic's introduction:

"To respond to the distorting nature of sin you must set your affections on the beauty and glory of God, the loveliness of Christ, and the wonder of the gospel: [Kapic then quotes Owen:] 'Were our affections filled, taken up, and possessed with these things... what access could sin, with its painted pleasures, with its sugared poisons, with its envenomed baits, have unto our souls?' Resisting sin, [according to Owen], comes not by deadening your affections but by awakening them to God himself. Do not seek to empty your cup as a way to avoid sin but rather seek to fill it up with the Spirit of Life, so there is no longer room for sin."

Psalm 119:32 made complete sense in the light of Owen's skillful insight.

THOUGHTS FROM A FAMILIAR PASSAGE

If your experience is like mine, you have heard the book of Jonah preached many times.  In fact, when a familiar book or passage like this is taught again we might even wonder if there is something still to learn since we have heard it so many times.  It is good to remember that God's word is living and powerful.
Each Sunday morning we watch/listen to the live stream of the 8 am service from Jordan and Erin's church in Ft. Myers, Florida.  McGregor Baptist Church is a great lighthouse in southwest Florida, and we enjoy it so much (FYI: Esther Murphy's daughter Kathy attends there as well as Melissa Miller's parents).  On Sunday, January 29, Pastor Richard Powell referred to Jonah 1:3, "But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.  He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish.  So he paid the fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD."
As if we can get away from an omnipresent God, Jonah turned away from God's plan for his life, and he paid the fare.  Pastor Posell noted that when we go our own way, we pay the fare, but when we go God's way, the fare has been paid for us!
Such a great thought - makes me think of Titus 3:4,5a, "But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us!"
All glory to our great Savior!

Judy Wyse

Bonhoeffer on Reading Scripture

In a 1936 letter to his brother-in-law Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote,
"First of all I will confess quite simply - I believe that the Bible alone is the answer to all our questions, and that we need only to ask repeatedly and a little humbly, in order to receive this answer. One cannot simply read the Bible, like other books. One must be prepared really to enquire of it. Only thus will it reveal itself. Only if we expect from it the ultimate answer, shall we receive it. that is because in the Bible God speaks to us. And one cannot simply think about God in one's own strength, one has to enquire of him.
...If it is I who determine where God is to be found, then I shall always find a God who corresponds to me in some way, who is obliging, who is connected with my own nature. But if God determines where he is to be found, then it will be in a place which is not immediately pleasing to my nature and which is not at all congenial to me. This place is the Cross of Christ. And whoever would find him must go to the foot of the Cross..."