A Quick Look At The Story of Reality by Greg Koukl

In September of 2012 my life was deeply touched by a conference I didn’t attend. It took place at Watermark Community Church and they have made the main sessions available online for free. Let me pause for a moment and draw your attention to how marvelous those first two sentences are. A conference I was unable to attend touched my life because the church posted the messages on their website for free! At no other time in human history could those two happenings be true. I’ve watched, listened and poured over those messages many times since the fall of 2012. Each time I come away with something new and helpful.

The conference introduced me to the following list of names: Ravi Zacharias, Greg Koukl, Frank Turek, Dr. William Lane Craig, John Stonestreet, Dan Wallace. That list changed my life. Each name belongs to a man who makes the case for the truth and validity of the Christian story in their own unique way. Each man treads the ground only he can tread and blooms where he is planted, so to speak.

Among this collection, I am most grateful for the ministries of Ravi Zacharias, and Greg Koukl. They have enriched the lives of millions around the world in large part due to the explosion of technology over the last several years. Their respective radio broadcasts and the podcasts they become are excellent. Open another browser for a moment and go subscribe to Let My People Think, Just Thinking, and the Stand To Reason Weekly Podcast.

Greg mentioned his most recent book, The Story of Reality, on the STR weekly podcast late last year.  I found his previous book, Tactics, an indispensable resource for having meaningful conversations about my faith. I ordered Greg’s book as soon as possible expecting it to be little different.

I’d like to share with you a review of its reading. I rarely pay attention to subtitles, but find this one particularly helpful. It reads: How The World Began, How It Ends, And Everything Important That Happens In Between. This is as fine a summary of Greg’s book as I could think of.

Before we get too far down in our journey I want to draw your attention to the key word in that subtitle, the word important. This is a book that covers the most pivotal aspects of the Christian story. It doesn’t cover everything in detail but offers a beautiful telling of its major points. Greg does this by presenting Christianity for what all worldviews really are, a story.

Don’t get hung up on the word story. It is only meant to convey that it is an answering of the great questions each of us asks during our lifetimes. Where do we come from? Who are we? What's wrong with the world? Where are we going?

How we answer these questions forms the narrative telling of the world each of us believes. We all have one, and it determines nearly everything about our lives.

“Christianity is the Story,” Koukl said, “of how the world began, why the world is the way it is, what role we play in the drama, and how all the plotlines of the Story are resolved in the end.” Five words describe The Story: God, man, Jesus, cross, and resurrection. These five words constitute everything of import about the Christian worldview. Greg uses these five words as a plot line for his telling of the Story.

I find this a helpful simplification of the biblical narrative. It’s easy to remember and sets things in their proper context. Instead of slogging uphill you’re able to think through the aspects of the Story as they build on one another.

If you place anything at the center of the Story other than God, for example, you’ll have a hard time understanding the other details of the Story. “God is the first piece of the Christian Story,” Koukl said, “because the Story is all about him. God is the central character. The Story does not start with us because the Story is not about us.” While important and beautiful, you aren’t the center of all things. God is.

Likewise, a failure to put Man in his proper context leads to error. “Even though man is beautiful,” Koukl said, “he is also broken.” Something has gone wrong. The problem isn’t education, economic status or culture. The problem, as it turns out, isn’t external at all, it’s within. “The evil in the world is not out there.” Koukl said, “It is in us...The brokenness in the world starts with the brokenness in us.”

In The Story of Reality, Koukl places complex and intricate topics on a shelf we can all reach. Greg conveys what can be stumbling blocks on the way to truth, with the simplicity and clear-headedness of E.B. White. The puzzle becomes clearer and clearer with each new piece he adds until at long last we see it all come together. The puzzle he helps us put together forms a beautiful picture of the way the world actually is.  

10 Great Quotes from The Story of Reality

• The correct answer to the question, “What is Christianity? is this: Christianity is a picture of reality. It is an account or a description of the way things actually are. It is not just a view from the inside (a Christian’s personal feelings or religious beliefs or spiritual affections or ethical views or “relationship” with God). It is also a view of the outside. It is a view of the world out there, of how the world really is in itself.

• …evil is not the problem for Christianity that people think it is because it is not foreign to the Story. It is central to it. It fits right in. In a certain sense, the entire Story is precisely about how the world went bad and how it gets fixed.

• Put simply, the Story starts with a Sovereign who creates a domain he benevolently rules over. There is a King and his “dom,” so to speak. There is a kingdom. This is what the Story is all about. The main theme is not love or redemption or forgiveness or even relationship. Those are all important parts of the Story, to be sure. They serve the theme in important ways, but they are not the main point of the Story. The idea that God owns everything and has proper authority to rule over everything he has made is the main point.

• But a story being attractive and a story being true are two entirely different things. Never forget that.

• Are humans not obliged to a higher law than the law of nature? Animals do what comes naturally. Humans should not…We are human beings with animal appetites that would tyrannize us if not restrained by higher law. The difference between “just doing what comes naturally” and principled self-restraint is called civilization.

• We are not machines that need to be fixed. We are transgressors who need to be forgiven. We have not merely “made mistakes,” like getting our sums wrong when balancing accounts. We have sinned. And with sin comes guilt. And with guilt comes punishment. The sin must be answered for. It must be paid for. It must be paid for in some way. Atoned for, if you will.

• The notion of a “vengeful” God strikes us as inconsistent with a God of love. This seems right at first, but the complaint is based on a misunderstanding. God’s love is not a thing in itself, so to speak, but is tied, like all of his attributes, to his goodness, the very goodness we are inclined to question when evil runs rampant. “Why doesn’t God do something?” we wonder. Yet we cry foul when we learn God will do something decisive about evil and we are the evildoers.

• The God who began the Story, the God who made everything, is the same God who came down, who became flesh, who entered history as a baby born in Bethlehem. Jesus is a man, but he is also God. He is not a God, but the God. He is the man who God became. He is the one person who is completely human, yet fully divine.

• Any adequate solution must solve the problem that needs to be solved, and singular problems need singular solutions. Some antidotes are one-of-a-kind cures for one-of-a-kind ailments. Sometimes only one medicine will do the job, as much as we may like it to be otherwise…This is why Jesus of Nazareth is the only way to God, the only possible source of rescue. He is the only one who solved the problem.

• Here is the Story’s solution to the problem of evil: perfect justice for evildoers, perfect mercy for the penitent; evil banished forever, and everlasting good restored.

C.S. Lewis once described Christianity as a big tent. Christians may differ on some of the ancillary aspects of doctrine, but there are many things on which they agree. Koukl's concerns in The Story of Reality are with these points. He translates the Christian Story into terms both believer and nonbeliever alike can understand. He does so in compelling a fashion as you’ll find anywhere.

The trouble is that even many “Christians” are unaware of how the entire Story fits together. They have other puzzle pieces mixed into their box and have left many of the pieces scattered on the ground. Whether that's’ you or you’re curious about how the Story coheres to reality, The Story of Reality will help you put it all together.

More Resources from Greg Koukl

• Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions

• Stand To Reason Podcasts

• STR Blog

Easter 2017

“What’s the big deal with Jesus?” I said to myself, “What do I need him for? I’ll go straight to God.” I’d be bold enough to ask these questions of the pastor teaching the confirmation class I was attending. As a middle school kid, I didn’t understand the gospel. I knew Jesus had died for my sins, and that trust in Him was essential but didn’t have all the answers.

I would have told you I was a Christian if you'd asked. I believed in Jesus and read my Bible on occasion, but still didn’t have a firm grasp on the gospel.
 

A few buddies invited me to come check out a new church one Saturday night my freshmen year of college. “Sure,” I said as I hopped in the car a casual Christian for the last time. That night I came face to face with the truths of the gospel. Matt Chandler proclaimed that there is room at the foot of the cross. For the first time in my life, I got it. I understood what the big deal is with Jesus, and that I needed what He had to offer. I couldn’t go directly to God. No, Jesus is the mediator between God and man. He is my direct access to The Father.

Taking on flesh and living a perfect life, He satisfied every jot and tittle of The Law. Dying on a cross He bore the penalty for my trespasses and sins. Rising from the grave He made me right with God. His death has brought me life, and His life my hope secures.

I still don’t have all the answers. I still stumble over some of the hard truths about life, evil and how to respond. God isn’t afraid of my questions, or my wrestling to understand. No, He is a patient, loving father—who gave His only Son as the ultimate answer to the problems that trip me up the most.  

Think about the words you hear and read as we gather to celebrate Easter this weekend. Open your Bible and read the gospel accounts. Don’t ignore your questions, but set them aside for the moment. Concentrate on the simple truths about Jesus life, death, and resurrection instead. There is good evidence to suggest these claims are true, consider it. It changes everything. If you trust Christ, you still won’t get all your questions answered, but you’ll get God—and that’s all that matters.

Marching Into The Unknown

You’ve Got Mail is one of my favorite movies. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are a powerhouse duo exchanging witty banter wrapped in an Affair To Remember esk story. At least once each year, I beg Hannah to let me dig it out and throw it in the ol’ DVD player. Every time, is almost like the first time all over again. Isn’t it that way with our favorites? No matter how many times we’ve seen them, we never get tired of them. As I sat down to write this morning, it popped into my mind. Scene after scene, line after line. In fact, I’m replaying the scene about the Godfather in my head as I type. Greatness!   

As I sat here replaying it in my head, another scene came to mind. Less funny, more serious, yet something I find immensely helpful in this season of life. Midway through the film, Meg Ryan and a character named Birdie have lunch. Meg Ryan’s character has just made the decision to close her charming little bookstore. In the exchange, Birdie issues a series of lines that have stuck with me. They hit me each and every year.

“You are daring to imagine,” Birdie says, “that you could have a different life. Oh, I know it doesn't feel like that. You feel like a big fat failure now. But you're not. You are marching into the unknown armed with...Nothing. Have a sandwich.”

Everything about those lines is lovely. Meg Ryan’s character is feeling low because the business her mother built and left to her, is closing. In the midst of this deep pain, Birdie reminds her of the immense bravery it takes to face the unknown, to do the thing you find particularly hard and difficult.

I feel Hannah and I are marching into the unknown ourselves. In just a few short days, our first son will arrive. Talk about a life changer. Our whole world is about to be upended, in a good way. While we’ve done everything we can think of to prepare, there remains a great deal we are unaware of.

I’m freaking out inside. There are so many questions swirling around in my head, that it hurts. How little sleep is in my future? How will that stress impact our marriage? Do we have enough diapers? Is there anything I’m forgetting? Do we have everything we need for the nursery? Will I drop him? Will we be good parents? What will this new adventure bring into our lives? So many questions, so little answers.

How do you prepare for unknown situations, when you’re freaked out and haven’t a clue what to expect? I’ve thought about that question and a hundred like it. They’ve kept me up at night, and haunted my dreams. They’ve followed me around and lived with me for months on end. Today, I’d like to share with you the result, and how we are preparing to face the unknown once more.

The truth is, this isn’t the first time we’ve “marched into the unknown” and it certainly won’t be the last. We’ve walked this path before, and so have you. Facing situations, events and circumstances you aren’t entirely sure of, is as common as it gets. You don’t know the future, and as a result everything comes with a side of doubt and uncertainty.

Your level of uncertainty changes minute by minute, day by day. While uncertain of every aspect of most situations, you have a reasonable expectation for how it will go. You’ve had similar experiences before and have formed some idea of what most things on your calendar will look like. Other events however, throw massive amounts of uncertainty your way. The more that stands to change in your life, the more unknowns you have to be stressed over. Whether something big or small, the uncertainty is headed your way.

Abide with Christ

Don’t allow uncertainty and stress to threaten your world, and hold you captive. The surest way I know to throw off the heavy yoke the things of this world attempt to lay upon me is to look to Jesus. “Come to me,” Jesus said, “all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Abiding with Christ is the only path to peace in this life, and joy everlasting. One mark of walking with Him is peace in the midst of chaos. You have no need to worry, because you know who’s in control. There is never a moment in your life, during which the Lord wants you to worry. To worry is sin. It communicates your concern that God might get things wrong and that if you just had control things would turn out alright. How often does this pattern play out? How many of the things you’ve prayed the Lord would spare you from, are the very things that ended up shaping who you are the most?

Abiding with Christ involves spending time with His word and doing what it says. Abiding and obedience are inextricably linked, so what does God’s word tell us to do, with our anxiety and fear?   

Pray

“Don’t be anxious in anything,” Paul said, “but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Worry, anxiety and stress are heavy burdens you just don’t have to carry. Cast them off and let Christ deal with it. What keeps us up and costs us sleep, makes Him laugh. He is not worried and He has it under control. Lay your burdens down at the feet of Jesus in prayer because He cares for you. While the burden may be too much for you to bear, it’s not too much for Him. Let Him carry it.

Prayer is a powerful tool God has given you to fight the stress and anxiety uncertainty sends your way. Lay it all out there. "Tell God all that is in your heart,” Francois Fenelon said, “as one unloads one's heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you to conquer them; talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them; show Him the wounds of your heart, that He may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, your instability. Tell Him how self-love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises you to yourself as to others."

God can do something about what’s troubling you and He wants to. What you have in Him is a loving father. Loving fathers are concerned with what’s keeping their kids up at night and want to alleviate their burdens. The Lord is no different. Put it all out there in very real, and raw terms. He loves you and wants to hear what’s on your heart.  

Focus On Truth

“The most important battle you will ever fight,” Todd Wagner said, “is the battle for your mind and the most important weapon in this fight is truth.” Your mind is flooded with a million different thoughts each day, and not all of them are good, helpful or even true. What you do with each of those thoughts will determine everything.

You have to train yourself to think rightly in all circumstances by constantly reminding yourself of what’s true. You facedown what you don’t know by focusing on what you do. You may not know exactly what the future holds, but you can know who holds it. Fix your gaze on Him.

Consistent time in God’s word is the only way this happens. There’s just no way around it. No matter how many times you hear it, daily time in the Bible is the lifeblood of the Christian life. It offers practical and helpful instruction for every aspect of life, especially when staring down anxiety, but most importantly the Bible connects you with the author of life Himself.  

“Finally, brothers,” Paul said, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” Releasing your anxiety is only half the battle, you have to embrace truth in its place. Focus on what is true, honorable, pure and more. This is how you transform your mind, so that you know how to respond rightly no matter what comes your way.

Seek The Wisdom of Others

“The physical presence,” Bonhoeffer said, “of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer.” The Lord has been incredibly kind to you in that He has made you a part of the body of Christ. Within the body are countless men and women who have walked your steps before. What is uncertain to you, may not be to someone else. Ask good questions, seek counsel and wisdom, and avail yourself to the wisdom of others.  

The input and experience of your fellow believers can help alleviate a great deal of stress. Their insights can be huge. Go find someone who's walked the path you’re headed down. Regardless what the road ahead looks like, you can face it. Lock arms with other believers and wade into ambivalent seas ready to tackle what comes together. Remember that we is stronger than me. You don’t have to go it alone.

3 Things You Need To Remember When The Stuff Hits The Fan

“Holy crap!” “I can’t believe this is happening.” “What the heck is going on?” These are but a few of the multi layered and multi colored things that come out of our mouths when trouble strikes. Sometimes it comes our way because of the decisions of others, but other times it results from the poor decisions we’ve made.     

Things are going to come up, and stuff will go wrong. You’re going to do and say things that hurt both you and other people. Whether it’s drugs, alcohol, pornography, lying, cheating, hiding things, or theft you could be party to some dark stuff. Don’t let it destroy you. From time to time, people ask what to do when that happens. Today, I’d like to share with you three things to remember when those things bubble to the surface.   

1. God’s love for you isn’t contingent upon your behavior or works.

While obedience is important, it doesn’t impact your standing before God—what you do with Jesus does. “Who,” Jesus asked, “do you say that I am?” It was the most important question He asked His disciples, and it remains the most important question any of us have to deal with in the passage of our lives. What you do with Jesus determines everything else. I know that when life gets messy and I’ve screwed things up, truth is my deepest need. To be reminded exactly what Jesus has done for me is more precious than gold. If you are in Christ, Jesus has done it all.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith."  - Romans 3:23-25a

He did the heavy lifting we simply couldn’t do. Jesus’ life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension completed all that was necessary for us to be made right with Him. Our biggest problems—Satan, Sin and Death—have been dealt with. Let that sink in for a moment. For the believer in Christ, there is no longer condemnation (Romans 8:1), sin no longer holds us captive (Romans 6:1-14), and we will never be departed from our Lord (Romans 8:35, 38). Your behavior—sinful though it may be—can no more separate you from the love of God in Christ for you, than it could save you in the first place. “For by grace,” Paul said in Ephesians 2:8-9, “you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no man may boast.”

When life gets hard and I find myself dropping the ball, my temptation is to look inwardly—to focus on where I’m failing. When I turn my gaze upon myself, I quickly lose assurance and begin to question and doubt my very salvation. And therein we find the danger of turning our gaze upon ourselves. You and I were never meant to transfix our eyes upon our own navels. No, we were called to fix our eyes on Jesus. “Glimpses into the dark room of the heart alone,” Thomas Chalmers said, “give no good prospect.” Chalmers is right. Looking inward only leads to darker and darker places. “...take help from the windows.” Chalmers said, “Open the shutters and admit the sun. So if you wish to look well inwardly, look well out. . . . This is the very way to quicken it. Throw widely open the portals of faith and in this, every light will be admitted into the chambers of experience. The true way to facilitate self-examination is to look believingly outwardly.”

When you are in trouble and the mess of life is at your door, resist the urge to focus on yourself, or the problem at hand. Instead, look to Christ. Fix your gaze upon Him. The mess won’t go away and you’ll still have to deal with it, but you’ll be doing so with your mind and heart rightly focused. To say it another way, you’ll be dealing with things from a gospel or Jesus first mentality, not a behavior / problem first mentality. It makes all the difference in the world.

2 . Isolation kills.

When things get tough your natural tendency will be to withdraw. Maybe you feel that no one wants to listen, or that your problems make you damaged goods. Whatever the reason, isolation is the worst choice you could make. Despite what you tell yourself, those closest to you love you, care about you, and want to help you. “No man” John Donne said, “is an island. Entire of itself.” At no other time in your life could this sentiment ring more true, than when stuff gets messy. So reject fear, pick up the phone and invite those closest to you into the mess and pain.

Many churches call these types of deep, life on life relationships home groups, life groups, or community groups. Regardless of the name you choose to give it, there are several things you should expect from it. The foundation of any relationship is trust. Without it you’ve got nothing. It’s the glue that holds human relationships together. You have to be able to trust the other person to handle your stuff properly. That doesn’t mean they have to keep everything you say confidential. That may sound strange and counterproductive, but it's not. Sometimes you’ll share things that require them to widen the circle and bring others into the conversation. Trusting the other people in your life, means you believe they have your best interest at heart, even when it doesn’t feel like it.

You can expect your community to listen to all your hurts, struggles, and screw ups. You should be able to truly open up and let them into every part of your world. They not only want to hear about everything going on in your life, they need to. If there are areas that are off limits for you guys to talk about, it’s going to be difficult for them to serve the role they are called to serve in your life, and vice versa. Your community is going to ask you good questions, and many of them you're not going to want to answer. Resist that urge, and do it anyway. They’ll do it because they genuinely love and care for you, and want to understand.

As they listen, you can expect them to affirm you in the areas you are doing well. Things may be a mess and it feels like, “you just can’t do anything right” but nothing could farther from the truth. Even in the midst of your deepest and darkest seasons, where everything may have come unraveled and you feel like “nothing good dwells in you”, there is always some area of your life to be affirmed. Maybe it’s your honesty, willingness to open up and invite others in, or perhaps it’s the loving way in which you receive the counsel of others. Whatever it is, there is always something to celebrate. Not only should you expect community to celebrate small victories but you should expect them to build you up in your identity in Christ. The most powerful weapon we have in our battle with Sin & Satan, is truth. Your group can be expected to regularly remind you of what is true by pointing you to God’s word, and recalling to your mind who you are in Christ.

Community should point you to truth and give counsel that is grounded in the Bible. As they do so, they will say many things you don’t want to hear. Resist the urge to bail or seek out those who only tell you what you want to hear. If what they’re saying is biblical, you need to listen. This is where the rubber meets the road in community. Far too many people get offended, hurt and consequently withdraw all together because their community group either asked hard questions of them, or said hard truths for them to hear. When inevitably that moment comes, lean in, ask good questions and above all listen.

When you bring things to the table, you can expect your group to lovingly lean in, remind you of truth and help you map a way back to health. In every situation that road map is going to look differently but it will contain some of the same elements, such as daily time in God’s word, sharing what you’re learning, and keeping community in the loop.

Regardless of how things are going, they’re going to check in with you regularly to hold you accountable. Accountability has gotten a bad rap over the last several years. Just simply hearing the word causes some to recoil or sends their blood pressure through the roof. I get it. I’ve been there and can attest that whatever picture of accountability that causes those images to come to mind, is not what we’re talking about here. The type of ‘accountability’ you need is not the kind that makes you feel beat down but the kind that makes you feel loved and encouraged. Expect your group to check in, ask good questions and point you in the right direction. His people are one of the most important gifts the Lord has given us. Allow them to be and do for you all the Lord intends.

3. This too shall pass.

You’re walking through some pretty heavy stuff and it hurts like crazy. That kind of emotional pain and turmoil plays tricks on the mind. Better yet, that devil on your left shoulder lies to you. He will tell you a million different things that aren’t true, but one of the biggest lies he’ll tell you is that there is no hope, and that your life is over. Both lies trade on the idea that whatever trial you’re in is permanent, with no end in sight. While it may appear to be, your situation is only temporary. It will change. These seasons of trial come and go like the changing of the tide. They will no doubt leave a mark, hopefully for the better, but they will pass. This is going to be especially hard to believe when you're in the thick of it. It is going to feel like there is no way out. Like whatever troublesome circumstances, or hardships you’re experiencing are the new normal. They’re not. The pain will subside and troubles dissipate, but you’ll still be standing in the end.

Hopefully, you’ll be a better man/women for it. That is after all a major component of why you walk through times like this, the development of your character. “Count it all joy, my brothers” James said, “when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” James just upped the ante far beyond what any of us are probably comfortable with by calling us to be joyful for our hardships. But isn’t that exactly what all of us are when we reach the other side of our hurts. We may not enjoy it in the moment, but we usually look back with thankfulness at that which formerly brought is so much anguish. Is that not because all the hurt, all the pain, and all the craziness of it all produced in you a change. That’s what James was getting at. Be thankful for your sufferings, they just might be some of the greatest blessings you’ll ever receive.

I want you to do something for me. Pull out a notecard or a blank sheet of paper, and write down all of the good things you are thankful for. Start with the best experiences in your life. Maybe the job you have, the spouse you married, the awesome conversation you had with the guy at the coffee shop. Just write it all down.

Now flip that card or sheet of paper over. On the other side of the page, write all of your worst experiences. All the painful, difficult and agonizing periods of your life. The time you lost your job, maybe you walked through the pain of losing a child or any other of a million things.

Now take a look at both lists, and ask yourself how many of the things on the front side are direct or indirect results of some of the things that happened on the back. My guess is that more than one of the best things to have happened in your life, is related to one of the worst. How often do we pray for the Lord to relieve the pressure and remove us from our trials? I know I do. Pain isn’t fun in the moment, but often its result are worth it. “If God answered,” Randy Alcorn said, “all our prayers to be delivered from evil and suffering, then He would be delivering us from Christlikeness. But Christlikeness is something to long for, not to be delivered from.”

Things are going to go wrong in life. That you already know. The next time it knocks at your door, pull this post out and remind yourself of God’s love for you, the gift He’s given you in His people and the purpose behind the pain. I pray that you will struggle well and allow your next fiery trial to make you look a little more like Jesus.

Life is spontaneous, now what?

Two years ago, I sat crunching numbers in a cubical while listening with wrapped attention to a short 10 minutes of audio from John Piper. That days episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast contained a snippet from one of Pastor John's epic sermons entitled What Is The Will of God and How Do We Know It? In it he answers the questions of knowing God's will in your life and how to then live. 

The sermon, and the snippet presented on the APJ podcast, offer great insight for tackling the most pressing issue facing our growth. "95% of your life", Piper says, "is unpremeditated: thoughts, attitudes, actions are spontaneous. They are just spill over." With so much of our life constituted of our doing things unplanned and without forethought how are we to ever live as Christ has called us to? How do we keep from responding in anger, being short, prideful, fearful, or apathetic? 

"There is only one way to live the Christian life." Piper explains, "Don't be conformed but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. It's our only hope. Life is too spontaneous." In short, the answer to the question of how to respond rightly, is that we can't. Not without running to the Father—spending time in His Word, and pleading with him to work it in us.

"If there is any stuff, junk, pride, left down there", Piper prays, "that is just causing the stuff to come out unbidden and unplanned, get at me down here, Lord." May that be our prayer each day. Let us beg The Lord to get at us at the deepest levels of desire and emotion as we feast on God's word, and spend time before His throne in prayer this week. None of us will be the men or women in Christ we want to be this week. However it is our hope that over many years of faithful devotion—we will come to resemble Jesus more and more. 

Have a great week my friends. Hopefully these two resources will be helpful and encouraging to you all.