NEXT 2011

So, NEXT 2011 was this past weekend. I may try to go through some notes and put them up here, or I may not. But for now, here is one.

R.C. Sproul:

When we have the Truth on our side, we have reason on our side, and we ought to be proclaiming it with all our lives.

Sproul also spoke for the first time ever without a tie, in honor of CJ. How accommodating.
But seriously, Josh Harris was right when he said one day you will tell your grandchildren that you heard Sproul speak live. His message was excellent, and you can find all the conference main session messages here.

And if you're interested, you can check out a few quicky-like snap shot photos of our time here.

Below is a silent video of the session opening for Next.

Justice, Grace, and Joy

The Holiness of God, by R.C. Sproul, page 128:

It is the confusion between justice and mercy that makes us shrink in horror when we read the stories of Nadab, Abihu, and Uzzah. When God's justice falls, we are offended because we think God owes perpetual mercy. We must not take His grace for granted. We must never lose our capacity to be amazed by grace. We sing the song, "Amazing Justice." Our lyrics tend to go like this:

Amazing Justice, cruel and sharp

That wounds a saint like me:

I'm so darn good it makes no sense -

The tower fell on me!

...Since it is our tendency to take grace for granted, my guess is that God found it necessary from time to time to remind Israel that grace must never be assumed. On rare but dramatic occasions He showed the dreadful power of His justice. He killed Nadab and Abihu. He killed Uzzah. He commanded the slaughter of the Canaanites. It is as if He were saying, "Be careful. While you enjoy the benefits of my grace, don't forget my justice. Don't forget the gravity of sin. Remember that I am holy."

If I find I am lacking a joyful, content, and humble heart, I have found there is no better place to turn my eyes than to contemplating the holiness of God. When I see God rightly, see his righteousness and justice, then I see myself rightly before him and am utterly amazed at his grace and kindness. The good news of the gospel can become sweet to my soul once more and Christ more dearly my treasure, when I make God the starting point and not myself.

What beautiful anticipation should fill my heart, as I contemplate at day's end the glorious undeserved privilege of walking out my next day as a redeemed child of the Holy Almighty God. He should cause me to quake and tremble in fear. But he has adopted me as his own and delights to show himself as a gracious and loving Father, in a myriad of ways each day in details great and small.

Our God is great, and greatly to be praised. May I rejoice in the God of my salvation and be amazed by his holiness and grace in each moment of each day.

photo: a view from home; November 22, 2010

Brokenness, Faith, Delight

The Holiness of God, page 32:

There is a pattern here, a pattern repeated in history. God appears, people quake in terror, God forgives and heals, God sends. From brokenness to mission is the human pattern. . . . [Isaiah] was not Humpty-Dumpty. In the nursery rhyme the fall of Mr. Dumpty is tragic because no one in the entire kingdom had the power to put him together again. Yet he was no more fragile than Isaiah. Isaiah was shattered into as many pieces as any fallen egg. But God put him together again. God was able to take a shattered man and send him into the ministry. He took a sinful man and made him a prophet. He took a man with a dirty mouth and made him God's spokesman.

John 3:1: See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.

Psalm 16:1-2, 5-6, 7-8, 11: Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.". . . The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. . . .You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Brokenness before God is a good thing, and pain is not to be avoided above all else. I have found that I often try to "guard myself from joy." Only recently have I been able to condense this thought into that 4 word phrase, but it's been developing for quite some time. If something is good, I seem to hold back from being expressive and excited about it because I fear it will not last. When things are difficult, I tell myself to think about how good I really do have it compared to what I deserve, the wrath of God. Then I find myself quickly and surprisingly content and happy. But when things are going well, I seem to warn myself not to take joy and attach myself to any thing because it cannot last, only God can be my lasting joy. Well, that is true, but God gives good things to reflect himself and his goodness to me. So, it's actually sinful for me to reject his good gifts to strive after false security. I can delight in the good things God has given because through them I am delighting in Him.

I am blown away by the grace and goodness of God. Sweetly broken and stretched in faith is a good place to be. Although facing fears with weak faith is hard, I can know God will not crush me. He has already crushed his Son. He only gives me more than I can handle to break me and draw me to himself, where there is fullness of joy. And then as a loving Father, he blesses me even more. "What manner of love is this?"

Even in the many ways my faith is being tested currently, God is blessing me through my relationship with Matt. :) My thoughts go a little like this, "You mean it's been over a week and the guy hasn't dumped me yet? Gee, golly, that sure is swell!" Ok, yeah it's only been 16 days of dating, uh courting, err relating (no, we've "related" longer than that...uhh), well you know what I mean. But those are 16 days of God's goodness not to be taken lightly. God is good.

Blessed be your name

When the sun's shining down on me

When the world's all as it should be

Blessed be your name

Blessed be your name

On the road marked with suffering

Though there's pain in the offering

Blessed be your name

You give and take away

You give and take away

My heart will choose to say

Lord, Blessed be your name

(c) Matt Redman

photo: Tuscany, Italy 2007

EDIT/UPDATE:

While going through some old emails tonight, I came across a note I emailed myself on July 28 (when this was going on). I had thought to blog about it, but never did until this post.

sign that your joy is tied to your circumstances instead of to Christ = slow to be excited about something or have joyful expectation because you know the circumstances will probably change soon and suffering, difficulty, or hardship could come around the corner soon. I want to thoroughly enjoy the blessing and pleasant circumstances God gives me because I am enjoying God in them, not because I enjoy them in and of themselves. I can then be free to enjoy the moment.

good people or bad people?

At our church picnic yesterday afternoon, I was talking with a couple friends about how we interact with people who profess to be Christians but do not live in step with the gospel. What could be worse than being lost but thinking you are safe?

Tonight, I read the following in Mere Christianity:

But we must not suppose that even if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls. A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world - and might even be more difficult to save.

For mere improvement is not redemption, though redemption always improves people even here and now and will, in the end, improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine. God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man.

You must have the bad news before the good; you will not want a Savior if you do not see what you need to be saved from - the wrath of God against sinners. Saved from What? by R.C. Sproul is a book that also addresses this.

photo: Cinque Terre, Italy 2007