The Good Life

To believe in the supernatural is not simply to believe that after living a successful, material, and fairly virtuous life here one will continue to exist in the best-possible substitute for this world, or that after living a starved and stunted life here one will be compensated with all the good things one has gone without: it is to believe that the supernatural is the greatest reality here and now.

T. S. Eliot

Read

Matthew 5:17-20. 

Think

Life for me so far has been a cake-walk. Sure, I’ve had my share of messes, most of them brought on by myself, but I can’t say I’ve really faced adversity or persecution, certainly not poverty or major illness. Life is good. I have a loving, supportive, talented wife, 3 fantastic kids, a really great job, friends that I love and who love me, and a comfortable place to live and sleep. The fact that I have a house, 3 vehicles, and a job places me in in a better financial position than most of the planet’s population. But the fact that I haven’t really suffered, or that I’m comparatively wealthy isn’t really why I say that life is good.

Life is good because God has made Himself available to me. Life is good because my obedience or lack thereof has no bearing on my qualification for the Kingdom. Jesus says that unless my righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, I have no hope of entering the Kingdom. Well, he’s right. Because if it depends on me, I know myself too well. I know how things usually go when I try to will myself into being a righteous person. I usually end up like the Pharisees, holding myself and others to laws that God did not give and trying to qualify myself to enter the Kingdom.

Life is good because Christ took my death-sentence and I have been declared righteous when I believed. When Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice, He fulfilled all the requirements of the Law. And when we look to Him, believing, He becomes our righteousness. God looks at His sacrifice, smacks His gavel on the bench and declares us righteous.

Life is good because my experience of eternal life began when I fully embraced the life that Christ has for me. When I first believed, I held on to the idea of living in my self-righteousness, trying to achieve the Kingdom in my flesh. When I came to understand that my eternal life is already mine, and I can relax and really live my life, it opened whole new doors for me.

It was for freedom that Christ has set us free. Therefore stand firm and do not subject yourselves again to the yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1

Pray

Ask God to help you to embrace the good life, the eternal life He has for you, not just for the future, but right now.

Do

Think about some of the things that you consider just plain wrong. Are you holding yourself and others to rules and laws that God did not give?

Attitudes

Now there was only one hope, the sovereign grace of God. God would have to transform my heart to do what a heart cannot make itself do, namely, want what it ought to want. Only God can make the heart desire God.

John Piper, When I Don’t Desire God

Read

Take a few minutes and absorb Matthew 5:1-16. Dwell on each thought and consider what Jesus is really saying in these verses.

Think

Blessed, happy, fortunate are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the gentle, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted. It doesn’t sound like the list of people I would make if I were to think about the ones who inherit the earth, who are satisfied, who are awarded the kingdom of heaven. It sounds like a list of misfits and losers. Or, probably more accurately, it sounds like a list of people who understand their need for Christ’s work in their lives. Blessed, happy, fortunate are you who know you’re a big mess, because there is someone who can fix your mess.

Here is Matt’s interpretation:

Blessed, happy, fortunate is the one who doesn’t think too highly of himself, for God Himself is enough to make him worthy to enter the kingdom.

Blessed, happy, fortunate is the one who has experienced great loss, for God has sent His Comforter.

Blessed, happy, fortunate is the one who has a mild and kind nature, for God will give him the earth.

Blessed, happy, fortunate is the one who recognizes the parts of his life that don’t match God’s character and has a deep desire to fix that, for God will be his righteousness.

Blessed, happy, fortunate is the one who does not seek revenge, but is quick to forgive and show mercy, for God has already shown us mercy, and will be merciful to him.

Blessed, happy, fortunate is the one who is innocent, even naive, for God will reveal Himself to him.

Blessed, happy, fortunate is the one who tries to help people around him live in peace with each other, for this is a characteristic of God’s children.

Blessed, happy, fortunate is the one who is made fun of, punished, even killed because he wants his life to match God’s character, for God Himself is worth it all and is enough to make him worthy to enter the kingdom.

If you know people with any of these characteristics, you know that they are people who you want to be around, who give stark contrast to our cultural ideas of who really get ahead. They shake our paradigm of what is really important in life. 

Pray

Pray that God will develop these traits in you, and help you see those areas of your life that you fall short of His character.

Do

Go out of your way today to treat people with kindness, to show mercy, to seek righteousness, or to be a comfort to someone, and see how it affects your day.

Conversations with Intellectuals

What once had seemed like an inevitable but defective quest for the satisfaction of my soul now became not just permitted but required. The glory of God was at stake. This was almost too good to be true--that my quest for joy and my duty to glorify God were not in conflict..It released the energies of my mind and heart to go hard after all the soul-happiness that God is for me in Jesus.

John Piper, When I Don’t Desire God

Read

Acts 17:16-34. 

As you read, think about times when you’ve been challenged in what you believe and how you responded.

Think

I’ve been talking quite a bit with a guy who isn’t sure there is a God, but believes that everything is material. I’ve really had to think about some difficult questions lately. If someone came to you one day and asked you to why you believe in Christ, what would you say?

In this passage, Paul isn’t confronting atheism, just the opposite, polytheism, that there are many gods. In our culture, we’ll find both. In fact, the atheists have become quite a bit more evangelical than most of us are willing to be. They feel they have the intellectual high ground. It makes me think of I Peter 3:15: But set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts and always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope you possess. 

Just like Paul in Athens, the Stoics and Intellectuals we encounter today notice those of us who have set Christ apart as Lord in our hearts, even beyond our belief, and they are beginning to demand an answer for our faith. How great it would be, and how influential, if we were able to give a well-reasoned, humble, and informed response to their questions. 

Let’s not conform to the stereotype of conservative Christians as uninformed, blind to the difficult questions of life, and singlemindedly focused on abortion and gay marriage. Let’s seek to love the Lord with all our minds, as well as all our hearts. 

Pray

Pray that God will help you grow in wisdom and knowledge, and that He will help you develop relationships with people who are seeking to understand the deep things of life.

Do

Find an article on some of the latest scientific discoveries and think about them in light of the truth of God’s Word.

A Momentous Occasion

Lots of stuff has happened on June 24th. Napolean began his invasion of Russia. A plane crashed at JFK airport, killing 113. Grover Cleveland died. John Cabot landed in North America. The first widely reported claim of a UFO sighting happened near Mt Rainier, WA. Jack Dempsey and Roy Disney were born. It's midsummer celebration in England, and the Nativity of St. John is celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church.

I really had no idea this was such a momentous day. When we chose June 24th, I think it had more to do with a Seven Brides for Seven Brothers song than the importance of the day itself. It was a day that the church and pastor were available, and we thought as many of our friends and family as possible would be able to attend.

But, is there really a more momentous thing than the affirmation of eternal love? Is there a more joyous occasion than the joining of two souls who are a perfect match? Can you think of a better event to celebrate than the completion of two independent people?

It's been 9 years since Misha and I were married, and I've been working on my list of 9 things that I love about her. I love her kindness, her ability to make people laugh, her clever use of words, her depth of understanding, the way children are putty in her hands, her disarming way. I could listen to her sing for days on end, to her stories for hours at a time, and I love the way she looks at me just so. But all of these things, as much as they mean to me right now, are just a drop in a massive bucket compared to the infinite depth of my feelings and love for her.

I would, like Porgy, push my cart to the ends of the earth for Misha. 9 years ago, my life began, and I have been growing more in love with my wife every day since. It may not be celebrated by millions of people around the world, or remembered for it's significance in world history, but on this day, 2000, Misha Perkins married me, and I have been better for it ever since.

Heartless Money

But in the long run it is perhaps even more apparent in our growing--for it ought to be growing--awareness that our whole being by its very nature is one vast need; incomplete, preparatory, empty yet cluttered, crying out for Him who can untie things that are now knotted together and tie up things that are still dangling loose.

C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Read

Ecclesiastes 6:1-6. Take a few minutes and write down your initial thoughts on this section. As you look back at the verses, what leads you to write these things?

Think

Let's remember where Solomon is coming from: born in the palace to King David and his wife Bathsheba (a whole other story), 3rd king of Israel, offered anything his heart desired, chose wisdom, given riches as well, reigned in peace and prosperity, made treaties with surrounding nations, had hundreds of wives and concubines, led into idolatry by his wives, finally, his sons subverted his authority and split the kingdom. Solomon looks back over his life and writes his memoir, lessons learned throughout his life, and sees the evil of heartless money: Riches given by God but not enjoyed.

Chapter 5 ends with the value of recognizing God as the true giver of our material possessions and as the only One who gives us the ability to enjoy them. Even though we may recognize God as our provider, if we use our money and possessions to satisfy our own desires without regard to stewardship and generosity, our wealth becomes heartless and empty.

In verses 3-6, Solomon gives us 2 pictures of the emptiness of heartless money. First, we see a man who lives a long life, fathers a hundred children, but his family doesn't care enough about him to give him a proper burial. Second, a miscarriage. Both are painful, but Solomon says that the miscarriage is better. Life without God and meaning is worse than never having been born at all.

On the other hand, life with God is deeply satisfying, whether one has little or much. It's not the years in life but the life in the years. Only God can give us the wisdom to know what to do with what we have.

David Jeremiah, Searching for Heaven on Earth

Pray

Ask God to help you find true enjoyment in life. Pray that He will help you live well, as a good steward of the possessions He gave you.

Do

Spend some extra time with your family this week. Of all the things that aid in the enjoyment of life, good family relationships top the list. Fix dinner together and eat around the table, take your wife out on a date, roll on the floor with your kids, play a game that you all enjoy, anything that will enhance your family life. Money, work, and success are all meaningless without good family relationships.