Three different streams flowed into one another for me last week as I was preparing to preach out of Colossians 3. The first stream was Jared Wilson’s blog. I am a fan of Christ in Jared and have found him to be a tremendous thinker. On Friday, May 28, Jared quoted D.A. Carson from “For the Love of God” (Vol. 2):
“People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, and obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.”
So Carson became the second stream. The quote resonated deeply with my mind and soul. It’s very true. I wanted to see how Carson defined and unpacked “grace-driven effort” and was frustrated to see that he doesn’t do a lot of explaining, which led to the third stream.
In reading, I was reminded of an article written by Ralph Erskine (1685-1752) on “The Difference between Gospel Mortification and Legal Mortification.” After reading, praying and studying, I have tried to define “grace-driven effort” and will be rolling out what I believe it is in a series of blogs this week and next. Stay tuned.
Grace-Driven Effort
This weekend we talked about being “rooted and built up in Him,” and I mentioned the amount of resources available to you. I have done the work for you and included some of my favorites, although more than likely, I would not see eye-to-eye on everything with any of these men. They love the gospel as it has been taught for 2,000 years and have a very high view of the Scriptures that teach us by the power of the Holy Spirit about the nature and character of God.
I am provided links to their Web pages, Amazon page with their books and their podcasts where any of this was available. Enjoy, and I pray He grows you deep and wide! In no particular order:
John Piper
Mark Driscoll
RC Sproul
Alistair Begg
JR Vassar
Eric Mason
Mark Dever
Ed Stetzer
Books or DVD teachings you should have:
- “Christian Beliefs: 20 Truths Every Christian Should Know” by Wayne Grudem
- “Bible Doctrine” by Wayne Grudem
- “Foundations” by RC Sproul
From these you will find a whole world of other studies, sermons and resources to help you explore the Scriptures and the God they point to in ways that will root and build you up in Him.
Helpful Resources
Do you remember the phrase, “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”? I think it was something I was taught as a kid. Well, it’s a lie.
Words do hurt and sometimes words actually destroy. We can all testify to this reality in our own lives as we have been both the recipient of hurtful words and dished some out to others. Oftentimes some of our deepest wounds have been created by a verbal assault. The story of Phoebe Prince, a high school student in Massachusetts, who recently killed herself because of incessant bullying at school, is shocking and cruel. Lies were spread about her and she was bombarded with the label of “slut”, “whore” and others. It eventually became too much to bear for this young girl. Words can destroy.
I assume most of us have matured right past name-calling and right into the more prominent adult world of acceptable gossip. We simply pass on information that is not ours to share with a quiet sense of entitlement. Gossip and the sharing of information has become so mainstay that TV networks build entire shows off it, magazines are littered with it, and prayer requests are shared with it. Somehow we think that gossip is OK to share about a celebrity because they are a celebrity. In fact, most of us probably don’t even think about it at all. Did you hear about Jesse James and Sandra Bullock? Did he cheat? Why is he in rehab? What really happened in Tiger’s driveway? Who is the next mistress to step forward? The real question is why is that any of your (or my) business? These are real people with real lives who are just as wounded by gossip and slander as you and I.
Our propensity for gossip certainly doesn’t stop with celebrities; it permeates our lives as well. Religious people share personal information about another as a prayer request with no consideration of whose information it is to share. Sometimes we simply fill the void of our conversations with information about other people rather than walking in the vulnerability of sharing our own lives. The social network scene of Facebook and Twitter only serve as instant vehicles for us to get information, share information and continue to feed the idol of information that so many of us bow down to.
Check your heart here. Why do you share what you share? Is it yours to share? Why do you feel a need to share it or listen to it? What is lacking in your own life that you have to fill it up with the news about another? Here’s an idea: shhhhh. Listen to your heart and find out why you crave to be in the know. Listen for why you have to be the first to share something. Do you feel more powerful? Why do you need to feel this way? What’s broken and lacking in you? Maybe you lack the courage to tell someone to stop sharing something you know you don’t need to be privy to. Maybe you lack the courage to share your own heart…about yourself.
It would do us some good to consider our words. They are powerful to bless and curse. They can build or destroy. They are viral and hard to get back, so listen more than you talk and feel empowered to not share what is not yours.
Gossip
