Universal

Quotes from The Mortification of Sin, John Owen

Owen provides an excellent summary of Chapter 8 as his last paragraph in that chapter:
"He who truly and thoroughly seeks to mortify any disquieting lust, must be equally diligent in all parts of obedience. We must see that every lust and every omission of duty is a burden to God. If we do not seek to obey in every area of our lives, our soul becomes weak. If we seek only to have victory over the sin that troubles us, and do not consider the filth and guilt of it, we are selfish and offer a constant provocation to God. There will not be any positive outcome to the spiritual duties we undertake, and we will not gain the victory over this great lust, if we do not seek universal obedience." p53

Root

Quotes from chapter 7 in The Mortification of Sin, John Owen

"... we must always remember to speak in such a way as to lead them to the discovery of their state and condition. Otherwise we may lead men to formality and hypocrisy and not accomplish the true end of preaching the gospel. It will not avail to beat a man off from his drunkenness into a sober formality. We must lay the axe at the root." p47

"Can sin be truly killed without an interest in the death of Christ, and the work of the Spirit? If such directions should prevail to change men's lives, as seldom they do, they never will reach to the change of their hearts! They just make men self-justified or hypocrites, and not Christians." p47

Periphery

The Cross and Christian Ministry, D. A. Carson

“I fear that the cross without ever being disowned, is constantly being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy, by relatively peripheral insights that take on far too much weight. Whenever the periphery is in danger of displacing the center, we are not far removed from idolatry.”

Runner-ups

I keep a little notebook with me all the time. I jot ideas down and some of them make it in this blog. Here are some of the runner-ups. I may post more about them at a future date but don't hold your breath.

Servants
I was at the church and saw the following acts of servant-hood: A local TV reporter running the camera for one of our services and business owners seating guests. Humility in the flesh.

Terminal
I have a few friends who have started a club of sorts called "Don't Waste Your Terminal llness." To my knowledge none of them have a terminal illness right now but if they ever do, you'll see them boarding a plane to the most hostile unreached people groups. They want to die sharing the gospel.

New
The phrase "making all things new" or some variant has managed to make it's way into so many different songs and sermons and books that I've come across lately. It intrigues me.

Subway
Sin is kind of like Subway. You walk in thinking, "This is the most delectable smell I believe my olfactory senses have ever encountered." You walk out thinking, "I smell like throw up."

Mortification

Quotes from chapters 4, 5, and 6 of John Owen's The Mortification of Sin.

"The unmortified soul cannot say uprightly and truly that God is its portion, having something else that it loves. The soul and its affections, that should be full of God, cannot be full of Him, since it is entagled in worldly pursuits."

"Mortification is not just the changing of some outward aspects of a sin. There may be an apparent change of life. God however knows the heart. Someone may change an obvious sin for a hidden one. Mortification is not just the substitution of one sin for another. He may simply have changed from one road to hell a safer path than he was on before. He may have a different heart than he had, one which is more cunning; not a new heart, which is more holy!"

What mortification is:
1. A habitual weakening of the lust.
2. A consistent fight and contention against sin.
3. A degree of success in the battle.
(This last one is more of an outline of chapter 6)

Notes

Never underestimate the power of a note.

I have a stickie on my computer monitor that reads, "1 note a day." I don't actually write 1 note a day but I try. It's a great discipline in being thankful and thoughtful about OTHERS and God's work in and through them.

We had over 50 volunteers ranging from meal providers to greeters to host homes to leaders participate in the Nexus Project 09. That's a lot of thank you notes. That's a lot of time and our hand and brain muscles may have cramped up a few times. We wouldn't have it any other way though.

I got this email today:

Hey Shannon,

You so did not have to send me a thank you note.....but you made my day!

Thank you for being so thoughtful.

Ruth C

I didn't write her a long, super specific letter. I jotted her a note of sincere gratitude for her heart-felt service for our students - she was one of our "on call" medics.

I think her email said it all. Go write a note.

Meditate

What do you think of when you hear the word "meditate"? When I was younger that word was used in reference to, what was in my elementary-aged mind, creepy people who didn't know God much less love Him. So of course when I got to college and heard my d-group leader tell us to mediate on God's word daily I thought she was crazy. In fact, all I heard was "meditate blah, blah, blah." I quickly saw in scripture* that we as believers are to meditate on God's word (Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:2). A friend of mine recently wrote on the subject here.
I have been honored to have friends that also love the Word, delight themselves in it, and help me to commit it to memory. Emily, Katie, Kim, and April I am thankful for your partnership in the gospel in my life! Thank you for letting me do the same with you!


*I did move on from my always taking other people's word for it.