The best friendship around

"The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant."

- Psalm 25:14

What a privilege it is to be called a friend of God! Let that fact just sink in: that those of us who have turned from ourselves and placed our faith in Christ for salvation, have become friends of God through his reconciling sacrifice. To those who acknowledge God's sovereignty and our utter dependence upon him for anything good in our lives, very much including our redemption, he makes his covenant known. He has removed our hearts of stone and given us heart of flesh with which to FEEL the new covenant, and not just hear and dismiss it.

Thank you Jesus for your unchangeable character and friendship that doesn't spoil or fade.

Thanks be to God

Lord, thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you that you humbled yourself, and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Thank you for tearing up my record of debt, and replacing it with your spotless one. Thank you for performing a miracle among your people, by removing from them their hearts of stone, hearts that look at your cross and feel nothing, who look at their sin and feel nothing, who hear the gospel of the good news and feel nothing, who receive blessing after blessing, day after day, and feel nothing. Thank you for putting a new heart of flesh within us, one that breaks over sin, yet rejoices in your finished work.

Thanks be to God.

A late night thought

As I sit on my sofa late at night, I think about the absolute absurdity that is God's love.

Think about it.

God himself, the Triune Creator, who forged the heavens, the earth, stars, hummingbirds, taste buds, sex, human emotions and the intricacies of the human body, humbled himself by becoming nothing, a mere human, that he might die, bearing our iniquity in a divine, sufficient transaction: our sin, for his righteousness.

How is that fair? When could that ever be labelled as fair? I, Cody, a sinner just like everyone reading this blog, who for so long has ridiculed the God of the Bible by disobeying His commands every single day and turning away from his supremacy and sufficiency and to my own sinful desires. But that is not the end of the matter. I have been reconciled to God. And this not of my doing. It is a gift of God, so that I may not boast.

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him owe,
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

Praise God forever for His abounding, steadfast, reckless, exemplary, joyful, sobering, miraculous love. May we never, ever neglect the cross, but when we do, may God swiftly bring us back to the foot of the tree on which our dear Saviour died.

A God-pleasing despair

Do not despair if you feel the flesh battling against the Spirit or if you cannot make it behave. For you to follow the guidance of the Spirit in all things without interference on the part of the flesh is impossible. You are doing all you can if you resist the flesh and do not fulfill its demands.

When I was a monk I thought I was lost forever whenever I felt an evil emotion, carnal lust, wrath, hatred, or envy. I tried to quiet my conscience in many ways, but it did not work, because lust would always come back and give me no rest. I told myself: "You have permitted this and that sin, envy, impatience, and the like. Your joining this holy order has been in vain, and all your good works are good for nothing." If at that time I had understood this passage, "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh," I could have spared myself many a day of self- torment. I would have said to myself: "Martin, you will never be without sin, for you have flesh. Despair not, but resist the flesh."

I remember how Doctor Staupitz used to say to me: "I have promised God a thousand times that I would become a better man, but I never kept my promise. From now on I am not going to make any more vows. Experience has taught me that I cannot keep them. Unless God is merciful to me for Christ's sake and grants unto me a blessed departure, I shall not be able to stand before Him." His was a God-pleasing despair.

-- Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians

Why I want to be a journalist.

Martin Bashir vs. Rob Bell.

A really good interview from a solid journalist.

Continue to pray for Japan

A prayer for Japan.

The heart of the battle in the fight for joy

"As to the object of your affections, in an especial manner, let it be the cross of Christ, which has exceeding efficacy towards the disappointment of the whole work of indwelling sin: "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal 6:14). The cross of Christ he [Paul] gloried and rejoiced in; this his heart was set upon; and these were the effects of it - it crucified the world unto him, made it a dead and undesirable thing. The baits and pleasures of sin are taken all of them out of the world...If the heart be filled with the cross of Christ, it casts death and undesirableness upon them all; it leaves no seeming beauty, no appearing pleasure or comeliness, in them. Again, says he, "It crucifies me to the world; makes my heart, my affections, my desires, dead unto any of these things." It roots up corrupt lusts and affections, leaves no principle to go forth and make provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. Labour, therefore, to fill your hearts with the cross of Christ...that there may be no room for sin."

- John Owen, Mortification of Sin in Believers, emphasis added

Encouragement after the Japan quake and tsunami.

For me personally, disasters such as these just plain freak me out. I have never been good for handling freak occurrences such as, and I come from Napier, a small town in New Zealand, which just happens to be in the most earthquake prone part of New Zealand. My heart breaks over this new event, over the lives lost and pain and sorrow in the hearts of people all over the world. My heart is trying (I need grace so bad!) to rest in the fact that God is sovereign and that he is in control of every aftershock, every death, every survival, every wave that strikes whichever country, and that ultimately, this will all glorify him in some way I cannot yet see.

Here are some verses to encourage believers as we reflect on this disaster:

"If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he will also deny us;
if we are faithless, he remains faithful - for he cannot deny himself" - 2 Timothy 2:11b-13


"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though mountains tremble at its swelling." - Psalm 46:1-3 (read the rest of this Psalm also)


"Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." - 1 Peter 1:13


"Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." - Hebrews 4:14-16


"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." - 1 John 1:9


"Whom have I heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." - Psalm 73:25, 26

Joy.

I am currently reading John Piper's book, When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy, and it is very thought provoking.

In a section that I read today, Piper writes that, "the very joy that Jesus would have in the presence of the Father is the joy he died for us to have." John 15:11 says - "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full," and John 17:13 says, "but now [Father] I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves."

The joy by which Christ endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2) is the joy that he freely gives to us through himself and his death and resurrection. By Christ's obedience unto death, he secured himself an everlasting joy for himself, and for US. Think about it.

You must be born again

This quote from (again) Jonathan Edwards is very powerful, as I strive in my own life to fight for joy in Christ and His finished work on the cross.

"Man's proper happiness consists in the enjoyment of God; but it is not possible that man should enjoy God with only those things in him which he receives by the first birth. So that there is this necessity of man's being born again."

Who can sympathise with me in saying that my life is a constant struggle to find joy in God? Also, constantly falling into trying to work up my own joy in the Lord, which is impossible and ridicules the cross. It is only through a divine work of God that we can ever be born again, and then experience the joy of God that is commanded. May we all realise this amazing truth and stop trying to muster up our own joy to present to God as something acceptable. 

Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to the cross I cling. 

8 Symptoms of False Doctrine, according to J.C. Ryle

Check out this work from 19th century English writer and pastor, J.C.Ryle. My, how it rings true today!

8 Symptons of False Doctrine

May we continue to grow in our individual knowledge and love of the Lord, so that we may not be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, and stand strong in the truth of the Bible.

"Taste and see that the Lord is good"

This quote from Jonathan Edwards really struck me when I read it. It is in his sermon, "A Divine and Supernatural Light."

"There is a difference between believing that God is holy and gracious, and having a new sense on the heart of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. The difference between believing that God is gracious and tasting that God is gracious is as different as having a rational belief that honey is sweet and having the actual sense of its sweetness."

If only we could all, in every waking moment, be living and relying on the truths of the gospel to permeate our souls and leave us thirsting for more. My prayer is that all people would turn to our beautiful Christ and worship Him for his amazing grace. Delve into the Scriptures, humbly come to the Lord in prayer and talk about Him and his blessings all the time! This is how you taste that the Lord is good!

A pearl from Martin Luther

"When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares that we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus: "I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means. For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where he is, there shall I be also."


- Martin Luther, Letters of Spiritual Counsel