Tag Archives: Affections & Motivations

Faith, Gospel Centrality, Growth/Pursuit, Quotes/Lyrics

What Motivates Your Pursuit?

“All too often, religious people view their acts of piety or moral efforts as a means of gaining acceptance with God. Check yourself now. Even if you’ve been a Christian for a long time, don’t you sometimes feel like God is more pleased with you on days when you’ve been faithful in daily devotions than those rushed days when you neglected time in the Word and prayer? Do you tend to view your relationship with God as a long list of “do’s and don’ts”? Is your obedience to God motivated by love and characterized by joy—or guilt and fear? Is it easy for you to admit your failures and take ownership of your sins? Or does the possibility of being exposed feel threatening to your sense of well-being?

Like Luther, our relationship with God can easily become based on our own performance, rather than the performance of Christ. Even good spiritual disciplines, such as Bible-reading, prayer, and worship, become in our minds, like rungs on the ladder to heaven. We may not express it this way. In fact, we might even deny it. But functionally, and practically, we live as if approval from God depended upon our obedience, instead of Christ’s obedience for us.”

–Christ Formed in You by Brian Hedges

Gospel Centrality, Growth/Pursuit

Friends of the omnipotent, soverign Creator

I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. (John 15:15–16 ESV)

We are friends of the omnipotent, sovereign Creator of all things.  What a staggering statement!  Jesus chose us to bear fruit, but we often times get it backwards.  We want to tell people to go and bear fruit, but we neglect to point out that the fuel for the fruit is that He chose us and brings us in to a sustaining relationship with Him.  Jesus chose us out of the world (verse 19), we are not friends with the world.  We are not left on our own, the Spirit has come to remind us, sustain us, embolden us, and bear witness about Jesus (John 15:26).  Jesus even said that it was to our advantage that he go away so the Spirit could come (John 16:7).

Aside, Growth/Pursuit, Quotes/Lyrics

God nourishes the soul

Aside
“For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.”
–The Pursuit of God by AW Tozer (location 85 Kindle Edition)
Christianity, Faith, Growth/Pursuit

An insatiable desire

The bible paints the portrait of the soul’s panting, thirsting, yearning, longing, desiring after God.  Regardless of whether life is going well or not, there is an overarching drive to know God more deeply and walk with Him more fully.  We see in the pages of scripture a lusty, greedy, insatiable desire to get more of God.  Why is it that we are so easily content to compartmentalize our faith, to do it on Sundays and live morally clean lives in mechanical obedience?  Paul seems to be greedy for more of God and says that asking whether something is right or wrong is the wrong question to ask.  Paul, instead asks, does this get me more of Jesus or does it rob me of knowing Him more deeply?
If the biblical standard is a pursuit of God to chase Him, love Him, follow Him and be conformed into His image at all cost because of the surpassing greatness of knowing and loving Him as our ultimate Treasure, then why don’t we?  Why is it so unusual to find the man or woman in the church that has an insatiable desire to know God?

“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalms 42:1–2 ESV)

“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Psalms 63:1 ESV)

“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.” (Habakkuk 3:17–19 ESV)

“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:8–11 ESV)

“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?” (Romans 8:19–24 ESV)

Gospel Centrality, Growth/Pursuit

Our begrudging submission does not glorify God and indicates that we have a fundamental misunderstanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. (John 15:4–11 ESV)

True obedience flows out of love (John 14:15) that moves us to depend upon God in an abiding relationship.  The picture of abiding is one of relational trust, love and dependance upon Him as our source for direction, significance, meaning and true joy in life.  Authentic, God glorifying, fruit is produced as a byproduct of this relationship.  Our glad submission to the commands of scripture glorify God and lead us to joy.  Our duty filled obedience, birthed out of obligation, will never produce true fruit, joy, or glorify God.  Our begrudging submission does not glorify God and indicates that we have a fundamental misunderstanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Gospel Centrality, Growth/Pursuit

Posture – We didn’t buy, barter or negotiate our way in to the kingdom of God

How did we become children of the Creator?  We didn’t buy, barter or negotiate our way in to the kingdom of God; we weren’t savvy enough, raised in the right home or more spiritually attuned than others.  We received the kingdom without payment, as a poor child, bankrupt, not as an affluent business man; we brought nothing to the table.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3 ESV),
“You received without paying; give without pay.” (Matthew 10:8 ESV),
“Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”” (Mark 10:15 ESV).

We grow as God’s children the same way, as we depart from this position of absolute surrendered dependance before God and begin to believe that our growth is up to our own efforts, we have departed from biblical Christianity.  We have nothing of any value to offer the King, He is the one that offers us everything.  All of our righteous acts (self disciplined, white knuckled) are like filthy rags before a holy God (Isaiah 64:6); thank God that our righteousness is found in Jesus, not in ourselves – both before and AFTER salvation.  How do we please God?  We please God by faith – “without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6 ESV).  Faith is trust and it is the only human trait that relies upon something outside of a person.  So we trust in something (or Someone) else to save and to sustain.  The church at Galatia had gotten it backwards as they moved back to morality and behavior modification (law, rules) as the means upon which they depended to change them.  Paul emphatically says, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:1–3 ESV).

We obsess on fruit in the church today and point to it as the end goal.  Fruit production is not the end goal.  Fruit is a byproduct of the end goal.  The end goal is believing and knowing Christ (John 6:27-29) and finding Him to be our ultimate treasure (Matthew 13:44).  We spend the vast majority of our time talking about fruit (how beautiful it is, how much impact it has, how counter cultural it is).  The problem is that we make fruit an idol in our hearts and frustrate the vast majority of saints who realize that they aren’t producing the fruit that they are being told that they should be producing.  Why?  Because we are not responsible for the fruit production.  We need to be constantly reminded that the goal is not the fruit; the fruit is produced as we abide (surrender, depend, trust) in Christ (John 15).  This is what we need to be constantly pointed to – depending, trusting, surrendering, knowing, abiding.  Then the fruit will take care of itself and God will get the glory for it, not us because we didn’t produce it.

Aside, Gospel Centrality

Sons of God

Aside

“In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:3–7 ESV)

It is an overwhelming thought that the Creator of all things now calls me a son. Emotions dwell up inside when we think on this.  We did nothing to earn it, in fact we were objects of His wrath because of our sinful self-reliant hearts.  But now, we are in His family.  From enemies to family with an inheritance – let that sink in.

Aside, Gospel Centrality, Growth/Pursuit, Quotes/Lyrics

You will never get traction in your transformation until your feet are firmly planted in the freedom of God’s justifying grace in Christ.

Aside

“Like Luther, sometimes we approach the need for personal change as if each step of obedience were one more stair to climb in the attempt to gain peace with God. We pursue holiness for grace, not from grace. But this reverses the order of the gospel. You will never get traction in your transformation until your feet are firmly planted in the freedom of God’s justifying grace in Christ. The purpose of this chapter is to unpack the doctrine of justification by faith and show how embracing the truth of justification counters a performance-based, legalistic approach to the pursuit of transformation.”

Exerted from Christ Formed in You:  The Power of The Gospel for Personal Change by Brian Hedges (Kindle edition location 933)