Sin Begins In the Mind — Jerry Bridges

Bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. – 1 Timothy 4:8

Sin begins in the mind. Therefore, every Christian must heed the warning of Scripture to “Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.” (Proverbs 4:23). We, above all people, must exercise caution when choosing what we watch on t.v. or the books and magazines we read. I found the quote below, by Jerry Bridges, to be very helpful:

Our minds are mental greenhouses where unlawful thoughts, once planted, are nurtured and watered before being transplanted into the real world of unlawful actions. People seldom fall suddenly into gluttony or immorality. These actions are savored in the mind long before they are enjoyed in reality. The thought life, then, is our first line of defense in the battle of self-control.   Continue at Eric T. Young

Children Before the Father

As believers in Jesus Christ, we are justified before the Judge of Heaven. We have received the imputed righteousness of Christ as a gift of God’s grace. As a result, nothing can ever separate us from Him. However, though our sin does not change the reality of our new found relationship with God, it does impact our father/son or father/daughter relationship with him. God no longer deals with us as his enemies because, by faith in Christ, we have become his children; the siblings of Jesus (Hebrews 2:11) as well as his “friends” (John 15:15). God now deals with us “as sons” (Hebrews 12:7), which means he loves us too much to leave us alone in our sin. Though our “at peace” standing with God as our Judge is unchanging, our peaceful fellowship with him as our Father is affected when we disobey. This is because of his loyal love. He loves us too much to sit back and do nothing when sin threatens to harm us. The clearest passage teaching this is Hebrews 12:4-11.

In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

When God the Father chastens his children the goal is always restorative—never punitive. To say it again, God does not punish His children—He disciplines them. There is an enormous difference.    Continue at Paul Tautges

The Discipline of Adversity

Over the past couple of months, I have been writing a series of reflections on Jerry Bridges’ book The Discipline of Grace. This is such an important book—a true contemporary classic—that teaches the centrality of the gospel in the life of the Christian. Bridges was writing about gospel-centeredness long before gospel-centeredness was all the rage.

All throughout the book Bridges has shared a series of disciplines the Christian must develop as he pursues holiness. “We have seen that we must behold Christ in the gospel, we must learn the proper relationship of dependence and personal discipline, we must make a commitment to holiness, and we must develop Bible-based convictions. In the everyday application of Scripture we must learn to make the right choices, to mortify sin, and to watch against temptation.” These are all things we must do if we are to make progress in the pursuit of holiness. Though we maintain dependence upon the Holy Spirit to grow in holiness, still we must act and still we must discipline ourselves.

But there is one discipline that we do not undertake ourselves. Instead, the Lord imposes it upon us as  a means of spiritual growth. This is the discipline of adversity. In the final chapter Bridges looks to Hebrews 12:4-13, a classic passage on how the Lord disciplines us for our good. It is noteworthy that a passage on the Lord’s discipline begins with an encouragement. The author of the letter to the Hebrews encourages the recipients of the letter by telling them that the Lord disciplines the ones he loves, just as a father lovingly disciplines his own children. Says Bridges, “We should realize that God’s discipline, which comes to us in the form of adversity or hardship, is an indication of His loving care, not a token of His disfavor.”   Continue at Tim Challies

God Disciplines Us By Grace

Jerry Bridges says that God disciplines Christians by grace. It may strike us as an oxymoronic statement that discipline is grace, that it may be done out of grace. After all, “Discipline suggests restraint and legalism, rules and regulations, and a God who frowns on anyone who has fun. Grace, on the other hand, seems to mean freedom from any rules, spontaneous and unstructured living, and most of all, a God who loves us unconditionally regardless of our sinful behavior.” But Bridges wants to push back. “Such thinking reflects a misunderstanding of both grace and discipline. In fact, … the same grace that brings salvation also disciplines us as believers.”

This is the heart of one of the chapters of The Discipline of Grace, that God disciplines us in grace and by grace. Now this is not necessarily discipline as punishment, but discipline as “all instruction, all reproof and correction, and all providentially directed hardships in our lives that are aimed at cultivating spiritual growth and godly character.” Discipline is simply whatever God chooses to use to help us grow in godliness. God disciplines us much as a parent disciplines his children, but with one important difference: “Though in the physical realm children eventually reach adulthood and are no longer under the discipline of their parents, in the spiritual realm we remain under God’s parental discipline as long as we live.”   Continue at Tim Challies

A Biblical View of the Church

“It is very much in vogue for a consultant to ask church leaders, ‘What do you want your church to be? Figure out your needs and desires, tell me where you want to go, and I will help you craft a philosophy that will take you there.’ Such people are asking the wrong question! The right questions is, in Scripture, what does God say the church is? Based on that, we need to ask, where should it go and how should it behave? Then we must ask, what does scripture define as a need and how should it be met?” 

“I believe most evangelicals would have no argument with  looking first to scripture. But we cannot safely assume that this task is ever seriously undertaken. Most churches venture no further than their prepackaged and often predigested denominational doctrinal statement. The crafting of a philosophy of ministry based on scripture is very rare. Doing that kind of theology takes time, effort, and a serious commitment.” (pp. 60-61, “High commitment in a low commitment world, Bill Hull)

I. The term “Church”

The earliest New Testament reference to the Church is found in Matthew 16:18. In this verse, Jesus promised, “I will build my Church.” The New Testament records how Jesus did this through the leadership of the apostles and those appointed by them.  Continue at Thinkpoint


See Also: Overview of leadership in the local Church

Warn Them to Not Abuse Their Children

Do your church members physically abuse their children? Maybe you think it’s so few that you don't feel compelled to teach publicly what everyone knows: don't abuse your kids. At most it's one or two bad apples, right?

I'm not so sure.

I cannot say that I want to write about this topic, and I’m no expert. But I keep stumbling into abuse situations in one church or another. And in every case it's been a “model family” who abused their children in the name of what they thought was “biblical discipline.” In other words, I’m talking about well-meaning parents.

Sometimes anger was to blame. The parents confess that their temper got the best of them when their discipline left bruises. Then again, something about their overall approach regularly leaves cuts, welts, or bruises.

Sometimes a severe deficiency of wisdom was to blame. I heard of one couple who spanked their six-month old. Or another who would strike different body parts of their older children with a hard object. And all of these parents believed they were doing the right thing. 

Defining abuse would take another article. But like the Supreme Court justice said about pornography, you know it when you see it. You can see the frightened child backing away as their young eyes behold the grotesque ungodliness storming toward them.   Keep Reading >>>

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Parenting 001

Does it seem like parenting has gotten more complicated? I mean, as far as I can tell, back in the day parents basically tried to feed their kids, clothe them, and keep them away from explosives. Now our kids have to sleep on their backs (no wait, their tummies; no never mind, their backs), while listening to Baby Mozart surrounded by scenes of Starry, Starry Night. They have to be in piano lessons before they are five and can’t leave the car seat until their about five foot six.

It’s all so involved. There are so many rules and expectations. Kids can’t even eat sugar anymore. My parents were a solid as rock but we still had a cupboard populated with cereal royalty like Captain Crunch and Count Chocula. In our house the pebbles were fruity and the charms were lucky. The breakfast bowl was a place for marshmallows, not dried camping fruit. Our milk was 2%. And sometimes, if we needed to take the edge off a rough morning, we’d tempt fate and chug a little Vitamin D. Keep Reading...

9 Reasons Why Baptizing Children is a Bad Idea

The folks over at IX Marks have raised some very good points on why the church should not be so eager to baptize children:

1. Undermining the family: Church membership of children confuses the responsibilities of discipleship between the family and the church. The instruction is given to fathers to bring up their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, not to the church. This confusion can go two ways. Either baptism becomes a ‘family ordinance’ when it is up to parents to discern when a child is ready for baptism, effectively removing the ordinances from the pastoral oversight of the church. Or, the church ends up toaking over the role of the family, where the Sunday School teacher becomes the primary discipler of a child rather than the parents. Keep Reading>>>

How To Provoke Your Children

Discipline

Discipline, commitment, conviction and godly habits are closely related. It is important that we are disciplined, but only after we have been convicted and have set a direction towards godliness. At this time discipline and commitment can be used by God to work in us his holiness. Discipline is but a means to a much higher, more Christ-like end. It is a cruel master but a wonderful servant. Read the rest HERE