Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Keller on Rejoicing and Repentance

“Rejoicing and repentance must go together. Repentance without rejoicing will lead to despair. Rejoicing without repentance is shallow and will only provide passing inspiration instead of deep change. Indeed, it is when we rejoice over Jesus’s sacrificial love for us most fully that, paradoxically, we are most truly convicted of our sin. When we repent out of fear of consequences, we are not really sorry for the sin, but for ourselves. Fear-based repentance (‘I’d better change or God will get me’) is really self-pity. In fear-based repentance, we don’t learn to hate the sin for itself, and it doesn’t lose its attractive power. We learn only to refrain from it for our own sake. But when we rejoice over God’s sacrificial, suffering love for us -- seeing what it cost Him to save us from sin -- we learn to hate the sin for what it is. We see what the sin cost God. What most assures us of God’s unconditional love (Jesus’s costly death) is what most convicts us of the evil of sin. Fear-based repentance makes us hate ourselves. Joy-based repentance makes us hate the sin.”

Tim Keller
Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters  

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Lewis on Pleasures

"Pleasures are shafts of glory as it strikes our sensibility…But aren’t there bad, unlawful pleasures? Certainly there are. But in calling them 'bad pleasures' I take it we are using a kind of shorthand. We mean 'pleasures snatched by unlawful acts.' It is the stealing of the bad apples that is bad, not the sweetness. The sweetness is still a beam from the glory…I have tried since…to make every pleasure into a channel of adoration. I don’t mean simply by giving thanks for it.  One must of course give thanks, but I meant something different…Gratitude exclaims, very properly, 'How good of God to give me this.' Adoration says, 'What must be the quality of that Being whose far off and momentary coruscations are like this!' One’s mind runs back up the sunbeam to the sun…If this is Hedonism, it is also a somewhat arduous discipline. But it is worth some labor."

C.S. Lewis
Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer
(as quoted by John Piper in When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy)

In That Day the Deaf Shall Hear...

I just saw this today; perhaps you've already seen it. If not, check out the video below and prepare to have your heart warmed as this eight-month-old baby who was born deaf has his cochlear implant turned on. Note specifically his reaction to hearing his mother's voice for the very first time.

I had the following three thoughts when I saw this:

1. I must be having troubles with my contact lenses, because my eyes are getting a little watery.
2. As cool as that was, that's the kind of thing the disciples got to regularly see when they followed Jesus (the restoration of hearing to the deaf, sight to the blind, etc.).
3. As much joy as you could see in that little baby's face when he first heard his mother's voice, how much more joy will I experience in that day when I hear the voice of my heavenly father and see him face to face!

(HT: Joel Hathaway)

The Gospel According to Disney (Part 3)

One of the most unmistakable things about a trip to Disney is the fact that the whole day is meant to be a joyful celebration. The park opens to singing and dancing by characters at the front gate. There are parades throughout the day and fireworks at night. Everything is pointed in a celebratory direction. It is one big party.

As Christians, celebratory joy ought to be one of the hallmarks of our lives. If we are truly those who, by God’s grace, have been brought from death to life so that sin might no longer have dominion over us (as we are promised in Romans 6:13-14), then we have more reason to celebrate than anyone!

Again, this is not to say that life is just a bowl of cherries. The Bible is clear that we will face affliction. The key in this matter is the attitude that Paul exhibits in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 where he writes, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

As we look to the unseen, we rejoice in what Christ has accomplished on our behalf, namely living the life of perfect holiness that is required of us, and dying the death that we should have died when we failed. We rejoice that he has risen from the dead, displaying his power over sin and death, vindicating his claims and guaranteeing his promises. We rejoice that he ascended to the right hand of the Father, where he physically lives today, making intercession on our behalf. And we rejoice that he will one day return, bringing with him the glorious restoration of all things.

In light of all of this, may the Apostle’s words in 1 Peter 1:8 be true of us all: “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.”

Other Posts in This Series:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 4