Sonship first

It is not imitation that makes sons; it is sonship that makes imitators.

-- Martin Luther

Making every effort

Tullian Tchividjian responds to a blog comment regarding the ‘make every effort’ side of Christian living:

To be sure, nothing I say in this post or anywhere else would indicate that I “stand back from stressing the make-every-effort-side of Christian living.” As I say in my comment above, the “every effort”, the fight, the battle, is against unbelief. It’s our failure to believe the gospel that produces bad behavior. It’s the bad root which produces the bad fruit.

It’s comparably easy to spend our lives “making every effort” to address the fruit. It’s a war of worlds to spend our lives “making every effort” to address the root. Unbelief is the root. That’s the front line. That’s where we need to “make every effort.”

--Tullian Tchividjian, in a blog comment: here

This Easter is about my limp

This Easter is about my limp.

This week's a reminder how my flesh is knocked out of joint and I'm living the crippled life, out of socket. How I must now lean on Him to walk straight. How my handicapped heart needs revealing so that I become desperate for His touch.

...

This week is about looking to that cross, the broken body who came to fill our empty soul-tombs. And when we finally grab hold with all desperation, don't be startled or embarrassed by this Holy cripple. There's deep joy in this crutch. Because your crippled life {in Him} just means "you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” Genesis 32:28

-- Tammy
Part of a larger post from her blog: "If Meadows Speak"

We don't offer people a system

We cannot treat the Bible as a collection of therapeutic insights. To do so distorts its message and will not lead to lasting change. If a system could give us what we need, Jesus would never have come. But he came because what was wrong with us could not be fixed any other way. He is the only answer, so we must never offer a message that is less than the good news. We don't offer people a system; we point them to a Redeemer.

--Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change (P&R, 2002), 9

Struggle = to rest in what He freely gives

The fight is not the oppressive struggle to earn God’s final rest, but the satisfying struggle to rest in the peace that Jesus freely gives. . . .Don’t think of striving to get his favor. Think of striving with the favor of his help.

-John Piper, What Jesus Demands from the World, 184-5.

Which tree are you most aware of?

We are all the same. We have plucked fruit from that forbidden tree. We have proudly declared that we know best, that we can take care of ourselves. We have crowned ourselves deities. 'Have you eaten from the tree?' Oh, yes and yes, over and over again in ways both glaring and hidden.

But the God-Man has been slain. The Lamb's blood has been spilt, and it covers us. Our rags have been replaced with his robes... 'Here, eat of this, it will give you life.'

...Have you eaten from that tree today? Have you satiated your soul with the luscious fruit that grows from this blood-soaked ground? Have you nourished your heart with his strength, his righteousness, his perfection, and the gospel? Have you shunned self-righteousness, self-reliance, self-improvement? Which tree are you most aware of?

Eat from the blessed tree, friend. Eat and eat and never stop. When you are hungry for something else, something more, something new, run to that tree. Stay there; rest in his shade. The door is open; the meal is ready. Sit down and eat.

--Elyse Fitzpatrick, Comforts from the Cross: Celebrating the Gospel One Day at a Time (Crossway, 2009), 137-38