The Gospel Coalition website has a great article by Elyse Fitzpatrick. Here’s a sample:

Because of the incarnation, Jesus Christ knows exactly what it is to live in a sin-cursed world with people who break the rules…like me. I am a rule-breaker but He’s loved me and he’s experienced every trial I face. He’s with me. He sympathizes with my weakness (Hebrews 4:15). This understanding of His love in the face of my sin drains my anger at my rule-breaking neighbor. I can love her because I’ve been loved and I am just like her.

Because of His sinless life, I now have a perfect record of loving my neighbor. He perfectly loved rule-breakers. This record of perfect love for my rule-breaking neighbor is mine now; knowing this relieves my guilt. Even though I continue to fail to love, His record is mine.

Because of His substitutionary death, I am completely forgiven for my sin…even the sins that I seem to fall into at the slightest provocation. God has no wrath left for me because He poured it all out on His Son. He’s not disappointed or irritated. He welcomes me as a beloved daughter.

Because of His resurrection (and the justification it brings), I know that the power of sin in my life has been broken. Yes, I’ve failed again, but I can have the courage to continue to fight sin because I’m no longer a slave to it. This replaces despair with faith to wage war against my selfishness and pride.

Because of His ascension and reign, I know that this situation isn’t a mere chance happening. He’s orchestrated it so that I will remember Him and be blessed by the gospel again. He’s ruling over my life and interceding for me right now. I’m not a slave to chaos or chance. He’s my Sovereign King and I can rest in His loving plan today and rejoice in Him.

And, because of His promised return, I know that all the doubt, injustice and struggle will one day come to an end. This line in this grocery store and my plans for dinner isn’t all there is. There’s the great good news of the gospel. I can go home now and share with my family and guests how Jesus met me at the grocery store and we can rejoice together in His work on our behalf.

If you’re unfamiliar with Elyse’s writing, you should remedy that post-haste. Some very gospel-centered, Christ-exalting, hope-giving meditations:

• Counsel from the Cross: Connecting Broken People to the Love of Christ (co-written with Dennis Johnson)
• Comforts from the Cross: Celebrating the Gospel One Day at a Time
• Because He Loves Me: How Christ Transforms our Daily Lives

Each of the first four units of Luke 18 can easily be misunderstood; each makes abundant sense when read in conjunction with the others.

The first (18:1-8) is a parable that Jesus tells his disciples “to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (18:1). An unjust judge is badgered by a persistent widow so that in the end he provides her with the justice she asks for. “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?” (18:7). If even this judge eventually puts things right, how much more will God, when his “chosen ones” cry to him? By itself, of course, this parable could be taken to mean that the longer and louder one prays, the more blessings one gets—a kind of tit-for-tat arrangement that Jesus himself elsewhere disavows (Matt. 6:5-15). But the last verse (18:8) focuses the point: “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” The real problem is not with God’s unwillingness to answer, but with our faithless and lethargic refusal to ask.

The second (18:9-14) parable describes a Pharisee and a tax collector who go up to the temple to pray. Some modern relativists conclude from this story that Jesus accepts everyone, regardless of his or her continuing sins, habits, or lifestyle. He rejects only self-confident religious hypocrites. Certainly Jesus rejects the latter. But the parable does not suggest that the tax collector wished to continue in his sin; rather, he begs for mercy, knowing what he is; he approaches God out of a freely recognized need.

In the third unit (18:15-17) Jesus insists that little children be brought to him, “for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” One must “receive the kingdom of God like a child,” or not at all. Yet this does not commend childlike behavior in all respects (e.g., naïveté, short-term thinking, moral immaturity, the cranky “No!” of the “terrible twos”). But little children do have an openness, a refreshing freedom from self-promotion, a simplicity that asks and trusts.

The fourth unit (18:18-30) finds Jesus telling a rich ruler to sell all that he has and give to the poor, if he is to have treasure in heaven, and then follow Christ. Does this mean that only penurious asceticism will enjoy the blessings of heaven? Is it not Christ’s way of stripping off this particular person’s real god, the pathetic ground of his self-confidence, so that he may trust Jesus and follow him wholly?

Can you see what holds these four units together?

– Excerpted from D. A. Carson’s, For the Love of God, vol. 1, entry for March 4.

Download the whole book for free here or read it day-by-day here.

How should Christians relate to politics? Wayne Grudem explains five wrong views of political involvement:

1. Government compelling religion
2. Religion excluded from the public square
3. Christians abandoning government altogether
4. Christians doing evangelism and not politics
5. Christians doing politics and not evangelism

Dr. Grudem will be speaking at DSC on the topics of business, ethics, and world poverty this Friday and Saturday, as well as preaching in both of our Sunday AM services. Hope you plan to join us.

In this video, Randy Alcorn briefly answers the question of God’s purposes for suffering and evil. Suffering tells us:

This can’t be all there is; there’s got to be something better… There is a better world than this. We live between Eden and the New Earth.

Randy will be speaking on this topic on Friday evening of our Clarus Weekend (“Between Heaven and Earth”).

In preparation for that, you might want to take a look at a lengthy interview with Randy about his book, If God is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil.

I just finished listening to a wonderful message by Randy Alcorn, given at the 2007 Desiring God conference: “Today’s Decisions Determine Who You Will Be Tomorrow.” The thesis of the message is this (very convicting and helpful):

Whether or not you endure in your Christian life is dependent upon who you become. Will you become God’s man or your man, Christ-dependent or self-dependent? It is the little choices of life that determine which one you become. Endurance consists of a “long obedience in the same direction.”

As we gear up for our Clarus conference weekend with Wayne Grudem and Randy Alcorn maybe you’ll take time to watch or listen to this great message.