I have developed a sort of routine that has become my favorite way to begin my days here in Peru. I like to wake up in the morning and take a cambis/bus to the plaza that is nearest to where I live (Plaza San Miguel) and have breakfast at Starbucks or one of the cafes there that has internet (I don't have internet where I live). This is usually my time to message my family, friends, and supporters back home and let them know what's been going on here as well as answer any questions they might have. This is also the time I use to post most of my blog updates. It's very relaxing and I'm able to get a lot of thinking done and get prepared for my day. My favorite part about it though is the fact that I'm able to listen to sermons online from some of my favorite pastors back in the United States, it has a way of making me feel at home but more importantly it gets my mind saturated on the Word of God and the things of God before beginning my day.
(Just to clarify, I do not supplement listening to sermons for actually reading the Bible and I'm not suggesting you do that either. We need to read the Word for ourselves to see who God is for ourselves and not simply rely upon what other people tell us about God (because they could be wrong...even your pastors, but even if they're right, God desires a personal relationship with us, not merely one based upon hearsay). I spend my own time with the Word, and I also listen to sermons to hear brilliant expositions on the text from men like Piper, MacArthur, Sproul, and others. Though God has certainly given us the office of teachers and preachers for a reason, and gifted men to fill those offices that they might be a gift to us by properly explaining and teaching to us God's holy Word.
So Phillip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. -Acts 8:30-31)
Anyway, a few days ago I was listening to a message from John Piper from the “Contending For the Truth” National Conference in 2007. His message was mostly on the relationship between faith and reason and how the bible constantly implores us to use our minds in conjunction with our faith (as opposed to bypassing our mind and saying something to the extent of, “I don't need my mind I have the holy spirit!”) but he also spoke quite a bit about what it means to have true saving faith. In fact he talked about exactly what I was trying to talk about in my previous blog post when I mentioned my frustration with people who say they are Christian but whom you can tell really are not. Piper was able to articulate what I was trying to say in a much better way than I ever could and it really helped me to hear his explanation as to why there are so many who claim to have Christ but in reality do not. I enjoyed his explanation so much that I took notes from it and some of them are posted below this paragraph. ,I wanted to share them with you because I feel it may help you in understanding where these sort of people are coming from, and because I don't feel I was clear enough in my last blog post.
“There are so many people who say they have received Christ and believed on Christ who give little or no evidence of any spiritual life, they don't seem to be “alive,” they are unresponsive to the spiritual beauty of Jesus...it doesn't get any echo, they are unmoved by the glory of Christ, they don't have the spirit of the apostle when he said “I count everything as loss for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord...I count it all as refuse in order that I might gain Christ” You listen...and you long, and ache to hear anything approximating that heart in these people who say they have received Christ and you don't hear it..ever. Their spirit is not..it seems, of the apostle Paul. So what's the problem?
They are not receiving Christ for who he really is, that is, they are not receiving him as supremely valuable.
They receive him as sin forgiver because they don't like feeling guilty, they love being guilt free.
They receive him as rescuer from hell because they love being pain-free.
They receive him as healer because they love being disease free.
They receive him as protector, because they love being safe.
They receive him as prosperity giver, because they love being wealthy.
They receive him as creator, because they love a personal universe.
They receive him as the lord of history, because they love order and purpose.
But they don't receive him as supremely and personally valuable...that is they don't receive him as who he is. He is more glorious, more beautiful, more wonderful, more satisfying than anything in the universe, and they don't prize him, or treasure him, or cherish him, or delight in him, they do not receive him for what he is.”
Many people receive Christ in a way that requires no change in human nature. You don't have to be born again to love being guilt-free, you don't have to be born again to love being pain free, or disease free, or safe, or wealthy... all natural men love those things, and they'll do whatever they need to do to get them, say whatever they need to say, believe whatever they need to believe. If that's what you want and you're told this will get it and it looks plausible, then they'll use that to get it...you don't have to be born again to be driven by what drives the world. But Jesus says you have to be born again to go to heaven. And so that kind of receiving Christ doesn't get you to heaven...the kind of faith that gets you to heaven is the kind that requires a new-birth and embracing Jesus as your supreme treasure requires the new birth." -John Piper
I hope John Piper's explanation was as helpful to you as it was to me.
Just to elaborate a little more on what he said, I think it's important to understand that those of us who are true Christians do not and should not do the things we do simply because He (God) gives, but instead because of who He is. I don't love Christ, obey Christ, serve Christ, and honor Christ, because I'm expecting him to bless me financially, pay off the rest of my college, get me a great job, or because I expect him to pour out his blessings in any number of ways. Certainly the bible gives us assurance that we will be blessed for being obedient to him, both temporarily and eternally (much more significantly eternally). But that cannot be the source of our motivation, it's not about what he gives, it's about who he is. We do the things we do for God because he gave everything up for us, namely his only Son, and through that supreme act of love we are so captured by the magnificence of God...His amazing grace, his holy character, his benevolence, his patience, and all of his captivating attributes that always operate in absolute perfection and draw us into a deep desire to worship him and live a life that brings Him glory. If my motivation to serve God is because I expect him to bless me with something and he doesn't, then what's going to happen? Or what if I do some “great” things in service to him expecting to be greatly blessed and all of a sudden God decides it's time for a period of testing, chastening, and discipline... my world is going to be rocked and I'm not going to know how to properly respond or handle it. Like John said, true saving faith accepts Christ as being supremely valuable, not the things he can give or what he can offer, and this extends beyond our conversion to our Christian life...doing what we do for Him because He is our supreme treasure. Because the greatest gift God could ever give us is himself...and he did; Jesus Christ. I don't want heaven if God isn't there, I want him.
Hope this helps!
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