We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Romans 6:9-14

Jesus conquers all sin! Then he must be able to conquer my sin.

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Galations 5:1

This is my standing. Holy Spirit, make me so!

I struggle greatly with sin. I got outed yesterday and had to confess to my best friends not only the sin, but that I didn’t confess to them. When you try dealing with it on your own, it’s easy to think that things are under control, that it’s not that bad. When it’s revealed, on the other hand, you see how wicked your heart is.

There is a desire that God gives me to want to be free from sin, because he has freed me from it, but from the very beginning my heart has been sinful and there’s all this inertia that I’m unable to overcome. Praise God that that work is not to be done by me, but by the Holy Spirit. This is not to say that apathy is the correct response, as we are called to flee temptation! but our strength is weak, so take heart, Christian, for God’s strength is strong and he can sanctify us, even though our hearts are so sick.

John Piper says:

We cannot rest on any past laurels. We must fight the fight of faith every day.

Brother, Sister, fight every day. I find it easy to pray that God would heal me, sometime, somewhere in the future, but we must ask daily. Sin is not cute, it’s not tame nor is it harmless. It wants to devour you and if it can do so today, it will. Fight daily.

Holy Spirit, make us obedient to the teaching that we are committed to, your Word which is true! Father, you are my King! Make me to serve only you.

Jesus, conquer the sin in my life. You can do it! There is hope in you.

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
John 20:21

Jesus sends us out as he was sent out. It sounds simple enough, until the Spirit reminds you how Jesus was sent out.

So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.
John 19:16-18

He gave up heaven and the angels worshipping him in all his glory to come down into history and creation, like a painter entering his painting, humbling himself to become an infant, doing all those infant things, growing up and living amongst the people that he loved so that in the end, he could die for them.

That’s how you’re sent: cross-culture, in complete humility to die for the Gospel of Peace.

That’s how I’m sent. No believer is exempt.

Every Christian is called to go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching those to observe everything that Jesus has commanded because to him is given all authority.

What is stopping us? Fear of financial insecurity? Fear of what people will think?

Arthur Tappan Pierson writes:

Let all men face the fact that no outlay of men, money and means ever brought returns so rich and rapid as the mission enterprise; that even the seeming waste of precious lives has been but the breaking of the costly flask, filling the world with the odor of unselfish and heroic piety, and prompting to its imitation.

If you would only give your life away, imagine what God could do with it. Do you have that picture in your mind? He goes beyond that.

It may seem a waste to spend two of the best years of your life in India or Nepal, but there is nothing greater than to love and there is no greater love than to lay down your life for others.

John Piper shares this from a letter written by Francis Xavier:

The danger of all dangers would be to lose trust and confidence in the mercy of God… To distrust him would be a far more terrible thing than any physical evil which all the enemies of God put together could inflict on us, for without God’s permission neither the devils nor their human ministers could hinder us in the slightest degree.

Christian, do you trust God? Do you believe with your whole heart every single word in the Bible? If so, then you must know what to do.

Without him we are incapable of anything good. But he is always with us, and so we go.

Father, change our hearts to desire beautiful feet, bringing the Gospel to unreached places and unchurched peoples! Send your Holy Spirit to illumine the Bible for us that we would understand your commands and your promises, so that by the Spirit we could be obedient to what you have called us to do.

Dad, you are everything. Help me and all my brothers and sisters to live in Light of that.

And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.” And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
Nehemiah 8:9-12

This was immensely confusing to me.

Let’s break this one down. Say we’re at The Austin Stone. Pastor Ezra comes on stage and he starts reading the Bible. Everyone is goin’ crazy, hands up, faces down, we’ve got the Levite family explaining stuff up in front. Everyone is crying. The whole thing looks like if you took a bunch of pre-teen girls and killed Edward in front of them (which, all things considered, would not be a bad thing).

So, everyone is weeping. Then, out of nowhere, the Levite family calms everyone down, “Today is a holy day! Don’t be sad!” and suddenly, we’ve got a party started, Asian style, with tons of food, all because they understood what the Bible was teaching.

God, you wrote the Bible crazy. What on Earth is going on?

And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”
Luke 24:31-32

(Shameless plug: Emmaus is also the name of my band. Goodness, I miss those guys. For his glory!)

Now it comes together. It’s starting to make some sense.

In the revelation of the Bible, we begin to know who our God is. Standing on top of the Scriptures, we come above the clouds that limit our view and the wondrous mysteries of God become even more expansive.

If our God could love us as to die for us, what more is there to him? When will I see him?

I encourage you, dear reader, to get in the Bible. Jesus has already shown us who God is. Through him, we may know God.

I may be filthy at first, unfit to even untie the sandals of my King, but Jesus does not become unclean in loving me. Rather, his love Windexes my mired mirror, that the glory of God would be reflected in my life.

As Dr. Piper says it:

The mystery of what you don’t know gets its God-glorifying power from what you do know.

May you be enthralled with the mysteries of God because of what he has already revealed to us in the Scripture.

and into prayer.

I’ve spent the past few days in John 15 and 16 and the Holy Spirit has just been drilling in me how important it is to pray.

Through prayer, we see God’s name glorified. Through prayer, we see God’s kingdom advance. Through prayer, we see God’s will done.

There’s a sermon by John Piper where he connects this importance in prayer to suffering. Why does God let us go through difficult times?

“In the whole land, declares the Lord,
two thirds shall be cut off and perish,
and one third shall be left alive.
And I will put this third into the fire,
and refine them as one refines silver,
and test them as gold is tested.
They will call upon my name,
and I will answer them.
I will say, ‘They are my people’;
and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”
Zechariah 13:8-9

So that we might go to him in prayer.

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
1 Peter 4:12

What does God want you to learn? What does he want for you?

In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
John 16:23-24

Through prayer, we have joy!

Father, help me be joyful only when you are glorified!