Praying our Resolutions

Jonathan Edwards was a great pastor and theologian, and one of the things he is best known for are his resolutions that he lived by. They were not necessarily new year’s resolutions. They were written by him when the Lord would convict Him.

Trevin Wax has compiled the first 21 of Edwards’ resolutions into the following prayer, which is a great one for any of us to pray…

Lord God Almighty,

I understand that I am unable to do anything without your help,

so I ask you to enable me by your grace to fulfill your will.

Give me grace to do whatever brings most glory and honor to you,

pleasure and profit to me,

and life and love to others.

Help me to number my days,

spending my time wisely,

living my life with all my might while I still have breath.

Humble me in the knowledge that I am chief of sinners;

when I hear of the sins of others,

help me to not look upon them with pride,

but to look upon myself with shame,

confessing my own sins to you.

When I go through difficulties and trials,

remind me of the pains of hell

from which you have already delivered me.

Place people in my path who need my help,

and give me a compassionate and generous spirit.

Fill my heart with such love

that I would never do anything out of a spirit of revenge,

nor lose my temper with those around me.

Hold my tongue when I am tempted to speak evil of others.

Thank you for the gospel and for the hope of glory.

Help me to live in light of these truths every day of my life,

so that when the time of my death arrives,

I will rest assuredly in you,

and you will be most glorified in me.

In Christ’s name…

Sunday sermon review - Refocus.Refine.Reflect.

The start of a new year is a natural time to reflect on one’s life and contemplate making some changes. I am not a big fan of making resolutions since I usually end up abandoning them before the year ends. That is a personal problem, I know, but I think it is a common one. Why is it that the word ‘resolution’ has come to lose its forceful meaning? A common definition of the word is “a firm decision to do or not do something.” The key word that has been lost is of course the word ‘firm.’

As our church begins 2010, I thought of making some ‘resolutions’ for our church. I mean isn’t that what mission and vision statements are? But instead of making new resolutions I thought it would be best to refocus on the old ones… one really old one in particular. You can try to update it to make sound more modern and relevant, but the truth of the Great Commission remains unchangeable: go make disciples.

I am praying that our church will follow the example of Paul in “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)

We must always be resolved to follow Christ, to grow up in our faith and continue the mission.

There is a generation of people who have never heard the gospel. We need to reach that generation with the good news of Jesus Christ.

This year our church will refocus our gaze on the glory of Christ that we may be changed by Him. We will refine our strategies in discipleship so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. And we will start this in our homes, seeking to reflect the glory of Christ first and foremost in our own families.

Whatever your plans for 2010 may be, I hope they are centered on Christ and are a firm decision to press on toward that wonderful, heavenly Prize.

*** UPDATE ***

I just came across this blog post that has some excellent thoughts about this subject of mission. I thought you might find them helpful...

Genesis 1-3 and Matthew 1... Great Start!!

As I was reading today’s passages, I was struck by two things.

There are, of course a bazillion things that are significant in these chapters, but what really stood out to me this time was the reason God created the stars.

If Genesis 1:15 it says God created all the different lights of the night sky “to give light upon the earth.” God does everything for his glory, so creating the universe as big as He did very clearly testifies to how big God is, first and foremost. But the stars are also created for us. To help us mark the days and seasons; to give light at night. He created all those billions and billions of stars for us.

Scientists have pondered for years where all this came from and what other life might be out there. Many of them cannot even fathom that all of that was created for God’s glory and for our good. All of it… just for us. That is thrilling and humbling all at the same time. It magnifies God in all his resplendent glory and it exults in us, his highest creation.

What a way to start the new year!!!

The other thing I was struck by is how quickly the biblical narrative moves to our fall. I mean out of the 1,189 chapters in the Bible it only takes 3 to get to our demise. This HUGE universe God created only receives a few verses to describe it before the pinnacle of God’s creation messes it all up. I think this testifies that WE are the central part of this story; not the universe. Modern thinking tries to tell us that we are just one, small speck in the vastness of all that is and that we should live accordingly. It sometimes sounds like the rainforest is more important than unborn babies. But that is not how the Bible unfolds our story.

I have no idea how much time went by between God’s creation of Adam and Eve and their first sin. I suppose it could be a hundred years or it could have been on the same week. But the point is that the Bible is about God’s glory; his glory in creating us and then redeeming us.

But it it not just a generic glory that God is after. It is a very specific glory. He wants to magnify the glory of his mercy and grace through his obedient Son. That is why I think it is so cool that we read Matthew 1 today. We read about our creation and fall in Genesis along with God’s seed of promise in Genesis 3:15. Then we read about the beginning of the fulfillment of that promise in Matthew 1, “you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

THAT… is awesome.

Well, this has been a great day of reading, and it is only the first day!!! I can’t wait till tomorrow!!!

Happy New Year

Today is the day for new resolutions and college football. I plan to indulge both of these with gusto.

This morning starts a new year of reading through the Bible. My church and I are doing a simple plan that starts in Genesis and Matthew and goes through the OT and NT concurrently. Today is Genesis 1-3 and Matthew 1.

I invite you to join me in reading through the Bible and sharing what you learn and how God reveals Himself to you with others. I can’t wait to see what God does!!!