Fruits of the Spirit

"A perfect man would not consider it a duty to be good, but a pleasure."


I have been reading samples of some of John Pipers book at his site desiringgod.org

So far, he has described my experience of God revealing Himself to me and finding my joy in Him, rather than sin. And from that taste I had of God, it kept my seeking Him. That was my repentance. I gave up sin because I found a new and better way to have joy. I never understood how people could love God and hate sin, until He let me taste the joy that comes from being in His presence and seeing Him clearly. I don't think I say that to be prideful, because I didn't "find God". He found me. Ever since He gave me that taste of Himself, I searched for Him which eventually lead to a knowledge of Jesus Christ and what He did by Him dying on a cross and being raised from the dead on the third day. And here I am now...My job is to strive to see God clearly and to know Him. To know Him is to love Him. Seeing God's beauty creates faith, love, joy, boldness, zeal and repentance. These are fruits of the Spirit. I'm learning that seeking to have faith in God is wrong. Seeking to love God is also wrong. Looking to love other people is wrong. We don't look for faith, love and good works. We look for God and then faith, love and good works come out. I'm only writing this to get a clearer understanding of what I'm learning and hopefully someone will read it and understand and look for God for themselves.

Anyway, this part of the book is what lead me to that conclusion:


God will be glorified both by the intensity of the present delight
that we have in his beauty and by the intensity of the desires we have
for more revelation of his fullness. The present pleasures will waken
ever fresh desires, and the desires will signal ever greater future pleasures.
Pleasures will be perfectly desired, and the desires will be perfectly
pleasant.
What we experience here in this fallen age is a partial reflection of
that. This is what we are moving toward. It is not yet here. We know
that all too painfully. But our calling here is to fight for joy—ours and
the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ. The aim is that God’s
worth—his infinite desirability—be known and prized and praised in all
the world. This is what we mean by God being glorified. He is most glorified
in and through his people when we are most satisfied in him. The
intensity of our pleasure and our desire bear witness of his worth to the
world, especially when we are freed by this (present and hoped for) pleasure
to leave the pleasures of this world for a life of sacrifice and love
for others.

Taking A Step Backwards

I've realized something about myself that I didn't even know. I am religious. I mean, I'm guilty of having sound doctrine, but being a jerk and beating people over the head with that doctrine, trying to get them to experience what I am experiencing. Trying to get people to follow Jesus. It is such a relief not to have to preach the whole Romans Road to Salvation in an orderly presentation. Instead, I am learning that Jesus wants me to be a friend to people as He was when He was here. I'm no better than anyone else..and while I've said that before and known it, I didn't live like I believed it. It is a process of renewing my mind and learning what it means to fully deny self.

I had to send a message to a very good friend of mine to apologize for forcing doctrine on him and treating my own friend like he was contaminated and I needed to clean him up or something. And that was based out of my own insecurity. The reason Christians act holier than thou (for my part anyway) is because they are afraid of falling back into their old ways. They tend to put more faith in satan causing them to fall than in God to hold them up. I've been a hypocrite. I have been saying that I am no better than anyone else, but living like a pharisee in some of my attitudes. I am guilty of being religious without even knowing it. The more I read the gospels, the more I realize Jesus didn't draw people to Himself with doctrine, but with Himself. He was simply a friend to people. He wasn't worried about people sinning, since they had already done that. He wanted people to love Him. He came to restore relationship with His creation.

Whenever you think "I've got it", God reveals more to you. Sometimes its painful, because it takes some unlearning. It takes being put under His light to see how dirty you are. But after the scrubbing is done, you feel brand new.

She Freaks

I was browsing around online for job listings and I eventually came to a job for a janitor at Rock Hill High School..and I day dreamed for a little while (as a matter of fact, I still am) ...I thought about how I cool it would be for me to become a custodian. I honestly would love that job...Though it would probably be tough for me to find a wife with a career as a school maid, cleaning up after kids younger than myself, but towering over me, making fun of me because I bring my Bible to work. I can see myself listening to Celtic Hymns and 80's pop on my ipod during lunch in the cafeteria, having a bologna and mayonnaise sandwich and a bottle of aquafina. I would love to be in a position like that...I would have a chance to share Christ with lots of people.


I remember wanting to be a professional wrestler, a rockstar and spiderman growing up. Now I want to be a janitor. I also said I would never like tomato's. I find myself getting them on every sandwich I order from Subway and Quizno's now. Freaky.

True In My Own Life

Cure for Envy

Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cast off. (Proverbs 23:17-18)

When we see the wicked prosper we are apt to envy them. When we hear the noise of their mirth and our own spirit is heavy, we half think that they have the best of it. This is foolish and sinful. If we knew them better, and specially if we remembered their end, we should pity them.

The cure for envy lies in living under a constant sense of the divine presence, worshiping God and communing with Him all the day long, however long the day may seem. True religion lifts the soul into a higher region, where the judgment becomes more clear and the desires are more elevated. The more of heaven there is in our lives, the less of earth we shall covet. The fear of God casts out envy of men.

The deathblow of envy is a calm consideration of the future. The wealth and glory of the ungodly are a vain show. This pompous appearance flashes out for an hour and then is extinguished. What is the prosperous sinner the better for his prosperity when judgment overtakes him? As for the godly man, his end is peace and blessedness, and none can rob him of his joy; wherefore, let him forgo envy and be filled with sweet content. - Charles H. Spurgeon

"Lord I believe! Help with my unbelief!"

E go to Christ for forgiveness, and then too often look to the law for power to fight our sins. Paul thus rebukes us, "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" Take your sins to Christ's cross, for the old man can only be crucified there: we are crucified with Him. The only weapon to fight sin with is the spear which pierced the side of Jesus. To give an illustration—you want to overcome an angry temper, how do you go to work? It is very possible you have never tried the right way of going to Jesus with it. How did I get salvation? I came to Jesus just as I was, and I trusted Him to save me. I must kill my angry temper in the same way? It is the only way in which I can ever kill it. I must go to the cross with it, and say to Jesus, "Lord, I trust Thee to deliver me from it." This is the only way to give it a death-blow. Are you covetous? Do you feel the world entangle you? You may struggle against this evil so long as you please, but if it be your besetting sin, you will never be delivered from it in any way but by the blood of Jesus. Take it to Christ. Tell Him, "Lord, I have trusted Thee, and Thy name is Jesus, for Thou dost save Thy people from their sins; Lord, this is one of my sins; save me from it!" Ordinances are nothing without Christ as a means of mortification. Your prayers, and your repentances, and your tears—the whole of them put together—are worth nothing apart from Him. "None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good;" or helpless saints either. You must be conquerors through Him who hath loved you, if conquerors at all. Our laurels must grow among His olives in Gethsemane. - Charles H. Spurgeon


The simplest of things is the hardest of things. I lose faith all the time and I forget how to have faith to begin with. I forget how to open my heart and love Jesus freely without struggle. The Christian life is the easiest and most wonderful life there is. The simplicity of it is what makes it so very, very complicated. Our minds corrupt the simple and good if we let it think on things too much. Faith, the simplest of simple. We use faith everyday. Trusting the wheels of our cars, the foundations of our homes, belts to hold our pants up...But trusting in Jesus with no doubting is the hardest thing in the world and is a constant work. Jesus summed up the Christian life very simple when people asked Him what they must do..

"What shall we do that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said, "This is the work of Him who sent Me, that you believe in the One whom He sent."

The work is to trust, to rest, to relax, to have faith and confidence in Jesus Christ and the power of His death and resurrection. Faith is more than saying "Lord, I am a sinner" or repeating the sinners prayer. Being saved from the penalty of sin is not saying words, nor is it being baptized. So, likewise, being saved from the power of sin is not doing things, but trusting in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Tired

Um. It's early. I'm talking 8:25 in the morning early.

We are going to a tailgate party at Winthrop Lake today. Winthrop, being our college..With a lake. Yeah. I figured it would be good for me to stretch my legs and be around people. I've noticed it's when I'm sitting at home quiet when I get in my moods, because I'm not used to being around people. The main reason I get angry is because I get comfortable being alone and then people come in and are noisy and peppy. That really burns my cabbage. Thats right. It burns my cabbage.


Anyway, I think the Lord is wanting me to do this for a number of reasons. To help rid myself of my fear of people and crowds and to help with my irritable issues. To sum things up, I am trying to love people. All people. Not just the pretty people, smart people or people whom I have things in common with. I want to love all people. I don't necessarily think I am able to like all people, but Jesus has commanded me to love all people. Not just the ones I like. This will help in getting my feet wet. Or, foot. I feel like I have all these new and exciting powers in myself that I want to let out of this box of a body. I want the power of love. Real love. The kind God has for us. Not the sappy, shallow and rootless love that the world today tries to con you into buying because of it's small price and instant satisfaction. Love is also commitment. But my problem is I can't even be consistent in cleaning the house everyday.

Love

I think maybe God is teaching me something about His love for me and for all humans.

I think back to a verse in Revelation. John talks about the wedding the Church and Christ and the beautiful dress the bride wears for Christ are the righteous deeds of the saints.

I thought came into my mind as I was praying to God about how hard it is to grasp and receive His perfect love. I said it before I even thought it, but It had been somewhere other than my mind before it came from my mouth. "I want to be lovely for You, Father." ...It is a common thing you hear that wives can have a hard time accepting their husbands love and their continuous reassurances of how much the husband loves them even without make up, wearing pajamas.

I had a thought that possibly God is shouting His love to us the same way, yet we don't fully receive it or trust it. I know it is a struggle for myself and plenty of other Christians. How could God, knowing us fully, in and out, completely and wholly naked before Him, love us? Because God is a being of love. We hear it all the time that God loves us, not because of who we are, but because of who He is. A good remedy for these doubts is to look at Christ Jesus. God willingly gave up His son to the most brutal life, rejection and death anyone could have faced. God gave as much as infinitely possible. His own self. He tore Himself in half. God was separated from Himself on the cross. He tore His own being in half to bring us to Himself.