Verse 1
There is a hill I cherish
Where stood a precious tree
The emblem of salvation
The gift of Calvary
Verse 2
How is it I should profit
While He is crucified
Yet as His life was taken
So I was granted mine
Chorus
My wealth is in the cross
There’s nothing more I want
Than just to know His love
My heart is set on Christ
And I will count all else as loss
The greatest of my crowns
Mean nothing to me now
For I counted up the cost
And all my wealth is in the cross
Verse 3
I will not boast in riches
I have no pride in gold
But I will boast in Jesus
And in His Name alone
Verse 4
And when I stand in glory
My crowns before the Lord
Let this be my confession
My wealth is in the cross

What are my Crowns?
Have I counted all else as loss?
Have I boasted only in Jesus's Name?
Is my wealth in the Cross?

Really the right response to anyone who is in the middle of suffering is silence, love, and speaking when spoken to. – Tim Keller

Do not love the World

1 John 2:15-17

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Romans 12:2

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Matthew 5:10-11

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

James 4:4

4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

John 15:18-21

18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

I am going to put these here on Christmas Day to remind myself that I should not love the World. World with a capital W. The love of the World manifests differently for each person, and I think I know what my love of the World is, and do my best in my brokenness to fight against it. Jesus didn't come into this world to be king of this world. Else he wouldn't have come as a babe in a manger in a cave. He wouldn't have told Pilate that if He were king of this world, He would have sent His angels to come and save Himself (John 18:36).

Totoro Christmas!

 

Well I didn't know this about J.I. Packer...

I'll end with a personal illustration from J. I. Packer's life that shows how crucial it is that we not get off balance here with either extreme and begin to say either that there is no holiness necessary or that perfection is possible in this age. (Packer teaches theology at Regent College in Vancouver.)

I've heard him tell the story in person, and I've read it in two different books. In 1944 he was studying Latin and Greek in Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and playing in a jazz band called "Oxford Bandits." One evening he attended a meeting of the Christian Union and heard a sermon from a relatively unknown preacher named Earl Langston. He said, "The scales fell from my eyes . . . and I saw the way in."

But soon came the crisis. There was a good bit of false teaching around Oxford, especially regarding perfectionism and the possibility of a second experience of "sanctification by faith" - by which they meant a crisis experience after which you wouldn't have any more struggle with sin, which is not what I mean by that term! Packer had a very sensitive conscience and could not deceive himself. He was not perfect and no matter how many times he reconsecrated himself to God there was still no perfection. He said it could easily have led him to suicide if it were not for two great discoveries: the writings of John Owen on indwelling sin (especially volumes 6 and 7 of his Works) and the writings of J. C. Ryle (especially his book on Holiness). Here he learned the Biblical realism of "indwelling sin" and the ongoing fight of faith and the glorious rest that comes from God's righteousness imputed to us in Christ by faith alone.

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/who-is-this-divided-man-part-2

As a Christian, there will always be a disconnect between who we should be and how we should behave or view the world, and from the reality of how we feel and behave. It is a fundamental fact that we wont be perfectly sanctified in this life. Look to Paul in Philippians 3 or JI Packer’s testimony or John Owen’s books (it is interesting, John Wesley championed Christian Perfectionism, but he himself didn’t even attain it if his later writings would suggest, though him not knowing God is most likely self-depreciation). Still, this doesn't mean we give up or stop striving to be holy/godly. We still must run to the Cross, mortify our indwelling sin, and ask God to strengthen us through humbling/breaking us. The reality of the Gospel in our life should naturally/supernaturally lead us to do missions, love others, produce fruit/good works, and make disciples.

More references: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_perfection

Devo Post #18

12/11/17

Isaiah 48:11

For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,

    for how should my name be profaned?

    My glory I will not give to another.

God is jealous for His own Glory, and it is the single biggest key point in the Bible. Well in all of life I guess, since God is sovereign over everything. Our sin. Our salvation. Christ’s first coming. The Day of the Lord. Creation. All of this is to point and magnify God’s Glory. Nothing else compares to this central theme. Yet I feel like most Christians don’t get it. I didn’t get it until maybe 2015, and I continue to realize over and over again just how important God’s glory is. Just like in the Westminster Confession, “Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” Jesus Himself keeps talking about how His mission, His reasoning for coming to Earth, was to make God’s Glory known. Samuel Zwemer, dubbed the apostle to Islam, said in his famous line, “The chief end of missions is not the salvation of men but the glory of God.” That is how important God is for Himself. God is God, and He will not forsake His own Glory for the sake of His creation, so let us Christians not belittle or ignore this fact. We come into God’s presence to give praise and worship to God’s glory. That is why we worship. That is why we exist. That is why we received salvation in grace through faith. That is why we are obedient to the Law of Christ. That is why we have the Holy Spirit in us to teach us how to see His Glory. We basically obtain the eyes of Christ and the heart of Christ so we can comprehend, even just a fraction, of God’s Glory. We want to go to heaven not for our sake, but to see God’s Glory. That is why the angels sing day and night, 24/7, about God’s Glory while shielding their eyes from that very Glory. We need to understand just how important this is, and what it means now that we can see that Glory without dying!

Jesus says this (not so) famous line to rebuke His disciples, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26) He is confirming what His mission was after His resurrection.

Of course what Jesus said right before the Crucifixion cannot be ignored either.

Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, ² since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. ⁴ I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. ⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. (John 17:1-5)

And then there is Apostle Paul’s take. As John Piper once said, the Gospel is the Gospel of the Glory of Christ, taken right from 2 Cor 4:4-6:

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Worship is the response to seeing Glory of God!

Joy is the deep emotion or essence we feel or embody when we see the Glory of Christ!

The Holy Spirit is the seal, the deposit, our inheritance, the witness that gives us access to the Glory of God!

Ephesians 1:13-14

13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

2 Corinthians 1:21-22

21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee [deposit].

Romans 8:16-17

¹⁶ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

2 Corinthians 3:18

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

So the questions is this: do I see the Glory of God when I look into the face of my savior Jesus Christ?

Matthew 28:17a

And when they [disciples] saw him [Jesus] they worshiped him…

http://www.faimission.org/articles/2017/11/13/image-of-the-invisible