Recipe for Increasing My Love for God

Luke 7:47
Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

I did not keep up with Tim Challies’ “Memorizing Scripture Together” program. I seem to have different memorization needs. Of course, his program is great… but there are other passages that I think would help me better. One such passage is Psalm 32. I was not forgiven little… but once in a while,  my love for the Lord and my thankfulness for His forgiveness are not as they should be, and I wonder what can I do to help my weak heart grow in grace. It is too easy to get used to being forgiven.

Blessed Are the Forgiven

32 A Maskil¹ of David.

^{1 j}Blessed is the one whose ^ktransgression is forgiven,

whose sin is covered.

² Blessed is the man against whom the Lord ^lcounts no iniquity,

and in whose spirit ^mthere is no deceit.

³ For when I kept silent, my ⁿbones wasted away

through my ^ogroaning all day long.

⁴ For day and night your ^phand was heavy upon me;

my strength was dried up² as by the heat of summer. Selah

⁵ I ^qacknowledged my sin to you,

and I did not cover my iniquity;

I said, “I ^rwill confess my transgressions to the Lord,”

and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

⁶ Therefore let everyone who is ^sgodly

offer prayer to you at a time when you ^tmay be found;

surely in the rush of ^ugreat waters,

they shall not reach him.

⁷ You are a ^vhiding place for me;

you preserve me from ^wtrouble;

you surround me with ^xshouts of deliverance. Selah

⁸ I will ^yinstruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will ^zcounsel you with my eye upon you.

^{9 a}Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,

which must be curbed with ^bbit and bridle,

or it will not stay near you.

^{10 c}Many are the sorrows of the wicked,

but steadfast love surrounds the one who ^dtrusts in the Lord.

^{11 e}Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous,

and ^fshout for joy, all you ^gupright in heart!

¹ Probably a musical or liturgical term

^j Cited Rom. 4:7, 8; [Ps. 85:2]

^k [Ex. 34:7; John 1:29]

^l [2 Cor. 5:19]

^m John 1:47

ⁿ See Ps. 31:10

^o See Ps. 22:1

^p 1 Sam. 5:6, 11; [Ps. 38:2]

² Hebrew my vitality was changed

^q Ps. 51:3

^r Ps. 38:18; Job 33:27; Prov. 28:13; [Luke 15:18, 21; 1 John 1:9]

^s Ps. 30:4

^t See Ps. 69:13

^u [Ps. 18:4, 16; 42:7; 69:1; 144:7]; See Job 22:11

^v Ps. 91:1; 119:114; [Ps. 27:5; 31:20]

^w Ps. 9:9

^x [Ps. 18, title]; See Ex. 15:1–18; Judg. 5:1–31

^y Ps. 25:8, 12

^z Ps. 73:24

^a Prov. 26:3; [Job 35:11]

^b James 3:3

^c [Prov. 13:21; Rom. 2:9]

^d Ps. 34:8; 84:12; Prov. 16:20; Jer. 17:7

^e Ps. 64:10; 68:3; 97:12; [Ps. 33:1]

^f Deut. 32:43

^g See Ps. 7:10

The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (Ps 32:1-11). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

Debt and Ministry

Something grabbed my attention last year as I read George Muller’s biography. I admired his faith, and thought about the “extreme” financial principles that were foundational to his orphanage ministry. I wonder today whether these principles were necessary in his ministry for it to be what it was, to become what it became; for his faith to grow like it did. And I am wondering whether we have built a reality of ministry where increased reliance on man and world’s principles keeps God from blessing us, and instead causes Him to use pain to get our attention. Are we making progress in increasing our dependence on Him? If not, are we building without him? Our dependence on Him is also manifested in the way we make financial decisions. If a good servant does what the master wants, at the time he wants it done, with the talents He gives, best stewardship may not necessarily be borrowing money for ministry at a good interest rate; or going to seminary on a student loan.

I see the opposite of “having it now” as the desirable trait throughout the Bible. I see blessed people who were willing to wait and depend on the Lord for his provision. Living by faith in His promises. I see the rush to “have it now” being discouraged, foolish, punished directly by the Lord or indirectly via cause and effect. I also don’t see a lot of opportunist on the right side of God. I see God desiring glory, credit for who he is and what he does. And I see often things get worse before his hand works. I see Him often bypassing sophistication and choosing to bless simplicity. If it His work, and he has everything, won’t he provide for the ministry in the most efficient way? Does He want widow’s money to be spent on interest to the bank?

Stuffitis

I wrote this about a month ago but did not manage to post it yet. Here it is, finally.

We are going through the “Financial Peace” by Dave Ramsey these days…

While meditating on freedom from stuffitis on my way to work today, it occurred to me that just prior to acquiring stuff, there are questions our mind will ask. Freedom from stuffitis is achieved as we transition from questions like:

Do I like it?
Do I desire it?
Will it give me pleasure?
Can I get it?
How can I get it?
How soon can I get it?

to questions like:

Do I need it?
Do I need it now?
Can I do without it?
What does it do for me? For how long?
Do I need to do that?
What are the hidden costs?
Can i afford it?
Is it good stewardship?
Will it make a difference 10 years from now? How?
Will I be spending it on myself? (See James 4:3) if I waste it on myself, I may prove that hat I am not ready to receive more by prayer, I am not a good steward with what I have already, and that God may need to take some of it away or may be the joy of having it until I learn my lesson. If in our abundance we crave toys, and use the money he gave us to acquire them… then we turn to Him and ask for more blessings so we can give to missionaries and the poor, of course… we can’t outsmart Him; we can only deceive ourselves.

I shall remember this the next time that iPhone and that Blackberry Bold wink at me

Memorizing Scripture Together

Tim Challies has just started an effort to memorize scripture together. Scripture memorization is an area where I need as much help as anybody else. Read more about it on his blog. This is the first post. And this is the first email message. He will post and email us every Sunday with the verses/passages. Let’s do this together! You can sign up on the first post page.

The Wind, One Brilliant Day

The wind, one brilliant day, called
to my soul with an odor of jasmine.

“In return for the odor of my jasmine,
I’d like all the odor of your roses.”

“I have no roses; all the flowers
in my garden are dead.”

“Well then, I’ll take the withered petals
and the yellow leaves and the waters of the fountain.”

the wind left. And I wept. And I said to myself:
“What have you done with the garden that was entrusted to you?”

Translated by Robert Bly

Antonio Machado

THE CHANGE WE NEED

So the election is over here in US.  I wrote this to a friend today, and I thought I would share it also on the blog.  Over the last year, it has become increasingly powerful in my mind the importance  of God’s word as a paradigm for perceiving reality, as well as the importance of my stubborn practice of programming my mind towards submission to it through reading, prayer, and meditation.  As I process the results of the US presidential and congressional election, the Word has something to say to me:

-God lifts and He takes down
-Pray for BHO (Barack Hussein Obama)
-Thank God for BHO
-Pay taxes to BHO
-Respect the laws under BHO
-Do not be distracted by BHO
-The end times are worsening times
-God is sovereign

Apparently, for the job as the president of the USA, BHO is THE BEST agent appointed by God to carry on whatever he needs to carry on so that God in his love, wisdom and sovereignty will fulfill His plan on the earth in a way that maximizes His glory! God will use him for His plans with the US. The hard times that follow may be an opportunity for the Church to become what it needs to become, to be more dependent on God, maybe to change from having priorities driven by money, prosperity, and political power towards what it says it believes, and maybe to even become a better witness to the world. The witness of Christ to the world is being improved when Christians live for Christ.

I just visited Romania for 3 weeks. Just as in US, many Christians in Romania start to be very distracted by wealth, opportunity, career, and dreams, and so lose their witness. Here in US, the dreams are shrinking, wealth either decreases or is harder to hold on to it, retirement funds get mugged, dreams for financial independence and security have been shattered. Now for those that don’t believe (or are distracted by) the new dream created by BHO, there is real hope for revival. This is the first (false) messiah experiment in a long time for US. Seeing how easily a smart and well funded machine can shape minds and energize people  is an opportunity for us not only to exercise our discernment towards him and his dream, but to pause and review in the light of the Word all the other dreams that we have believed.

Ironically, BHO may be an agent for “THE CHANGE WE NEED” to wake us up. Not the way BHO intends, but the way God has planned.  And that is not a change we can afford to resist.

Back in US

I lost my drive to blog in Romania. I had to chose how to spend my time, and blogging lost on priority. We are back now, and we tell stories of our trip. If you want to see pictures and I didn’t already sent the links to you, write me. ….America!

There is a perspective that only immigrants may fully appreciate. When we say that our home is not on the earth, we can say it and mean it. Some of us are more detached.

We left Romania with a combined joy and pain, freedom and burden, encouragement and discouragement. Too much time has passed. I pray that somehow we may be useful to those we have met.

Day Five

Blogging is tough. The most exciting stuff happening is too private or maybe also self-serving to write in a blog so…

God is good. Craiova is tough for Christians. They are few and weak. They need a lot of prayer and Word, and encouragement. A little goes a long way. They need a lot of other things. God knows. God has it all. God works through people.

I spent some time with my grandmother, talking about the family in US, going over the death of my grandfather, over old memories, and writing down a few names and details from her past. She is such a giver!

Among other things, I talked to my aunt Lidia about her foundation https://www.fmb.ro/ . She works with institutionalized orphans in Craiova, helping them with education and jobs.

Day Four

Not a very eventful day… Piata Mihai Viteazu looks very different today, but the smells are the same. Mmm… the freshly baked bread, the cheeses, cornuri, smoked sausages and a lot of flowers. We spent the later part of the day (7 hours) on the train to Craiova to see my grandmother and my aunt and her family.

Day Three

Sunday at Pirneava (Dragostea Baptist Church)! There is no more obvious indicator of our absence over the 7/13 years than the age of our friend’s kids. It is amazing and scary too. A lot of friends that I grew up with… many, many kids. I can’t keep track of them all.

And all this reminds me of the time when we left and why and how; and I see some of my old weaknesses becoming more obvious. Humbling. But necessary. The Lord is good. It had to be like this.

Pray that we may be useful, not distracted, and that we are being led by the Spirit rather than the desire to be liked by people we love.