Advice to Young Converts

Jonathan Edwards, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica is the greatest mind America has ever produced.  Unfortunately in our world today he is a historical footnote usually considered only for his sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.  His other writing show the depth of his passion and devotion to Jesus Christ.

His Resolutions are often cited this time of year, but his Advice to Young Converts is a nice, quick read and reminder toward what the aim of our lives as disciples of Jesus should be. Here are a few of my favorite points. He explains his points further in the booklet and has a total of nineteen.

1. I would advise you to keep up as great a strife and earnestness in religion in all aspects of it, as you would do if you knew yourself to be in a state of nature and you were seeking conversion.

2. Don't slack off seeking, striving, and praying for the very same things that we exhort unconverted persons to strive for, and a degree of which you have had in conversion.

3. When you hear sermons, hear them for yourself...

6. Be always greatly humbled by your remaining sin, and never think that you lie low enough for it, but yet don't be at all discouraged or disheartened by it.

7. When you engage in the duty of prayer, come to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, or attend any other duty of divine worship, come to Christ as Mary Magdalene did.

13. When you counsel and warn others, do it earnestly, affectionately, and thoroughly.

15. Under special difficulties, or when in great need of or great longings after any particular mercies for your self or others, set apart a day of secret fasting and prayer alone.

18. In all your course, walk with God and follow Christ as a little, poor, helpless child, taking hold of Christ's hand, keeping your eye on the mark of the wounds on his hands and side.

19. Pray much for the church of God and especially that he would carry on his glorious work that he has now begun. Be much in prayer for the ministers of Christ.

Happy New Year

From Tedd Tripp:

Well, it's that season once again. It's the fodder for blogs, newspaper articles, TV magazine shows and way too many Twitter posts. It's the time for the annual ritual of dramatic New Year's resolutions fueled by the hope of immediate and significant personal life change.
But the reality is that few smokers actually quit because of a single moment of resolve, few obese people have become slim and healthy because of one dramatic moment of commitment, few people who were deeply in debt have changed their financial lifestyle because they resolved to do so as the old year gave way to the new, and few marriages have been changed by the means of one dramatic resolution.
Is change important? Yes, it is for all of us in some way. Is commitment essential? Of course! There's a way in which all of our lives are shaped by the commitments we make. But biblical Christianity - which has the gospel of Jesus Christ at its heart - simply doesn't rest its hope in big, dramatic moments of change.

Living in the Utterly Mundane

The fact of the matter is that the transforming work of grace is more of a mundane process than it is a series of a few dramatic events. Personal heart and life change is always a process. And where does that process take place? It takes place where you and I live everyday. And where do we live? Well, we all have the same address. Our lives don't careen from big moment to big moment. No, we all live in the utterly mundane.
Most of us won't be written up in history books. Most of us only make three or four momentous decisions in our lives, and several decades after we die, the people we leave behind will struggle to remember the events of our lives. You and I live in little moments, and if God doesn't rule our little moments and doesn't work to recreate us in the middle of them, then there is no hope for us, because that's where you and I live.
The little moments of life are profoundly important precisely because they're the little moments that we live in and that form us. This is where I think "Big Drama Christianity" gets us into trouble. It can cause us to devalue the significance of the little moments of life and the "small-change" grace that meets us there. And because we devalue the little moments where we live, we don't tend to notice the sin that gets exposed there. We fail to seek the grace that is offered to us.

10,000 Little Moments

You see, the character of a life is not set in two or three dramatic moments, but in 10,000 little moments. The character that was formed in those little moments is what shapes how you respond to the big moments of life.
What leads to significant personal change?

• • 10,000 moments of personal insight and conviction
• • 10,000 moments of humble submission
• • 10,000 moments of foolishness exposed and wisdom gained
• • 10,000 moments of sin confessed and sin forsaken
• • 10,000 moments of courageous faith
• • 10,000 choice points of obedience
• • 10,000 times of forsaking the kingdom of self and running toward the kingdom of God
• • 10,000 moments where we abandon worship of the creation and give ourselves to worship of the Creator.

And what makes all of this possible? Relentless, transforming, little-moment grace. You see, Jesus is Emmanuel not just because he came to earth, but because he makes you the place where he dwells. This means he is present and active in all the mundane moments of your daily life.

His Work to Rescue and Transform

And what is he doing? In these small moments he is delivering every redemptive promise he has made to you. In these unremarkable moments, he is working to rescue you from you and transform you into his likeness. By sovereign grace he places you in daily little moments that are designed to take you beyond your character, wisdom and grace so that you will seek the help and hope that can only be found in him. In a lifelong process of change, he is undoing you and rebuilding you again - exactly what each one of us needs!
Yes, you and I need to be committed to change, but not in a way that hopes for a big event of transformation, but in a way that finds joy in and is faithful to a day-by-day, step-by-step process of insight, confession, repentance and faith. And in those little moments we commit ourselves to remember the words of Paul in Romans 8:32
"He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us, how will he not also with him freely give us all things."
So, we wake up each day committed to live in the small moments of our daily lives with open eyes and humbly expectant hearts.

Self Examination and Resolutions

While some may scoff at a New Year’s Resolutions, I embrace them. The scriptures are filled with various challenges to examine ourselves, and to see where we fall short God’s standards. Introspection is a healthy part of our relationship with the Lord.

Before a believer takes communion, he is to “examine himself” (1 Corinthians 11:28). Paul, in a rebuke to the Corinthians, told them to “examine yourselves” (2 Corinthians 13:5). Colossians 3 presents a pattern of putting off sin and putting on conduct becoming of those who love the Messiah. And in Colossians 3, Paul culminates his description of sanctification with this charge: “whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:17).

Normative Christian living contains self-examination. There is a morbid introspection that goes too far; we all know those who are Christian Eeyores, moping about, striving to uncover any hidden motive behind every action. That sort of spiritual depression is not what I am talking about. But there is a healthy self-examination that should be part of the Christian life. Self-assessment can be extremely beneficial in our quest for godliness.

And if we are honest, it is often difficult to gauge our spiritual health on a daily basis. The urgency of life clamors, and daily demands can drown out solitude and prayer. That is one of the benefits of self-examination at communion; there is a certain ceremonial stillness that forces us to ask “how have I lived this week? This month?”

For that reason, I find that an annual spiritual inventory more helpful than daily spiritual contemplation. I ask myself, “How am I doing this year? What have I read this year in the Bible? How did I lead my wife this year? What was my prayer life like? What sins have I battled this year? Am I putting to death the deeds of the flesh, or is sin winning the battle?”

This kind of annual approach avoids the normal ups and downs common in this fallen world. Excuses are muted by the wide angel lens of looking over the past twelve months. Failures are more obvious, and scapegoats more scarce.

The prophet Haggai confronted Israel when they were in the middle of a 14-year spiritual skid. The demands of daily post-exilic life had stifled the initial excitement of temple building. Israel, over a decade after their return to the land, had imported a Persian consumerist mindset, and they cultivated materialism reminiscent of America.

Haggai stepped into this world of paneled houses and lined pockets, and demanded something of the people. Four times in the tiny book of Haggai, the prophet implores the Israelites to “consider” their ways. They were to look at how they were living, look at the abandoned scaffolding of the temple, and to ask themselves “how am I living? Is God pleased?”

They were not merely to consider the past, but Haggai pointed them forward. He told them “Consider carefully from this day forward…” and he told them about the future. In light of God’s promises, how were they supposed to live?

My personal application of Haggai’s sermons is to look at the last year of my life, and ask if I am going in the right direction. What can change, how can it change, and who can help me? If I see areas of success and triumph in Christ, I mark them in my heart with mental Ebenezers. Where there are failures, I repent, and pray for grace to do better this year. And where there are possibilities, I make goals and I plan in my heart how to make the most of where God has led me over the past year.

How about you? What do you do for New Year’s resolutions? Do you make them, or mock them?