Friday, 3 July 2009

Just Do Something - Chapter Three

6


Finally, after our week off we get back to our discussion of 'Just Do Something. . .' by Kevin Deyoung. This week we looked at chapter 3 'Directionally Challenged'.




Kevin gives us 5 reasons why we may find ourselves desperate to know God's will for our lives:
1. We want to please God
2. Some of us are timid
3. We want perfect fulfillment
4. We have too many choices
5. We are cowards

To be honest i see many aspects from all these in my own life: I want to know God's will because i want to please Him, I am timid, i want fulfillment, i am a coward & there are too many choices.

I left the 'choices' one to the last because this is the section i struggled with the most, why? Because i like choice!
I like variety & in total honesty, when i read in the Bible of the Israelites dandering around the wilderness with only one choice of food; mana, I feel sorry for them, i'd have been grumbling too.

Variety is Good, Variety is Bad
In the section about too many choices, Kevin writes "But now few of us can imagine voluntarily limiting our independence and curtailing our options for something as antiquated as duty." He writes this in a section dealing with how, a century ago people lived where they were born, worked the farm, & married one of a dozen eligible young people in town etc.

Personally i thank God for today's travel, & options, as i married a girl from Dublin, 100 miles away from where i grew up. If i'd married out of 'family duty' i'd have picked a girl from a long-standing family history of protestant-loyalism, not the beautiful Irish rose who, though, now a Christian, grew up roman catholic.
And i work, not as a glass-fibre moulder (my dads career), but in printing the Gospel. This is something i'm so thankful to be a part of, and praise God not just for the job, but for the transport which makes it possible for me to commute to work each day. I also like the fact that there are other churches to go to rather than the one i grew up in which had very little (if any) Bible teaching etc.

I can see the essence of what Kevin means here, and find that even with what i've already said, i have to agree with him. Having so many choices makes it very hard to choose just one; for example having left my family church when i became a Christian i've struggled to pick another out of the vast availability there are in N.Ireland. I have sinned in this area & it has been somewhat crippling to my walk with Christ.


In many areas instead of gagging on familiarity (as Israel did with mana), we gag on endless streams of opportunity, so i guess what i'm trying to say is that surely we need to find a balance. Enjoy the fact that there's variety, but make an informed decision & stick with it.

I guess this variety of choice is why so many date around, playing the field, trying to find 'the one' rather than simply committing to a relationship with someone & making them the one! It is why porn is such a blight on christian men as they store up a virtual harem of women. It can be why we stay at home watching tv rather than going out to reach the lost, because we can't decide where to go or what approach to take. "We" as Kevin says "are always pondering what could be better or what might be nicer about something or someone new."


Thrilling
In closing my thoughts over this chapter i'd simply like to quote a section that i found absolutely thrilling:

"We should start looking to God - His character and His promises - and thereby have confidence to take risks for His name's sake.
God is all-knowing and all-powerful. He has planned out and works out every detail of our lives - the joyous days and the difficult - all for our good (Ecclesiastes 7:14). Because we have confidence in God's will of decree, we can radically commit ourselves to His will of desire, withought fretting over a hidden will of direction."

A magnificent truth to pray about & beat into our lives.


Your Turn
How did you get on with this chapter, what did you find thrilling, challenging or difficult etc? what would you say about chapter 3?

*Undiluted Christianity*

Next Week
Next week we'll turn to chapter 4 'Our Magic 8-Ball God'.
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About Boaly
Gary has been involved in printing the Scriptures for 20 years, enjoys photography and rambling online

6 comments:

John Fitzsimmons. said...

Enjoyed what you said about choice. I agree, I love choice as well and very few of us these days are doing the same job as our parents. I don't think this is right or wrong. Like you said it's about finding the balance.

Perhaps it's more about being the right kind of person who makes the right kind of choices for the right kind of reasons. Choices that are made not from selfish hearts (as we all are prone to), but from hearts that want to serve God and others. Then we can feel free to choose what we like.

A bit like the quote you quoted last time (I think) "Love God and do what you like."

Great thoughts and I admire your honesty.

PS: Would be great to have your wife share her story down here in Co. Mayo sometime.

9:28 am
Boaly said...

I'm sure Babs'll see your comment and i'll leave it for her to reply.

What i'd say is that although she hates public speaking, she would be very capable & i believe her story of God's grace, although she'd say its unexciting, would be very encouraging to Christians living within catholic communities.

9:40 am
heartafire said...

I find it interesting that you don't consider Catholicism to be Christian. I know that Irish people view it differently (my husband is an Orange Man) but I assumed that Catholics are still under the Christian umbrella!

(I will post on this chapter later)

5:06 pm
Boaly said...

Haha, a huge issue heartafire. is the roman catholic church truly christian?

personally i believe not (although i do believe that many catholic people are indeed saved).

Here's a few of my random & i do mean random thoughts on this as it would take days to properly organize & write on something that is hotly debated by other, much greater minds than me.


The catholic church believes that sacriments & leaders along with dead saints etc function in medaitorial roles, yet 1 Tim 2:5 tells us that Christ is our only mediator with God.

The catholics church's focus on a works based salvation rather than by faith alone. Along with the continual stance of the church that those who believe salvation is by faith apart from works are accursed, i believe that the r.c. church misread the relationship of faith and work.
We do good works because we're saved not as a means to add to our salvation.
Again scripture is clear on this fact that it is by grace through faith, not works, that we are saved.

There is also a focus that succession and not faith is the entry point into the community of God, and that the hierarchy of bishops, priests, popes etc are 'successors of the authority of the apostles'. Whereas the Bible clearly teaches that all those who believe are a royal priesthood.

The main issue is the cross: was Christ's work sufficent or do we need to add to this by our works, confessions, money, prayers etc. I believe that to add anything into the mix is to deny the sufficency of the work of Christ in salvation.

I've no doubt that others can explain this better than i can!

8:00 pm
heartafire said...

Gary, I appreciate all that you're saying about the Catholic church, and I agree with your reservations, and know that they have a LOT of things wrong.

I disagree with you though, that they are not Christian. It is indeed a Christian religion, at least here in the Southern US, though with a lot of human fallibility and sin mixed in.

The older I get, the more I realize how we screw up even the best religions. Being an Episcopalian myself, [our national church is going to hell in a handbasket, and it seems the COE is not far behind] I find I am much more tolerant of human frailty.
The Catholics get a lot of things right, and I agree with you about the ones they do wrong---i.e. we need no intercessor but JC himself, and they do elevate works over grace--wrong, wrong, wrong---but I would dispute your assertion that they are not a Christian religion.

What I think they get right (as opposed to many , even most, of the mainstream religions, is a true and real reverence for the Lord, a proper idea of their own sin nature, and the need for redemption and reconciliation via the shed blood.


OK...now on to the book.

What a great read it is.

In fact, my only quibble with it as a book discussion selection, is that there is very little discussion challenge here. Among serious Christians, I don't see much room for meaty discussion, given that DeYoung is so very sound! I love everything he has written, and I high-five him on every page!

What I particularly loved about this chapter:

1. You can never go wrong with the Esther story. For people who quibble that women are "second class citizens, the Bible and patriarchy is misogynistic, etc.--akll one needs do is p9oint to Bible greats like Esther.

2. Though I know it's true, this hit me afresh on p. 41: "He has planned out and works out every detail of our lives--the joyous days and the difficult--all for our good (Eccl.7:14) "Because we have confidence in God's will of decree, we can radically commit ourselves to His will of desire, without fretting over a hidden will of direction." WOW. How much better could he have said that?!

and then, what I think is the crux of this book:

3.) "We can stop pleading with God to show us the future and start living and obeying like we are confident that He holds the future."

Simply stunning.

3:06 pm
Boaly said...

Yeh, Heartafire i think its one of those books that is so scripturally based and practically evident that its very hard to disagree with, hence there's no real discussion about it.
We're all in agreement.

Maybe after this book we can pick something a bit more discussionary challenging.

I am finding the book very helpful to me though, and as you say much of it is 'Simply stunning.'

4:11 pm

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