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Archive for the Mortification category

Paradoxes

Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2008 at 2:08 PM by David Zavadil

Our lives seem to be one big paradox. We can sometimes feel we are doing great only to realize we have taken three steps backward. The healthy of us can actually be incubating a cancer within our body. This happens all too often in our walks with Christ. On the surface, to everyone else, we have it all together, but behind the scenes we find ourselves falling further from God.

I have been sharing jewels found in the book Here is another gem.

O CHANGELESS GOD,

Under the conviction of the Spirit I learn that

the more I do, the worse I am,

the more I know, the less I know,

the more holiness I have, the more sinful I am,

the more I love the more there is to love.

O wretched man that I am!

O Lord,

I have a wild heart,

and cannot stand before thee;

I am like a bird before a man.

How little I love thy truth and ways!

I neglect prayer,

by thinking I have prayed enough and earnestly,

by knowing thou has saved my soul.

Of all hypocrites, grant that I may not be an evangelical hypocrite,

who sins more safely because grace abounds,

who tells his lusts that Christ's blood cleanseth them,

who reasons that God cannot cast him into hell, for he is saved,

who loves evangelical preaching, churches, Christians, but lives unholily.

My mind is a bucket without a bottom,

with no spiritual understanding,

no desire for the Lord's Day,

ever learning but never reaching the truth,

always at the gospel-well but never holding water.

My conscience is without conviction or contrition,

with nothing to repent of.

My will is without power of decision or resolution.

My heart is without affection, and full of leaks.

My memory has no retention,

so I forget easily the lessons learned,

and thy truths seep away.

Give me a broken heart that yet carries home the water of grace.

Posted in Commentary (RSS), Fear of God (RSS), Mortification (RSS)

Comments Restored

Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 3:28 PM by David Zavadil

I have restored the comments on this blog. It is a new account so all of the previous comments, including the spam have been deleted. I plan on writing more and moderating the comments tighter. I pray that at some time this site will be used by people around the world for edification and growth.

Edited on: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 4:03 PM

Posted in Bible Study (RSS), Books (RSS), Commentary (RSS), Family happenings (RSS), Fear of God (RSS), Just For Fun (RSS), Locarb (RSS), Ministry (RSS), Mortification (RSS), Psalm 119 (RSS), Puritans (RSS), Stupid Movie Quotes (RSS), The Church (RSS), TNT (RSS)

Comments Spammed

Posted on Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 6:27 PM by David Zavadil

My comments were spammed recently so I have eliminated them until I can find a better system.

Ponderings on Sin

Posted on Monday, January 14, 2008 at 1:43 PM by David Zavadil

As I sit at my desk and eat my Bacon Ranch Salad ( It is time to buy groceries, I am forced to forage at McDonalds), I am thinking about the changes I have gone through in recent weeks. In late October I received the Doctoral dictate, "lose some weight and begin exercising," due to a high Cholesterol report. In November I began Men's Health TNT Diet and have lost about 15 pounds and an inch or more from my waist. I am building muscle and look forward to my next blood test. What I am wondering is, why is easier to get rid of excess weight than it is to get rid of sin in my heart?

I have reached a point where I am now disciplined in my body, though my family would love for me to loosen up a bit. I am concerned about what I eat and making sure I workout, almost to the point of legalism. (Just to keep myself honest, I have not worked out today.) Why does it seem that I, and those around me, are not as disciplined when it comes to sin in our lives? Now this is by no means a new thought. Reading through The Mortification of Sin , Owen's is beginning to address the issue. In Chapter 7 of the book, he points to our faith. He writes, "Unless a man be a believer—that is, one that is truly ingrafted into Christ— he can never mortify any one sin; I do not say, unless he know himself to be so, but unless indeed he be so." To deal with my sin, like with my body, I have to admit to the heart problem. If my heart is not set upon Christ I can not deal with my sin. The Psalmist put it like this, Ps 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (ESV) To discipline ourselves against sin, we must begin with a heart that is focus on God, given over to God. Too often we begin dealing with sin incorrectly, we try to master the sin, with out ever coming to the Master. Owen has this helpful reminder for us, "It is true, it is—it will be—required of every person whatsoever that hears the law or gospel preached, that he mortify sin. It is his duty, but it is not his immediate duty; it is his duty to do it, but to do it in God’s way." God's way begins with our hearts set upon Him. Do you know Christ or know about Christ? You will never deal with the sin that haunts you without Christ.

Owen offers some help for those of us who are already believers. Our heart is set upon Christ, we desire to be rid of the sin in our lives and yet we still struggle. We are to run to the cross in obedience. I confess to be a rabid, "I can do it myself" guy. It doesn't matter what it is, I don't want help, "I can do it myself." Jesus says, "No you can't." Listen to Owen on this,

"Hatred of sin as sin, not only as galling or disquieting, a sense of the love of Christ in the cross, lies at the bottom of all true spiritual mortification...If you hate sin as sin, every evil way, you would be no less watchful against everything that grieves and disquiets the Spirit of God, than against that which grieves and disquiets your own soul. It is evident that you contend against sin merely because of your own trouble by it."

I can tell you that I hate sin as sin but struggle, too often, to turn to the cross. I am troubled by sin, and this often leads to trouble, but struggle with turning to Christ for the strength to be rid of it. How about you? Do struggle with sin but find it hard to really confess and repent? Have you truly mortified that which plagues you? On Sunday we will be looking at Matthew 6:24 which reads, "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."(ESV) Jesus is using the illustration of the world and money to illustrate what I am talking about here. Where sin is concerned, we must serve one master, the Lord Jesus Christ. We can not serve both sin or Christ or we will find ourselves loving the one and hating the other.

So, now back to the discipline in my physical life and the discipline in my spiritual life. Why do I find it so much easier to workout and eat right than to mortify and put away my lusts and sins? I think one reason may be that with my phsyical body I can see results, sometimes quickly. When I am dealing with the spiritual, the results are not always as vivid. We are in a visual world and tend toward those things we can see. I, we, need to learn to open the eyes of our heart and truly see Christ and the work He is doing within us. As we begin to see our Lord in all His majesty, begin to cling to the cross in all its glory, then we will begin to see those things we hate most in this world, falling to the way side. I think I need a good dose of some Godly protein and a workout in His Word and Prayer.

Edited on: Monday, January 14, 2008 1:46 PM

Posted in Commentary (RSS), Mortification (RSS), Puritans (RSS)

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Archive for the Mortification category

Paradoxes

Comments Restored

Comments Spammed

Ponderings on Sin