Work Ethic

Colossians 3:22-4:1

22 Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. 25 For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality. 1 Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven.

1 Peter 2:18-23

18 Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. 19 For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. 21 For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, 22 WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; 23 and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;

1 Peter 3:8-13

8 To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit;

9 not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.

10 For,

"THE ONE WHO DESIRES LIFE, TO LOVE AND SEE GOOD DAYS,

MUST KEEP HIS TONGUE FROM EVIL AND HIS LIPS FROM SPEAKING DECEIT.

11 HE MUST TURN AWAY FROM EVIL AND DO GOOD;

HE MUST SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT.

12 FOR THE EYES OF THE LORD ARE TOWARD THE RIGHTEOUS,

AND HIS EARS ATTEND TO THEIR PRAYER,

BUT THE FACE OF THE LORD IS AGAINST THOSE WHO DO EVIL."

13 Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good?

God never expects from us that which He has no intention of giving us the strength to accomplish. Notice, we are also promised blessing for doing that which is expected. Praise God!!

Ezekiel 16

Read Ezekiel 16

Few chapters of the Bible grab me the way this one does.
God describes Israel as a new-born baby, rejected, helpless, dirty, unwanted, unloved, and left for dead in a field. Then, from verse six to fourteen, we have a beautiful picture of God taking the child as His own, adorning her with love, and gifts, giving her value and life. Every word and action dripping with a pure and passionate love for His new child.

Enter verse fifteen. Something happens. Something ugly. This beloved daughter, the object of God's intensely passionate fatherly love, "trusted in [her] beauty and played the harlot..."
This child of God takes the blessings of a loving Father and turns them into tools of depravity. She sins against her Father's love in some of the most shocking and perverted actions we're capable of as humans.

"You also took your beautiful jewels made of My gold and of My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images that you might play the harlot with them." v17

This rebellion and sinfulness goes on and on until her Father can bear no more. This loving Father now turns to discipline His beloved daughter beginning in verse 35. His love provokes a wrath against her that is not meant to destroy, but to reprove. Love and purpose guide His disciplinary actions against His rebellious daughter. Every description of the coming judgments against her are followed immediately with purpose clauses. Every action is designed to teach.

Here comes the best part.
I can identify with the abandoned, unloved, and dirty child. I can identify with being adopted, cleansed, and blessed. These bring immeasurable joy, and I cling to them daily. Unfortunately though, at this point in my life, I can identify most with the rebellious, perverted, and selfish daughter who sins against her Father in spite of the overwhelming love and blessing she's been showered with. So as I see God's reaction to her sin, fear grips my heart as I anxiously anticipate His Fatherly discipline in my own life. I would completely, and utterly collapse under the expectation of His judgment if it wasn't for what follows in verses 60-63. God lovingly plans my discipline, to correct me, and then He forgives. If you, like me, are the rebellious daughter, nothing could possibly be sweeter than hearing the words "...when I have forgiven you for all that you have done." He forgives her!! What she did was so incredibly dirty, sinful, and hateful towards her Father. His reaction? Loving discipline to correct the problem, and forgiveness.
What a great God we serve! What a loving Father we've been adopted by!

"For His Name's Sake"

"For the LORD will not abandon His people on account of His great name, because the LORD has been pleased to make you a people for Himself."
-1 Sam. 12:22

"He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For His name's sake."
-Psalm 23:3

"For You are my rock and my fortress;
For Your name's sake You will lead me and guide me."
-Psalm 31:3

"But You, O GOD, the Lord, deal kindly with me for Your name's sake;
Because Your lovingkindness is good, deliver me..."
-Psalm 109:21

"I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name's sake."
-1 John 2:12

"For Your name's sake, O LORD,
Pardon my iniquity, for it is great."
-Psalm 25:11

"Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name;
And deliver us and forgive our sins for Your name's sake."
-Psalm 79:9

"Although our iniquities testify against us,
O LORD, act for Your name's sake!
Truly our apostasies have been many,
We have sinned against You."
-Jeremiah 14:7

"Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of His name,
That He might make His power known."
-Psalm 106:8

"For the sake of My name I delay My wrath,
And for My praise I restrain it for you,
In order not to cut you off.
Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction."
-Isaiah 48:9-10

"'But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went. Therefore say to the house of Israel, "Thus says the Lord GOD, It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD," declares the Lord GOD, "when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight."'"

-Ezekiel 36:21-23

"Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name."
-Acts 15:14

Spiritual Giants

"Edwards describes the person with truly gracious affections like this:

As he has more holy boldness, so he has less of self-confidence ...and more modesty. As he is more sure than others of deliverance from hell, so he has more of a sense of the desert of it. He is less apt than others to be shaken in faith, but more apt than others to be moved with solemn warnings, and with God's frowns, and with the calamities of others. He has the firmest comfort, but the softest heart; richer than others, but poorest of all in spirit; the tallest and strongest saint, but the least and tenderest child among them.

That litany of unusual juxtapositions is what Jonathan Edwards embodied in himself. He kept together so many things that we are prone to separate. This is one of the reasons... he is so important for our day."

"My own judgment is that, from generation to generation, giants like Edwards are needed to inspire us to think about our faith, and to guard us from settling superficially on small ideas about a small God. We need Edwards to waken us from our pragmatic stupor of indifference to doctrine in worship and prayer and evangelism and missions and church planting and social action. We need Edwards to show us again the beauty and the power of truth. Edwards does this so well because he is relentlessly God-besotted and God-exalting. He helps us recover truth because he never loses sight of the unspeakable reality of God, where truth originates, and whom it exists to serve."
- "God's Passion for His Glory" by John Piper

"The Defense of the Faith"

On page126, Cornelius Van Til writes,
"On the assumptions of the natural man logic is a timeless impersonal principle, and facts are controlled by chance. It is by means of universal timeless principles of logic that the natural man must, on his assumptions, seek to make intelligible assertions about the world of reality or chance. But this cannot be done without falling into self-contradiction. About chance no manner of assertion can be made. In its very idea it is the irrational. And how are rational assertions to be made about the irrational? If they are to be made then it must be because the irrational is itself wholly reduced to the rational. That is to say if the natural man is to make an intelligible assertion about the world of "reality" or "fact" which, according to him is what it is for no rational reason at all, then he must make the virtual claim of rationalizing the irrational. To be able to distinguish one fact from another fact he must reduce all time existence, all factuality to immovable timeless being. But when he has done so he has killed all individuality and factuality as conceived of on his basis. Thus the natural man must on the one hand assert that all reality is non-structural in nature and on the other hand that all reality is structural in nature. He must even assert on the one hand that all reality is non-structurable in nature and on the other hand that he himself has virtually structured all of it. Thus all his predication is in the nature of the case self-contradictory."