Category Archives: Sonship

Time to Worship (February)

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The blizzard of 2010 and various circumstances allowed us to worship at different places this past month. Most of it came in the form of family time and personal reading. But we did deal with a lot of sluggard/laziness during this time. Time just slipped away this month.

So this past Sonship meeting was good in which we continued Chapter 7 on Repentance. True repentance is often confused with fake repentance. Things like groveling, offering sacrifice, blame shifting, coming up with great insight on your sin… these things are not true repentance.

So what does true repentance look like? It is an acknowledgement of your sin, turning to God, asking for forgiveness for specific sins and also seeking help. There is a humility, there is joy, there is knowledge of your forgiveness in Christ and freedom in being no longer in the bondage of sin. There is freedom in knowing that you no longer have to justify or atone for yourself. Christ has done it.

There’s also community when we repent we recognize that we are sinners and that we are no better than other people. We humbly acknowledge that other people’s failings are due to their very definite need for Christ… and so we respond with GRACE. An unrepentant person doesn’t see this. An unrepentant person sees only the sin or failings or weakness of that person. The repentant person sees that it is Christ that the other person needs and calls and prays and leads the other person to Christ in order to restore.

With true repentance will come change, but it will be an internal change that will manifest itself outwardly. It is not the other way around. This all coincided with my re-listening to Tim Keller’s sermon series on the Prodigal Son. He mentioned another thing about true repentance that we see God as beauty rather than duty. My prayers will be more and more adoration for God rather than requests from God. We seek relationship with Him opposed to just his blessings.

Thank you Jesus. This is exactly what I (we) needed for such an extended period of laziness. Lord change me and mold me… to be a son.

Would you be free from the burden of sin?
There’s power in the blood, power in the blood;
Would you o’er evil a victory win?
There’s wonderful power in the blood.

There is power, power, wonder working power
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is power, power, wonder working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb.

Time to Worship (Mid-Autumn Summary)

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It is mid-October and we are in the midst of the flu/sick season. The past few worship services have focused on work, life, faith.

We started a new Sunday School on Apologetics based on C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. You can follow along here at GentlenessAndRespect.com.

Our family time of worship at home has been stagnant due to illnesses, but it should be the other way around. Our worship should be first irrespective of circumstances.

Recently we have been dealing with the concept of sonship, mercy ministries, and servanthood. May God work in all of our hearts and sanctify his people.

Sonship

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These past few weeks have been interesting. The theme of sonship seems to be popping up more often now. In a sermon series by Tim Keller on the Prodigal Son, he discusses true sonship. I started listening to a series entitled “Grace in the Church” by Steve brown in which he refers to sonship a lot… how we are living as christians and the prisons and traps we fall into when we forget who we are. Then we are doing a series in our fellowship concerning Jack Miller’s Sonship which is referred to a lot by Steve Brown as well. We have been doing a series in sunday school concerned with how people change… the last chapter asks how we are embracing our “sonship.”

Even as we read Samson in Judges, I see how evident it is in prayer and in people’s lives that when we embrace our identity as son of God through Christ we would act and behave in a way that is in conformity with God and bear fruit. When we forget or embrace some other identity we start losing out on things… even becoming enslaved again to the patterns of this world.

As I examine my own life, I see myself falling in ways due to fear of man, trusting things other than God, my own laziness, my own fears, my own selfishness… all of these things are due in some part my misunderstanding of my standing before God. As a son, I can approach the throne of grace with confidence. I can come to my father and ask whatever I want in Jesus name… I can please my daddy by doing his will… but even if I fail… He will delight in me because of who I am. I’ve been living like a pharisee, I’ve been living like a slave… a servant… a hired hand…

Even when I read and re-read the Luke 15 story, I can see clearly how I approach the father thinking that I can work as a hired hand to pay back all that I owe my father. But the father doesn’t want me to be a hired hand… he wants me to embrace my place as a son… as an hier… as one that has been redeemed by my older brother, Jesus.

Oh how I have lived liked the pharisee for too long.

Luke 15:21″The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22″But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

Come to the father… let him embrace you as a son… and embrace him back as his son.

Time to Worship (Week 5 Wednesday)

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We had an hour and a half online session yesterday listening to and discussing chapter 1 of Sonship by Jack Miller. Just read a review of it by Van Dixhoorn concerning it from WTJ vol.61-2. I’m a little biased since Van Dixhoorn was my professor last semester.

Anyways, we looked at sin, grace, Christ, adoption, the Gospel… The audio was a bit dated but the message was received. I think after listening to the Gospel Coalition, I was spoiled by some really good teaching. But one thing that this has is community. We were able to connect with different people and have a little bit of discussion and prayer. This is different from individual learning and studying. As we’ve been learning, change happens in a community. We were blessed last night with a community of believers that was willing to share.

…

We had our family reading last night as well. We looked at Ezra chapter 7. In it we see that Ezra came from a long line. He was descended from a line that was recorded by the author. He was also highly respected by the King as one who knew the Law of the Lord. Ezra spent his life studying and teaching and preaching. This is one man who was purpose driven. He was goal driven. And had a singular vision… to glorify God.

In the letter from Artaxerxes, Ezra was claimed to possess the knowledge of God, he was claimed to know the law of God so well that he was able to command his fellow Israelites in the ways of the Lord.

That was my prayer last night. That we as a family would know God so well that we can not only live well, but also be a witness of our Great God and make him known to others.

Praise be to the LORD, the God of our fathers, who has put it into the king’s heart to bring honor to the house of the LORD in Jerusalem in this way and who has extended his good favor to me before the king and his advisers and all the king’s powerful officials. Because the hand of the LORD my God was on me, I took courage and gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me. – Ezra 7:27-28