Frank was baptized as an infant and confirmed at the age of fourteen within the Episcopal Church. During his first year in college, he left the church and became agnostic. At a point of crisis in his sophomore year, Frank had a religious experience through an evangelical campus ministry; to mark this experience he was re-baptized in a river…
Whenever we rejoice for our suffering instead of in our suffering, we try to justify ourselves by our suffering. Justification makes a difference in our lives by ending our suffering-by-works and beginning our suffering-by-grace.
Springs in the Valley tells the story of a man who found a barn where Satan kept his evil seeds stored, ready to be sown in the human heart. After a quick survey of the barn, the man discovered that the seeds of discouragement were more numerous than all the other seeds stored in the barn.
In other words, the cosmic acceptance and affection we crave and strive for is not found in people or in our performance but rather is found in Jesus and His performance.
Paul assumes all are trying to build themselves up, trying to construct confidence. Whatever we boast in is what gives us confidence to go out and face the day. Whatever we boast in is what supports the weight of our lives - it fundamentally defines us.
Justification is a big deal. Every human heart craves it, inescapably needs it, and yet struggles to obtain it. Why the struggle to obtain a solid and true sense of acceptability, approval, security, meaning, or justification? The answer is in the way we try to obtain it…the default way of human effort or performance…
Fear is a problem. H.P. Lovecraft, an early 1900’s author of horror, said, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear.” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a pastor in London famously called the last Puritan preacher, said, “When a man is defeated by life it is always due, ultimately, to the fact that he is suffering from a spirit of fear….
Everyone is struggling for righteousness. It could be Olympic-righteousness, achievement-righteousness, Mom-righteousness, body image-righteousness, food-righteousness, relational-righteousness, ideological-righteousness, or religious righteousness…
Silence is a spiritual condition, and it’s a good place to be. Everything in Romans 1.18-3.20 is designed to lead us into a cosmic courtroom, an epic trial: “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouthmay be stopped (or silent)…
What is low self-esteem? Is it beating yourself up, self-hatred, self-punishment, feeling inferior, or thinking lowly of yourself? Is it others beating you up, judging, accusing, condemning, or rejecting you? The book of Romans defines low self-esteem as humility, a bold confidence without pride, and the freedom of self-forgetfulness without inferiority…
