Proverbs 16:2 "All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, But the LORD weighs the motives."


I think this is probably one of my biggest personal battles. Serving God with good motives and simply because I love Him. Like what I do on the outside looks great, teaching Sunday school, loving Janice and the kids, but what is behind it? What are my motives? I think we constantly have to be checking ourselves and constantly reminding ourselves of the Gospel. Who are we really? We are sinners who are desperately wicked and that wickedness flows from the inside out. Right? Matthew 15:18-19 tells us, 18“But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. 19“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.” This is why behavior modification does not work because we are just changing the outside, but we are just covering up the symptoms we are not really dealing with the problem. So in the end those who try behavior modification instead of Gospel heart-change end up in one of two places. Either they accomplish what they are attempting to do and became self-righteous modern day Pharisees or they fail miserably and give up on God all together. In the end we need the Gospel and we need God Himself. God is our greatest good, He is our satisfaction in life.

All things work together

I went to The Summit Church this morning and pastor JD Greear preached on sin and its consequences from 2 Samuel. You see King David sinned just like all the rest of us and chapters 13-18 shows us the consequences that David's sin had on his family. There was murder, rape, revenge, conspiracies, and the list goes on. But pastor JD pointed out something that I have been thinking about all day and I cannot get it off my mind. He was talking about King David and his failure as a man and his failure to remember the Gospel. Then JD quoted Romans 8:28 which tells us that all things work together for the good of those who love God. Everything in David's life was working together for his ultimate good and that ultimate good is for David to see his need for Christ and the Gospel. You see I am a lot more like David than I care to admit but maybe unlike David who lived before the cross of Christ, I can look at the cross and know that ALL things are working together for the good of those who love Him. Every injustice that someone else does that effects me and every stupid decision I make. Sin has consequences and man do they make life uncomfortable and tough sometimes but God loves me and wants me to be constantly reminded and aware that my greatest need is not to be happy or comfortable. MY GREATEST NEED IS THE GOSPEL. That as sinful and wicked as I am, God still loved me enough to send His only son to Calvary so that I might be good, be righteous, be redeemed, and be reconciled to God who is the greatest good that anyone of us could ever hope for.