Ponderings

Ponder: To reflect or consider with thoroughness and care.

1. Tim Keller : The Acid Test of Being a Christian

How can you tell if you're a Christian or just a moral person?


2. Eric Liddell 

His life is an example of offering your body as living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). Pastor Alistair Begg tells the story in his book Made For His Pleasure:

    When Liddell went to the 1924 Olympics in Paris, he was thought to have his best chance at a gold in the 100 meter race. But when the schedules were posted, that race was to take place on Sunday. It was well known that Liddell would not break the Sabbath, and great pressure was put on him to make an exception for this one event. He refused. If it meant that he would lose the chance at a medal, so be it. But Liddell was also scheduled to run the 400-meter race, and that race he entered-and won.

    Liddell had been born of missionary parents in Tientsin, China, and a year after his Olympic victory he returned to that country to begin missionary service himself....and in 1936 accepted an assignment to do evangelistic work in Siaochang. By this time the Japanese had invaded China, and in 1938 Liddell was captured by the Japanese and placed in an internment camp in China. Conditions were very severe, and on February 21,1945 Liddell died of a brain tumor.

Liddell's experience in the Olympics is told in the movie, Chariots of Fire. May our hearts be totally committed to the kingdom of Christ just like Eric Liddell.

3. Alfred Poirier : The Cross and Criticism

  He who doesn't listen to his critics is unwise.

Love Your Enemies Part 2 : God Avenges, You Overcome Evil With Good.

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." To the contrary, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

-Romans 12:17-21 (ESV)

Before we get to the main subject, it's important to look at the context. This is found at the beginning of the chapter 12.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

-Romans 12:1-2 (ESV)

    We ordinarily think that mercy involves helping the poor or the weak among us. However, mercy shines brightest when it is given to the most undeserving. And who are the most undeserving of our mercy than our enemies? Consider this,

For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

-Romans 5:10 (ESV)

That's who we were before we came to faith in Christ! We were God's enemies and God showed his great mercy towards us. In the Old Testament, there was a propitiatory sacrifice and a dedicatory sacrifice. Propitiation means appeasement. The blood of Jesus is a propitiatory sacrifice that brought forgiveness of sins (Romans 3:25). We were objects of God's wrath but the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is the propitiation that brought favor with God. A dedicatory sacrifice was a response of thanksgiving for the forgiveness of sins. So Paul says that because we experienced God's mercy through the propitiatory sacrifice of Jesus, we respond by offering our lives in thanksgiving as a sacrifice of dedication.

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Here is Love - a hymn

God's love is so infinite, words can't do justice to fully describe it. Yet we see divine love in action through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. How can we live if we forget what manner of love the Father has given to us? May this hymn help us remember.

Here is love vast as the ocean,

Loving kindness as the flood,

When the Prince of Life, our ransom

Shed for us his precious blood.

Who his love will not remember,

Who can cease to sing his praise?

He can never be forgotten

Throughout heaven's eternal days.

On the mount of crucifixion

Fountains opened deep and wide,

From the floodgates of God's mercy

Flowed a vast and gracious tide.

Grace and love, like mighty rivers

Poured incessant from above

And heaven's peace and perfect justice

Kissed a guilty world in love.