21st-Century Tech and 19th-Century Preachers

Image by almoko via Flickr

At various points throughout the life of this blog, readers have asked questions about how I study the Bible and where I find all of Morrison’s wonderful writings.  The answers to those two questions are intertwined, so I’m combining them today.

My main study Bible is the eSword electronic version.  It is a free download in its basic form with non-copyrighted Bible versions, but you can also download additional materials such as other translations of the Bible, devotionals, commentaries, Bible dictionaries, maps, and other valuable resources.  Some are free, others are not.  The daily devotionals have been a very rich resource for me, particularly the Morrison and Spurgeon ones.  Yes, that’s right, it’s through eSword that I discovered Morrison.  Since it’s not easy to find Morrison’s writings online, it’s worth the download just to get those devotionals.

One of the things I like to do with my eSword is to take copious notes.  You can write long notes for any verse and have them available right beside the text.  I often copy entire devotional entries into the corresponding verses’ note pages, giving rich insights every time I visit those verses. 

There are many other features of this Bible that are quite useful and helpful, but I will stop with simply recommending that you visit the eSword site and investigate it for yourself.

Another very nice downloadable Bible program is simply called “The Word,” and it’s worth checking out as well.

Whenever I’m away from home, I always have a Bible handy, thanks to MyBible 4 from Laridian Publishing.  If you use a handheld Palm, Windows, IPod or Blackberry device, you’ll want to check this program out.  I wrote earlier about how I use the Scripture Memory program that you can also download from this site, so I won’t go into that again.  Laridian also offers devotionals, dictionaries, and commentaries, as well as free and paid translations of the Bible, all for your handheld.  I highly recommend this resource.

Another excellent resource is the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.  The CCEL is for online use, but it has features you’d often expect only from a downloadable program (such as the ability to highlight text.  Your highlights will be remembered whenever you sign in).  CCEL offers a wide variety of classic Christian literature, going all the way back to the 1st Century, and moving up to extensive libraries of the greats like Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, John Bunyan, Charles Spurgeon, and more!  Definitely an invaluable resource for those of us who could never dream of amassing our own vast printed libraries.

Now it’s your turn.  Have you found any “Helpful Tech” that you’d like to share?  Or do you have any further comments on the ones discussed above?  Please leave your thoughts for us to enjoy.

A Genuine Work of the Spirit?

Does the Holy Spirit sign His name to His work?

In an earlier article I asked, "What spiritual activity can you see in your own life that you know is not a counterfeit, and on what do you base that confidence?" Of course that's a question for myself, too.

Jesus said that, when the Holy Spirit comes, one of the things He does is convicts the world of sin (John 16:8). In other words, conviction of sin is one of the signature marks of the Spirit.

How's that going for you? For me? It's an important question, because any spirit that tolerates sin is not the Holy Spirit of God.

Maybe it would help if we asked ourselves a few questions. Do we really want conviction? How do we know if we really want it? And what's the difference between godly conviction and a religious "guilt trip?"


Is conviction of sin something we truly desire?

Why should we desire it?

Imagine if you had cancer cells lurking in your body, growing, multiplying, spreading. They can do so for a long time without you even noticing. In fact, they can reach a lethal state before you even know they're there. Image via Wikipedia

Do you want the diagnosis? I suppose that might depend on whether or not there was hope for a cure. Ignorance might be bliss if the situation were hopeless, but what if finding out could have changed everything?

Sin is spiritual cancer. It eats away, destroys, kills.

Conviction is the diagnosis, and if we're alive and able to feel the Spirit's convicting work, then it's not too late. There is hope.

That's why King David wrote, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts, and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." (Ps. 139:23-24) He wanted God to show him his sin so that he could repent of it and walk in the paths of life.

How do we know if we really want conviction?

Do we really want conviction, or are we secretly hoping to find a way to soothe our consciences without actually dealing with sin? John Owen, in his 17th-Century work, "On The Mortification of Sin in Christians", clearly describes a heart that doesn't really want conviction. Condensed and paraphrased in modern English (by me...blame me for any errors), he says,

If the heart searches for ways to excuse itself, and to keep its peace despite unconquered sin, and despite not even vigorously fighting against sin, then it's in a deadly condition. There are different ways that this can happen.

1. Whenever the man feels troubled by his sin, instead of applying himself to destroying it, he searches his heart for evidence of the good that is in him. When he finds something good about himself, he convinces himself that all will be well with him. This is the desperate plan of a heart in love with sin. Such a man clearly shows that he is content to be as far from God as he can be without suffering eternal separation. What can be expected from such a heart?

2. By applying grace and mercy to a sin that is cherished and coddled, the man can continue to deceive himself. This is using God's grace as a license to sin. (End of Owen paraphrase)

If there is a genuine work of God's Spirit, then an awareness of our sin will bring conviction and repentance.

Are we experiencing true, godly conviction rather than a religious "guilt trip?"

What's the difference? It's vital to differentiate them, because no one ever found true repentance as the result of a guilt trip.

A guilt trip manipulates how we feel about our own sin.
Conviction touches our hearts with how God feels about our sin, and teaches us to see it the same way He does.

A guilt trip focuses on what we've done and how to change our behavior in the future. It causes sorrow about specific incidents, and if it broadens its view, it only does so in a way that makes us feel hopeless and discouraged about ourselves.
Conviction focuses on who we are and our need for a changed heart. It causes sorrow about the godlessness underlying all those sinful incidents. In other words, while we do sorrow over the incidents themselves, and seek to make things right with those whom we've offended, we don't stop there if we've experienced true conviction. We see root causes, with the Spirit's help, and we also see the hope that He provides for real heart change.

A guilt trip focuses on self-reform.
Conviction focuses on coming to God to be changed by Him.

A guilt trip is laid on us by someone else for selfish purposes.
Conviction is laid on us by God with a desire to save our souls.

A guilt trip is "cured" by modern psychologists who convince us we're just fine the way we are, and who prescribe the numbing drug of self-esteem. This is what God condemned in Israel's false prophets. "They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, Saying, 'Peace, peace!' when there is no peace." (Jer 6:14)
Conviction does not get healed, nor does it need to be. It causes healing when it brings about repentance. And the repentance it causes will not be on a surface level only. It will ultimately lead an individual to repent of self-centeredness and self-rule, in order to accept God-centeredness and God's rule.

In a heart which has been so utterly won over to God, sin cannot reign. It may cause stumbling, but it cannot ultimately conquer.

Time for your input. What personal experiences or Biblical insights can you share? Please post a comment.

Next entry in this series: "Convicting of Righteousness."

Perhaps the Most Important Entry I'll Ever Write

John Owen (Image via Wikipedia)

We have been looking at the sad fact that people who have spent years immersed in Christendom can completely fall away, often deceiving themselves that they're still "just fine," or even closer to God than they were before.

It's heartbreaking to see, and it's also heartbreaking to be in that position yourself. To want to be freed from the death-grip of sin, and to find yourself enslaved despite your prayers and pleadings and promises...there is little in life more painful than that. The soul rallies for a while, makes its vows, and exults in hope, only to plunge back into the mire like a wallowing hog. Failure makes a mockery of hope, and it accuses God Himself of failing to help. It's really no wonder that people give up on the God of the Bible and invent a different god in their minds.

Why does this happen?

One of the most valuable insights I've heard comes from the powerful writings of John Owen (1616-1683). His book, "On the Mortification of Sin in Believers" has aspects I'm not sure I endorse, but I give a hearty "Amen" to what he says on this particular subject. He writes, of course, in the old 17th-Century style of English, so I'll take the liberty of paraphrasing what he says. Please see the original work if you'd like to read it as it was written. You can read it online free of charge here. (I will put my paraphrase in italics so it will be obvious where it begins and ends.)

Without sincerely and diligently striving for universal obedience, no single perplexing lust can be overcome.

Suppose a man finds any lust to be powerful, strong, and upsetting. It leads him captive, exasperates him, disquiets him, and takes away his peace. He is not able to bear it, so he makes up his mind to fight it. He prays against it, groans under it, sighs to be delivered: but in the meantime, perhaps, in other duties, — in constant communion with God, — in reading, prayer, and meditation, — in other ways that are different from the lust that upsets him, — he is loose and negligent. Such a man cannot expect to have any victory over that one troubling sin.

This is not an unusual circumstance. The Israelites, under a sense of their sin, drew near to God with much diligence and earnestness, with fasting and prayer (See Isa. 58). In verse 2 it says “They seek me daily, and delight to know my ways; they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.” But God rejects all. Their fast is a remedy that will not heal them, and the reason is given in verses 5–7. It is because they were only focused on this one area of obedience. They attended diligently to that, but in others were negligent and careless.

Suppose someone has a “running sore” (which is one Scriptural metaphor for sin) upon him. It's a kind of sore that is caused by poor hygiene, or by other unhealthy activities. Now suppose that he tries every kind of ointment he can think of for that sore, but he doesn't improve his hygiene or the overall care of his body. His ointments will be applied in vain. It's the same for anyone who tries to stop a "bloody ooze" of sin and filth in his soul, and is not equally careful of his overall spiritual health.

One reason for this is that such attempts to conquer a single area of sin are based on a faulty principle, and on an insecure foundation, so failure is inevitable. What true and acceptable principles are needed?

Sin must be hated for its very sinfulness, not only for the discomfort that it causes us. Hatred of sin must be based on the love of Christ in the cross.

Now, clearly the kind of futile efforts described above are based on self-love, not on love for Christ. If you decide to fight sin in this way, why are you fighting it? Because it troubles you, it has taken away your peace, it fills your heart with sorrow, and trouble, and fear; you have no rest because of it. Yes; but, friend, haven't you been neglectful and careless regarding other sins that don't bother you in the same way? These are no less sins and evils than the ones that make you groan. Jesus Christ bled for them also. Why don't you fight them also?

If you hated sin as sin, and hated every evil way, you would care about everything that grieves and troubles the Spirit of God, just as much as you care about the sin that particularly grieves and troubles your own soul. Clearly you are fighting against sin merely because of the discomfort it causes you. If your conscience would settle down and be quiet about it, you wouldn't bother fighting that sin anymore. If it didn't trouble you, you wouldn't trouble it.

Now, can you really believe that God will support such hypocritical endeavors, — that his Spirit will approve of the treachery and falsehood of your spirit? Do you think he'll let you off the hook about the sins that bother you, if you'll only use that liberty to freely pursue other sins which don't bother you -- sins that grieve Him just as much as the other ones do? No! God says, “If this man were to get free from this sin that bothers him, I would never hear from him again; let him wrestle with this, or he will be lost.” (Paraphrased, emphasis added.)

I hope you read that and really thought about it. If this is the condition of your own soul, please pray hard about it. Ask God to open your eyes to the evilness of sin as He sees it...all sins, not just the ones that particularly trouble your conscience. Ask Him to forgive your lack of love for Him, your love for the sins that don't bother you, and the self-centeredness of your religion. Pray that all of your sins would bother you, and that God would grant you repentance (in other words, that He would give you a new heart that values Christ more than it values anything else, including sin). Pray for a love for Christ that longs to be close to Him and hates the thought of offending Him. Pray to be cleansed not just from particular evils, but from the sinful direction of your soul that does not love Christ above all else.

For some of you this will be your first true prayer for salvation, regardless of what other prayers you may have prayed. Salvation is not mere mental assent to doctrines that every demon knows to be true. Salvation cannot be less than the reorienting of the soul to center on Christ. It may be other things along with that, but it cannot be less than that.

God loves prayers like that. He delights to answer them. He wants nothing more than to see His Son loved, cherished, and adored as He deserves to be. And to the soul who approaches him in this way, He will give forgiveness. He will give Himself. And in Him you will find far more than you have been searching for.

Love. Joy. Peace. Cleansing. Freedom. A home in Heaven awaiting all those who trust that the Son is their very Life.

I pray that you trust Him this way.