Seminary, prostitutes, adultery, grace and the sovereignty of God

At 11:57am on Thursday, December 13, 2007 I finished my last test for my Master's of Divinity degree at the Master's Seminary. The program took me 3 1/2 years to complete and was immeasurably more difficult than my bachelors in every way - academically, spiritually, physically, emotionally..etc.

It will take me much time to process this experience and I will probably never fully realize it's impact on my life and hopefully the lives of others. This post is not an attempt to understand or reflect on my seminary experience. I merely want to praise God for His faithfulness.

Perhaps the most prominent feeling I have been experiencing as I let the fact that I am done with seminary sink in is a sense of unworthiness. People expect me now to be qualified for ministry just cause I got an M Div. People expect me to have all the answers now and to not struggle with sin, expectations I will never meet. I know that most people dont actually have those expectations for me, yet often that is how I feel. I have learned Greek and Hebrew, studies homiletics, and know the outlines of the Bible and I know I have grown in my understanding and love of the Lord, yet in many ways I am still the same tired, struggling, sinner I was when I started.

So what does that have to do with prostitutes and adultery you might ask? Well, I will tell you. The morning after having the burden of seminary deadlines lifted from my shoulders, I decided to read through the book of Matthew. As you may know, the book of Matthew begins with a 17 verse genealogy of Jesus, starting with Abraham. It is easy to skip over this list of names but to do so would to rob yourself of a passage of inspired Scripture which contains great encouragement. As I read over the genealogy the names that stuck out to me were these: Tamar (:3), Rahab (:5), Ruth (:5) and Bathsheba (:6). The names of these four women represent some of the most sinful and tragic episodes in the Old Testament (Gen 38:13-30; Joshua 2:1; Ruth 1:3; II Samuel 11) yet they are included (and even highlighted - recording the names of women was not a common practice in ancient geneologies) in the genealogy of Jesus. We can look at this and be amazed at God's grace - how he could use things like prostitution and adultery and a Moabite woman to bring the Messiah into the world. Yet we can go farther than that. God didn't just make the most of a bad situation, He chose this way to bring Jesus into the earth. It was His perfect plan all along. Not that sin is excusable or that God is culpable for it, but in His sovereignty He chooses to use sinners to accomplish His purposes. That gives me great hope. God can use a sinner like me. God has chosen to use a sinner like me. The proper response to God's sovereignty is not a fatalistic, it-doesn't-matter-what-I-do attitude, but a bold confidence that God has a purpose for me, even me. A confidence that is in the unchanging faithfulness of the one who was killed and in turn killed death so that I and all those who He brings to Himself can be called His children. A confidence that manifests itself in a growing, burning, and joy-filled obedience to the Lord of all things. Who or what can stand in the way of such God-anchored confidence? Praise the sovereign and faithful God of the universe!

by His grace
for His glory,
jrf

"Missions and Masturbation" by John Piper

Don't see the connection? Check out this article by John Piper. Then check out this more recent article by Piper in the current Christiainity Today. .

by His Grace
for His Glory

Time for some quotes!

As I was preparing for a meeting today I ran across some good quotes concerning sanctification and thought I would pass them along.

This life, therefore,
is not righteousness but growth in righteousness,
not health but healing,
not being but becoming,
not rest by exercise.
We are not yet what we shall be,
but we are growing toward it;
the process is not yet finished but it is going on.
This is not the end but it is the road;
all does not yet gleam in glory but all is being purified.
- Martin Luther

Holiness is not the way to Christ.
Christ is the way to holiness.
- Adrian Rogers

Becoming a Christian is not making a new start in life;
it is receiving a new life to start with.
- Thomas Adams

Grace is not simply leniency when we have sinned.
Grace is the enabling gift of God not to sin.
Grace is power, not just pardon.
- John Piper

Don't just sit there by yourself or off to one side and hang your head, and shake it and gnaw your knuckles and worry and look for a way out, nothing on your mind except how bad you feel, how you hurt, what a poor guy you are. Get up, you lazy scamp! Down on your knees! Up with your hands and eyes toward heaven!
- Martin Luther

If you still have a hankering for some good quotes, check this one out at my buddies blog.