Compromising for Cuteness

To my brothers,

A girl's attractiveness is not a sign of Godliness.

I beg you, please, look at her character and have sober-discernment. If she isn't ready, then wait for her to grow. If she isn't mature, then please wait for someone else. I'm not talking about perfection, by no means; but I'm encouraging you to avoid both extremes (Looking for a perfect girl or being blinded by outward beauty). So I ask you, judge rightly and biblically. But please don't compromise your biblical values for a pretty face.

Please wait. I'm praying for you.

With love,

-Micah

What Do People Think about Me??

1 Samuel 15:24 "Then Saul said to Samuel, 'I have sinned; I have indeed transgressed the command of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and listened to their voice."

Context: Saul had disobeyed the LORD by not completely destroying the Amalekites. Instead, he decided to take animals from the Amalekites even though the LORD instructed him not to do that.

How do I know if I am fearing men more than God?

Here are 2 ways to test yourself:

1) If the words of men affect you more than the words of God, then you are fearing men.

2) If the words of the men cause you to sin against God, then you are fearing men.

Fearing men may just lead you into sinning against God. God cares more about your obedience than your rep amongst people. So if you're faced with a choice, always choose the approval of the Lord and rather than the approval of man. In the end, that's all that matters.

The Fad-Driven Christian

"We must always remember that popular acclaim is not necessarily the same as spiritual effectiveness." (Chapell).

Be mindful of the popular things, loved ones! Popularity does not equal spiritually "good for you." Popular pragmatism is the highway to spiritual downfall.

Starting a Fire

An excerpt from a sermon series that has pierced my soul:

Now I want to talk about this for just a moment so you understand clearly some theological distinctions. True believers...mark this, here's the word...true believers will have a sanctified tongue. Did you get that? True believers, true Christians, totally transformed people, those who have been made new in Christ, will have a sanctified tongue. Let me add something to it. True believers must have a sanctified tongue. Did you get that? True believers will have a sanctified tongue. True believers must have a sanctified tongue.

You say, "Well, wait a minute. If we will have, then why do you tell us we must have?" Because one is a sovereign reality in the new birth and the other is a human responsibility that's really ours to fulfill. And that's the amazing tension and paradox of our Christian experience. If we're truly new in Christ, we will have a pure speech. And if we're truly new in Christ, we will take the responsibility to be sure we have a pure speech. That is a constant biblical paradox. If you understand that, and we hit that a lot of times in our Bible study, but if you understand that, you really are on the way to understanding a mystery.

You can't fully understand it but let me give it to you this way. We are saved by sovereign grace, right? Chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, yet we must believe. We are kept by the security of God in His sovereign decree, yet we must persevere. We live by sovereign power, not I but Christ living in me, yet we must obey. And as James would put it, because we are new creatures, we will endure trials and we must endure them. We will receive the Word and obey it and we must receive the Word and obey it. We will be gracious to the needy without partiality, and we must be gracious to the needy without partiality. We will produce good works and we must produce good works.

In other words, you'll never really be able to resolve the fact that what God says will be true of you, must be true of you. Just because God said it doesn't mean we can lie down flat on our back and hope it happens. And that's really the mystery of the apparent paradoxes of the Christian experience. Where there is genuine living faith and true regeneration and transformation, these things will be the result and they must be the result. God will produce them in us but He produces them in us through our commitment to them. You understand that? That's the best we can get at it.

-Macarthur

Lord, help me to bridle my tongue.