Sinclair Ferguson on Joseph's Multicolor Puzzle

You can listen to Sinclair Ferguson's Four Corners of the Jigsaw Puzzle here. Below is a quote from that sermon.

Genesis 50:20:
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.

"One of the things I notice with Christian people is that often they seem to find themselves shunted off the highway of usefulness and fruitfulness. They are put on a dead end street, and they are discouraged and disappointed. What are you to say to them?

You are to say: God has brought you into this in order that the traffic of his purposes may move on, until you will be in the right place at the right time, but at that point a very different person, having been transformed by your difficulties and trials. Then, God will make you fruitful for his Glory among His people.

Do you wonder what the future holds for you? He is doing something in you, in order that you may be in the place where through you he will do something for others. You see, afflictions are like frosty weather on garments; they change the hue and they bleach them white. God works in our circumstances. Samuel Weatherford said "There are some graces that grow best in winter."

And Jesus is the musical conductor of our lives who knows the score perfectly. Years and years ago--we have three boys and a girl-- and my little girl wanted to go see the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. And the night she was going, my wife was sick, so I had to go to Edinburgh and watch. (I think I was the only person in the audience who didn't know that at some point in that musical, Pharaoh turns into Elvis Presley. I let out such a guffaw of astonishment that it was about six months before my daughter would admit that she had seen it. )

But our seats we had were right at the very front of the audience. And so, we were in the rare position of being able to see all the action on the stage as well as all the music being played in the pit underneath.

And I've never forgotten the way the conductor came in: He came to his little podium--most of the audience couldn't see this--but I saw him take out of his pocket a little packet of M&Ms. He opened the packet and put them in this little cup that was beside the podium. And, he began to conduct and every so often--very causally--he would pick up an M&M.

There was all this drama going on the stage...but the conductor was unfazed. He knew what he was doing because he already knew the score.

Now, I'm not suggesting that God is unmoved by the afflictions of our lives. That He is in heaven eating M&Ms. But, when evil is set against him, He who sits in the heavens laughs. He holds them in derision, because he knows the score. And the reason he knows the score is because he is not only the conductor...but he is the composer.

Do you remember Cowper's hymn? Its called "Light Shining Out of Darkness":

Deep in unfathomable minds of never failing skill
He treasures up his bright designs and works his sovereign will. 

Or to put that in the better words of our Lord Jesus, in a slightly different context: Do you remember when Peter protested that Jesus was washing his feet? Our Lord Jesus said something to him that surely applies to the whole of our lives: "Peter, you do not now understand what I am now doing. But afterwards you will understand....so trust me."

Its one thing to have your lenses crafted Biblically, so that you understand what God does. But that is not a substitute for trusting him personally. And so wherever you are...its even possible that you are here today partly because you know a Christian who has gone through circumstances that are appalling to you and it has puzzled you. You say "Why should he/she, who is such an outstanding Christian, go through this?"

And you are learning through this passage, that perhaps you are the reason. Because the Lord is drawing you to himself through him/her to bring you to Christ."

Footsteps and Signposts

I used to hate journaling. I thought it was a crutch. Looking back, I realize that I was actually just terrified that somebody might stumble across it and read the truth about me. I always liked the thought of owning a fancy Italian leather-bound journal...I just didn't want to write anything in it.

Regardless, at one of my especially low points, I stumbled across a podcast on mindfulness that seemed...well, a less desperate form of journaling. It was a simple plan for daily self-reflection: Each evening take five minutes and write down three positive things that happened to you and one thing you could have done better that day. 

That's it.

It was less important what was remembered--it might be a cup of coffee, a certain song on the radio, a conversation with a co-worker. Rather, the goal was to remember that life was taking place around you, whether you realized it or not. 

One of the great epiphanies that I have had in my journey to recovery is realizing that pornography has a frightening ability to turn you inward. And when you are only looking inward, its amazing what you miss around you. Plus, being aware helps you to be non-reactive.

I'm so thankful now that I stumbled across that podcast. Because I now have a progress report from various places on my journey. The "three up, one down" journal eventually expanded to a daily check-in with myself. Later, it became a quote and Bible memory repository and finally a hybrid prayer journal. Looking back, these entries are signposts from my journey and they are precious to me. 

I remember finishing the Covenant Eyes 40 Day Challenge and one of their summary points has stuck with me. These points on your journey must be footsteps, not monuments. Because a footstep says "I was once here" while a monument says "this is the furthest made it."

If you are looking for a good place to start this journey, I recommend checking in with yourself first. You might include a memorable verse or quote. 

In the end, I purchased an cheap spiral-bound journal from Walgreen's. It looks industrial and the pages smell like chemicals. Its perfect. Below is one of my signposts from January 2017:

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty...For surely he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler. 

-Psalm 91: 3

"O backslider do not despair. Wanderer, though thou hast been, hear what the Redeemer saith: Return, O backsliding children; I will have mercy upon you. 

But you say you cannot return, for you are a captive? Then listen to the promise- Surely he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler. Thou shall be brought out of all evil from which thou hast fallen. He has loved thee and will not cast thee away. He will receive thee and give the joy and gladness."

-C.H. Spurgeon

Two Roads, Two Rooms

John Lynch is a pastor at Open Door Fellowship in Phoenix and author of My Worst Day and The Cure. In this allegory, he portrays the battle of Trusting God versus Pleasing God as two roads and two rooms. The rooms that we inevitably encounter are either the "Room of Good Intentions" or the "Room of Grace." If you have 45 minutes the full video is formative and well worth your time.

If you're like me, you have worn a mask in the room of good intentions for a long time. Something John references in his talk was shared with me recently when discussing my own journey: We can gain respect from behind a mask. But no one tells you that when you wear a mask, only the mask gets to receive love.

John has adapted these and many of these points in his book The Cure: What if God isn't who you think he is and neither are you. There he writes about the Room of Grace:

What if there was a place so safe that the worst of me could be known, and I would discover that I would not be loved less, but more In the telling of it? Those in the Room of Grace are in the process of being freed to live beyond preoccupation over their next failure. They're trusting who God says they are, instead of adding up their behaviors to prove their godliness.

You can listen to John discuss the Room of Grace in this clip from the UndoneRedone podcast below.

Soundcloud: John Lynch from UndoneRedone

Nate Larkin Testimony

Nate Larkin is a former pastor and founder of the Samson Society. His boldness and sense of community is a huge inspiration for this group. Watch his powerful testimony in the clip above. Below is a quote from his book Samson and the Pirate Monks which you can purchase here.

He writes:

Deep within my DNA, apparently, lies the conviction that I have been put on earth to do huge things, spectacular things, and that by virtue of my destiny I occupy a privileged place above the common run of humanity. It is an attitude that expresses itself in strange ways, such as a reluctance to stand in line and wait my turn, or fill our forms, or follow rules. Rules, after all, are for ordinary people and I am a special case. My grandiosity manipulates every situation to achieve its own ends, and does so shamelessly.

Oddly enough, I am also prone to bouts of self loathing...an egomaniac with an inferiority complex. These are the two faces of my pride, and both of them cajole me to greater effort. They tell me that I must justify myself by doing more. They say that I must get more at-bats and that I must hit the ball harder and farther. I must do great things for God.

My friends tell me something different. They remind me that I am merely part of a team. I am unique, they say, but only in the way that every snowflake is unique. We are different, but not so easily distinguished. We are all composed of the same stuff. We all fall to the ground and we achieve our most captivating beauty  in community.

When I listen to the stories of my brothers, I find to my surprise that they are telling my story too. A friend shares his weakness, and I am strengthened by it. Another shares his experience, and it fills a hole in my own. As my ego deflates and I take my rightful place within the created order, I feel the joy that comes from living as a worker among workers, a man among men.

...The city of God is being built, and it is being built one brick at at  time. A game with a child. An honest conversation with a friend. An evening with a  spouse. A phone call. An admission. An apology. A disclosure. A small fidelity.

One brick at at time.

Points of Departure

Day One.

How many times have we all said that before, right? 

If you have found your way here, we're glad. Its a very good place to start. This blog is intended to be an outpost. It is a forward operating base placed in enemy territory and stocked with resources to prevent a counter attack from the enemy. Think of it as a way of taking back the internet. Our goal is to have videos, podcasts and links that will encourage you. 

But for my first post, we begin where I began when this journey started for me, when someone gave me a copy of J.I. Packer's excellent book Knowing God. I immediately encountered this section...namely because it was in the introduction. For the record, I did make it farther than the introduction, although that hasn't always been the case with my Christian book scholarship. 

I hope this will frame the goal for this blog. I have taken a little creative license at the end which I hope you will permit:

In A Preface to Christian Theology, John Mackay illustrated two kinds of interest in Christian things by picturing persons sitting on the high front balcony of a Spanish house, watching travelers go by on the road below. The "balconeers" can overhear the travelers' talk and chat with them; they may comment critically on the way that the travelers walk; or they may discuss questions about the road, how it can exist at all or lead anywhere, what might be seen from different points along it, and so forth; but they are onlookers, and their problems are theoretical only.

The travelers, by contrast, face problems which are essentially practical- problems of the "which-way-to-go" and "how-to-make-it" type, problems which call not merely for comprehension but for decision and action too.

Balconeers and travelers may think over the same area, yet their problems differ. For instance, in relation to evil, the balconeer's problem is to find a theoretical explanation of how evil can consist with God's sovereignty and goodness, but the traveler's problem is how to master evil and bring good out of it. Or in relation to sin, the balconeer asks whether sinfulness and personal perversity are really credible, while the traveler, knowing sin from within, asks what hope there is of deliverance. 

Now this a blog for travelers, and it is with travelers' questions that it deals.