The Throne of Our Affections
Building something from the ground up requires a close examination of the heart.
The Heart is the Engine
that Animates Our Lives
The last few months (and years) have brought about a whole host of pastoral thoughts I’ve been wrestling with. Not least of which being: what makes a man tick?
Anyone who has been a Christian for even a short length of time has faced moments like Paul did in Romans 7:15:
“For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”
In our own lives and in the lives of others we so often see a disjointed Christian life. We know the good we ought to do but we don’t do it. We can have coffee with someone, offer counsel to lots of head nodding, and then it’s like nothing was said at all. Or, perhaps we try to gain traction on a particular initiative as a church and we’re met with yawns. No matter what brick wall you seem to be knocking your head against, it’s worth investigating the mechanics of the affections of the heart.
It is my belief that the heart, the throne of our affections, is what drives us. It’s our passions, our vices, our interests, our proclivities. It’s the invisible strings that make up our habits and thus, our character. And it is terribly disordered. Marketing gets this. Its goal is to identify the lever that spits out the dollars from people. But, we’re not in the market of dollars and levers. We are in the transformation business, the glory of God business.
Then Christ comes as Prophet, Priest, and King and rips the old dead heart out and puts a new beating heart in. And, yet it still feels disordered. So what’s the deal?
Jonathan Edward’s argues that it is delight that is at the root of our faith. He states that our love of God is,
“from a spiritual taste and relish of what is excellent and divine.”
Our heart is rushed with delight as we experience the love of God and that produces faith. This happens at regeneration: the moment when the Spirit of God makes us alive in Christ. This is important because it means that neither our conversion, nor our ongoing salvation and perseverance are rooted simply in the affirmation of doctrinal facts but also in an experienced love from God. Remember, even the demons believe in Jesus (Js. 2:19). Doctrinal clarity is essential, but it is not independent of our holy affections.
So what’s the point? The point is that the work of preaching, discipling, and stirring up is a matter of holy affections (of which delight is central) rooted in the love of God. It is heart business.
Let me give a practical application of this.
A friend comes and says they’re struggling with dedicating themselves to reading and meditating on Holy Scripture. We tell them we’re glad they brought this to our attention and they should totally do those things. Nodding in agreement, they plan to exert more effort. Then next week they’re still not reading their Bible.
Now, we could show them how useful Scripture is. We could show them how essential it is. We could show them how it meets all their needs (real and felt). Or, we could show them how it reveals an absolutely sovereign, self-sufficient, and holy God who loves them. It is, after all, the love of God which sustains us, it enables us to persevere. We must persevere, and we will if we are in Christ.
“We love because He first loved us.” -1 John 4:19
If love is the precursor of delight and delight is the root of holy affections and joyful obedience, then it follows that a person must be connected to the love that is in God towards them to accomplish this (1 John 4:19, John 14:15). A train can want to go real bad, it can even be cheered on or shouted at to move. But, until it has coal in the furnace, it’s not going anywhere. The love of God is that coal. It stokes our heart to animate the holy affections and fuel the machinery of obedience.
Worldview Showdown
Sunday I preached the conclusion to Paul’s short but punchy letter to the Galatians. It was great to work through it with the church, who did not buckle under the hard admonitions found there.
In the last part of the letter, Paul shows the conflict in worldviews between the circumcision party and the Christians who were sadly deceived by them. Click below to watch!
Planting Training
This week was to be our first week of training, but the great devil of logistics and scheduling got in the way. We will officially begin next Friday morning. This is one area that I look forward (I may come to regret saying this) seeing the Lord grow me in personally. Being an idealist means that you have to be prepared for the ideal not to happen. So we’re being flexible in what will surely be a long chain of moments requiring flexibility in the six months ahead.
Support
One way God has already shown us His goodness is in the many prayers, conversations, and financial support we’ve received. I don’t have hard numbers in front of me yet, those will likely come by the end of March which I’ll share with you in the newsletter. However, God’s people have been wonderful and generous in showing their support for the church plant.
The Lord has provided great encouragement through new friends and old. Stoking the fire, stirring up holy affections, and encouraging us in the work we’re doing. I’ll never be able to list out all the names of those who have been an important part of this story, but I am thankful beyond measure for them. God knows what we need, and He meets those needs ordinarily through His body.
Prayer Requests
Pray for physical health for our kids, especially our youngest. These winter viruses have taken a toll and now she’s recovering from an eye infection. Rachel needs prayer for strength (literally and figuratively) as she cares for that red-headed two-year-old who does not, in fact, like having anything put into her eyeballs.
Pray for our association’s parenting conference that is being held in March. I will be a speaker there. It was a great time when we held it last year at Riviera, so I look forward to doing it again. Check it out here if you’re interested.
Continue to pray for our brother Patrick who is recovering from an unexpected surgery. He’s an absolute rockstar and has been in great spirits praising the Lord.
