Find Me Here More Often

Hey,

His Voice has started a blog and I will be updating more often over there than here. Please come and check it out. It will be posts from everyone who is employed by His Voice.

Click Here.

Love Truth

Stunning.

Check out this video. It is amazing. My friend, Sam Byers, shared this.

Thought on Encouragement

Here is a great quote on encouragement from Tullian Tchividjian. Let me know your thoughts.

"There's a counterfeit type of encouragement and a genuine type of encouragement. The counterfeit type is what the Bible calls flattery. It's selfish smooth talk. The person who offers it does so for selfish reasons (If I tell this person something nice, he'll do for me what I want him to do). But true encouragement is different. Understood biblically, real encouragement is the verbal affirmation of someone's strength, giftedness, or accomplishment, along with the realization that God the Creator is the ultimate source behind whatever's being affirmed.

This type of encouragement is something all human beings not only crave but in fact need. God intended us to feed on it. The reason we require it is that we're images of God, designed to reflect Him. So when others aren't acknowledging God's reflection in who we are and what we do - when we're not being encouraged - it leads to a hardened heart, a saddened disposition, and a debilitated lifestyle; we lose our sense of what it means to be human. Some of the most tragically hardened and fruitless people I know are those who have rarely, if ever, been encouraged.

The secret of true encouragement is learning to see God's reflection in others, not just in Christians but in everyone. Encouragement is noticing God's reflection in other people's strengths and gifts, then verbally affirming what we see. Since all human beings are made in God's image, we all - believers and unbelievers alike - reflect God in unique ways. Learning to see this uniqueness and to point it out can have a significant impact as we strive to make a difference in our world for the sake of God's kingdom.

Some thoughts of Titus on Heaven and Hell

I just got back from my grandma's funeral in St. Louis. I brought Titus and took time to explain things such as a casket, where do people go when they die, what would happen when they close the casket to put it in the ground, etc. It was quite an interesting conversation. That night we went to the house of some good friends and as Titus was playing in the sandbox the following dialogue to place:

Titus: Daddy. Look. I made a casket for the shovel (he had buried the shovel in sand).

Me: Oh yea? That is interesting.

Titus: Yea. Did you know that when we play in the sand in Heaven it will be so much fun?!?!

Me: Yea buddy. It will be.

Titus: Yea, it would not be as much fun to play in the sand in Hell.

Me: It wouldn't be fun at all because fun is not even a possibility in Hell.

Titus: Yea, unless I brought a brick down there and killed Satan with it!!

Me: That's quite an interesting thought. Guess what?

Titus: What?

Me: I LOVE YOU!

Immediately after this he just went back to playing around in the sandbox like a typical 4 year old. His insight amazes me a ton. It is always interesting to see how he put thoughts together that are quite profound, but then also has the maturity to HAVE FUN ALSO.

Love Truth

Grief: Simple, yet messy

Grief seems to be a strange area in life. My grandma just died last night and it has brought to the surface many things about my dad (He died 5 years ago this coming May 23). I wanted to take time and share a couple of things I have learned along the way, along with some failures in the process.

First of all, grief is messy, yet it is very simple. Grief is not complicated. I have found that many times the paralyzing part of grief comes when people start believing that grief is just to complicated, along with being very messy.

Next, it is eerily scary to see how easy we can suppress our emotions and others think this is mature in some way. I remember hearing so many people tell me they thought I was dealing with my dad’s death in a very mature way. One thing I have found is that many people equate external stoicism with maturity in life. I am not saying you have to cry your eyes out every day, but the problem comes when you equate “not crying” with properly working through grief. I was scared of my emotions and in some degree am still working through this fear in my life. The fear of “feeling to deeply” caused me to suppress my emotions (whether crying, laughing, etc.) in such a way that I ended up trying to be the god of my own emotions. I quit trusting God with this part of my life. This is called practical atheism. I worked out how I could be "presentable" to people without asking God to teach me who He was and thus show me how to properly unpack grief. If you find yourself in this camp I pray you would experientially know that He is not only bigger that any emotion you have, but that He will be faithful to help you unpack your emotions.

Finally, I have learned that proper grief ultimately comes down to knowing Him. This is why grief is simple. Instead of trying to suppress my emotions or even plan how I am going to feel about a certain memory that I have, I ask God to teach me how to know Him more and have faith that He will reveal to me the information behind the emotions. After all, I may cry one day and that emotion is from missing my dad or grandma, yet tears the following day may be because I am happy from another memory. I am not trying to trivialize grief down to laughing, crying, or neither. Just like in all of life our emotions are numerous and so are the ways we express them. When I came to the understanding that God really does want us to know Him through all of our emotions I quit trying to control them and entrusted myself to Him.

Therefore, grief has ultimately taught me to be challenged with the question, “Who is God?” Do I trust who He says He is? Do I trust that He knows me better than I know myself? Do I trust that He will work all things out for my good? (Rom. 8:28) If I trust Him with who He says He is according to the Bible, it only follows that He will be faithful to comfort me and teach me who He is in the face of grief and will also give me unspeakable joy.

I pray that you will feel and know His comfort today if you are grieving in any way. I pray you will trust His faithfulness. I pray you will know that He really does want to show you how much He love you in the face of your grief. I pray that if you have never lost someone close to you that He would teach you how to walk alongside those who are grieving. I pray that in the face of good memories or bad that you would know He is your ultimate joy in life.

Grief is simple. Know Him. Grief is messy because it hurts terribly, yet He promises to comfort us in all of our afflictions so that we are able to comfort others in their time of need. (2 Cor. 1:3-5)


Thoughts?

Insight from D.A. Carson on The Gospel

One must distinguish between, on the one hand, the gospel as what God has done and what is the message to be announced and, on the other, what is demanded by God or effected by the gospel in assorted human responses. If the gospel is the (good) news about what God has done in Christ Jesus, there is ample place for including under “the gospel” the ways in which the kingdom has dawned and is coming, for tying this kingdom to Jesus’ death and resurrection, for demonstrating that the purpose of what God has done is to reconcile sinners to himself and finally to bring under one head a renovated and transformed new heaven and new earth, for talking about God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, consequent upon Christ’s resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Majesty on high, and above all for focusing attention on what Paul (and others—though the language I’m using here reflects Paul) sees as the matter “of first importance”: Christ crucified. All of this is what God has done; it is what we proclaim; it is the news, the great news, the good news.

By contrast, the first two greatest commands—to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves—do not constitute the gospel, or any part of it. We may well argue that when the gospel is faithfully declared and rightly received, it will result in human beings more closely aligned to these two commands. But they are not the gospel. Similarly, the gospel is not receiving Christ or believing in him, or being converted, or joining a church; it is not the practice of discipleship. Once again, the gospel faithfully declared and rightly received will result in people receiving Christ, believing in Christ, being converted, and joining a local church; but such steps are not the gospel. The Bible can exhort those who trust the living God to be concerned with issues of social justice (Isa 2; Amos); it can tell new covenant believers to do good to all human beings, especially to those of the household of faith (Gal 6); it exhorts us to remember the poor and to ask, not “Who is my neighbor?” but “Whom am I serving as neighbor?” We may even argue that some such list of moral commitments is a necessary consequence of the gospel. But it is not the gospel. We may preach through the list, reminding people that the Bible is concerned to tell us not only what to believe but how to live. But we may not preach through that list and claim it encapsulates the gospel. The gospel is what God has done, supremely in Christ, and especially focused on his cross and resurrection.

Failure to distinguish between the gospel and all the effects of the gospel tends, on the long haul, to replace the good news as to what God has done with a moralism that is finally without the power and the glory of Christ crucified, resurrected, ascended, and reigning.

Thoughts?

Love Truth

Titus talking about Heaven and Hell

Amber asked me to go back and talk with Titus in his room before bed because he was asking questions about Heaven and Hell. It went like this...

Titus: Daddy, why do people go to Hell?

Me: Because people choose to go to Hell. God doesn't desire for them to go to Hell, but they decided that other things would bring more joy and happiness than relationship with Him. Therefore they are separated from Him for eternity.

Titus: Yea. People who go to Hell do this to Satan (This is where Titus made the sign of saluting Satan!) Also, why did God make people?

Me: God was totally happy without making us, but He chose to make us so we could know total joy, mainly a relationship with Him.

Titus: Yea


It is always amazing to hear what is going on in the mind of Titus. He constantly teaches me and keeps me on my toes.

Love Truth

Some thoughts by a former Atheist on the Logical Fallacy of the Universe Being created by Chance

Anthony Flew was a well known Atheist. In 2004 he became a theist because of what he says were overwhelming evidences from a scientific and logical viewpoint of the need for an Intelligent Designer.

He wrote a book called There is a God about his journey from Atheism to Theism. He was in his 80's when he converted to Theism. He is not a Christian, yet his case for Theism is very strong. I have posted a passage below from his book.


Gerry Schroeder first referred to an experiment conducted by the British National Council of Arts. A computer was placed in a cage with six monkeys. After one month of hammering away at it (as well as using it as a bathroom!), the monkeys produced fifty typed pages - but not a single word. Schroeder noted that this was the case even though the shortest word in the English language is one letter (a or I). A is a word only if there is space on either side of it. If we take it that the keyboard has thirty characters (the twenty-six letters and other symbols), the the likelihood of getting a one-letter word is 30 times 30 times 30, which is 27,000. The likelihood of getting a one-letter word is one chance out of 27,000.

Shroeder then applied the probabilities to the sonnet analogy: "What's the chance of getting a Shakespearean sonnet?" he asked. He continued:

"All the sonnets are the same length. They're by definition fourteen lines long. I picked the one I knew the opening line for, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" I counted the number of letters; there are 488 letters in that sonnet. What's the likelihood of hammering away and getting 488 letters in the exact sequence as in "Shall I compare Thee to a Summer's Day?" What you end up with is 26 multiplied by itself 488 times - or 26 to the 488th power. Or, in other words, in base 10, 10 to the 690th.

[Now] the number of particles in the universe - not grains of sand, I'm talking about protons, electrons, and neutrons - is 10 to the 80th. Ten to the 80th is 1 with 80 zeros ofter it. There are not enough particles in the universe to write down the trials; you'd be off by a factor of 10 to the 600th.

If you took the entire universe and converted it to computer chips - forget the monkeys - each one weighing a millionth of a gram and had each computer chip able to spin out 488 trials at, say, a million times a second; if you turn the entire universe into these microcomputer chips and these chips were spinning a million times a second [producing] random letters, the number of trials you would get since the beginning of time would be 10 to the 90th trials. It would be off again by a factor of 10 to the 600th. You will never get a sonnet by chance. The universe would have to be 10 to the 600th times larger. Yet the world thinks the monkeys can do it every time.


Thoughts?

Thoughts from Bernard of Clairvaux on "Glorying in the gifts God has given"

Here is a passage from a great author. The title of Bernard of Clairvaux's book is "On Loving God". He lived from 1090-1153.


There is no glory in having a gift without knowing it. But to know only that you have it, without knowing that it is not of yourself that you have it, means self-glorying, but no true glory in God. And so the apostle says to men in such cases, ‘What hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? (I Cor. 4.7). He asks, Why dost thou glory? but goes on, as if thou hadst not received it, showing that the guilt is not in glorying over a possession, but in glorying as though it had not been received. And rightly such glorying is called vain-glory, since it has not the solid foundation of truth. The apostle shows how to discern the true glory from the false, when he says, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord, that is, in the Truth, since our Lord is Truth (I Cor. 1.31; John 14.6). We must know, then, what we are, and that it is not of ourselves that we are what we are. Unless we know this thoroughly, either we shall not glory at all, or our glorying will be vain.

Thoughts?

Some More Titus Brilliance

This past Saturday I was going to our backyard in order to ask Titus if he wanted to come with me to the store. Titus was sitting on one of those bouncy exercise balls in the middle of the yard and this is the conversation that ensued:

Me: Hey buddy! What are you singing?

Titus: Um, The Happy Song!

Me: Why were you singing that song?

Titus: So God and Jesus can hear me.

Me: Why do you want them to hear you?

Titus: Oh, I just want them to still know I am here. Let's go to the store now.


He blew me away with his comments. I was talking to my step mom today and she made the statement that it would be good for all of us to sit in the middle of the yard on a exercise ball and sing to Jesus. So, if you are by the house any time soon and you see me in the middle of our backyard singing, just know that I have been learning from my son :)

Great Thougths from a Muslim Friend

I was meeting a friend yesterday morning for coffee. His name is Hasan and he is an Imam (a Muslim Pastor) in Arlington. As we were talking he said a couple of things that I thought were greatly interesting and also challenging to the Christian community.

He gave typical Islamic reasons for being against Christianity, such as the thought that the Trinity is a form of Polytheism etc. These are always very good and challenging discussions. The two things he said, which I thought were interesting, were the following:

1. He said, "Your pastors are so proud of preaching that is so focused on man. I have never seen someone who has walked out of a church challenged by God, just more focused on themselves and what they need to do."

What a powerful statement! Although I corrected him on the over generalization, it seems he has a decent point. He went on to say, "Don't your pastors understand they are talking about God!" I believe his challenge is incredible because if we truly trust that God knows us better than we even know ourselves would it not be best to seek Him and then let Him tell us what is best for us? Instead, many times we fall short by focusing PREDOMINANTLY on us. I am not saying preaching and teaching will not include practical outworkings, but it is possible to focus in such a way that we look good in carrying out "good works", while we miss Him.

2. Hasan also said something that is a fairly typical argument for Muslims, but is always interesting to talk through. He said, "Islam is an entire way of life. Christianity is only spiritual. In fact, separating Christianity into the spiritual seems to be a pride they like."

Again, I corrected him in saying that Christianity is not an entire lifestyle. I believe it is, but listening to these objections from someone who does not trust in Jesus for eternal life is always quite sobering. I believe Hasan is right when it comes down to many Christians trying to segment belief from lifestyle. This is not the way of Jesus.


I say all of these things hopefully in a way that is challenging to you, if you are a Christian. I also say these things so you have a chance to see things through the eyes of a Muslim. I am always challenged and encouraged in Jesus when I am able to have a conversation with a Muslim.

Love Truth

LRA

Sorry for the delay in writing :) If you are interested in seeing a good video on the Lord's Resistance Army, I am putting a link below. I use the term "good" because of the journalism, not because of the atrocious acts. Please take time to watch this video. Take time to pray for all the people involved.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYURvl8WXFU

Let me know what you think.

Some thoughts from Daniel Taylor

I have been reading a book by Daniel Taylor called Tell Me A Story: The Life-Shaping Power of Our Stories. It has been very "eye opening".

He wrote a couple of paragraphs that have made me think a ton and helped me immensely. Here they are:

Since its inception, psychotherapy has overwhelmingly focused on what is wrong with our stories rather than what is right with them. It has replaced the puritanical nose for sin with the psychiatric nose for abuse and discord.

Everyone looking back on the beginnings of his or her story is expected to find pain, distortion, and abuse or be accused of repression or dishonesty. As old-time religion encouraged us to ferret out sin everywhere, so we could confess and be absolved of it, so modern social science encourages us everywhere to find oppression, deformity, perversion, and misused power. This narrowness encourages us to undermine our own beginnings and to see ourselves as helpless victims with damaged personalities rather than as active characters with the power to shape our own plots.

I could create a story of my own childhood that focuses on trouble and pain. The many individual details would be true but the story would be a lie...

The point is not to tell only Pollyanna tales about one's beginnings. It is to see tales of pain in the context of a larger whole. We should marvel as much that pain coexists with and even stimulates good as we lament pain's destructive consequences. WE OUGHT NOT TO ALLOW OUR CURRENT OBSESSION WITH FINDING SOMETHING TO BLAME FOR OUR DISCONTENT BLIND US TO THE LIFE-ENHANCING POSSIBILITIES THAT FLICKER IN EVEN THE DARKEST STORIES.

I have not heard such a balanced view of personal story, not being defined by tragedies, and also to not have an "everything is great all the time" mentality, before in my life.

What do you think about his comments.

Hajj: One of the "Pillars of Islam"

Hey Everyone,

Muslims have 5 "Pillars". One of the pillars is going on the hajj. This is a journey to Mecca, and some surrounding areas, that each able bodied Muslim is required to take in their life. Here is a link to a virtual hajj. It gives a great and concise rundown of each step that must be taken.

Although I am not a Muslim, I believe it is important to understand the beliefs of others and take them seriously. If we think about it logically (and I believe from a biblical view), if someone does not agree with what we believe, it should not cause us to be intimidated, but should propel us towards conversations with those whom we do not agree. After all, if what we are saying is right, we have nothing to be fearful about. Also, if someone is not thinking properly, this should cause us to have a burden, not a spirit of ostracizing.

I am an evangelical Christian (just to clarify for those who do not know me). I want to say this because I believe the model given in Scripture is to lovingly engage unbelievers (one example would be Paul in Acts 17), instead of the opposite. I pray that we will be people who, with a bold gentleness, testify to the Gospel of Jesus. I also pray we will be people who, with great compassion, give a fair hearing to people who do not believe the same way. This should not produce a "spirit of compromise", but should empower us to study Scripture (and the way other people think) with fresh vigor. I have found that the more I talk with unbelievers, the more I realize the need for each of us (Christians) to be astute theologians. After all, we are all theologians, it is a matter of being a good or bad one.

Any Thoughts?

Random thoughts on Boredom

I was driving today with Amber and Justus. We were coming home from getting some lunch and I started to think about boredom, after a car almost pulled out in front of us. I will let you in the “madness called my mind” ☺ by giving you the thoughts on how I got to thinking about boredom.

As the car almost pulled out I had a thought that many of us have fairly often. “What if I would have died in a head on accident from this incident? Did I really think this was a routine drive?" Is there a such thing as 'just a routine drive'?" For some reason I started to think about how easy it is to profess boredom. The perceived monotony of the day can breed desperation from thinking that we are insignificant, that God has forsaken us, or maybe He never “took us in” in the first place, etc.

I thought of monotony and boredom because we were doing what seems to be a very routine thing of driving a car. What came to my mind as I thought about boredom has been encouraging and is also allowing me to do some evaluations in my life.

First of all, boredom comes from the sin of entitlement. We believe that we not only deserve the day which the Lord has given (i.e. given means a gift), but we also have taken His gift for granted. I know this might not sound to hope filled, but if we view rebuke through the lens of a gracious God calling us to change so that our joy is increased in Him, we will find great hope!

Next, we have not understood the uniqueness of history if we are "bored". We have a linear history, which means that we have a beginning and an end. Therefore, if each moment in history is infinitely unique, monotony is a fallacy. Therefore, boredom should be a fallacy also. Each moment is unique, yet as Christians, He has entrusted us with an unchanging message. This mentality will allow us to see that if He never changes, yet places us in an infinitely unique time in history, the attacks of boredom and monotony should be exploded. He has called us to proclaim and live out a message that never changes to an ever changing audience. Therefore, each interaction with people is always truly unique.

Finally, God is really inviting us to always be conformed to the image and likeness of Jesus. This does not leave room (thankfully!) for boredom. He is always graciously teaching us, encouraging us, rebuking us, and loving us. If the righteousness of Jesus has been counted as our righteousness (speaking of Christians), it would only follow that the loving pursuit of the Father would be to let us know (by any means necessary) of the perfect righteousness that He has counted as ours through the cross of Christ.

I know these may sound like fairly random thoughts, but I wanted to share some of the things I have been thinking through in the last couple of hours. Be encouraged that monotony is a fallacy. Be encouraged in His love for you.

Thoughts?

Some new Titus goodness

I have a couple of funny and cool stories from Titus.

Story 1

Titus has been sick (on and off again) for the past couple of weeks. When he got back from Houston this past weekend, his sickness started. He was complaining of a bad headache and some dizzyness. Amber did what any sane mother would and tried to give him some medicine. He eventually took it, but let Amber know the following:

"Mommy, I don't need that. Jesus will heal me! He can heal anything!"

This morning we were in the shower and he told me again, "Daddy, Do you know that Jesus can heal ANYTHING?!" I told him that I did and wanted him to really believe what he said. He smiled.

Story 2

Titus and I were out on a hike yesterday before he complained of his sickness. As we were passing through some flowers he asked if he could stop and smell them. I told him that he could and this is the conversation that followed:

Titus: MMM! This flower smells good. It smells like a clean heart!

Me: A clean heart? Why do you think a clean heart smells good?

Titus: Well, God likes clean hearts and so they will smell good, but God doesn't like dirty hearts because they smell like a pit!

Me: Where did you learn all of this? (expecting to hear Sunday School, the house, etc.)

Titus: I just made it up.


I have been loving how God has used Titus to teach me so many things about life. Some of the greatest advice I ever learned about parenting came from an incredible guy who is an oil field worker. I asked him what he would do differently in raising his kids. He said, "I would take them fishing more. I was their baseball coach for years (and I had a lot of fun), but we did not have enough time to talk. When you go fishing, it is just you and your son. You have time to talk."

Although I am not a big fisherman, I do love to hike. Whenever Titus wants to fish more, we will go, but for now hiking has been a great way to have great conversations. If you have any "hiking places" (i.e. places that you go in order to have good conversations), let me know.

Talk about funny...(Titus pt. 5)

Amber just got done telling me that Titus and her were in the car and talking about something (she couldn't remember the content). After she was talking with Titus he said the following:

"We need to turn from our ways and repent in sackcloth and ashes!"

I am guessing he heard this in one of his Bible videos, but it cracked me up.

I have been away all week doing fundraising in Midland, TX. I am pumped to go pick him up in a few minutes from preschool. I have missed him a ton!

Titus (Pt. 4)

I want to take time and share the blessing we pray over Titus every night. When Titus was 2, Amber had him paint on a canvas (what a cool mom!) and then she wrote the words of the blessing that we have said over him every night. My prayer is that he will live out this blessing. Titus is now at an age where I say the first word of each phrase and he finishes saying it. I will "let you in" on how this happens every night.

Me: May

Titus: the Lord deal bountifully with you all the days of your life.

Me: May

Titus: you always trust in the loving-kindness of the Lord.

Me: In

Titus: the days of sorrow and darkness

Me: May

Titus: you rejoice in the Lord of your salvation

Me: And

Titus: sing to Him now and forever. Amen!

I pray this will not only be a prayer of a 4 year old, but also that God would encourage you in His faithfulness, no matter what the circumstance.

Insights?

Love Truth
Vernon

Titus (Pt. 3)

Over the last couple of weeks we have been traveling. On the way back home from Missouri, Titus asked Amber a great question. He wanted to know what "hate" meant. Amber answered his question and this is the dialogue that followed...

Amber: We should not hate people, but one thing we should definitely hate is sin.

Titus: Yea. Sin is like a bug in my heart that flies around. (He thought of this word picture on his own...sweet deal)

Amber: Hmm (what else would you say to a 4 year old that just made a comment like the one above)

Titus: Yea. Sometimes I say, "SIN! I HATE YOU!" (that would definitely be loud tones he used).


On to another story...

Since Titus has been little I have tried to use words such as "persevere" when he gets frustrated and then I have explained what I meant.

So, yesterday Titus and I were playing a game called "Ants in the Pants". The point is to make the ants flip up into the pants of a dog. Anyway, we would wait until the other person would get an ant to go in the pants of the dog and then the other person could go.

I was trying and trying, but I kept missing. Just at that time Amber came walking in the house and hears Titus saying, "It's alright Daddy, just keep persevering."

What words! He gets it! Later on he was having the same problem and just looked at me and said, "I guess I should just persevere". I gave him some encouragement, told him that I loved him, and sat right by him as he tried and tried, until he made it.


I pray both of these stories can give you some encouragement today from the mouth of a 4 year old. I also pray you would be encouraged to learn from everyone you come in contact with during the day.

As I have been thinking about these stories, the following things have come in my mind. God's call for us to persevere comes from a disposition of love. This disposition of love has a great focus on a total hatred for sin also. It is a both/and deal, not either/or. For us to properly persevere and rest in His love we must have a total hatred for sin.

Thoughts?

What Titus is teaching me (Pt. 2)

Last night Amber put Titus to bed. Every night we read his Bible and then say the same exact blessing over him. Last night was the story of Jesus washing the disciple's feet. Here is the conversation that ensued:

Titus: You know what mom? Sometimes I am dirty inside.

Amber: Oh Yeah?

Titus: But sometimes I am clean on the inside.

Amber: Oh Yeah? How do you get clean?

Titus: (In a matter of fact tone) Jesus cleans me!

Amber: How do you know Jesus cleans you?

Titus: (in an even MORE matter of fact way) The Bible, Mom!

What a profound statement. He understands that he is "dirty", but also does not despair in his "dirtiness". He has not despaired to the point of depression because of his dirtiness.

Side note, I know some of you may be thinking, "What can a 4 year old really understand? Does he actually know he is dirty?" I would say that I do believe he can understand. He may not fully understand, but he can get it.

I have been reading Spiritual Depression by Martyn Lloyd-Jones (it is a must read). He makes a statement that has blown me away. Lloyd-Jones said that one of the reasons people become spiritually depressed is because they define themselves by their past. He said this must be dealt with very firmly and goes on to say, "He is the Judge and you have no right to waste His time or your own time and energy condemning yourself."

What a powerful statement! What a guard against making much of yourself (condemning yourself is a prideful sin). Yet, this provision allows us to see that He tells us to not meditate on our past (in a condemning way) because He has redeemed our life!

Titus taught me this in his statements to Amber because he recognized his need for a Savior, but this need did not lead to despondency (in a bad way). He also recognized his need for the Word in order to know about Jesus. Jesus does tell him that he is dirty inside, but it does not end in that desperation. Jesus tells him so that he can know "the clean way".

Thoughts?