Righteousness & Moon Cake

Anna, our Chinese friend, came over again last night. We have finished the gospel of John.  Praise the Lord.  Now we are starting Romans. Praise the Lord! The only chapter we studied last night was chapter 1 because of its depth.  Anna now understands what faith is, and she understands the basics of righteousness according to the Word. If you want to know the background of our friendship with Anna, click here.

Here are some things that Anna communicated:

• She desires to "do good" and even wants to teach others to "do good" by teaching them the Bible.
• She believes in the existence of Jesus--how He lived on Earth and how much He loves us.
• She wants to learn from Christians and sees that they are different because they have the Holy Spirit.
• She may believe that Jesus is "the Christian's God's Son", but she struggles to believe that this God is the God who created the Universe.
• She knows many Chinese people that teach moral standards to live by, therefore, they know not to commit "unrighteous deeds". She understands that Christians only can be made righteous by faith in Jesus.  However, I do not think she likes this idea and chooses to believe that a society that educates well to produce morality in their people is good enough.
• She says the Chinese Christians that she has met in China may not rightly divide the Word (She did not know she was quoting scripture..ha) because the Bible translation is in Old Chinese and not in Modern Chinese. She says it is not a good translation and prefers to read in English.  She also wants to help them to rightly divide it. 

How we can pray after knowing these things:

• Pray that God will help her to understand that all of our righteous deeds are like filthy rags.
• Pray that Jesus will be real to her as someone who is alive now, and not just a historical figure.   Pray that she will not just know that we believe that He now lives at God's right hand, but that this will be a reality of His living and reigning over us and the world.
• Pray that God will give her the faith to believe in Him!
• Pray that He will help her to desire the Holy Spirit that she sees as such a wonderful thing in Christians' lives. Pray that as she is used to us asking the Holy Spirit to help us as we read His Word and try to understand, that He will show her the work of the Holy Spirit.
• Pray that she will see God as Creator as she looks on His creation--as she explores, takes walks, admires the spring flowers--she loves all of these things.
• Pray that she will not see Christianity as an American cultural tradition, and that she will see that many all over the world have believed in Jesus---and that it is not because they adopted it from Americans.
• Pray that God will show her the sin that is within her and that her good works cannot save her.  Pray that she will see the seriousness of sin.
• Praise Him for giving her a desire to share what she has learned in His Word, to do good, and to help others.  Pray that He will continue to do this good work in her and transform her, save her.  Then, that she may teach His Word without falsely holding back the truth of His gospel because she will have believed ! 
• Pray that God will help Chinese Christians rightly divide His Word, and He will provide a way to have a better translation published.

Just for Fun:

 

We were excited that they brought us some Chinese treats to try! 

 This is called a Moon Cake. That yellow thing in the middle, yea, it's an egg yolk--a dried candied yucky egg yolk.  The one on the right had more of spicy taste.  I thought Paige was going to vomit. ha.

Indwelling What???..

Shane and I ate dinner at our pastor and his wife's house last night. He encouraged us to think on indwelling sin and righteous anger vs. sinful anger while walking us through many scriptures.  So today, I am definitely thinking about it.....

Charles Spurgeon put it this way:

"When a man is saved by divine grace, he is not wholly cleansed from the corruption of his heart."

This makes so much sense because all of us Christians know that once we believe, it doesn't become easier, and we still have to deal with this "indwelling sin." 

Here are some more Spurgeon quotes that really helped me:

"Even the righteous have in them evil natures."

"In your best and happiest moments, sin dwells in you."

"The truly loving child of God, though he knows sin is there, hates that sin; it is a pain and misery to him, and he never makes the corruption of his heart as an excuse for the corruption of his life."

"When you desire to be most alive to God--you will generally find sin most alive to repel you. Sin exerts a checking power on every good thing."

"Indwelling sin makes the assault on us. I would not expect victory from one in which I am doing to the attacking."

"The evil nature is always evil. The new nature must always wrestle and fight with it. When they are not in conflict, they are still foes."

"Nothing shows blackness like exposure to light. If I would see the blackness of my own character, I must put it side by side with spotless purity."

"Self-sufficiency is Satan's net, wherein he catcheth men, like poor silly fish, and doth destroy them. Think yourselves nothing, for ye are nothing, and live by God's help."

For the full text click here.

John Piper says these things about indwelling sin from Rom. 7:14-25:

"Paul is not saying that Christians live in continual defeat, but that no Christian lives in continual victory over sin."

The normal way a healthy Christian should respond: 
1. I love the Law of God. Rom. 7:22
2. I hate what I just did. Rom. 7:15

"The Christian admits that there is in all of us Christians, as long as this fallen age lasts and we live on the earth, the reality of indwelling sin." Rom. 7:17,20

"Do not get off balance with either extreme to say there is no holiness necessary or that perfection is possible in this age."

Piper says that when dealing with indwelling sin, the question is not whether we are a Christian or not.  I have gone through times where I have read through the works of the flesh in Galatians 5 and thought surely I am not saved when I know through many assurances that I received the Holy Spirit when I believed many years ago.  Or... I have struggled with my attitude and failed time after time to think surely I am not saved because I cannot "do what I will to do" which is live for God as Paul says.  Instead, if we are born again Christians having received the Holy Spirit as our guarantee and deal with indwelling sin (and we will), according to Piper, the test is this:
               

"Do we love the law? Do we hate our failure? Do we cry out in dismay over our sinful condition? Do we look to Christ and His righteousness? Do we fly to the cross? Do we confess and repent and renounce Satan and set our faces to go forward with Jesus on the Calvary road?"

I believe there are 6 parts to John Piper's sermon on Rom. 7.  You can find them here.

Of course, Shane and I had a lot more personal encouragement and applications learned in fellowship with our pastor.  I hope this encourages you to think on this as well. How does it affect your personal relationship with Christ and your relationships with others?

Running through Sickness

I haven't talked about running in a while since I have been off and on with some sort of sickness lately:(  The rule of thumb is if it's the neck and above, you can still run.  If it's below the neck, you should probably take off.  I have had some of both, but this is how it has been going:

My endurance has definitely improved now that I am doing longer long runs than I ever have consistently.  When I say endurance, I mainly mean my legs are making it for more and more miles at one time.  My breathing is never a problem.  Cardiovascularly, I can run allllllll day.  My legs, however, get to a point where they cannot go any more.  I have seen major improvements in this in which where they normally wind down, they don't until a mile or two later. Also, we have added more speed to my workouts which I am very excited about.  I hate lacking speed! It's an awful feeling. Hopefully, this will keep improving as well. Here is what I have been doing lately when it comes down to long runs and workouts:

Long Run:  3 mile W/U. 5k Race. 8 mile Run.  Total: 14

Workouts: 

15 min w.u. 3 sets of 300, 200, 100 @ 5k effort with 200 jog between reps, 2 mins between sets. 10 min c.d.

15 min w.u. 5-6 x mile @MP with 1 min rest 10 min c.d.

15 min w.u. 10-12 x 100m on, 100m off @5k effort 15 min c.d.

15 min w.u. 3 x 2 mile @MP effort with 3 mins rest 10 min c.d.

Long Run: 15 miles with the middle 4 miles at Tempo pace

For normal runs, I have been doing a set of drills and some strides. My coach Stephanie Bruce sent me their YouTube channel with some basic form drills. Here is the link if you would like to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTk5e72YGF9s6Danc0otJCQ/about

As much as we try, our running form cannot be corrected each day when we run, no matter how much we are thinking about correcting that foot strike or having our body in alignment.  Form drills are what will correct our form over time.  I am really excited to implement these into my training a few times a week.  I have done a few of these in the past, but the ones that I think will really help, I have never done before.  I think my running form changes every season that I run, so I hope this will help me be more consistent in the proper way.

Happy Running!