Causes Of Spiritual Declension

• Formality in holy duties, under the constant outward performance of them.
• Vehement engagements in the affairs of life.
• An over valuation of sinful enjoyments.
• Growth on carnal wisdom.
• Neglect of daily mortification of such sins as men are naturally disposed to, with a secret influence from the prevalent temptation of the days in which we live.

--John Owen, The Glory Of Christ

The Mind

Our wills control our minds. At times, thoughts pop into our heads seemingly from out of nowhere and from outside of our control. Yet what we mentally dwell on requires personal volitional consent. In other words, we have the ability to focus our minds on what we will.  So, where do our thoughts come from? Sometimes they are developed purposely at the direction of our will and sometimes they originate without invitation placed by our fleshly state or God himself or even Satan. We therefore do not have power to prevent thoughts from initiating within our minds, but we do have the power (with the help of the Spirit} to control whether those thoughts persist. God tells us to "take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5) and to "set our minds on things above, not on earthly things" (Colossians 3:2). John Owen (The Glory of Christ) says that we become transformed into what we think about and so, when we think continually about the things of the world, we become transformed into the image of the world "becoming earthly, carnal and vain"  (Pg. 77, 2008 edition). Contrast this with the idea of beholding the glory of the Lord and "being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another" (2 Corinthian 3:18). It appears we are transformed into the image of that upon which we meditate. Thoughts can be divided into three major categories: first, thoughts about God and his glory and his kingdom; second, thoughts that are worldly but not overtly sinful, such as regarding plans for the next day of work; and third, sinful thoughts, such as lustful contemplations, covetous ideas etc. The first category is obviously good and beneficial, and the last is obviously wrong.  The second category however is the most convicting to think about for me. The reason is that the majority of my time is spent in thinking about the things of this world that are not necessarily sinful, but that are not prosperous from a spiritual standpoint. Some examples of this would be surfing the internet news for an hour or watching American Idol.  These mental activities can draw us toward a worldly state and away from God insidiously, without us even recognizing it. We must remember the scripture says "to throw off all that hinders AND the sin that so easily entangles..." (Hebrews 12:1 NIV).  All that hinders is anything that draws us to the world and away from God.  So let us practice the presence of God, thinking about him, speaking with him all the day long. Let our idle time be set on him mentally to his glory.

Opposition

John Owen Quote:

"'There is no duty we perform for God that sin does
not oppose.  And the more spirituality or holiness
there is in what we do, the greater is its enmity to
it.  Thus, those who seek the most for God experience
the strongest opposition.'"

Peace

See in the meantime that your faith brings forth obedience, and God in due time will cause it to bring forth peace. John Owen

Purposeful Sin

When we become believers in Jesus Christ, we are justified by the work of God in the death and resurrection of Christ. Our sins are paid for and the righteous sinless life Christ lived is credited to us. We are sanctified by the Spirit of Christ during our remaining life on earth. This is progressive but not completed until we are with God (Phil 1:6). Because of the flesh, it is impossible to completely cease from our sinning (Rom 3:23, 1 John 1:8,9). However, we are called to be holy, as God is holy (Lev 11:44). Thus sanctification, being conformed to the image of Christ, is empowered by God but requires our cooperation.

Sin in our lives can be of two forms(Num 15:22-31): what I would call accidental sin and what I would call purposeful sin. Accidental sin would be sin done in ignorance (ie not knowing that an action is a violation against God) or sin done without forethought (eg hitting one's thumb with a hammer and uttering an expletive). Purposeful sin would be any sin done with forethought either in passive defiance (an example would be knowing God wants me to do something yet refusing to do it) or open or active defiance to God's will. Our inability to stop sinning because of the flesh pertains to accidental sin and continued purposeful sin in our lives is a manifestation of either blatant disobedience, ignorance or unbelief.

God cannot tolerate sin and hates evil. I have been convicted of late that I have rationalized my sin by categorizing it as less severe and therefore not important and allowable. Things like speeding, having an extra glass of wine, and giving too much importance to exercise and sleep have persisted in my life despite my knowledge of God's hatred for sin. What does this mean? If Christ is my Lord, I should be submitting to him in all things. I should not be persisting in purposeful sin. Sure, I will mess up at times, accidently, but Jesus wants all of me. Submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ requires a ruthless pursuit of holiness. We must be killing sin, or it will be killing us (John Owen, Mathew Henry. Rom 8:13). Tolerating purposeful sin in my life as at best a grievous insult to God and at worst a manifestation of unbelief. As James said, even the demons believe, but they don't acknowledge and submit to God as Lord (James 2:19).

The ultimate question posed by Jerry Bridges in The Pursuit of Holiness:

Will you decide to obery God in all areas of life, however insignificant the issue may be?



See also this post http://sm--blog.blogspot.com/2008/07/saving-faith.html

Communion With God

Thoughts from John Owen's Communion with a Triune God:

Communion defined:
-God's communication of himself unto us,
-with our return unto him of that which he requires and accepts,
-flowing from that union which in Jesus Christ we have with him.

Two things are required of believers to commune completely with the Almighty. Communion consists of giving and receiving. First, we as believers must receive the Father's love. We receive it by believing his love for us is real, unchanging, eternal and significant. That he delights in us and that his love for us is not dependent on our living a sinless life. His love for us is dependent on who God is in his very nature. It is not dependent on who I am. (If his love was dependent on me and my actions, I could earn God's love and his glory would be diminished). To believe God's love is dependent on our actions is to diminish God's magnificent mercy and grace and is a manifestation of unbelief. We must receive God's love for us if we are to commune with him.

More to follow.

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