📖 How to gain God's approval

I. The only way to remain close to Christ is to consistently pay attention to him. You must live a life where he stays in your view. If not, you will drift from him.

“For this reason, we must pay attention all the more to what we have heard, so that we will not drift away.” (Hebrews 2:1)

“This reason” is in reference to what we learn about Jesus in Hebrews 1: that he is greater than the angels and that all the heavenly beings worship him (v. 6), that he reigns forever and ever (v. 8), and that he is the creator of all things (v. 10).

Through the Son (Jesus), God has spoken and given us an invitation and access to his Kingdom.

So we must pay attention to Jesus. If we are apart from Jesus, “how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3)

Here are some habits worth cultivating that will keep you from drifting:

There are many ways to keep from drifting beyond this list! The point is simply that you will drift if you do not do anything that helps you pay attention.

Are you paying attention, or are you drifting? There is no in-between.

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II. Do you want God's approval in your life?

Scripture is exceedingly clear on how to obtain it. But you cannot get it the way most people assume: by effort (usually in the form of trying to be a “good” person).

In fact, it is not based on your behavior at all. Hebrews 11:1-2 tells us:

"Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. For by this our ancestors were approved."

And then the rest of Hebrews 11 is a list of people who did really great things for the Lord, but their approval and acceptance were based on their faith.

It was not based on the things they did, though certainly, the things they did were influenced by and were done because of their faith.

Doing good things without faith will not gain you God's approval.

If you want God’s approval, you must trust in him.

Jonathan Edwards on why our affections should be stirred by Jesus:

"If the great things of religion are rightly understood, they will affect the heart.

The reason why men are not affected by such infinitely great, important, glorious, and wonderful things, as they often hear and read of, in the word of God, is undoubtedly because they are blind; if they were not so, it would be impossible, and utterly inconsistent with human nature, that their hearts should be otherwise than strongly impressed, and greatly moved by such things."

This week’s question: Is it wrong to make images of Jesus?

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Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson

A book about the great hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas, in 1900 and is focused primarily through the eyes of weatherman Isaac Cline, though many other people and perspectives are included.

Ultimately, this hurricane killed between 6,000–8,000 people in Galveston, roughly 20% of the entire population.

It was quite fascinating learning about how the weather was studied and predicted (if one could even call it that) in the late 1800s.

At times it was hard to keep track of who was who, and it was also hard to imagine much of what was being described as happening during the actual storm. The book didn’t focus extensively on the hurricane itself until the second half of the book, so it was a little slow going in the first half.

Overall, I did enjoy the book. Sometimes I didn’t understand what a word meant when it was quoting communications from that time (and language evolves). Not a big deal, but it would have helped to get some explanations at times.

The drawbacks were that the book’s scope was not as focused on the hurricane itself as I assumed, and that it was hard to picture a lot of what was being described (though I’m not sure you can fault the author too much for that).

7/10

This week on Thinking Biblically, I discuss 4 Ways You Can Call Out Sin Without Being a Pharisee. If you've ever wondered whether confronting sin automatically makes someone judgmental or Pharisaical, this episode offers four biblical principles to help you think through that question.

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P.S. It should come with a “sell by” date on the label…