Here is a wise word from Martyn Lloyd-Jones, from his work Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure. It will help to know that the biblical context for what he is writing here is Psalm 42.

The main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow our self to talk to us instead of talking to our self. Am I just trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Far from it. This is the very essence of wisdom in this matter. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problem of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself, ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been repressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you’. Do you know what I mean? If you do not, you have but little experience.

The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’-what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’-instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet priase Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God’.

Letter to an Incomplete, Insecure Teenager
by: John Piper

Four years ago a teenager in our church wrote to me for advice about life in general, and identity in particular. Here is what I wrote, with a big dose of autobiography for illustration.

Dear ________,

My experience of coming out of an introverted, insecure, guilty, lustful, self-absorbed adolescent life was more like the emergence of a frog from a tadpole than a butterfly from a larva.

Larvae disappear into their cocoons and privately experience some inexplicable transformation with no one watching (it is probably quite messy in there) and then the cocoon comes off and everyone says oooo, ahhh, beautiful. It did not happen like that for me.

Frogs are born teeny-weeny, fish-like, slimy, back-water-dwellers. They are not on display at Sea World. They might be in some ritzy hotel’s swimming pool if the place has been abandoned for 20 years and there’s only a foot of green water in the deep end.

But little by little, because they are holy frogs by predestination and by spiritual DNA (new birth), they swim around in the green water and start to look more and more like frogs.

First, little feet come out on their side. Weird. At this stage nobody asks them to give a testimony at an Athletes in Action banquet.

Then a couple more legs. Then a humped back. The fish in the pond have already pulled back: “Hmmm,” they say, “this does not look like one of us any more.” A half-developed frog fits nowhere.

But God is good. He has his plan and it is not to make this metamorphosis easy. Just certain. There are a thousand lessons to be learned in the process. Nothing is wasted. Life is not on hold waiting for the great coming-out. That’s what larvae do in the cocoon. But frogs are public all the way though the foolishness of change.

I think the key for me was finding help in the Apostle Paul and C. S. Lewis and my father, all of whom seemed incredibly healthy, precisely because they were so absolutely amazed at everything but themselves.

They showed me that the highest mental health is not liking myself but being joyfully interested in everything but myself. They were the type of people who were so amazed that people had noses—not strange noses, just noses—that walking down any busy street was like a trip to the zoo. O yes, they themselves had noses, but they couldn’t see their own. And why would they want to? Look at all these noses they are free to look at! Amazing.

The capacity of these men for amazement was huge. I marveled and I prayed that I would stop wasting so much time and so much emotional energy thinking about myself. Yuk, I thought. What am I doing? Why should I care what people think about me. I am loved by God Almighty and he is making a bona fide high-hopping frog out of me.

The most important text on my emergent frogishness became 2 Corinthians 3:18 —

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

This was one of the greatest secrets I ever discovered: Beholding is becoming.

Introspection must give way to amazement at glory. When it does, becoming happens. If there is any key to maturity it is that. Behold your God in Jesus Christ. Then you will make progress from tadpole to frog. That was a great discovery.

Granted, (so I thought) I will never be able to speak in front of a group, since I am so nervous. And I may never be married, because I have too many pimples. Wheaton girls scare the bejeebies out of me. But God has me in his hand (Philippians 3:12) and he has a plan and it is good and there is a world, seen and unseen, out there to be known and to be amazed at—why would I ruin my life by thinking about myself so much?

Thank God for Paul and Lewis and my dad! It’s all so obvious now. Self is simply too small to satisfy the exploding longings of my heart. I wanted to taste and see something great and wonderful and beautiful and eternal.

It started with seeing nature and ended with seeing God. It started in literature, and ended in Romans and Psalms. It started with walks through the grass and woods and lagoons, and ended in walks through the high plains of theology. Not that nature and literature and grass and woods and lagoons disappeared, but they became more obviously copies and pointers.

The heavens are telling the glory of God. When you move from heavens to the glory of God, the heavens don’t cease to be glorious. But they are un-deified, when you discover what they are saying. They are pointing. “You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy” (Psalm 65:8).

What are the sunrise and sunset shouting about so happily? Their Maker! They are beckoning us to join them. But if I am grunting about the zit on my nose, I won’t even look out the window.

So my advice is: be patient with the way God has planned for you to become a very happy, belly-bumping frog. Don’t settle for being a tadpole or a weird half-frog. But don’t be surprised at the weirdness and slowness of the process either.

How did I become a preacher? How did I get married? God only knows. Incredible. So too will your emergence into what you will be at 34 be incredible. Just stay the course and look. Look, look. There is so much to see. The Bible is inexhaustible. Mainly look there. The other book of God, the unauthoritative one—nature—is also inexhaustible. Look. Look. Look. Beholding the glory of the Lord we are being changed.

I love you and believe God has great froggy things for you. Don’t worry about being only a high-hopping Christlike frog. Your joy comes from what you see.

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

There is another metamorphosis awaiting. It just gets better and better. God is infinite. So there will always be more of his glory for a finite mind to see. There will be no boredom in eternity.

Affectionately,

Pastor John

For weeks now I have been praying for this nation. What an encouragement it was tonight to see this article! Please keep praying for these brave brothers in Southern Sudan and for God to open His eyes to this nation and let His mercy flow.

Brother Joe

My Heroes Live in South Sudan
by Justin Holcomb

My heroes live in South Sudan and I want to tell you about them.

Not many people sacrifice like they do—for their neighbors, country, and enemies. Some have even given their lives for their cause. However, most had the honor of seeing their dreams realized last weekend when the Republic of South Sudan claimed its independence. They are the chaplains of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army.

My Connection to Sudan’s Suffering
I traveled to southern Sudan each year from 2001 to 2007 and I have seen these people’s suffering first hand. Every summer I trained chaplains and I was ordained by elders of a Sudanese church. My wife Lindsey and I also lead a non-profit, Mosaic, that initiates sustainable projects for peace and social justice in South Sudan and Uganda. We’ve been there, and seen these people’s tragic struggle.

No Greater Tragedy
Sudan has rarely known peace or stability. Civil war erupted before the nation gained independence from Britain in 1956. The south is tropical, underdeveloped, and populated by almost one hundred tribes or ethnic groups of African descent. By contrast, the north is drier, wealthier, and linked financially and culturally to the Muslim Middle East. These two groups—northern, oil-rich Arabs and southern, impoverished herdsman—have been at odds since the nineteenth century. In the words of former US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, there is “no greater tragedy on the face of the earth than the tragedy that is unfolding in the Sudan.”

Atrocities
For over two decades, the regime in northern Sudan (the Government of Sudan) has bombed, starved, and enslaved black southern Sudanese in an effort to subject them to Islamic rule. The Government of Sudan even funded the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) to terrorize the people in southern Sudan. These butchers shamelessly abduct children, force prostitution, rape, mutilate and force cannibalism. Over the past twenty-five years, more than two million southern Sudanese are dead and nearly five million southern Sudanese have been displaced by starvation and violence.

“What has happened to our brothers and sister in Sudan is horrible and heartbreaking. They are still in great need from the rest of the world. But, the world is not worthy of them!

”

Chaplains
In response, southern Sudan organized a rebel movement and army—the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). The SPLA defends against attacks from their government. Chaplains serve the SPLM as Christian clergy who promote human rights and reconciliation between God and humanity, the northern government and the southern army, soldiers and civilians.

Chaplains act as agents of peace. They serve weaponless on the frontlines to minister pastorally to the southern Sudanese soldiers and to encourage the southern soldiers to engage the northern soldiers appropriately. When northern soldiers were captured, the chaplains oversaw their care and ensured that they were treated humanely. Another concern of the chaplains is the welfare of civilians, especially southern Sudanese civilians who were oppressed by the government of Sudan and terrorized by militant extremist groups that have done cruel and disgusting things to them.

Suffering
What has happened to our brothers and sister in Sudan is horrible and heartbreaking. They are still in great need from the rest of the world. But, the world is not worthy of them (Heb 11:38)! I have seen the human suffering: southern soldiers injured in the war, northern POWs, bomb craters in school yards, mutilated civilians, pastors with limbs missing because they were helping others take cover as bombs exploded, recurrent droughts, orphaned children, cramped refugee camps, mass starvation, slaving raids, and epidemics of diseases.

Hope
I have also seen the courage and perseverance of the southern Sudanese people, who have been oppressed by their government, abused by the rebel army organized to defend them, and terrorized by an extremist group in northern Uganda. I have witnessed the bravery, dedication, and servant-leadership exhibited by the chaplains of the SPLA. These chaplains, many of whom were soldiers, decided to go back to the frontlines of the conflict without their weapons to minister as clergy. Some chaplains have been killed already and all the chaplains know the dangers they are facing. In the despair and darkness of the brutal realities of Sudan, there is hope.

While part of the plan was to train these men to serve their country in a time of civil war, the other part of the plan was to train them if there ever was peace. Now that South Sudan is an independent nation, hopefully peace will soon follow. There are currently over 500 pastors who will either continue to serve as chaplains or begin to plant churches in their new country. And there are more being trained as you read this. Please pray for South Sudan.

Project 61 updates, video and pictures will be posted at the onehope blog http://onehopeblog.wordpress.com/

Bryan Crawford Loritts is an African-American pastor I listen to occasionally in Memphis. I first heard a message he preached at the 2008 Desiring God Conference for Pastors. His testimony about the challenge of treasuring and respecting your racial culture and being redeemed to be a part of the kingdom of God echoes true with what I see and am praying for in our church body. I believe I am in a similar process as a white man. I want to live so that “Christ is preeminent in my life; I constantly go to war with the sinful expressions of and affections for my ethnicity; and yet I allow redemptive expressions of my culture to be woven into the beautiful tapestry of the body of Christ which is both unified and uniquely diverse.”

May God raise up many from the One Hope Academy, Project 61 and the Springs of Grace family who share our journey. Thank you God for men who are charting the way like Pastor Lorrits. His testimony is below.

An Unfinished Progress
Note:
I am well aware that whenever the topic of race is brought up a firestorm is soon to follow. This s the result of living in a racialized society. What follows is simply my experience, and I hope it sparks reflection for you.

This morning I realized that thirteen years ago today I made a decision that, little did I know at the time, would change the trajectory of my life and ministry. June 30th, 1998 was my last day at the Faithful Central Bible Church- a thirteen thousand member black church in an inner-city section of Los Angeles. My decision to leave there to go to a large white church in an affluent section of the city came as a surprise to everyone at Faithful Central, including myself! After all, the pastor is my god-father, and I had developed rich friendships in an environment that was culturally comfortable for me.

Leaving the black church to go to a white suburban church was no small decision, and its affects continue to reverberate in my life today. After three years at Lake Avenue (the large white church) I went to another white church in Charlotte, NC, and then landed in Memphis where I am leading a multi-ethnic church that is primarily white. I have no doubt, that if I had stayed at Faithful Central, I would not be doing the kind of ministry that I am doing today.

My journey has literally taken me across the country and cultures. Along the way my life and ministry has changed dramatically in the following ways:

1. My preaching style has broadened. Prior to June 30th, 1998 my style was a distinctly, and dare I say solely black one, marked by a cadence and lilt, and dependent upon a vocal interaction between preacher and people. While I have not lost this gear, I have been forced to add a style that is conducive to people who engage the preaching moment in much more of a quiet, contemplative way. This has been enriching for me.

2. The racism in my heart has diminished. I am a recovering racist, and I don’t think I would be recovering if I would have stayed in the black church because it would only have helped to harbor the racist fugitive that is very much alive in my heart. My racism was born out of a refusal to forgive white evangelicals who called me nigger in Bible college, and an overall white “Christian” culture which so naturally functioned as if their way was/is the right way, that anything that came across as black they either viewed with suspicion or treated as a passing novelty. Praise God, that in his infinite grace he chose to confront my idols of race with godly white men who love me profoundly. This has been an incredible means of grace to my soul.

3. As a follower of Jesus Christ who has been intentionally created (among other things) as a black man, these past thirteen years I have constantly felt like a foreigner. I am naturally more comfortable with African-American’s. Some may say that I am a different person around blacks. While I believe that this is becoming less and less true, what is unavoidable when I am around my black brothers and sisters is the fact that I don’t feel as if I have to perform, or be politically correct; but that I can in a sense exhale. In a lot of ways this grieves me, and I long for the day where I can feel like I can be all of who God has created me to be (cultural strands included) regardless of what culture I am around.

4. I have become entrenched in my conviction that culture is not to be ignored but subjugated to the master culture of the kingdom of God. My blackness is not to be dismissed, but submitted and subjugated to the redeeming power of the cross, and in humble participation to this new chosen race and royal priesthood called the church of Jesus Christ. This becomes a dance where 1) Christ is preeminent in my life, 2) I constantly go to war with the sinful expressions of and affections for my ethnicity, and 3) yet I allow redemptive expressions of my culture to be woven into the beautiful tapestry of the body of Christ which is both unified and uniquely diverse.

My journey is far from over, and I have a long way to go, but I cling to Paul’s exhortation to Timothy the pastor of the church at Ephesus to let everyone see your progress. Thirteen years later I am immensely grateful for my unfinished progress.