Counting The Cost

Random thoughts on walking with Jesus in this turvy-topsy world

The tin man gets a heart in Iron Man

“I said to myself, “Come on, let’s try pleasure. Let’s look for the ‘good things’ in life.” But I found that this, too, was meaningless. So I said, “Laughter is silly. What good does it do to seek pleasure?” After much thought, I decided to cheer myself with wine. And while still seeking wisdom, I clutched at foolishness. In this way, I tried to experience the only happiness most people find during their brief life in this world.

 

I also tried to find meaning by building huge homes for myself and by planting beautiful vineyards. I made gardens and parks, filling them with all kinds of fruit trees. I built reservoirs to collect the water to irrigate my many flourishing groves. I bought slaves, both men and women, and others were born into my household. I also owned large herds and flocks, more than any of the kings who had lived in Jerusalem before me. I collected great sums of silver and gold, the treasure of many kings and provinces. I hired wonderful singers, both men and women, and had many beautiful concubines. I had everything a man could desire!

 

So I became greater than all who had lived in Jerusalem before me, and my wisdom never failed me. Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors. But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.”

 

Ecclesiastes 2:1-11

 

 

 

Last night I went to see the new superhero movie, Iron Man. I really enjoyed it as an action flick with a great sense of humor*, but I also walked back to my car afterwards thinking about redemption. The film centers on Tony Stark, a fast-talking playboy who has spent most of his life living a lie. It is the same lie that we hear everyday from television, parents, and even some pastors – that the greatest purpose for our lives is to be “happy.” For Tony, “happiness” is found in booze, fast cars, and meaningless sex. It takes three months of captivity in the Middle East for him to discover that he has been wasting his life on temporary pleasures and that he has never really known true joy or purpose. Redemption for Iron Man comes through finding a greater purpose than a few seconds of pleasure. He begins to put others’ lives before his own and becomes, in the true sense of the word, a superhero.

 

But is redemption through purpose really enough? I mean, even the greatest causes come and go. Let’s say I exclude everything else and dedicate my life to my (future) children – what happens when they grow up and move away? Let’s say I completely dedicate my life to saving the earth – what happens to all my effort when I’m lying six feet under that earth? Just like the author of Ecclesiastes found out, everything on this earth is just temporary – not meaningless, just temporary. The only thing that is guaranteed to last is a relationship with God. When our lives are dedicated to the greatest purpose of all, the Lord Jesus, then everything we do, saving the planet or loving our kiddos, will have meaning far beyond this lifetime. Look around us – iron rusts, hearts break, climates change. But redemption through salvation is so much more than a temporary fix for a broken world. It is bringing the eternal into the temporary. It is – for lack of a better word – super.

 

-Joy

 

 

 

*Just a fair warning that Iron Man is rated PG-13 and has a brief sex scene and some language and innuendo. You can read a full review of the movie by clicking HERE.

posted by: Jrobbins at 16:44 | link | comments |
movie reviews

The other war

"Our work here is brief but its reward is eternal. Do not be disturbed by the clamor of the world, which passes away like a shadow."

      -- Clare of Assisi

"Sometimes I use the phrase 'wartime lifestyle' or 'wartime mind-set.' The phrase is helpful - but also lopsided. For me it is mainly helpful. It tells me that there is a war going on in the world between Christ and Satan, truth and falsehood, belief and unbelief. It tells me there are weapons to be funded and used, but that these weapons are not swords or guns or bombs but the Gospel and prayer and self-sacrificing love (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

And it tells me that the stakes of this conflict are higher than any other war in history; they are eternal and infinite: heaven or hell, eternal joy or eternal torment (Matthew 25:46).

I need to hear this message again and again, because I drift into a peacetime mind-set as certainly as rain falls down and flames go up. I am wired by nature to love the same toys that the world loves. I start to fit in. I start to love what others love. I start to call earth "home." Before you know it, I am calling luxuries "needs" and using my money just the way unbelievers do. I begin to forget the war. I don't think much about people perishing. Missions and unreached peoples drop out of my mind. I stop dreaming about the triumphs of grace. I sink into a secular mind-set that looks first to what man can do, not what God can do. It is a terrible sickness. And I thank God for those who have forced me again and again toward a wartime mind-set."

-Pastor John Piper in his book

"Don't Waste Your Life"

posted by: Jrobbins at 15:43 | link | comments |
quotes i love

Compare and Contrast

"America today is a "save yourself" society if there ever was one. But does it really work? The underdeveloped societies suffer from one set of diseases: tuberculosis, malnutrition, pneumonia, parasites, typhoid, cholera, typhus, etc. Affluent America has virtually invented a whole new set of diseases: obesity, arteriosclerosis, heart disease, strokes, lung cancer, venereal disease, cirrhosis of the liver, drug addiction, alcoholism, divorce, battered children, suicide, murder. Take your choice. Labor-saving machines have turned out to be body-killing devices. Our affluence has allowed both mobility and isolation of the nuclear family, and as a result, our divorce courts, our prisons and our mental institutions are flooded. In saving ourselves we have nearly lost ourselves."

-Ralph Winter

"Most men are not satisfied with the permanent output of their lives. Nothing can wholly satisfy the life of Christ within his followers except the adoption of Christ's purpose toward the world he came to redeem. Fame, pleasure and riches are but husks and ashes in contrast with the boundless and abiding joy of working with God for the fulfillment of his eternal plans. The men who are putting everything into Christ's undertaking are getting out of life its sweetest and most priceless rewards."

-J. Campbell White

posted by: Jrobbins at 20:14 | link | comments |
quotes i love

God knows what He's about

When God wants to drill a man,

And thrill a man,

And skill a man

When God wants to mold a man

To play the noblest part;

 

When He yearns with all His heart

To create so great and bold a man

That all the world shall be amazed,

Watch His methods, watch His ways!

 

How He ruthlessly perfects

Whom He royally elects!

How He hammers him and hurts him,

And with mighty blows converts him

 

Into trial shapes of clay which

Only God understands;

While his tortured heart is crying

And he lifts beseeching hands!

 

How He bends but never breaks

When his good He undertakes;

How He uses whom He chooses,

And which every purpose fuses him;

By every act induces him

To try His splendor out-

God knows what He's about.

-Author Unknown

posted by: Jrobbins at 14:30 | link | comments |
faith and feelings, poems i love

We've got questions, they've got answers

Just in time for my own personal post-college nervous breakdown, TrueU.org (a sister site to Boundless) has put up two new articles about graduation. The godly advice they give applies not just to college graduation but to any kind of movement from one phase of life to the next. As scary as these changes can be (Exhibit A: my pet stomach ulcer), God can use them to force us to reexamine our priorities and grow into better people. So, check these articles out and see what you think.

-Joy

 

 

Excerpt from TrueU.org article:

Ask Theophilus: Interesting Things to Worry About

 

“…As to your fear that you "wasted" your time at college: From God's point of view, nothing was wasted. He uses everything. Christ brought you to this point by the shortest route He could. The path that looks shorter to your imagination was not one that you could take. You feel that you ought to repent; far be it from me to say you're wrong, but do you know the meaning of the word "repent"? The Greek word is metanoia; it means to turn your mind around, to think differently. So don't look backward: "Woe is me that I didn't get here sooner." You wouldn't even be tempted to look backward, if you hadn't come so far. Repent and look forward: "Thanks be to God that He finally got me here!" What an adventure! What might God plan for you next?”

-Professor Theophilus

 

 

Excerpt from TrueU.org article:

Life After College by Denise Morris

 

“…But all of the sudden, as college graduation neared, this cycle of school and summer break was coming to an end. Now I had to make decisions about what to do and where to do it. About where to live and how to pay for said living. About health insurance and car payments. I felt wholly unprepared for this thing called life.

 

People were expecting things of me — lying on the couch and watching daytime soap operas wasn't going to cut it. And so, instead of getting to the task at hand and embracing the idea of becoming a responsible adult, the resentment began to build. Just who did people think they were, expecting me to work and pay for things?! I thought it was all pretty rude.

 

Unfortunately, people (and by "people" I mean, of course, "my parents") weren't all that sympathetic to my plight, so I rethought my bitterness. I began to think logically about my options, probably like you're doing right now (in between panic attacks). The good news is that I have obviously lived to tell about my post-college experience. And although I am no expert, I have a couple of tidbits that may or may not be useful to you….”

-Denise Morris

 

 

 

 

Click HERE to visit TrueU.org

posted by: Jrobbins at 18:56 | link | comments |
faith and feelings

Thoughts for those blue days

“Faith lives in a broken heart.  "He cried out with tears, Lord, I believe."  True faith is always in a heart bruised for sin. Saving faith always grows in a heart humbled for sin, in a weeping eye and a tearful conscience.”

--Thomas Watson

 

“As gold is purified in the furnace, so the faithful heart is purified by sorrow.”

-- Guarini

 

“Any simpleton can follow the narrow path in the light: faith’s rare wisdom enables us to march on in the dark with infallible accuracy, since she places her hand in that of her Great Guide. Between this and Heaven there may be rougher weather yet, but it is all provided for by our Covenant Head. In nothing let us be turned aside from the path which the divine call has urged us to pursue.”

--Charles Spurgeon

posted by: Jrobbins at 15:13 | link | comments |
quotes i love, faith and feelings

Yay, money! Um, for charity, I mean.

Leave it to Pastor John Piper to find a way to make the economic stimulus refund into a challenge to Christians! The Desiring God blog has a fantastic post about the ways in which Christians can use money to show the world how great a Treasure the Lord Jesus is. You can check it out below, as well as another post on how to bless missionaries around the world – for a little extra inspiration.

-Joy

 

 

 

Economic Stimulus Payment & Christ: post by John Piper

 

13 Ways to Bless Missionaries Without Paying Postage: post by Tia

posted by: Jrobbins at 00:05 | link | comments |
god and money

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