jerry bridges

Aim for Specific Obedience in Specific Instances

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Bridges holiness

In Jerry Bridges' beloved little book, The Pursuit of Holiness (Kindle), he describes in his chapter on the place of personal discipline three questions to ask as you read, study, or meditate on the Scriptures and then explains why being specific is so important.

  1. What does this passage teach concerning God's will for a holy life?
  2. How does my life measure up to that Scripture; specifically where and how do I fall short? (Be specific; don't generalize.)
  3. What definite steps of action do I need to take to obey?

The most important part of this process is the specific application of the Scripture to specific life situations. We are prone to vagueness at this point because commitment to specific actions makes us uncomfortable. But we must avoid general commitments to obedience and instead aim for specific obedience in specific instances. We deceive our souls when we grown in knowledge of the truth without specifically responding to it (James 1:22). 

The Pursuit of Holiness (1978) by Jerry Bridges, pg 104. Bold is mine.

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Trusting God in Natural Disasters

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Trusting god

God Himself accepts the responsibility, so to speak, of disasters. He actually does more than accept the responsibility; He actually claims it. In effect, God says, "I, and I alone, have the power and authority to bring about both prosperity and disaster, both weal and woe, both good and bad."

This is a difficult truth to accept as you watch people sift through the rubble of their homes or more to the point if you are the one sifting through the rubble of your home. But as the late Dr. Edward J. Young commented on Isaiah 45:7, "We gain nothing by seeking to minimize the force of the present verse." We must allow the Bible to say what it says, not what we think it ought to say.

We obviously do not understand why God creates disaster, or why He brings it to one town and not to another. We recognize, too, that just as God sends His sun and rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous, so He also sends the tornado, or the hurricane, or the earthquake on both. I have friends, fellow staff members of The Navigators, who were in the middle of the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City. God's sovereignty over nature does not mean that Christians never encounter the tragedies of natural disasters. Experience and observation clearly teach otherwise.

God's sovereignty over nature does mean that, whatever we experience at the hand of the weather or other forces of nature (such as plant diseases or insect infestation of our crops), all circumstances are under the watchful eye and sovereign control of our God.

Jerry Bridges in Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts