11 years ago
Tempted and Tried
>> Sunday, April 17, 2011
Fantastic book trailer. Unreal.
Tempted and Tried - Book Trailer from Crossway on Vimeo.
Read more...Steadfast
>> Saturday, December 4, 2010
Above all other elements of God's character, i'm in awe of his steadfastness. A simple search of the word came up with 224 hits in the ESV, most of which are proclaiming God's steadfast love.
However, many are imperatives for the Christian:
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. [1 Cor. 15:58]
5 May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. [2 Thess 3:5]
11 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. [1 Tim 6:11]
2 Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. [Titus 2:2]
Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. [James 1:12]
And it makes a lot of sense to me why God would make it a priority to exhort his people to steadfastness. Simply put, we are fickle followers...me especially.
Over the past few years the Lord has been teaching me that though it is good to have high goals, the crown of life is not promised to the visionary, but to the man who remains steadfast. It seems like the Lord has consistently given me seasons of worship where he will instill in me desires and aims to do great things, but when those seasons change, the aims and goals get lost and forgotten. Like Lewis said, "We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." Though we cry out with Peter "I will die for you", like him, when trials come, we find that we are far from steadfast.
Yet, we must not be satisfied with our unstable hearts. We must take up arms as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. We must fight to be men who have a single eye fixed on the Lord alone. We must fight our flesh and the whisper in our ear that says "You have failed and will never amount to anything" and respond loudly "Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me. Micah 7:8"
Let me be clear here, I don't want you to hear this like a drill sergeant ordering you to lace up your boots and get 'er done. By no means. I'm convinced that the steadfastness that the Lord commands comes only from the Lord himself. I think this steadfastness is achieved on ones knees before it is ever acted out on ones feet.
So I pray...Lord make us steadfast like You are. Then we will shine like stars and will truly be a city on a hill for all to see.
Doing or Believing?
So many of us cavalierly gloss over what he has done and zero in on what we’re to do, and that shift, though it might seem slight, makes all the difference in the world. Our obedience has its origin in God’s prior action, and forgetting that truth results in self-righteousness, pride, and despair.
See the rest of this article here.
Holiness
>> Tuesday, November 23, 2010
"I have a growing concern that younger evangelicals do not take seriously the Bible’s call to personal holiness. We are too at peace with worldliness in our homes, too at ease with sin in our lives, too content with spiritual immaturity in our churches."
See Kevin DeYoung's thoughts here:
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2010/11/23/the-hole-in-our-holiness/ Read more...
It's been a while...
>> Sunday, November 7, 2010
Well, I may be blogging to myself now after a 4 month blogging sabbatical, but i'm going to write anyways.
To be honest, I stopped blogging because I really didn't have much to say. The past year or so has been a steady downhill slope where I've been stumbling and sliding towards the valley of lukewarmness. I've had to continually make excuses for my failure to honor the Lord over and over, and for a long time, it was getting worse and worse.
Yet thanks be to God and Jesus Christ for being patient and gentle with fickle followers such as me. Isaiah 42:3 "a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice."
The past month has been one of repentance and it's been a battle. In the words of Lecrae, Satan is a beast. This is why the word warns believers that they shall face many trials and tribulations to enter into the kingdom. However we have a champion that has disarmed the enemy and will one day silence his mouth. This brings me hope and encourages me to take up arms and fight the good fight.
Though it took far too long, I'm now determined to be done with excuses. I resolve to pursue the Lord, pursue my wife, encourage my brothers, and serve the church. The lamb of God is worthy. All praise to Christ!
Under Grace
>> Saturday, August 7, 2010
Piper here does an excellent job in simply explaining how a Christian should relate to the Law's of the OT/NT:
Are Christians under the 10 commandments?
No. The Bible says we're not under the law.
I love Romans 7:4-6. By way of analogy, it says that you are married to the law. And you better stay married because if you leave this husband and go marry another you are going to be called an adulterer. But if your husband dies, then you can go and remarry.
And then Paul draws the analogy out—a little complex the way he does it—saying that you died to the law. You aren't married anymore, you can have another husband, namely Christ. He's raised from the dead.
So, our approach towards ethics is different. We don't ask the question, "Am I under the law?" We are under grace. The law is already fulfilled perfectly by Jesus. We are in Jesus and as far justification goes, God sees it as completed for you, one-hundred percent. He says, "You've trusted my Son. You've been grafted in him. You are in Christ Jesus and he fulfilled the law perfectly. He covered all your sins." God sees you in and through Christ, therefore, as far as final judgment goes God is 100% for you. That is settled and nothing is going to change it.
Now, shall we sin that grace may abound? Paul says, "Dead men don't sin." If you've died to sin, how can you still live in it? The new birth is the writing of the law on our heart so that we are not under it, it is under us. It is just coming out.
The way we strive towards being obedient, holy and loving people is not by getting up in the morning and pulling the list out of our pocket. No! We get on our knees and we open ourselves to the whole counsel of God in the Bible. We saturate and shape ourselves by everything he has done, he is doing and he will do. We stake our lives in the gospel and then instead of serving the law, we serve one another in love.
Love is the fruit of faith in Jesus—faith working through love. And if you ask, "What does love look like?" First John says, "It keeps the commandments." That brings us back to the question, which commandments? I would say, the ones that are loving.
Love God and do as you please is not bad advice, if you're bent on holiness. If you're bent on love the ten commandments are really important. You should hang them on your wall and you should measure your life by them, but in a very different way than when you were under them, because they have been kept for you.
You are now married to the risen Christ. You are not married to the law and the oldness of the letter, but to the newness of the Spirit. Our whole approach towards transformation, love and life is different than list keeping.
See the article and video here:
http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/2587_christians_and_the_10_commandments/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+DGBlog+(DG+Blog)
Time
>> Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Watch this: it's well worth your time...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3oIiH7BLmg&feature=player_embedded
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