_________________________
Fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you. I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous
right hand.
- Isaiah 41:10
_________________________
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Friday, October 18, 2013
The Making of a Champion
Check out this excellent video testimony of several people on the Seattle Seahawks team.
Friday, July 5, 2013
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Dependence Day
(Originally posted on July 04, 2008)
Today as our country celebrates it’s birthday this Independence Day I am considering the nature of independence. Our country prides itself in our independence both corporately and individually. While I'm grateful for our independence and freedom I cannot help but consider our absolute incapability of independence in relation to the eternal God. We are incapable to stand on our own merits before the devastatingly just Judge. Independence will not even be a thought that will pass through our minds on that great and final Day of Judgment. In fact it will be the absolute opposite of what we, who treasure Christ, will be clinging to.
Dependence Day! That will be the shout of hope echoing through the quaking halls of our hearts as we tremble in the presence of the One before whom all things are laid bare. Dependence Day will be the cry our hearts. Our only hope to stand before this great Judge is to be blameless and this we most certainly are not. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” On that dreadful day we will know beyond knowing how severely and how incredibly often we have fallen short. Though on that day we will indeed truly behold our sinfulness we, who are hidden in Christ, will also behold more clearly than ever the magnificent love of God in Christ. To see our wretchedness, as drastically displayed by His unapproachable light, will free us from every last hope in our own independence.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly trust in Jesus’ Name
The glory that we behold on that day will cause our hearts more to eternally love and treasure our great Savior. Oh the unspeakable love of God that will be seen in that hour as He clothes us with the very righteousness of His Son and counts not our sinfulness against us. When He clothes us with the King’s robe, though we deserve it not, we will adoringly behold and treasure His amazing mercy. As we see the scars of the Lamb of God, who was slain on our behalf, we will begin to consider for the first time the immensity of the wrath-atoning and death-shattering power of the love of God.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
Independence will on that day grant severe and deserved punishment for the highly treasonous crime of exchanging the glory of God for a great many things infinitely less valuable and eternally less glorious. Those who come to that Day of Judgment and have not the great high Priest to intercede on their behalf must face the immeasurable wrath of God in independence.
I am very grateful for our country's freedom and for those who have gone before us that paid a high price for America's independence. That said, I do not however, want to become enslaved to the God-less independence that so saturates our society.
We will celebrate today as Independence Day, but I will long for the magnificent revelations of the glory of God upon that infinitely greater Dependence Day.
The Solid Rock
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
Refrain:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
—Edward Mote (1797-1874)
Today as our country celebrates it’s birthday this Independence Day I am considering the nature of independence. Our country prides itself in our independence both corporately and individually. While I'm grateful for our independence and freedom I cannot help but consider our absolute incapability of independence in relation to the eternal God. We are incapable to stand on our own merits before the devastatingly just Judge. Independence will not even be a thought that will pass through our minds on that great and final Day of Judgment. In fact it will be the absolute opposite of what we, who treasure Christ, will be clinging to.
Dependence Day! That will be the shout of hope echoing through the quaking halls of our hearts as we tremble in the presence of the One before whom all things are laid bare. Dependence Day will be the cry our hearts. Our only hope to stand before this great Judge is to be blameless and this we most certainly are not. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” On that dreadful day we will know beyond knowing how severely and how incredibly often we have fallen short. Though on that day we will indeed truly behold our sinfulness we, who are hidden in Christ, will also behold more clearly than ever the magnificent love of God in Christ. To see our wretchedness, as drastically displayed by His unapproachable light, will free us from every last hope in our own independence.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly trust in Jesus’ Name
The glory that we behold on that day will cause our hearts more to eternally love and treasure our great Savior. Oh the unspeakable love of God that will be seen in that hour as He clothes us with the very righteousness of His Son and counts not our sinfulness against us. When He clothes us with the King’s robe, though we deserve it not, we will adoringly behold and treasure His amazing mercy. As we see the scars of the Lamb of God, who was slain on our behalf, we will begin to consider for the first time the immensity of the wrath-atoning and death-shattering power of the love of God.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
Independence will on that day grant severe and deserved punishment for the highly treasonous crime of exchanging the glory of God for a great many things infinitely less valuable and eternally less glorious. Those who come to that Day of Judgment and have not the great high Priest to intercede on their behalf must face the immeasurable wrath of God in independence.
I am very grateful for our country's freedom and for those who have gone before us that paid a high price for America's independence. That said, I do not however, want to become enslaved to the God-less independence that so saturates our society.
We will celebrate today as Independence Day, but I will long for the magnificent revelations of the glory of God upon that infinitely greater Dependence Day.
The Solid Rock
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
Refrain:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
—Edward Mote (1797-1874)
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Lewis: The Source of Happiness
____________________
"God cannot give us
happiness and peace
apart from Him,
because it is not there.
There is no such thing."
- C.S. Lewis
____________________
"God cannot give us
happiness and peace
apart from Him,
because it is not there.
There is no such thing."
- C.S. Lewis
____________________
Monday, June 17, 2013
Recommended Resources
Recently I have been thinking about a resource list for new Christians, really for any Christians. Here is what I have come up with thus far.
What would you add?
E-Sword - http://www.e-sword.net/
Study Bible:
ESV Study Bible
Jesus Story Book Bible
The Little Pilgrim’s Progress
Biographies:
Bonhoeffer, by Eric Metaxas
Amazing Grace, the Life of William Wilberforce, by Eric Metaxas
Tortured for Christ, the Life of Richard Wurmbrand
Suffering:
The Misery of Job and the Mercy of God, by John Piper
The Loveliness of Christ, by Samuel Rutherford
What would you add?
RESOURCE
LIST:
Free Bible
Software for Computers:E-Sword - http://www.e-sword.net/
Study Bible:
ESV Study Bible
Bible
Commentaries:
New Bible Commentary, by Gordon J. Wenham, J. Alec Motyer, Donald A. Carson and R. T. France
The Bible SpeaksToday, a commentary series edited by John Stott
For
Children: New Bible Commentary, by Gordon J. Wenham, J. Alec Motyer, Donald A. Carson and R. T. France
The Bible SpeaksToday, a commentary series edited by John Stott
Jesus Story Book Bible
The Little Pilgrim’s Progress
Biographies:
Bonhoeffer, by Eric Metaxas
Amazing Grace, the Life of William Wilberforce, by Eric Metaxas
Tortured for Christ, the Life of Richard Wurmbrand
Suffering:
The Misery of Job and the Mercy of God, by John Piper
The Loveliness of Christ, by Samuel Rutherford
Authors / Books:
Dr. John Piper – Desiring God, God is the Gospel, Future Grace
Dr. Tim Keller – The reason for God, The Prodigal God
C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity, The Weight of Glory, Screwtape Letters
Mark Driscoll – Vintage Church
R. C. Sproul – The Holiness of God
A. W. Tozer – The Pursuit of God, The Pursuit of Man
Jerry Bridges – The Disciplines of Grace, Trusting God
Francis Chan – Forgotten God, Crazy Love
John Stott – Basic Christianity, The Radical Disciple, The Cross of Christ
William Wilberforce – Real Christianity
Randy Alcorn – Heaven
Corrie Ten Boom - The Hiding Place
Jackie Pullinger - Chasing the Dragon
Philip Yancy – What’s So Amazing About Grace?
Rick Joyner - The Final Quest, The Call
J.I. Packer - Knowing God
Gary Thomas - Sacred Marriage
Dr. Wayne Grudem - Systematic Theology
Books on Preaching:
Preaching Christ in All of Scripture - Edmund Clowney
The Supremacy of Christ in Preaching - Dr. John Piper
Preaching and Preachers - D. Martin Lloyd-Jones
Christ-Centered Preaching - Bryan Chapell
Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture - Graeme Goldsworthy
Dr. John Piper – Desiring God, God is the Gospel, Future Grace
Dr. Tim Keller – The reason for God, The Prodigal God
C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity, The Weight of Glory, Screwtape Letters
Mark Driscoll – Vintage Church
R. C. Sproul – The Holiness of God
A. W. Tozer – The Pursuit of God, The Pursuit of Man
Jerry Bridges – The Disciplines of Grace, Trusting God
Francis Chan – Forgotten God, Crazy Love
John Stott – Basic Christianity, The Radical Disciple, The Cross of Christ
William Wilberforce – Real Christianity
Randy Alcorn – Heaven
Corrie Ten Boom - The Hiding Place
Jackie Pullinger - Chasing the Dragon
Philip Yancy – What’s So Amazing About Grace?
Rick Joyner - The Final Quest, The Call
J.I. Packer - Knowing God
Gary Thomas - Sacred Marriage
Dr. Wayne Grudem - Systematic Theology
Books on Preaching:
Preaching Christ in All of Scripture - Edmund Clowney
The Supremacy of Christ in Preaching - Dr. John Piper
Preaching and Preachers - D. Martin Lloyd-Jones
Christ-Centered Preaching - Bryan Chapell
Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture - Graeme Goldsworthy
Free & excellent audio / video /
text bible teaching resources:
DesiringGod.org (Dr. John Piper)
MarsHill.com (Pastor Mark Driscoll)
Biographical Messages (Audio):
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/biographies/by-title
DesiringGod.org (Dr. John Piper)
MarsHill.com (Pastor Mark Driscoll)
Biographical Messages (Audio):
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/biographies/by-title
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