Don't Be Surprised By What God Can Do

Do you ever feel disqualified because of your sin? Does Satan ever remind you of you failures from your youth, or from last year, or from earlier today? It is easy to dwell on these sins and failures and begin to doubt yourself and doubt if God can or will forgive you, much less if God can use you. It can be spiritually crippling. It is in these moments that we must cling to the gospel. Cling to what Jesus has done for us. We have been redeemed. His righteousness has been given to us. The book of Titus says that Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” (Titus 2:14 ESV) Don’t be crippled by your past. Cling to the promises of God’s word and serve God faithfully wherever he calls you.

In 1 Corinthians 15 The Apostle Paul spoke of himself as the “least of all the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” What if Paul had been crippled by his past? What if Paul felt like he couldn’t serve God because of his sins? How did he get past it and become the person who was a faithful servant to his death? We see the answer in the next verse.

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:10 ESV

He would cling to the grace of God. He would cling to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And this is what we must do.

Don’t be surprised by what God can do in spite of you.

Epic Beatdown

Love this clip from a Matt Chandler Sermon.

Close But No Cigar

“And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the most important of all?" Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." And the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.” --Mark 12:28-34 ESV

This scribe, who is a theological scholar, has this discussion with Jesus. Jesus answers his question and it says that the scribe agrees with Jesus about what the greatest commandment is. Then this dialogue ends with Jesus telling him “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” This scribe, knows the teachings of God’s Word. He knows the laws of God and he knows that putting God before all things is more important than any religious activity or practice that he could do. And to this guy who knows so much and understands so much, Jesus says “You are close.” You see the problem is that the scribe doesn’t understand who Jesus is. He is missing it. The problem with that is that close isn’t good enough.

I wonder how many people are sitting in church on any given Sunday, who are close. They know the word, they know the rules, they believe and follow the rules, but they are missing Jesus. That is a scary position to be in. When there are so many things that are right and are in place, it makes it hard to realize that you need something else. And Jesus’ words to them are “You are not far. You just need me.” I fear that the number in churches across the world who this applies to is a lot higher than we think. We need to tell them that faith is not like horseshoes and hand grenades. We need to give them Jesus!

God Is Great!

When we celebrate the gospel of Christ and the love of God, and when we lift up the gift of salvation, let us do it in such a way that people will see through it to God himself. May those who hear the gospel from our lips know that salvation is the blood-bought gift of seeing and savoring the glory of Christ. May they believe and say, "Christ is all!" Or, to use the words of the psalmist, "May those who love your salvation say evermore, 'God is great!'" (Ps. 70:4). Not mainly, "Salvation is great," but "God is Great!" --John Piper from God is the Gospel

Too Small

"A gospel which is only about the moment of conversion but does not extend to every moment of life in Christ is too small. A gospel that gets your sins forgiven but offers no power for transformation is too small. A gospel that isolates one of the benefits of union with Christ and ignores all the others is too small. A gospel that must be measured by your own moral conduct, social conscience, or religious experience is too small. A gospel that rearranges the components of your life but does not put you personally in the presence of God is too small." --Fred Sanders from The Deep Things of God

We Need Jesus Not Gimmicks

"A religious mentality characterized by timidity and lack of moral courage has given us to a flabby Christianity, intellectually impoverished, dull, repetitious and to a great many persons just plain boring. This is peddled as the very faith of our fathers in direct lineal descent from Christ and the apostles. We spoon-feed this insipid pabulum to our inquiring youth and, to make it palatable, spice it up with carnal amusements filched from the unbelieving world. It is easier to entertain than to instruct, it is easier to follow degenerate public taste than to think for oneself, so too many of our evangelical leaders let their minds atrophy while they keep their fingers nimble operating religious gimmicks to bring in the curious crowds." --A.W. Tozer

May we always give them Jesus and never resort to gimmicks.

Effective and Fruitful

Do you ever feel ineffective or unfruitful? Scripture tells us how to make sure that does not describe us.

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8

There is a key word that hit me this morning when I read this passage in 2 Peter. That word is “increasing.” Peter is saying that you need to have faith, knowledge, self-control and all these other things. But we don’t just attain them once and move on. These qualities need to be increasing in our lives. We can’t be comfortable with where we are in these areas. There must always be growth. And if there is growth in these areas we can be certain that we will not be ineffective or unfruitful through Jesus Christ.

Pray over this list of things that Peter mentions. Ask God to show you what areas you are lacking in and how you can grow in each of these and together we can continue to be effective and fruitful through Jesus and For His Glory.

Imperishable, Undefiled, and Unfading

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. –1 Peter 1:3-5

I read through 1 Peter this afternoon. The beauty of the passage above really hit me as I started reading. God has caused us to be born again to a living hope through Christ and the inheritance that we receive as children of God is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.” Then later on in the chapter in verse 13 Peter says: “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

We have been given a new hope and here we are instructed to not hope in anything else. “Hope fully on the grace” not hope partially, or hope mostly. Hope fully in the Grace that will be completed at the return of Christ.

Do you find yourself hoping in other things or other people? I want to urge each of us to join Peter as he praises God in this passage for the hope that we have been given through Christ Jesus and urge you to cling to that hope. It is all that we have that is of true value. By clinging to Christ we will receive the treasure that is Imperishable, undefiled, and Unfading.

What Will Change The World?

Love will.

It starts with God's love. "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die--but God shows his love for us in that while were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:6-8 ESV

Then our love which is rooted in God's Love must be used to reach the lost, lonely, and hurting people. Today I read the following statements on Ann Voskamp's blog. I really liked what they had to say about Love.

Love is the only thing that ever changed me — and Love is the only thing that will ever change the world — and love is the only thing that is the real radical.

Love has no limits and it can’t be contained and when we have a radical love for God, God takes care of the location of where the love flows. --Posted by Ann Voskamp on A Holy Experience blog

Have you felt God's love for you today? Have you shown God's love to another today?

The Covenant of Marital Love

Piper, Carson, and Keller on Sustaining the Covenant of Marital Love from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

Not For Your Sake

"Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” Ezekiel 36:22-27 ESV

It is a beautiful thing that God does to His children. He cleansses us and gives us a new heart and new spirit so that we will follow Him and his rules. It is wonderful to know that He is the one that does this for us because we know that we can’t do it on our own. Find joy in this today. We just need to make sure that we remember why God chooses to do this. Look back at the first verse of the passage that I included above. “It is not for your sake…but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned.” God does not do these things ultimately for us. He does this to vindicate his holy name which we have profaned.

So before we start thinking we are hot stuff let us remember that it is God that has done this work in us and He has done it for his Glory. What are we to do now? Praise God in all that we do to show the nations that He is holy and that He is good.

Grace Upon Grace

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'") And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. –John 1:14-16 ESV

I love John Chapter 1. It is such a beautiful picture of Jesus. Today when I got to the office, I spent the first 10-15 minutes reading through this chapter and reading notes about this chapter. As I read through this chapter the part I quoted above really stuck out. Especially verse 16. “And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” Isn’t that beautiful? Through the fullness of Christ we have received an outpouring of grace that is like a fountain that just keeps overflowing. Grace upon Grace.

I pray that today you will see the beauty of Christ. If you need some reminders of his beauty, read through John 1. As you think of the beauty of Christ I pray that you will cling to the grace that we have received through his fullness.

Your Father's Good Pleasure

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Luke 12:32-34

While reading the other day, I came across this passage. I love verse 32! Don’t be afraid because God finds joy in giving you the kingdom. It pleases Him to give this all satisfying pleasing thing to us, to give us the kingdom. He doesn’t just give it to us, but He finds pleasure in giving it to us. Isn’t this wonderful to hear?

So what do we do now that we know God finds joy in giving us the kingdom? We live as citizens in His kingdom. What does that look like? What do citizens of God’s Kingdom live like? Verse 33 and 34 give us part of that picture. We quit living for this world. We are citizens of a kingdom that is to come and we need to live for that kingdom. We don’t do this to earn it. We do this because that is how His people live. The treasures offered in this world have no value compared the treasure given to us in the kingdom to come. When will we start living like we believe that?

Wash Your Hands Of You

"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?” Isaiah 58:6-7

I have come across this passage a couple of times recently. I wanted to dig into it a little bit and post about it but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say yet. Then today while reading a post on the Gospel Coalition website, it hit me. Tullian Tchividjian’s post focused on reaching up to God and out to others and how the Gospel causes us do that. The gospel does not cause us to focus on ourselves. Here are a few of the things in the post that I really liked, but click here to read his full post titled Up And Out, Not In.

The gospel causes us to look up to Christ and what he did, out to our neighbor and what they need, not in to ourselves and how we’re doing. There’s nothing about the gospel that fixes my eyes on me.

The more you see that the gospel isn’t about you, the more spiritual you will become.

Real spirituality is forgetting about yourself, washing your hands of you.

He also included in this post a quote from Martin Luther:

God doesn’t need our good works, but our neighbor does.

This brings me back to the passage in Isaiah that I started with. Why do we do these things? Do we do these things to be accepted by God? I fear that the answer is often “Yes.” Is that why we should do them? Absolutely not! I love that quote from Luther, “God doesn’t need our good works.” It is not what makes us right. He doesn’t need them because we have already been made right through Christ Jesus. That doesn’t mean we don’t do these works. We work because people need to hear about God’s Love and feel God’s Love, just as we have.

Don’t do work to make yourself look good. As Tchividjian says, "wash your hands of you" and take people to Jesus. The Gospel will cause you to do that if you let it.

Piper On The Prosperity Gospel

Pierced To The Heart

"Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know--this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” Acts 2:22-24

This is the day of Pentecost. Peter is preaching the Gospel. He uses the words of the prophet Joel and the Psalmist David to point the crowds to the Good News of Christ. When they hear this verse 37 of Acts 2 says: “they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?”

I loved those words “pierced to the heart.” Thank You God for piercing our hearts with the truth. Continue to pour out your Spirit on us so that we may share this heart piercing truth with others. In your Son's name for your Glory we pray this.

7 Miles

Matt Chandler addresses one of the "secular" explanations of the Resurrection of Christ.

Taste and See

I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together! I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! --Psalm 34:1-9

I needed this Passage today. I just opened my bible and this is the page I turned to. I needed to be reminded that no matter what is going on, I need to "boast in the LORD." I love that we are encouraged in verse three to join with David in lifting up the name of God. Then he speaks of deliverance and salvation that comes from God and follows that with "taste and see that the LORD is good!" That is beautiful! He truly will satisfy all our needs and desires. We just have to cling to Him and let him satisfy us.

Once The Gospel Frees You

What you’ll discover is that once the gospel frees you from having to do anything for Jesus, you’ll want to do everything for Jesus so that “whether you eat or drink or whatever you do” you’ll do it all to the glory of God. –Tullian Tchividjian

The quote above comes from a post titled Rethinking Progress where Tchividjian discusses our works. Why is it so easy to feel like our works is what gets us God’s approval? I guess it really is human nature to become Pharisaical. Even knowing that my works don’t help me get God’s approval, I can still find areas of my life where this train of thought is evident.

It goes against scripture and needs to be excised from our hearts. So how do we fight it? How do we remove this belief that we so easily revert back to? We cling to the gospel! And once we start clinging to the gospel, as Tchividjian says “you’ll want to do everything for Jesus so that “whether you eat or drink or whatever you do” you’ll do it all to the glory of God.”

Heavenly Father: Thank you for the freedom that comes from being in Christ. Thank you for choosing to justify me, knowing that I could never make things right on my own. Help me cling to this truth and learn to work for you because it is truly a delight. I pray this in Christ’s Name and for your Glory God.

It Is Not About Me(or You)

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies--in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. –1 Peter 4:10-11

As I seek to serve God more with my life, one of the things that I know I need to keep fighting is the urge to think that it is about me. The words I speak and the ways I serve need to be rooted in God, not in my own abilities. If I build this up around my abilities to speak or serve, it will eventually come crashing down. But if rooted in God, and only in God, God will be glorified. And as Peter says at the end of Verse 11, “To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

Heavenly Father I pray my words and actions will point people to you and away from me. In your Son and for your glory I ask for the strength to get better at this each day of my life.

Overwhelmed by Christ

One of the things Jared Wilson talked about at the Gospel Wakefulness Conference last week was that we should overwhelmed by Christ. He said he thinks of an image of Jesus and coming out of Jesus are all of the names and things that Christ does. All of what Christ is and all that He does should cause us to be overwhelmed even if we just got a glimpse of Him.

When Jared talked about this I started thinking about this passage.

So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, "Whom do you seek?" They answered him, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus said to them, "I am he." Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, "I am he," they drew back and fell to the ground. --John 18:3-6

These soldiers and officers received just a small glimpse of Jesus in His response "I am He" and it knocked them to the ground. This shouldn't just be for the betrayers of Jesus. We should all be floored by the good news. And when we are knocked to the ground by the holiness of our God and Savior, maybe we will place Him in His proper place in our lives.

Father show me more of you and more of Christ so that I will care less about me. In Your Son, through your Spriit, and for Your Glory I pray this.

By the Way if you weren't at the conference you can go to the Gospel Wakefulness link to hear all of Jared's messages. I encourage you to listen to them.

Hosanna in the Highest

"O God, be thou exalted over my possessions. Nothing of earth's treasures shall seem dear unto me if only Thou art glorified in my life. Be Thou exalted over my friendships. I am determined that Thou shalt be above all, though I must stand deserted and alone in the midst of the earth. Be Thou exalted above my comforts. Though it mean the loss of bodily comforts and the carrying of heavy crosses I shall keep my vow made this day before Thee. Be Thou exalted over my reputation. Make me ambitious to please Thee even if as a result I must sink into obscurity and my name be forgotten as a dream. Rise, O Lord, into Thy proper place of honor, above my ambitions, above my likes and dislikes, above my family, my health and even my life itself. Let me decrease that Thou mayest increase, let me sink that Thou mayest rise above. Ride forth upon me as Thou didst ride into Jerusalem mounted upon the humble little beast, a colt, the foal of an ass, and let me hear the children cry to Thee, `Hosanna in the highest.'" --A.W. Tozer prayer from The Pursuit of God

Fighting Sin

Jared Wilson has an awesome post on his blog today, which includes an excerpt from his upcoming book. It centers on fighting your sin. I pray we would all do this. Below are some of the statements from his blog, but I encourage you to click here to read the whole thing.

"With the power of God's love and the message of the cross, stiffen your back, hold your head up high, and take a machete to the sin that entangles."

"Make bloodthirsty war with the sin in you. Watch for it, search it out, assassinate it with the word of God."

It is time for war!

Definition of a Trader

Longing For The Word

Philip Nation posted this video at Ed Stetzer's website a couple of days ago. May we never take lightly the blessing of God's word to us and may our hearts desire it as these people do.

Please watch this video. You can read Philip Nation's post about it here.

My Eye Sees You

“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you will make it known to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:2-6

This passage comes after Job had been questioned by God for the three previous chapters. We all need to get to this point. Where we are broken and we realize that we can’t understand everything about God and his wisdom and power and plan. I believe it was in Skye Jethani’s The Divine Commodity where he talked about the fact that we have tried to perfect knowing God and that we have lost the mystery of God. We have forgotten that there are things about him that we can never grasp and it is foolish to pretend that we do.

The beautiful thing about this passage is that it is when Job makes this confession and repentance that God restores all that Job had lost and more. Job had finally learned what God wanted him to get out of the trials. Job had gone from merely knowing God from what he had heard about him to actually seeing the true nature of God and the mystery that surrounds Him.

I pray we will all come to the day where we can say to the Father: “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;”

Pursuit of God

I am currently reading The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. I highly recommend reading it. This is a short book that is so deep. I am only 1/3 of the way through and I can already tell this will be a book that I read again. Here are a couple of statements that I really liked from the first few chapters.

“The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence. The instant cure of most of our religious ills would be to enter the Presence [of God] in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God and that God is in us. This would lift us out of our pitiful narrowness and cause our hearts to be enlarged.”

“The Man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss…”

And the last thoughts I will share come from the Chapter titled The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing. This is an amazing chapter that centers on the story of God testing Abraham with Isaac.

“Things have become necessary to us, a development never originally intended. God’s gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution.”

“And if we are set upon the pursuit of God He will sooner or later bring us to this test…So we will be brought one by one to the testing place, and we may never know when we are there. At that testing place there will be no dozen possible choices for us; just one and an alternative, but our whole future will be conditioned by the choice we make.”

Wartime Simplicity

I finished reading the new John Piper book titled Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God. In an appendix in the back he shares a sermon of his that was on the Supremacy of Christ in Christian learning. In that sermon he discusses some of the things their church and seminary believe and teach. I wanted to share one of the statements that was on consumerism and materialism.

Desiring to be rich is suicidal, and commending that desire as part of the Christian life is therefore worse than murderous because not just this life but the next is at stake. Followers of Jesus should feel a magnetic pull on their lives toward wartime simplicity so that they may be lavish in giving and alleviate as much suffering as they can--especially eternal suffering. --John Piper

"Wartime simplicity." In the great wars of history citizens have been called on to make every sacrifice they can to help the cause and kingdom. Shouldn't this be how we live now? Sacrificing whatever is necessary for the sake of others and for the Kingdom of God.

God use us and all we have to bring you glory.

Abusing This World

I loved this quote. It goes with what I posted on Monday.

Brethren, if you are ever so taken up with any enjoyment that it takes away your love for prayer or for your Bible, or that it would frighten you to hear the cry: "The Bridegroom cometh:" and you would say: Is He come already? then you are abusing this world. Oh! sit loose to this world's joy: "The time is short." --by Robert Murray M'Cheyne

May we see when this is happening in our lives!

Maybe You Will Lose Control

I read this commentary post from John Piper today titled Beware: The Bible is about to threaten your smartphone focus. It has a banner at the top of the post that says, “Man shall not live by facebook alone.” I am copying the full text here in this post because it is an awesome reminder.

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Beware: The Bible is about to threaten your smartphone focus by John Piper
Are apps a threat to God-focus? Yes. But it works both ways. Fight fire with fire.

If you are reading your Bible on your computer or your smartphone or your iPad, the presence of the email app and the news apps and the Facebook app threaten every moment to drag your attention away from the word of God.

True. Fight that. If your finger offends you, cut it off. Or use any other virtuous violence (Matthew 11:12) that sets you free to rivet your soul on God.

But don’t take mainly a defensive posture. Fight fire with fire.

Why should we think of the Facebook app threatening the Bible app? Why not the Bible app threatening the Facebook app, and the email app, and the RSS feeder, and the news?

Resolve that today you will press the Bible app three times during the day. No five times. Ten times! Maybe you will lose control and become addicted to Bible! Again and again get a two-minute dose of life-giving Food. Man shall not live by Facebook alone.

I’m serious. Never has God’s voice been so easily accessible. The ESV app is free. The Olive Tree Bible Reader app is free. And so are lots of others. Let the Bible threaten your focus. Or better: Let the Bible bring you back to reality over and over during the day. –John Piper commentary posted on www.desiringGod.org
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I don’t have a smartphone, because clearly I am not smart enough for one, nor do I have a facebook account, because clearly I am too hip for facebook. But I do have obsessions that I get my fix from and they are blogs. Now almost all of the blogs that I read regularly are focused on faith and are of great benefit to me in terms of my faith and they help me grow in Christ which I desperately need. However, why go to a person’s commentary on it, when I can go directly to the source. I have a bible as close as I have my computer. Shouldn’t the Word of God trump one person’s opinion of the Word of God?

So here is what I have decided. Before I go and check the blogs I read for updates, I am going to open my Bible and ground myself in God’s word. Will you join me? Before you open facebook or check your twitter updates or read blogs or turn on the television (and the list can go on forever) will you open up the word of God and see what He has to say?

I loved these two lines from Piper:

“Maybe you will lose control and become addicted to Bible!”

“Let the Bible threaten your focus. Or better: Let the Bible bring you back to reality over and over during the day.”

Father, be our strength as we try to control all obsessions outside of our obsession with you. We know that in Christ we have the power to do this and it is in his name and for your glory that we pray this.

The Whisper of God

And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold there came a voice to him… --1 Kings 19:11-13

The Whisper of God. How can we hear it as busy as we keep ourselves? We run from one thing to another. All the while wondering why God doesn’t speak. Maybe the problem is that He has been speaking be we just haven’t been able to hear Him. There is too much noise and too many distractions for us to hear what He has been saying. I have been praying for direction from God on a couple of things and I think really what I want is just a loud booming voice from Heaven. And He may choose to use that to give me the answer I seek. But I fear that with my busy life that I have chosen, I have unintentionally been drowning out His whispers. Maybe if I will get rid of all of the distractions in my life and draw close to Him, I will hear His will, soft but clear.

Father, speak to us. Speak your truth and your will into our hearts. Prepare our hearts and minds so that we may receive it and know that it is from you. In Christ’s Name and for your Glory.

Love Usually Involves Touching

“I have sometimes wondered why Jesus so frequently touched the people he healed, many of whom must have been unattractive, obviously diseased, unsanitary, smelly…Jesus’ mission was not chiefly a crusade against disease but rather a ministry to individual people, some of whom happened to have a disease. He wanted those people, one by one, to feel his love and warmth and his full identification with them. Jesus knew he could not readily demonstrate love to a crowd, for love usually involves touching…The further we remove ourselves from personal connections with people in need, the further we stray from the ministry Jesus modeled for us.” Paul Brand in Fearfully & Wonderfully Made

If the Christ who lives in us lived a life that associated and reached out to the sick, poor, and social outcasts; why do Christians often times disassociate ourselves from these people? So often we will be quick to throw some extra cash towards a need, but how often do we throw ourselves toward that need? When will we touch as Christ touched and love as Christ loved?

God change our hearts and open our eyes. We need you to start this work in us. In Christ's Name and for your glory.

My Satisfaction

When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me. –Hosea 13:6

I used this verse in our bible class a few weeks ago. It keeps coming to mind. All that we have comes from God. Even the ability to take our next breath lies in his hand. Should he choose to stop it, we are finished. He has given us life and taken care of us. And the crazy part is that man’s response when we become satisfied is that we become proud and forget where it came from. Even the children of God do this. That is who is being talked about in the Hosea passage.

Is this something that is evident in your life? I know it has been in my life. Don’t be satisfied with the things of this world or the pleasures of this world. Be satisfied with the one who gave them. If we find our satisfaction in God and God alone, we will be able to rejoice in all situations.

This is what Paul was explaining when he said

“I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.” --Philippians 4:12

What is the secret that Paul mentions in verse 12? He answers that in Verse 13.

“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” --Philippians 4:13

The secret is that we must cling to Christ. Paul is saying he can face any situation because He is finding satisfaction in Christ. If we will do that, God will not be able to say as he did in Hosea, "I took care of their needs but then they forgot me."

Marriage

Below I have attached a segment from one of John Piper’s sermons which is titled Lionhearted and Lamblike: The Christian Husband as Head. He has some great words for husbands and wives. I have told Sarah Grace that I want us to go back and listen to or watch(which you can do both for free on www.desirggod.org) some of his sermons on marriage. I haven’t picked which sermons we are going to start with, but if anyone is interested, we would love to encourage you to do the same thing and maybe we could have an online discussion either through the blog or e-mail about these sermons. If you want to check out any of John Piper’s sermons you can click here to see a list of subjects and click through to find a topic you are looking for. I am encouraged regularly by his words and would encourage you to check them out also.

Children of God

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received that Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.--Romans 8:14-17

Isn’t it a beautiful thing that we are called children of God? Adopted by a holy God in spite of how unholy we are. Because of this adoption we are heirs with Christ. We deserve separation and eternal punishment but God has chosen to adopt us. I hope we can cling to this truth today, and everyday.

Our identity is now in Him, because we are His.

Headship

Awesome reminder from John Piper of what men should be doing for our families.

Accept Him??

One Year Anniversary

One year ago today, against wise advice, I typed out my first post on this blog. My goal was that I could create a place where we could discuss and debate our faith and help each other grow. To those who have read and commented, Thank you! Because I have grown this year and our online discussions here helped me do that. God has opened my eyes to so many things over the last year.

One of those things is my constant need to Treasure Him and Christ above all other things.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” --Matthew 13:44

When I seek Him fully and Treasure Him fully, I will see and know Him clearly and know his will. So for those of you who stuck with me for the first year, I ask you join me in another year of trying to know and love God more each day. Let us be amazed by the King of Glory each day and let us cling to Him with everything that we face this year.

This video is one I put in a post almost a year ago, but I love what it has to say. I get chills every time I listen to the words. He is our king and our treasure!

I Want To Want Thee

In a culture that is pushing the American Dream and success that is centered on more things and more experiences, our prayer should be this:

Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain! Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways. --Psalm 119:36-37

I was reading through part of Psalm 119 this morning and when I got to those verses, I was blown away. We need to pray this daily and pray that our hearts will continue to long for Him more than anything this world has to offer.

I liked the way A.W. Tozer stated the idea of us needing to long for God more in his book The Pursuit of God.

O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, "Rise up, any love, my fair one, and come away." Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

God, as the author of Psalm 119 asked we also pray that you turn our eyes from the worthless things of this world and that we will find true life only in your ways God. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

This Wonderful Gift

We read The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones to our kids. It is awesome. Every story points to Christ. The book ends with a paraphrase of John 1:12-13. I wanted to share it.

For anyone who says yes to Jesus
For anyone who believes what Jesus said
For anyone who will just reach out to take it
Then God will give them this wonderful gift:

To be born into
A whole new life
To be who they really are
Who God always made them to be--
Their own true selves--
God's Dear
Child.
--Sally Lloyd-Jones

Day By Day

2011! The new year! I prayed part of my resolution to God last night after the ball had dropped. That prayer was that I would try to walk closer to God and to His will with each day I am given. Instead of trying to focus on where I want to be by the end of this year, I decided to try to focus on my resolution day by day. I want to draw closer to God each day. I want to know Him more today than I did yesterday and more tomorrow than I do today.

That takes commitment to reading His word regularly. It also takes a constant prayer life, one that includes more time listening to what God is trying to say than it does me talking.

Today was step one. We read from Exodus chapters 14-16, where Moses is leading Israel out of Egypt through the Red sea and into the wilderness. They of course were complaining about this and Moses says these words...

"Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today." --Exodus 14:13

I need to hear those statements every day of my life! Every time I feel overwhelmed, or scared, or frustrated with life I need to cling to this verse. Don't be afraid of what you are facing! Stand firm in your faith! And see the salvation of the Lord which you were promised and which you have received in Christ Jesus.

I will probably forget this though. You will see me some time and think "Man he seems burned out, stressed out, or plum worn out." And if you do please remind me of this verse so that I can refocus and start clinging to God again. He is what we need in this new year!

May your new year be blessed with an overwhelming presence of the Almighty God! Join me as I work toward that.