The Flintsones turn 50!

Amazing! The Flintsones are almost as old as me. Growing up, Fred, Wilma, Barney, Betty, Pebbles, Bam Bam, and Dino were like old friends. They still are in my memories. I'm going to sound like a grumpy old man here, but honestly- Children now have nothing to watch in comparison to Hanna Barbera shows like the Flintstones. And let's not forget Bugs Bunny and the gang at Looney Tunes... nothing like it. I feel sorry that my kids got robbed when it came to quality. Among the many things I thank God for are DVD's... at least that way, shows like these can be preserved for future generations. . .     HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLD FRIENDS!

Isaiah: An amazing read...

"There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,.." Isaiah 11: 1- 2a
This Old Testament prophecy of Jesus is one of many in the book of Isaiah. God spoke through this prophet with specific pictures of a coming Redeemer who would conquer the enemies of God by dying for His people. (Isaiah 7,9,11,25,26,28,32,40,42,43,50,52,53,60,61 all point to Christ in types and shadows). The prophet still speaks!

Two Kinds of People ...

There's only two kinds of people in the world.....

Those who like Neil Diamond - And those who don't...

Grace... Everywhere you turn

Sorry about the length of this post, but it is incredible reading. It comes from a young professor named Dane Ortlund. He's making the case that "grace" is a theme that runs through every book of the Bible. I hope you'll give it a read and give it to someone who needs a quick easy to read to explain what the main theme of each book is- this is very helpful!

There is always a danger of squeezing the Bible into a mold we bring to it rather than letting the Bible mold us. And, there could hardly be more diversity within the Protestant canon--diverse genres, historical settings, authors, literary levels, ages of history.
But while the Bible is not uniform, it is unified. The many books of the one Bible are not like the many pennies in the one jar. The pennies in the jar look the same, yet are disconnected; the books of the Bible (like the organs of a body) look different, yet are interconnected. As the past two generations' recovery of biblical theology has shown time and again, certain motifs course through the Scripture from start to end, tying the whole thing together into a coherent tapestry--kingdom, temple, people of God, creation/new creation, and so on.
Yet underneath and undergirding all of these, it seems to me, is the motif of God's grace, his favor and love to the undeserving. Don't we see the grace of God in every book of the Bible? (NT books include the single verse that best crystallizes the point.)
Genesis shows God’s grace to a universally wicked world as he enters into relationship with a sinful family line (Abraham) and promises to bless the world through him.
Exodus shows God’s grace to his enslaved people in bringing them out of Egyptian bondage.
Leviticus shows God’s grace in providing his people with a sacrificial system to atone for their sins.
Numbers shows God’s grace in patiently sustaining his grumbling people in the wilderness and bringing them to the border of the promised land not because of them but in spite of them.
Deuteronomy shows God’s grace in giving the people the new land 'not because of your righteousness' (ch. 9).
Joshua shows God’s grace in giving Israel victory after victory in their conquest of the land with neither superior numbers nor superior obedience on Israel’s part.
Judges shows God’s grace in taking sinful, weak Israelites as leaders and using them to purge the land, time and again, of foreign incursion and idolatry.
Ruth shows God’s grace in incorporating a poverty-stricken, desolate, foreign woman into the line of Christ.
1 and 2 Samuel show God’s grace in establishing the throne (forever—2 Sam 7) of an adulterous murderer.
1 and 2 Kings show God’s grace in repeatedly prolonging the exacting of justice and judgment for kingly sin 'for the sake of' David. The king represented the people; the people were in their king; as the king went, so went they.
1 and 2 Chronicles show God’s grace by continually reassuring the returning exiles of God’s self-initiated promises to David and his sons.
Ezra shows God’s grace to Israel in working through the most powerful pagan ruler of the time (Cyrus) to bring his people back home to a rebuilt temple.
Nehemiah shows God’s grace in providing for the rebuilding of the walls of the city that represented the heart of God’s promises to his people.
Esther shows God’s grace in protecting his people from a Persian plot to eradicate
them through a string of 'fortuitous' events.
Job shows God’s grace in vindicating the sufferer’s cry that his redeemer lives (19:25), who will put all things right in this world or the next.
Psalms shows God’s grace by reminding us of, and leading us in expressing, the hesed (relentless covenant love) God has for his people and the refuge that he is for them.
Proverbs shows us God’s grace by opening up to us a world of wisdom in leading a life of happy godliness.
Ecclesiastes shows God’s grace in its earthy reminder that the good things of life can never be pursued as the ultimate things of life and that it is God who in his mercy satisfies sinners (note 7:20; 8:11).
Song of Songs shows God’s grace and love for his bride by giving us a faint echo of it in the pleasures of faithful human sexuality.
Isaiah shows God’s grace by reassuring us of his presence with and restoration of contrite sinners.
Jeremiah shows God’s grace in promising a new and better covenant, one in which knowledge of God will be universally internalized.
Lamentations shows God’s grace in his unfailing faithfulness in the midst of sadness.
Ezekiel shows God’s grace in the divine heart surgery that cleansingly replaces stony hearts with fleshy ones.
Daniel shows God’s grace in its repeated miraculous preservation of his servants.
Hosea shows God’s grace in a real-live depiction of God’s unstoppable love toward his whoring wife.
Joel shows God’s grace in the promise to pour out his Spirit on all flesh.
Amos shows God’s grace in the Lord's climactic promise of restoration in spite of rampant corruption.
Obadiah shows God’s grace by promising judgment on Edom, Israel’s oppressor, and restoration of Israel to the land in spite of current Babylonian captivity.
Jonah shows God’s grace toward both immoral Nineveh and moral Jonah, irreligious pagans and a religious prophet, both of whom need and both of whom receive the grace of God.
Micah shows God’s grace in the prophecy’s repeated wonder at God’s strange insistence on 'pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression' (7:18).
Nahum shows God’s grace in assuring Israel of good news' and 'peace,' promising that the Assyrians have tormented them for the last time.
Habakkuk shows God’s grace that requires nothing but trusting faith amid insurmountable opposition, freeing us to rejoice in God even in desolation.
Zephaniah shows God’s grace in the Lord's exultant singing over his recalcitrant yet beloved people.
Haggai shows God’s grace in promising a wayward people that the latter glory of God’s (temple-ing) presence with them will far surpass its former glory.
Zechariah shows God’s grace in the divine pledge to open up a fountain for God’s people to 'cleanse them from sin and uncleanness' (13:1).
Malachi shows God’s grace by declaring the Lord’s no-strings-attached love for his people.
Matthew shows God’s grace in fulfilling the Old Testament promises of a coming king. (5:17)
Mark shows God’s grace as this coming king suffers the fate of a common criminal to buy back sinners. (10:45)
Luke shows that God’s grace extends to all the people one would not expect: hookers, the poor, tax collectors, sinners, Gentiles ('younger sons'). (19:10)
John shows God’s grace in becoming one of us, flesh and blood (1:14), and dying and rising again so that by believing we might have life in his name. (20:31)
Acts shows God’s grace flooding out to all the world--starting in Jerusalem, ending in Rome; starting with Peter, apostle to the Jews, ending with Paul, apostle to the Gentiles. (1:8)
Romans shows God’s grace in Christ to the ungodly (4:5) while they were still sinners (5:8) that washes over both Jew and Gentile.
1 Corinthians shows God’s grace in favoring what is lowly and foolish in the world. (1:27)
2 Corinthians shows God’s grace in channeling his power through weakness rather than strength. (12:9)
Galatians shows God’s grace in justifying both Jew and Gentile by Christ-directed faith rather than self-directed performance. (2:16)
Ephesians shows God’s grace in the divine resolution to unite us to his Son before time began. (1:4)
Philippians shows God’s grace in Christ’s humiliating death on an instrument of torture—for us. (2:8)
Colossians shows God’s grace in nailing to the cross the record of debt that stood against us. (2:14)
1 Thessalonians shows God’s grace in providing the hope-igniting guarantee that Christ will return again. (4:13)
2 Thessalonians shows God’s grace in choosing us before time, that we might withstand Christ’s greatest enemy. (2:13)
1 Timothy shows God’s grace in the radical mercy shown to 'the chief of sinners.' (1:15)
2 Timothy shows God’s grace to be that which began (1:9) and that which fuels (2:1) the Christian life.
Titus shows God’s grace in saving us by his own cleansing mercy when we were most mired in sinful passions. (3:5)
Philemon shows God’s grace in transcending socially hierarchical structures with the deeper bond of Christ-won Christian brotherhood. (v. 16)
Hebrews shows God’s grace in giving his Son to be both our sacrifice to atone for us once and for all as well as our high priest to intercede for us forever. (9:12)
James shows us God’s grace by giving to those who have been born again 'of his own will' (1:18) 'wisdom from above' for meaningful godly living. (3:17)
1 Peter shows God’s grace in securing for us an unfading, imperishable inheritance no matter what we suffer in this life. (1:4)
2 Peter shows God’s grace in guaranteeing the inevitability that one day all will be put right as the evil that has masqueraded as good will be unmasked at the coming Day of the Lord. (3:10)
1 John shows God’s grace in adopting us as his children. (3:1)
2 and 3 John show God’s grace in reminding specific individuals of 'the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever.' (2 Jn 2)
Jude shows God’s grace in the Christ who presents us blameless before God in a world rife with moral chaos. (v. 24)
Revelation shows God’s grace in preserving his people through cataclysmic suffering, a preservation founded on the shed blood of the lamb. (12:11)

It is frequently my fear lest I should fall into the habit of preaching about the gospel than directly preaching the gospel, and hence I labor to return to the first principle of our faith, and often take a text upon which it would not be possible to say anything new but which will compel me to recapitulate in your hearing those things which are vital, essential, and fundamental to the life of our souls. With such a text as this before me [1 Peter 1:19], if I do not preach the gospel, I shall do violence both to the sacred word and to my own conscience.”
C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, 1950), IV:366. Italics original.

"When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares that we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus: 'I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means. For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where he is, there I shall be also."  Martin Luther, Letter to Jerome Weller, 1530

A little shot o ' humor

                                                      So... I guess it DID freeze over....

                                                  
                                                           Another Mighty Mullet!
Like the young man pictured above, we all have things from our past we'd like to forget.  We struggle with God's forgiveness because we correctly assume we haven't earned it. Our sin is an offense to God; it violates His character, twists His words, stiffles His Spirit, and mocks His Law. We are by nature and by choice sinners- enemies of God...
The Apostle Paul writes in Romans chapter 5 that "while we were weak (read ; powerless to address our problem - sin), Christ died for the ungodly."  Ungodly... that's a terrible word, but it describes exactly what we were before Christ saved us. Paul continues, "but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Jesus didn't wait for me to turn over a new leaf or straighten up my act.... while I was STILL a sinner Christ died for me... That's grace! That's mercy!
The idea of grace is both appealing and appalling. We are drawn to its appeal because by believing Someone paid for my sin in my place is a revolutionary thought. Psalm 103:10 tells us that "He has not dealt with us according to our sins; i.e., He's not treated us as our sins deserve. Grace can also be appalling. Some people refuse God's grace because they don't think they need it. They pay their own way. In accepting grace, we must admit that we need it.... this can be and should be very humbling. To say that we aren't good enough is a tough pill to swallow, but it is the medicine we MUST take in order to have grace. When we think we are good enough or that we measure up or that we are better than most people we know, we are in essence, deciding to be our own god. Accepting God's grace is the belief that your sins were placed on Christ at the cross (Isaiah 53:4-6). He was punished in your place! Believe it and be saved!!
Back to the picture- and your past; Isaiah 43:25 tells us that God, for HIS OWN SAKE (not our goodness) blots out our past record and remembers our sin no more..
God deliberately choses NOT to remember!
"My  sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought;
My sin, not in part, but the whole;
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more;
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! O my soul!"  - Horatio Spafford, 1873 

"...But you are a chosen race , a royal priesthood , a holy nation , a people for His own possession , that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light . (1 Peter 2:9)
I get shivers up my spine when I read this verse... EVERY TIME. The way the Church is described- chosen race (God actually wanted us!) - a royal priesthood (We represent Jesus to the world PLUS we will reign with Him in the Kingdom to come!) a holy nation (It is HE who makes us different from any other nation or kingdom!) a people for His own possession (God created us, and owns us!... we belong to HIM!) - and here's the kicker... this is why we are here... that we may proclaim (declare) His excellencies - That's our job... to declare to a watching and dying world that our God lives! and there is life and hope in Him - Let's get busy!!

It is the hardest thing in all the world, but the most liberating thing, for a sinful man to look square at the facts of his sin and defy the shame of it all by asserting the cross of Christ for those very sins. This is the work of the gospel. This is self-ministry. Everyman must learn how to apply the gospel of grace to his conscience when he has sinned. You cannot get free of your sins on your own; the only way to get free is to see them, in all their damnable inexcusability, covered and pardoned and forgiven and forever removed by the blood of Christ.
From Ray Ortlund 

The following comes from
Ray Ortlund:

                             NO... I can't do it! ... He must do it for me! (Philippians 1:6)

                          WOOOOHOOO!! The Ricky Bobby Bible!! (It was just a matter of time...)
                              No offense to my friends who are NASCAR fans, but this is too much!

In Praise of Mullets

You just don't see many THIS GLORIOUS!!

“Now I should like to know whether your soul, tired of its own righteousness, is learning to be revived by and to trust in the righteousness of Christ. . . . My dear brother, learn Christ and him crucified. Learn to pray to him and, despairing of yourself, say, ‘You, Lord Jesus, are my righteousness, but I am your sin. You have taken upon yourself what is mine and have given to me what is yours. You have taken upon yourself what you were not and have given to me what I was not.’ Beware of aspiring to such purity that you will not wish to be looked upon as a sinner, or to be one. For Christ dwells only in sinners. On this account he descended from heaven, where he dwelt among the righteous, to dwell among sinners. Meditate on this love of his and you will see his sweet consolation.”
Martin Luther, writing to George Spenlein, quoted in Theodore G. Tappert, editor, Luther: Letters of Spiritual Counsel (Philadelphia, 1955), page 110. Language updated.

Helpful Post by Kevin DeYoung

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” (Revelation 12:10-11).Rom. 8:1-2).Rom. 8:8-9).Rom. 8:13).Rom. 8:18).Rom. 8:22).Rom. 8:28).Rom. 8:37-39).Satan is an accuser and a deceiver. In both cases his weapons are words, which is why we must overcome him with the word of our testimony.
In other words, it is through our belief in the gospel and our confidence in the power of Jesus Christ that we can stand secure in the face of Satan’s lies and accusations. And it is by the truth of the word of God–believed on and hoped in even unto death–that we can expose and destroy the deceptions of the Deceiver. This is how we do battle, with the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.
So when Satan whispers, “Can God really forgive you? Can your sins be washed away?” you can answer confidently: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” (Rom.8:1-2)
When the Devil says your situation is hopeless, when he calls you an addict and says you can’t change, you can reply: “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” (Romans 8:8-9)
And when Satan suggests that it must not matter then how we live, that grace and freedom are an excuse for license, we must answer: “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13)
And when our Enemy points to our suffering and says, “Look, God cannot be trusted. Surely, there is no use in serving this Master” we will inform him that we “consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18)
And if Satan should tempt us to believe that God is singling us out for pain, we will remind him that “the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (Romans 8:22)
If he spreads the lie that our trials will be the end of us, that God can no longer help us, we will declare, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good”
(Romans 8:28)
And when he shows us our weakness, when he points to the failures of the church, when he accuses us of having let God down and makes us doubt the power of the gospel and the ultimate triumph of the saints, when he comes at us with words and all the weapons of the world, we will stand our ground with a defiant shout: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39)
Satan is hell bent on destroying the church. He breathes fiery accusations like a dragon and hisses deception like a serpent. He is in pursuit of the woman and her children. But the salvation and the power and the kingdom belong to God and to Christ our King. And we shall overcome the devil, by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony.
Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices

Help! I don't know what I'm doing!

I know nothing about blogging, so be patient with me. And to those who blog -
"please help!"
I am happy you stopped by, and as I can I will add to the blog. Thanks again for your patience and God bless you!