New Year - Same Reminder...

When starting a New Year, it’s always good to get perspective. To remind ourselves of what is truly important. Our problem is, as much as we may hate to admit it, the things we value are often temporary things. It’s time to be reminded again of eternal things. Jesus continually tells the disciples (and us) that we are not to treasure things that don’t last (Matt. 6:19 - 21). The Apostle Paul reminds us the same thing in essence “seek things above, where Christ is -” (Col 3: 1 - 4). Peter warns of how our lives look when we “forget we’ve been cleansed from former sins.” (2 Peter 1: 3-9).
If you are like me, (and even if you don’t think you are.. YOU ARE), a New Year reminder is in order… In fact, this is something we are to dwell on continually… daily… moment by moment… The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is what is eternal. This good news of God’s sacrificial love isn't just about “being saved” and the rest is up to you. The gospel is too big for that… way too big!  The gospel not only saves us, but also causes our Christian growth, and keeps us until Christ’s return!  This is the reason Paul is so upset at the Galatians (Gal. 1:6) .. They had ceased to remember that Jesus was sufficient and that NOTHING could be added to what He has already done for us!
Jared Wilson in his great book, “Gospel Deeps”  writes; “…So the gospel Jesus preaches in his earthly ministry inaugurates the kingdom on God by announcing that he is at work to reverse this entire curse! By declaring his own sinless kingship, he is proclaiming that he will personally redeem what Adam (and we) personally cursed. By casting out demons, he is demonstrating that the spiritual forces of wickedness that reign over the cursed earth are being overthrown and conquered. By performing miracles he is providing signposts to the kingdom’s consummation, offering glimpses of the day in the age to come where there will be no sickness, no death, no deformity, and no lack. By teaching in parables, he is showing snapshots of what redeemed life inside the kingdom looks like.
By going to the cross, he offers himself as the propitiating sacrifice for the sin that caused all the breakdown to begin with. By rising from the grave, he presents the first fruits of the kingdom’s consummation…. The big picture of all that Jesus has done and is doing, then, encompasses our personal forgiveness and eternal relationship with God but is scaled larger scale to fit the scope of the restoration of a fallen creation. … This is the fullness of what the gospel is all about.”   - Jared C. Wilson, 2012, “Gospel Deeps”: Revealing the Excellencies of Jesus” Wheaton, Crossway Books, pg. 34-35. (emphasis mine)
This coming year, let’s make the priority of proclaiming, obeying, and living according the gospel of Jesus… It’s the eternal plan of God, and the only thing that really satisfies and lasts!

Blessings on your New Year!

Important Birth Announcement

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
                                                                                                        (Luke 2:13-14 ESV)

For some reason, for years I had made the assumption that the heavenly host mentioned were just "fellow angels"... Now I finally realize who they were... I bet I'm the last one to see it, and feel bad I hadn't realized it before, but the the heavenly host has to be all those in heaven redeemed by God through faith in what The Messiah would do... In other words, Old Testament believers ... In Hebrews chapter 11 we find: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and list of prophets that the writer refers to but doesn't list by name.. They were persecuted, killed, and distressed in this life, but believed in the promise of the next; "...But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city." (Hebrews 11:16)  In Hebrews 12:1 we are told that this "cloud of witnesses" is still glorifying God and cheering us on at the same time to finish the race... To do what they did.. Run the race (live your life) by faith... 
The birth announcement that the shepherds received, we receive...   SPECIAL DELIVERY! 
Our deliverance comes through the life, death, and resurrection of our deliverer, Jesus Christ. The baby born in a manger grew to be a man who died on a cross for our sin and rose again. The "good news" that the angel and the heavenly host proclaimed (Luke 2:10) is still being proclaimed over 2,000 years later.. Unto YOU is born a Savior... Christ the Lord. 
                                                           Happy Christmas! 

Christmas According to Paul

The Apostle Paul explains Christmas to us this way: 


I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
                                                                                                        (Galatians 4:1-6 ESV) 
The incredible truth that God sent His Child into the world so that we too could become His child... This is stunning!  Note especially verses 4 - 5: 


 “In the fullness of time… (at the exact right moment, historically, culturally, 
  and spiritually) 
God sent forth His Son… (God took the initiative.. As He always has!)
born of a woman… (in fulfillment of the first promise and prophecy of Scripture Genesis 3:15) 
born under the law… (God had the same expectations of  Jesus (full obedience to the law and worship of God) as He did to His people, Israel, and to all of humanity for all of time) 
to redeem those who were under the law… (that means all of us)
so that we (those who have believed on Christ) 
might receive adoption as sons” (become God’s children) .    

Now THAT'S a great Christmas gift!!   

Three Rights Which Belong to God

Observe, then, three rights which belong to God,—as Creator; as Judge, having
the right to punish the guilty; and as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
having the right to pardon sinners, and to do it without in the slightest degree
violating his justice.    - C. H. Spurgeon  1834 - 1892 

Church: Not Spectacular, But Always Supernatural

"Worship gatherings are not always spectacular, but they are always supernatural. And if a church looks for or works for the spectacular, she may miss the supernatural. If a person enters a gathering to be wowed with something impressive, with a style that fits him just right, with an order of service and song selection designed just the right way, that person may miss the supernatural presence of God. Worship is supernatural whenever people come hungry to respond, react, and receive from God for who He is and what He has done. A church worshipping as a Creature of the Word doesn't show up to perform or be entertained; she comes desparate and needy, thirsty for grace, receiving from the Lord and the body of Christ, and then gratefully receiving what she needs as she offers her praise - the only proper response to the God who saves us."     
- "Creature of the Word: The Jesus-Centered Church" , Matt Chandler, Josh Patterson,
 Eric Geiger, 2012, B & H Publishing, pg. 41

No Need to Add to the Perfect....

We should never try to "improve" or "enhance" or "adjust" God's Word.. When we do, it distorts God's truth, (Galatians 1:6-7), and destroys us (Galatians 1:8-9).  You cannot improve upon the perfect.... Let's not even try!  

* "A church is alive and full when she is sustained by the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ and is drawn back to that precious reality again and again, every time she gathers."   

- Matt Chandler, Josh Patterson, Eric Geiger; "Creature of the Word: The Jesus-Centered Church, 2012, B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee,  pg. 17 (emphasis mine) 

God Helps Those

"God helps those who cannot help themselves." 
                                     - Charles H. Spurgeon 

Spiritual Pride

“Spiritual pride is the main door by which the devil comes into the hearts of those who are zealous for the advancement of Christianity. It is the chief inlet of smoke from the bottomless pit, to darken the mind and mislead the judgment. It is the main source of all the mischief the devil introduces, to clog and hinder a work of God.
Spiritual pride tends to speak of other persons’ sins with bitterness or with laughter and levity and an air of contempt. But pure Christian humility rather tends either to be silent about these problems or to speak of them with grief and pity. Spiritual pride is very apt to suspect others, but a humble Christian is most guarded about himself. He is as suspicious of nothing in the world as he is of his own heart. The proud person is apt to find fault with other believers, that they are low in grace, and to be much in observing how cold and dead they are and to be quick to note their deficiencies. But the humble Christian has so much to do at home and sees so much evil in his own heart and is so concerned about it that he is not apt to be very busy with other hearts. He is apt to esteem others better than himself.”
                                                          - Jonathan Edwards, Works (Edinburgh, 1979)

Our Greatest Longing is Ours...

"... Now suppose both death and hell were utterly defeated. Suppose the fight was fixed. Suppose God took you on a crystal ball trip into your future and you saw with indubitable certainty that despite everything - your sin, your smallness, your stupidity - you could have free for the asking your whole crazy heart's deepest desire: heaven, eternal joy.. Would you not return fearless and singing? What can earth do to you if you were guaranteed heaven?  To fear the worst earthly loss would be like a millionaire fearing the loss of a penny - less, a scratch on a penny." 

  - Peter Kreeft, "Heaven: The Heart's Deepest Longing 

     (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1989) pg. 183

Whatever I have placed in God's hands...

I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.
  - Martin Luther

Good Advice Versus Good News

"What I need first of all is not exhortation but a gospel, not directions for saving myself but knowledge of how God has saved me."


– J. Gresham Machen, Christian Faith in the Modern World. 

Do You Want To Be Lifted Up?

You cannot be Christ’s servant if you are not willing to follow him, cross and all. What do you crave? A crown? Then it must be a crown of thorns if you are to be like him. Do you want to be lifted up? So you shall, but it will be upon a cross.    - C.H. Spurgeon 

Now Found in Christ

“Faith . . . unites the soul with Christ, as a bride is united with her bridegroom. From such a marriage, as St. Paul says, it follows that Christ and the soul become one body, so that they hold all things in common, whether for better or worse. This means that what Christ possesses belongs to the believing soul, and what the soul possesses belongs to Christ. Thus Christ possesses all good things and holiness; these now belong to the soul. The soul possesses lots of vices and sin; these now belong to Christ. . . . Now is not this a happy business? Christ, the rich, noble and holy bridegroom, takes in marriage this poor, contemptible and sinful little prostitute, takes away all her evil and bestows all his goodness upon her! It is no longer possible for sin to overwhelm her, for she is now found in Christ.”
Martin Luther, quoted in Alister E. McGrath, Christian Spirituality: An Introduction (Oxford, 1999), pages 158-159.

"Do You Believe This?"

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”    (John 5:24-25 ESV) 

Jesus is having to defend His authority… His identity as the Son of God has been questioned by the keepers of the Law… Healing on the Sabbath was what they considered work, and that was prohibited. Jesus, by healing on the Sabbath was not breaking the Law, but fulfilling it. Those who did not believe in Him were trying to put Him to death because of it. By proclaiming He would raise the dead by the words of His mouth,  He is saying that He indeed was God. Only God can raise the did.. The Pharisees knew this, but refused to believe this man they were talking to was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were blind.. Spiritually dead.  By Jesus making this claim He is giving them (and us) a preview of coming attractions.. The claim He’s making would soon be fulfilled when His friend, Lazarus died. Jesus tells Lazarus’ sister at his tomb:
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
(John 11:25-26 ESV)
Naturally, Martha protests, and says Jesus is too late to heal, because Lazarus is already dead…
Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
                                                           (John 11:40-44 ESV)  
Is the prophecy of John 5 now complete? 
FAR FROM IT! . It was a preview of coming attractions. Lazarus was just one of many that will rise when they hear Jesus’ voice: Jesus is referring to a coming event; one that will transcend all other events and culminate in the bringing about of God’s eternal plan since He spoke the world into existence and breathed life into the first man. The people of God (those who believe in (better translated “INTO” Christ) will hear the sound of His voice, and though our bodies will be dead and in the grave we, like Lazarus, will hear the sound of our Master and obey His voice and come out of our graves: 
I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”   (1 Corinthians 15:50-55 ESV)

Just as Jesus reminded Martha; “I AM the resurrection and the life”. He reminds us as well.  But the MOST VITAL thing is the question He asks her… “Do you believe this?”..   He asks us as well…

DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?  

The Sovereignty of God in the Book of Jonah

The Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea. Jonah 1:4
The lot fell on Jonah. Jonah 1:7
The Lord appointed a great fish. Jonah 1:17
The word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. Jonah 3:1
The Lord God appointed a plant. Jonah 4:6
God appointed a worm. Jonah 4:7
God appointed a scorching east wind. Jonah 4:8

"The Lord has more ways of confronting me than I have ways of evading him." 
                                                                                            - Ray Ortlund
                                                                     

My Perfect Deliverance

“God has provided for your perfect deliverance from sin in Christ. Everything needed for this purpose was finished by him on the cross. He was your surety. He suffered for you. Your sins were crucified with him and nailed to his cross. They were put to death when he died, for he was your covenant-head, and you, as a member of his body, were legally represented by him and are indeed dead to sin by his dying to sin once.
The law has now no more right to condemn you, a believer, than it has to condemn him. Justice is bound to deal with you as it has with your risen and ascended Savior.”
William Romaine, The Life, Walk and Triumph of Faith (Cambridge, 1970), page 280. Style updated.

What is true of Christ is more important to me than what is true of me. 

The Grace Theme of the Bible

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. (And remember: by the ancient hermeneutical presupposition of corporate solidarity, by which the one stands for the many and the many for the one, 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) 
                                                                           - From the blog of Dane Ortlund

Free From the Law....

"For those who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the Book of the Law, and do them." Now it evident that no one is justified by the before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith."
                                                                                                Galatians 3: 10 - 11

Free from the law, O happy condition,
Jesus has bled and there is remission,
Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall,
Grace hath redeemed us once for all.

Once for all, O sinner, receive it,
Once for all, O brother, believe it;
Cling to the cross, the burden will fall,
Christ hath redeemed us once for all.

Now we are free, there’s no condemnation,
Jesus provides a perfect salvation.
“Come unto Me,” O hear His sweet call,
Come, and He saves us once for all.

- Philip P. Bliss ( also the writer of “It is Well With My Soul”  

                                                                                           

Go Back and Start Again

From the blog post of John Dink: 

“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first”   - Rev 2:2-5  

What if we have abandoned the love we had at first because we’ve forgotten the news that “He first loved us?” Is it possible that the works we did at first arise from the belief that Jesus’ works are all we need? What if keeping with repentance is simply going back to the start again and again?

"Then they said to Him, 'What must we do, to be doing the works of God?' .. 
Jesus answered them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." 
                                                                                                                           - John 6: 28 - 29

Open Your Ears to the Promise

God promises righteousness and freedom to sinners. That promise contradicts ordinary human expectation. Sinners ought to receive punishment rather than pardon, incarceration rather than freedom. But by the double work of his law and gospel, God teaches sinners to close their eyes to ordinary human expectations and the conclusions of common sense and to open their ears to the promise which offers life and freedom.  -  Robert Kolb

God's Kingdom: It's All About Jesus

Throughout Scripture, God's kingdom is depicted as a place and time of cosmic restoration. In Old Testament prophecies God says, "See, I will create new heavens and a new earth" (Isaiah 65:17; cf. 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21: 1-5). After Jesus conquered sin on the cross and returned from the grave in triumph over death itself, Peter proclaims the good news in Jerusalem, saying "Heaven must receive [Jesus] until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets" (Acts 3:21). Paul also emphasizes the universal scope of God's redemptive work: "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in [Jesus], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross" (Colossians 1:19-20). Just as nothing in creation remained untouched by sin after Eden, so nothing in creation can remain untouched by God's redemption after Christ's victory on the cross."  - Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen, "The True Story of the Whole World" , 2009, Faith Alive Christian Resources, Grand Rapids, Michigan. pg. 170  

My Righteousness Is In Heaven

One day as I was passing in the field, and that too with some dashes on my
conscience, fearing lest all was still not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my
soul, Your righteousness is in heaven. And I thought as well that I saw, with the
eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ at God’s right hand. There, I say, is my
righteousness, so that wherever I was or whatever I was doing, God could not say
of me, [John Bunyan] lacks my righteousness, for that righteousness is right
before Him. I also saw that it was not my good frame of heart that made my
righteousness better, nor my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my
righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, the same yesterday and today and
forever. Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed. I went home rejoicing for
the grace and love of God. Here I lived for some time, sweetly at peace with God
through Christ. Oh, I thought, Christ! Christ! There was nothing but Christ
before my eyes.    -    John Bunyan,  "Grace Abounding"  

Great Marriage Advice

"...Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave." 

"...There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage." -Martin Luther (1483 - 1546) 

You Must Read Jared Wilson

One of my new favorite authors is Jared Wilson, a pastor in Vermont. He blogs at Gospel Driven Church and he is the author of “Your Jesus is Too Safe” and “Gospel Wakefulness” (I highly recommend both of these) in addition to co-authoring “The Explicit Gospel” with Matt Chandler, which is easily the best book I’ve read in the last five years. I can’t recommend it highly enough.  In his latest blog entry he writes:  
“work out your own salvation with fear and trembling
– from Philippians 2:12
Fear and trembling. Paul uses this phrase a couple of other times (2 Corinthians 7:15 and Ephesians 6:5), apparently with the connotation of submissive humility and receptive meekness. It is an affections-full being put into one’s place, I think. A disposition appropriate to the circumstances. The command in Psalm 2:11 is “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling,” showing us that fear is not without activity and trembling is not without joy. 
Here I remember Emma Thompson’s beautiful portrayal of Elinor Dashwood at the end of the film Sense and Sensiblity when Hugh Grant’s Edward Ferrars reveals it was his brother who got married, and not himself. Thompson’s Elinor is an expert at keeping her emotions bottled up — until this moment where we see “fear and trembling” brilliantly and movingly in display. It chokes me up every time.
Pent-up hopes and dormant affections brought near the super-electric current of a fearsome reality. The hair on our arms stands up, gooseflesh springing, a sense of fresh air and being winded at the same time. Overwhelmed. That’s fear and trembling. As it pertains to having the living God draw near to us, fear and trembling assume it is truly God and the glorious Christ we have encountered and not some pitiful caricature. The god of the prosperity gospelists is a pathetic doormat, a genie. The god of the cutesy coffee mugs and Joel Osteen tweets is a milquetoast doofus like the guys in the Jane Austen novels you hope the girls don’t end up with, holding their hats limply in hand and minding their manners to follow your lead like a butler, or the doormat he stands on. The god of the American Dream is Santa Claus. The god of the open theists is not sovereignly omniscient, declaring the end from the beginning, but just a really good guesser playing the odds. The god of our therapeutic culture is ourselves, we the “forgivers” of ourselves, navel-haloed morons with “baggage” but not sin. None of these pathetic gods could provoke fear and trembling.
But the God of the Scriptures is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24). “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). He stirs up the oceans with the tip of his finger, and they sizzle rolling clouds of steam into the sky. He shoots lightning from his fists. This is the God who leads his children by a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. This is the God who makes war and sends plagues and sits enthroned in majesty and glory in his heavens, doing what he pleases. This is the God who incarnate in the flesh turned tables over in the temple like he owned the place. This Lord God Jesus Christ was pushed to the edge of the cliff and declared, “This is not happening today,” and walked right back through the crowd like a boss. This Lord says “Nobody takes my life; I give it willingly,” as if to say, “You couldn’t kill me unless I let you.” This Lord calms the storms, casts out demons, binds and looses and has the authority to grant us the same. The devil is this God’s lapdog.
And it is this God who has summoned us, apprehended us, saved us. It is this God who has come humbly, meek, lowly, pouring out his blood in infinite conquest to set the captives free, cancel the record of debt against us, conquer sin and Satan, and swallow up death forever.
Let us, then, advance the gospel of the kingdom out into the perimeter of our hearts and lives with affectionate meekness and humble submission. Let us repent of our nonchalance.”

A Bigger Slice of Life

"In rejecting the way of the Creator we reach for a bigger slice of life and find out that it
tastes like death."  - Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen, "The True Story of the Whole World" 

....Not the absence of sin...

"It is not the absence of sin but the grieving over it which distinguishes the child of God from
 empty professors."       - A. W. Pink

The Bible: One Glorious Story

In their excellent book, "The True Story of the Whole World", Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen write:

"Today, as in the ancient era, the Church is confronted by a host of narratives that contradict and compete with the gospel. The pressing question is: Who gets to narrate the world?"   "... The Bible tells the true story of the world." "... The Church finds its identity in the role it plays in the biblical story; theology deepens our understanding of this story; worship enacts and tells this story; spiritual formation (discipleship) equips the Church to embody this story; and the believer's life in the world, including all of public life, is a witness to the truth of this story." ...  "Every part of the Bible- each event, book, character, command, prophecy, promise, and poem- must be understood in the context of the one story line."  "... According to the biblical narrative, the meaning of our whole world's history finds its meaning and purpose in the person of Jesus. We may either embrace that story as true or reject it as false, but we must not simply reshape the Bible to suit our own preferences. The Bible's claim to tell the one true story of our world is central to its meaning." "... Why have Christians, who claim to believe the Bible not seen what treasure they have? The problem is that Christians, even Christian scholars, break the Bible up into little bits: historical bits, devotional bits, moral bits, theological bits, narrative bits. In fact, it has been chopped into the kind of fragments that fit the nooks and crannies of the Enlightenment story! When this is allowed to happen, the Bible forfeits its claim to be the one comprehensive, true story of our world. It is held captive within the other story- the humanist narrative... And that other story will shape our lives." - Bartholomew and Goheen, "The True Story of the Whole World"
2009, Faith Alive Resources, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
I think these men have hit the nail on the head. And I am convicted deeply in my heart. I wonder how many times I believed and acted on God's Word, or just simply used God's Word. Do I just want to slice and dice it to simply prove a point, or do I find myself within the story God has written and find my place and purpose in HIS story. God's Word is one story about ONE main character. The Bible is NOT about me... The Bible is about God.
Lord, help me to be more faithful to your Word and to your ways.... Amen 

The Power of the Cross

From Justin Taylor's blog post this morning:

The Inexhaustibility of the Cross

“The cross is so extensive a field for meditation, that, though we traverse it ever so often, we need never resume the same track: and it is such a marvellous fountain of blessedness to the soul, that if we have ever drunk of its refreshing streams, we shall find none other so pleasant to our taste.”
—Charles Simeon, Horae Homileticae (1832), vol. 8, p. 323.

“The cross is the foundation of the Bible: If you have not yet found out that Christ crucified is the foundation of the whole volume, you have hitherto read your Bible to very little profit. Your religion is a heaven without a sun, an arch without a keystone, a compass without a needle, a clock without a spring or weights, a lamp without oil. It will not comfort you; it will not deliver your soul from hell.”
—J.C. Ryle, Old Paths (London, 1977), p. 248.

“There is no end to this glorious message of the cross , for there is always something new and fresh and entrancing and moving and uplifting that one has never seen before.

—D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Cross: God’s Way of Salvation (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1986), xiii.
“Oh that I could have the cross painted on my eyeballs, that I could not see anything except through the medium of my Savior’s passion! Oh, Jesus . . . let me wear the pledge forever where it is conspicuous before my soul’s eyes.”

—Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “The Lord’s Supper—Simple But Sublime!” (1866), Sermon #3151, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit.

All cited in James M. Gordon, Evangelical Spirituality (SPCK, 1991; Wipf & Stock, 2006).

Our Real Need

“The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them…providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the church…the need is for Biblical doctrine, so understood and felt that it sets men aflame.”
- CH Spurgeon

Exalted Above All Things

I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart;
before the gods I sing your praise;
I bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love
            and your  faithfulness,
for you have exalted above all things
your name and your word.
On the day I called, you answered me;
my strength of soul you increased.     Psalm 138: 1 - 3
The exaltation of God's Name and God's Word is above all things... "All things" means all  things... God thinks His Name and His Word is more important than anything else in all the universe. God's Name and God's Word is more important than my opinions, likes, dislikes. He says it's more important than my moods swings, my doubts, my fears, my most devastating defeats, and greatest victories... God's Name and God's Word are exalted ABOVE all things... 
When the psalmist remembered this, He called on God... When He called on God, God answered... And in God's answer the psalmist's soul was strengthened (v.3) 
> Lord, help me to remember that your Name and your Word are my most treasured possession... Remind me to call on you to strengthen my soul... Amen 

Instead Of Thorns...

Isaiah 55 highlights the compassionate love of God for the worn out, sinful, idolatrous people of Israel.. They had failed God miserably, yet God calls them to return to Him.. to SEEK Him while He may be found. God doesn't operate the way that we do...verses 8 - 9 explain God's ways, thoughts, and love are higher ... greater.. than man's.... verse 13 contains a great promise for His people... Instead of thorns, God will give cypress... Instead of briers, a myrtle... wonderful plants and trees instead of the thorns and briers brought into the world by Adam's (and our) sin (Genesis 3:17)... God in His glorious compassion offers us the same promise as well... Seek the Lord... Call upon Him... He will take the thorns and briers our sins have caused and through the death of His Son, make beautiful, life - giving trees reflecting His glory... Abundant pardon and forgiveness is found there... 

“Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
“For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the LORD,
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
  (Isaiah 55:6-13 ESV)

The World Could Not Contain the Books

"Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." 
                                                                                                - John 21:25 (ESV) 

Human Anger and the Wrath of God

I found this helpful article from Jared Wilson. It is an excerpt from his book "Seven Daily Sins"





"It is because of Jesus and his cross that Paul writes in Colossians 3:8, “But now you must also put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth.”
Wrath belongs to God, not to us. For this reason, we must keep a close eye on our anger and dwell in the truth of God’s Word daily to provide fertile ground in our hearts for the Spirit to produce the fruit of gentleness, peace, and self-control in us.
When we become eager to enact God’s wrath through personal vengeance, it’s often because we distrust God’s ability to deal with injustice Himself. Or we distrust Him to do it in a way that satisfies us. When we lash out, fight back, take up zealous causes, angrily pontificate, feud on Facebook, tsk-tsk on Twitter, and berate on blogs, aren’t we, in essence, saying God needs us to set people straight? All too often what we’re really protecting isn’t God’s honor, but our reputation or influence.
Jesus’ approach to personal wrongs would have us conquer the injustice by embracing its satisfaction at the cross. So instead of attacking the guy who takes our shirt, we offer him our coat, too. I’ll admit that Paul’s questions in 1 Corinthians 6:7 sting a bit: “Why not rather put up with injustice? Why not rather be cheated?”
If the cross is true, if God is sovereign—why not?
Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for His wrath. For it is written: Vengeance belongs to Me; I will repay, says the Lord (Romans 12:19).
The reality is that whatever wrath remains to dispense after the satisfaction of the cross will be dispensed by Jesus Himself upon His return. The Book of Revelation doesn’t portray a passive, excuse-tolerating King who gives everybody a hall pass whether they love Him or not. Instead, He arrives on a white horse with a sword, vanquishing His enemies. But He does this, not us. So if we will truly trust that vengeance is His, that he will repay, we have all the power in the Spirit to let it go. 
And honestly, that’s what some Christians need to do right now: Let. It. Go. Because God won’t leave any loose ends." 
Jared C. Wilson, "Seven Daily Sins: How the Gospel Redeems Our Deepest Desires"
(Nashville: Threads, 2012), 112-113.

Love This Prayer!

The honesty and humility of this prayer touches me and reminds me that I am in the same boat... This should be MY prayer.... This should be YOUR prayer.

“O God, I have not produced a single righteous moment in my entire life. I have overrated my virtue and underestimated the depth and power of my sinfulness. I am deeply corrupt. O holy Christ, be all my righteousness! Cover all my sins with your merit. And then work your holiness deep down into the secret recesses of my soul, where I cannot put it, where no therapist can put it, where no drug can put it, but where it must penetrate if I am to be the holy person I ought to be, was made to be and long to be. In your holy name. Amen.” 
 - Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr. , "A Passion for God: Prayers and Meditations on the Book of Romans"  Wheaton, Illinois . Crossway Books, 1994, pg. 102 

Romans 8:1

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." - Romans 8:1 (ESV)

“If you have got hold of this idea you will have discovered the most glorious truth you will ever know in your life. Most Christian people are miserable, most Christian people fail, and fall into sin, because they are depressed, because they allow the devil to depress them. ’Ah,’ they say, ’ I have sinned, so how can I make these great statements?’ Have you never heard of the word ’faith?’  This verse is the answer of faith to all our troubles; this is what God tells us about ourselves; and He puts it in this absolute, complete, and certain manner.” 

- D. M. Lloyd-Jones, Romans: An Exposition of Chapters 7:1-8:4

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

The Lies We Tell Ourselves....

as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
(Romans 3:10-18 ESV)

Companions in a Common Misery

“Who then can pride himself over against someone else and claim to be better than he? Especially in view of the fact that he is always capable of doing exactly the same as the other does and, indeed, that he does secretly in his heart before God what the other does openly before men. And so we must never despise anyone who sins but must generously bear with him as a companion in a common misery. We must help one another just as two people caught in the same swamp assist each other. Thus we must ‘bear one another’s burdens and fulfill the law of Christ’ (Galatians 6:2). But if we despise the other, we shall both perish in the same swamp.”
Wilhelm Pauck, translator, Luther: Lectures on Romans (Philadelphia, 1961), page 115.

Don't "improve" the gospel

The Work of God

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.    (Philippians 1:6 ESV)

"I am sure..." - Paul is confident. Not in himself, but in the Lord Jesus Christ whom he serves.
"He who began a good work..." You didn't begin this work in your life. God the Father sent God the Son into the world to be the perfect sacrifice for your sin and mine. God the Son perfectly obeyed the will of His Father, not just in His sacrificial life, but also in His perfect, Law-obeying life. God the Father accepted God the Son's death and life as the atonement for our sin as if we perfectly obeyed and also as if we atoned for our sin. God the Son rose from the dead and sent His Holy Spirit to begin a good work in us. This good work is the work of God the Son.
"He who began a good work in you will complete it ... " God's work in you is on it's way to completion everyday. That completion will be at the return of God the Son to establish His eternal kingdom on earth. And because God started it, and God completes it, the work of God in the life of the believer will be a HUGE SUCCESS... Eternal life.  Our salvation is about God, not us... remember that and rejoice in that today. Because of Christ, we CANNOT fail!

Good Friday

"So he delivered Him over to be crucified."  John 18:16 (ESV)
One simple sentence..  Pilate, the Roman governor, manipulated by the Jewish leaders and fearful for his own preservation delivered Jesus up for execution.  A Man who was sinless became sin
(2 Cor.5:21) . A Man who bore our sin (Isaiah 53:4-6; 1 Peter 2:24).  There was NOTHING good about Good Friday.. Not for Jesus.. Not for the Only One who truly matters. His suffering WAS, for OUR good however... Not just good, but great! The greatest thing that could ever happen Jesus delivered for us. By believing in His death and His resurrection we are saved from the wrath of God
 (Romans 10:9-10). Let's pause this weekend and not get in a hurry to rush past Good Friday. We want and need desperately to get to Sunday and the resurrection... but don't hurry through the remembering of suffering... anguish... agony... unbearable misery... Your Savior placed the burden of your sin upon Himself... think about this slowly... carefully.... prayerfully.  "In my place condemned He stood. Hallelujah! What a Savior!" 

The Serpent Crusher

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.     (Romans 16:20 ESV)

This verse from Paul's letter to the Romans is filled with imagery.  The imagery isn't original with the apostle. He's echoing back to the very first prophecy in the Bible; Genesis 3:15.  After Adam and Eve rebelled against God and hid their own nakedness and tried to hide from Him, God didn't throw up His hands and quit. God is never aloof... He has always had an active, initiating role from creation on and will do so for eternity. God slaughtered an animal to cover their nakedness, which is a clear picture of one who is not guilty dying for those who are guilty. But before He even covered their nakedness He made them (and us) a promise... He promises the serpent something as well as promising mankind something... "He (the Seed of the woman) will bruise (crush) your head, and you (Satan) will bruise His heel." (Gen. 3:15)  The crushing of the serpent's head will require suffering on the serpent crusher's part. The fulfillment of this is Jesus Christ, who's suffering is unparalleled. No one suffered or ever will suffer like He did.  But His suffering would be a simple bruise on the heel compared to the glory that awaited Him... Satan's head was crushed... He will forever be the loser. Jesus won our freedom from sin by the death He died on the cross and by His glorious resurrection! The Easter story is the story of new life. We celebrate because in the process of having His heel bruised He crushed our enemy's (death) head. His resurrection is a foretaste of our own resurrection and future glory. Satan, sin, and death have been conquered. Rejoice, Christian!!

Help From God

"I will help you.”  Isaiah 41:10


“Let us hear the Lord Jesus speak to each one of us: ‘I will help you. It is but a small thing for me, your God, to help you. Consider what I have done already. What! not help you? Why, I bought you with my blood. What! not help you? I have died for you; and if I have done the greater, will I not do the less? Help you! It is the least thing I will ever do for you. I have done more, and will do more. Before the world began I chose you. I made the covenant for you. I laid aside my glory and became a man for you, I gave up my life for you; and if I did all this, I will surely help you now. In helping you, I am giving you what I have bought for you already. If you had need of a thousand times as much help, I would give it to you; you require little compared with what I am ready to give. ‘Tis much for you to need, but it is nothing for me to bestow. Help you? Fear not! If there were an ant at the door of your granary asking for help, it would not ruin you to give him a handful of your wheat; and you are nothing but a tiny insect at the door of my all-sufficiency. I will help you.’
O my soul, is not this enough? Do you need more strength than the omnipotence of the United Trinity? Do you want more wisdom than exists in the Father, more love than displays itself in the Son, or more power than is manifest in the influences of the Spirit? Bring here your empty pitcher! Surely this well will fill it. Haste, gather up your needs, and bring them here – your emptiness, your woes, your needs. Behold, this river of God is full for your supply; what can you desire beside? Go forth, my soul, in this your might. The Eternal God is your helper.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Style updated.