The most important event in your life…didn’t take place in your life.

John Piper at Village Church.

On hope in suffering.

While I listened I joined the “Praying for Matt Chandler” facebook page and put the Village Church in my RSS feed.

I also signed on for Michael Spencer’s “friend list” on facebook.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid,
nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:9)

God has led me through some frightening times…times of not knowing what the future will bring.

Maybe even more frightening have been the times when I knew exactly what the future was going to bring.

And there is more frightening times and more uncertainty facing me right now.

Yet God has commanded us…commanded…that we not be afraid.

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15)

Woodrow Kroll writes “Lessons for Living”

A child had to walk each evening past a dark, spooky house. Some adult
friends tried to give him courage. One handed him a good-luck charm to
ward off the ghosts. Another installed a light at a particularly dark
corner near the house. A third took a more spiritual approach, saying,
“It’s sinful to be afraid. Trust God and be brave!” It was good advice,
but not much help. Then one friend said with compassion, “I know what it
is to be afraid. I’ll walk with you past the house.” Instantly the child’s
fears were gone.

“Lucky charms” don’t work, mantras don’t work.

It is because we are adopted children of God that we know that He walks with us.

It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. (Psalm 18:32)

So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:6)

Do not trust men…they will fail you  Only God will never fail.  And He will walk with you through the scary parts.

You can go through life thinking that there will always be somebody there – a “rock” – but that’s not true.

Sometimes, it’s just you…and God.

software for the iPod and lots of free downloads.

Well worth looking at.

A friend and congregant of Wade Burleson committed suicide.  Here is the letter that Mr. Burleson to his friend wrote afterward.

Can God Make a Rock So Heavy Even He Can’t Lift It?

I remember when I first heard this bit of immature atheistic reductio ad absurdum. I was in high school, and I didn’t respond to it because the Nirvana-shirted, long-banged drama stud who said it didn’t say it to me. He was laying it on his friend like it was theist’s kryptonite.

My answer then, steeped in C.S. Lewis as I was, would have been along the lines of the nonsense of the question as framed. It is a rhetorical and hypothetical “gotcha” with no sincerity behind it, and in any event, it is sort of like asking, “Does the number nine smell red or yellow?”

My answer today is different. My answer today would not be to skewer the nature of the question but to inject its insincerity with the sincerity of God and all the weight of the gospel.

The truth is that God did make a weight so heavy he couldn’t lift it. He did so not by building an immovable force — we did that with our sin — but by incarnating the frailty of humanity and willingly subjecting himself to the force. As one of us, yet still himself, he created the conundrum of the incarnate God, bearing a cross he both ordained yet could not carry by himself, becoming condemned in death and also victorious. And God was crushed according to the plan he himself projected from the foundation of the world.

So, can God make a rock so heavy even he can’t lift it?

Yes. And he did. For three days only. And then he drop kicked it out of the mouth of the tomb.

Link to:  “Gospel Driven Church“

The Book of Revelation is also known as “the Revelation of John”.

That’s not what the book says.

v.1 The revelation of Jesus Christ (…) to his servant John

Is this important?  Maybe not…but we begin to think of it as “the Revelation of Christ, to John”, we have a greater understanding of who the message is from.

It is for us…from Christ…through John.

I just got a study guide from Back to the Bible.

If Christ is the One who gave this revelation about Himself – how many ways does He describe Himself…in verses 4-8?

• Him who is, who was, and who is to come
• faithful witness
• firstborn from the dead
• ruler of the kings of the earth
• Him who loves us
• Him who freed us from our sins by His blood
• Him who made us to be a kingdom and priests
• the Alpha and Omega
• the Almighty

And yet…if someone were to ask me today who Christ is to me…

• Savior
• lifter of my heart
• the Son that the Father sacrificed so that He could adopt me

I think that the important lessons from the book of Revelation:

not…what can we learn about the future?

it IS…what can we learn about Christ?

Satan takes God’s Word…

For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the adder;
the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. (Psalm 91:11-13)

and then He uses it…

…and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

It is when we hear the words…”Did God REALLY say…” that we need to put our guard up.  Perhaps Satan didn’t realize at the time that the passage he was using to tempt our Lord was part of a prophecy about himself.

You will tread on the lion and the adder;
the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

When Satan was tempting Christ…he was reminding Jesus (not that He didn’t already know) that the tempter would be defeated.

I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.” (Gen 3:15)

And Christ (outside of time and space, knowing what would be written in Scripture)

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

Satan is an expert at deception…we need to be sober-minded and watchful.  That doesn’t mean “don’t have fun”…it means that we should be aware that Satan will use whatever he can to draw us away from the Strong Tower

Of all I would wish to say this is the sum; my brethren, PREACH CHRIST, always and evermore. He is the whole gospel. His person, offices, and work must be our great, all-comprehending theme. The world needs to be told of its Savior, and of the way to reach him . . . Blessed is the ministry of which CHRIST IS ALL . . . No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching.

“If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.

For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. “Father” is the Christian name for God. Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption.”

—J.I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, IL: 1993), 201-202

HT:  Between Two Worlds

on a treadmill, slowly, but steadily…it seems to help my focus.

Read a chapter of Romans…

say the Lord’s prayer…

Read a Psalm

Pray for peace, focus, humility, softeness of heart for all involved.  Guidance, wisdom.  Lord, lift up his head, sustain him, be a shield around him…may Your blessing be upon him.

Repeat…up to Romans (and Psalm) 8.

“We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.”
–Romans 8:28

Upon some points a believer is absolutely sure. He knows, for instance,
that God sits in the stern-sheets of the vessel when it rocks most. He
believes that an invisible hand is always on the world’s tiller, and that
wherever providence may drift, Jehovah steers it. That re-assuring
knowledge prepares him for everything. He looks over the raging waters and
sees the spirit of Jesus treading the billows, and he hears a voice
saying,  “It is I, be not afraid.” He knows too that God is always wise,
and, knowing this, he is confident that there can be no accidents, no
mistakes; that nothing can occur which ought not to arise. He can say, “If
I should lose all I have, it is better that I should lose than have, if
God so wills: the worst calamity is the wisest and the kindest thing that
could befall to me if God ordains it.”

If we allow it, it is a great comfort to know that we belong to a God who is in control of the universe.  We see this life; God sees into eternity.

In the midst of pain and trial, it can be so hard to see that, yet it is true…there is nothing that happens that God does not have a hand in – and He will use it to bring us closer to Him.

My daily reading was in 1 Chronicles, and then Psalm 1.

Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

Those who mock the Law of the Lord…they are not good counsel.  I sin…and I sin daily.  I am forgiven much.

But theLaw…is the Law, whether I follow it perfectly or not.

It is not a good thing to call “evil” good…or to call “good” evil.

I’m too tired to listen very effectively and my heart is not in listening to sermons.

It’s okay, though.  I’m getting much from reading Spurgeon and (mostly) Scripture.

I’m bouncing around a lot in the Bible, but everywhere I go, it’s right.

If nothing else in the world can be trusted…God’s Word is trustworthy.

Quietly contemplate the Lamb as the light of heaven. Light in Scripture is
the emblem of joy. The joy of the saints in heaven is comprised in this:
Jesus chose us, loved us, bought us, cleansed us, robed us, kept us,
glorified us: we are here entirely through the Lord Jesus.

And the quote of the day (Spurgeon)

Let us draw nigh to Him, and in Him find joy and peace in believing.  Let us wrap ourselves in the warm garments of His promises, and go forth to labors which befit the season, for it were ill to be as the sluggard who will not plough by reason of the cold; for he shall beg in summer and have nothing.

What comfort it is to dwell in God’s promises!

A promise is only as good as the one who makes it…and yet, when we are brought to Christ, when we are called, we are also called to a mission.  To fail to do that mission is to misuse the grace of Christ.

for what, I am not sure…I woke up with prayers on my lips.

Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. -Deut 7:9

Read more »

I’m reading in Hebrews 4…

God’s Sabbath rest.

¹Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. ²For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.

some manuscripts say because it did not meet with faith in the hearers.

It is not that we lose our salvation, it’s that the promise of rest did not join with our faith in the first place.  We are united by faith with those who listened to the gospel and believe.

This is also cross referenced to Romans 3:3

Even though there are those who do not listen and there are those who do not believe, that does not mean that the promises of God are not true.  God is faithful to His promises, even when we are not faithful to Him.

³For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,

“As I swore in my wrath,’They shall not enter my rest,’”

That’s a direct quote from Psa. 95.  Matthew Henry says, “Let us be aware of the evils of our hearts, which lead us to wander from the Lord. There is a rest ordained for believers, the rest of everlasting refreshment, begun in this life, and perfected in the life to come. This is the rest which God calls his rest.”

although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. ⁴For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.”

Exodus31:17, “It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”

We long for that rest.

I long for that rest.

Humans are designed for a Sabbath and I feel as though I have not had one for a long time.

I found a piece of napkin in my Bible.  I must have been at a luncheon or something in order to have a napkin.

God works by contraries so that a man feels himself los tin the very moment when he is on the verge of being saved.  When God is almost ready to justify a man, He damns him.  Whom he would make alive, He must first kill…Man must first cry out that there is no health in him…when a man believes himself to be utterly lost, light breaks.  Peace comes in the Word of God through faith.

Death has been called “the new obscenity”, the nasty thing that no polite person nowadays will talk about in public.  But death, even when unmentionable, remains inescapable.  The one sure fact of life is that one day, with or without warning, quietly or painfully, it is going to stop.  How will I, then, cope with death when my turn comes? (J.I.Packer, “Growing in Christ”)

John Preston said, “I shall change my place, but I shall not change my company.”