Paul Tripp has an excellent post on the “Nowism” of the Gospel. I don’t know about you, but I know that it is a daily struggle for me to take the implications of the gospel and apply them to the here and now. Tripp does an excellent job of giving four implications of the gospel that mean something to us right now.
- Grace will decimate what you think of you, while it gives you a security of identity you’ve never had.
- Grace will expose your deepest sins of heart, while it covers every failure with the blood of Jesus.
- Grace will make you face how weak you are, while it blesses you with power beyond your ability to calculate.
- Grace will take control out of your hands, while it blesses you with the care of One who plan is unshakable and perfect in every way.
September 08 2010 | Blog | No Comments »
One of the most common questions I got as a youth pastor was about video games. In the past 10 years video games have risen to a place of such public prominence that it is virtually impossible to ignore them. That’s why I am so thankful for CJ Mahaney’s recent blog post on Video Games and Idols of the Heart. Here’s an excerpt:
It is too easy for me to view my son’s form of idolatry [video games] as childish, but in essence, at root, there is no difference between our idolatries. His expression is consistent with a 12 year old, mine is consistent with a 56 year old, but in essence it’s no different. Therefore I must make sure my heart is softened by my own sinful tendencies. I don’t want the study to be punitive, I don’t want it to be (if possible) connected or related to discipline, because I think that can make it more difficult for a child to comprehend and to be convinced I have their best interest at heart. I want to supplement it with my own stories.
At 12 years old I would want to start leaving your son with questions to consider rather than pronouncements. But from 12 years old on up, it is far more complicated than when they are younger. For a toddler, discipline is pretty simple. You are not having to work through heart issues. It is a blatantly ethical world, at that age, nothing but right/wrong, yes/no. But as they get older you want to draw your child in and give him an opportunity to think about his own heart, think about it in relation to material, think about it in relation to Scripture, think about it with time for the Spirit to possibly convict. You are not bringing every conversation to a conclusion that he must agree with.
Helping our children identify idols is hard work. Your son may grow out of his love for video games, but he will not grow out of the idol factory in his heart. So as parents, we need the Lord’s help, and we can be confident that he will lead and guide us as we serve and lead our children with the gospel.
September 01 2010 | Blog | No Comments »
Excellent article here from Jani Ortlund for young mother’s. Here’s an excerpt:
Guilt is a young mother’s habitual shadow. It has a nasty way of soaking through many of her efforts at nurturing, serving and loving others. “Am I doing enough for my children? For others? What do they think of me? What does God think of me?”
As a young mother everyone wants something from you—your family, your church, your boss, your neighbor. And most likely, you give way more than you ever thought you could. But along the way guilt nibbles at your soul, eating away your inner peace and joy. And it often lingers through the years, even after your children are grown and gone.
Dear young mother, don’t waste your guilt!
You can find the rest here.
August 25 2010 | Blog | No Comments »
Randy Alcorn has some excellent suggestions for pursuing sexual purity in marriage. Here are a few of the highlights:
1. Regularly evaluate your relationship with your spouse. Beware of poor communication, inadequate conflict resolution, poor sexual relationship, discontent, and other red flags. Keep your fingers on the pulse of your marriage!
2. Spend regular uninterrupted time together to communicate on all levels: spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, and physically. (Date your spouse. If it’s not happening, put it in your schedule!)
3. Share openly with each other—don’t harbor secrets or withhold personal struggles. (Every adultery begins with a secret.)
7. Be fiercely loyal to your spouse; speak highly of her/him and never downgrade her to anyone.
12. Anticipate, and then act to prevent, avoid and resist sexual temptation.
17. Take care of your physical health; be as attractive to your mate as you can.
18. Be modest with others in public, and sexy with your spouse in private—not the opposite!
20. Rehearse in advance the devastating consequences of immorality and a broken marriage. Count the cost of neglect and unfaithfulness!
You can read the rest of Randy’s blog post here.
August 23 2010 | Blog | No Comments »
It looks like Paul Tripp is back to blogging again. I found this post on Envy to be especially helpful to me. Here’s an excerpt:
You must understand that envy is an interpretation. Envy is not an emotional response to what is. It is a particular interpretation of what is. Envy is a way of looking at and assessing what is that results in particular emotions and actions. But this needs to be said even more strongly; envy is not only an interpretation of what is, it is a distorted interpretation of what is. Envy is looking at life through a rippled window that will always distort whatever you see. In that way envy is madness. In its own way, envy separates you from reality. Envy expands certain facts, it neglects certain facts, and it reshapes certain facts; all the while presenting itself as a valid, accurate and reliable view of life. It makes you like the crazy guy on the street. What makes him crazy is that he doesn’t know he is crazy. He looks, speaks and acts weirdly because what he thinks is real simply isn’t real. Such is the world of envy. Envy is rooted in a distorted interpretation of life that will make you mad. Let me explain.
1. The distorted interpretation of envy makes it all about you. Envy always puts you at the center of your universe…
2. The distorted interpretation of envy is always idolatrous. Envy always puts the creation in the place of the Creator…
3. The distorted interpretation of envy is self-righteous. What is the fundamental perspective of envy? Here it is; "I deserve better!…
4. The distorted interpretation of envy is always short-sighted. Envy simply forgets that this is not all there is…
5. The distorted interpretation of envy is the soil of other sins. Envy never stops with envy…
August 18 2010 | Blog | No Comments »
Ray Ortlund has a moving quote from Jonathan Edwards on the dangers of Spritual pride over on his blog.
“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), I:398-400. Style updated.
HT: Vitamin Z
June 30 2010 | Blog | No Comments »
Randy Alcorn makes some great points over on his blog about how to teach your children how to manage money. Here’s a summary:
- Give your children something great than money – your time.
- Use life’s teachable moments to train your children.
- Take a field trip to a junkyard.
- Teach your children to link money with labor.
- Teach your children how to save.
- Get your children started on the lifetime adventure of giving.
- Provide your children with financial planning tools.
- Teach your children how to say “No.”
- Show your children how family finances work.
- Never underestimate the power of your example.
You can read the whole thing here.
June 24 2010 | Blog | 1 Comment »
Jack Kevorkian has been out of the news for quite some time, but an upcoming film from HBO promises to make him a topic of conversation once again.
In 2005 Wesley Smith wrote an article upon rumors that the movie was in the works:
He is ubiquitously portrayed in the media as the doctor who helped terminally ill people end their own lives. No doubt, that is how he will be portrayed in the movie — as the iconoclastic visionary whose compassion induced him to test the boundaries of the law to help the actively dying achieve a gentle end.
But this view of Dr. Death — who received the moniker when, as a medical student, he haunted hospital wards to watch people die — is a blatant, media-driven myth. In reality, Kevorkian’s notorious assisted-suicide campaign, which dominated the headlines throughout most of the 1990s, was driven by a ghoulish desire to conduct human vivisection [here’s the wikipedia explanation of vivisection], or “obitiatry,” as he liked to call it. Yes, you read right. Kevorkian’s primary motive in all that he did was to create the social conditions that would permit him to experiment on the people he was putting to death. . . .
. . . Kevorkian’s first targets in his quest to slice and dice people were not the ill, but the condemned. He spent years visiting prisons and corresponding with death-row inmates, seeking permission to conduct “obitiatric research” on those being executed.
Only after Kevorkian was thrown out of every prison he visited did he hit upon another angle. If condemned people were not going to be made available for “unfettered experimentation on human death,” perhaps he could gain access to experiment on sick and disabled people. His front would be assisted suicide. But his goal would remain human vivisection.
Kevorkian appears to have pursued a three-step plan toward achieving his dream: First, popularize assisted suicide and make it seem acceptable; second, give society a utilitarian stake in assisted suicide by using the victims for organ procurement; and finally, gain permission to conduct his death experiments on the sick and disabled people he would be allowed to kill.
The rest of the article is well worth the read and is eye opening to say the least.
HT: Justin Taylor
June 23 2010 | Blog | No Comments »
These were some great thoughts from Thom Rainer on what he would have done differently in the early days of ministry:
1. I would spend more time in the Word and in prayer. I would follow the biblical pattern of the church leaders in Acts 6:4: "But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the preaching ministry."
2. I would give my family more time. No one remembers the church committee meetings I missed. My family still remembers those times I was too busy for them.
3. I would spend more time sharing my faith. Paul told the young pastor Timothy to do the work of an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5). Those words apply to all pastors today.
4. I would love the community where I lived more. I would try to live more incarnationally. I would prayerfully seek to see how I could serve the community rather than see it as a population pool of prospects for my church.
5. I would lead the church to focus more on the nations. I would lead in helping our church grasp that missions is more than just an annual offering.
6. I would focus on critics less. Most church members have no idea how many criticisms and "suggestions" a pastor gets each week. It can be overwhelming and distracting. Though I would be willing to listen, I would not obsess about every negative comment that was made about me.
7. I would accept the reality that I can’t be omnipresent. So many people and groups want the presence of the pastor. Saying "no" can be difficult, but it can free the pastor to focus on some of the priorities noted above.
HT: Vitamin Z
June 18 2010 | Blog | No Comments »
Kevin DeYoung recently wrote an excellent post on the question, “Are Christians Meant to Feel Guilty All the Time?” I know this is an area that I’ve struggled with for a long time, which is why I’m so thankful for DeYoung’s thoughtful, biblical approach. DeYoung writes:
What do we do with all this behind the scenes guilt? We don’t feel stop-dead-in-our-tracks kind of remorse for these things. But these shortcomings can have a cumulative effect whereby even the mature Christian can feel like he’s rather disappointing to God, maybe just barely Christian.
Here’s the tricky part: we should feel guilty sometimes, because sometimes we are guilty of sin. Moreover, complacency as Christians is a real danger, especially in America.
But yet, I don’t believe God redeemed us through the blood of his Son that we might feel like constant failures.
You can read the rest here.
HT: Justin Taylor
June 14 2010 | Blog | No Comments »
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