Happiness

Happiness - Meeting with believers to worship our Almighty Father in song, and to hear the faithful preaching of his Word. And then spend time with fellow believers being uplifted all afternoon. What a wonderful Redeemer we have. I'm ready for Monday!


"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
(Col 3:16-17 ESV)

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Ok so I like blogs, find them very helpful. But there's just something about curlin up somewhere with a hard cover book...

Unstained??

Do you wake up to Christ? Fall asleep thinking about Christ? Think about Christ through your day?

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (Jam 1:27 ESV)


That is why I don't have cable. That is why I don't listen to the radio. Not that there's anything inherently sinful with cable or radio. But 98% of the stuff on both is put there by Godhating children of wrath. The devil prowls, and even the seemingly innocuous becomes sinister when seen in this light. They want to drag us down with them, they want us to be like them. They want us to be of the world, not just in it. And we cave to their desire in the name of 'not offending' and being 'loving'. What love is this that sits idly by and even plays along as the world spirals faster and faster to hell? What does it say about us when we're willing to go along with everything that sinful man adores? We need God's power, we need it to fight. We are in a war, and most of us don't even realize it. God help us all.

“Of two evils, choose neither” - Charles H. Spurgeon

God is the Gospel

Something I learned from John Piper's "God is the Gospel" today: When we say that the reason God sent his Son to die is that he loved us so much, we put ourselves at the pinnacle of worship. When we worship God for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ with the idea that He did it because we were 'worth it', we make God's worth less than ours. If Jesus' sole purpose at the cross was to die to save us because we were valuable, then we are more valuable than Jesus. Jesus died for sinners so that God might be glorified in His mercy as well as His justice. Sin deserves to be punished, sin against an infinitely holy God deserves infinite punishment. Jesus took that punishment on the cross, not because we had value (we are in fact worthless - Rom. 3:12) but because of God's view of the ultimate worth of Himself. God made a way for us to behold his glory because He knows it's the only thing that ultimately satisfies and is worthy of everything. God was so satisfied and happy in His own glory that He decided to share it. The gospel is how He did that.

Questions.

Is there true repentance in modern Christianity? Or are we simply spinning our wheels trying to get by under our own power? Are we still worshiping the created rather than the creator? If today we were subjected to harsh persecution would we stand? Or would we crumble under our own doubts, insecurities and unbelief? Have we fooled ourselves into thinking that our theology, churches, and service to those around us makes us light and salt? Are we resting in Christ or resting in us? Is our complacency and contentment coming from a true knowing of God, or his lack of discipline? God disciplines those he loves (Rev 3:19), are we being disciplined? Or have we been given over to our desires, becoming fools while claiming to be wise? I can't help but having the sneaky suspicion that we might be missing something.

New at bloggin.

Ok here goes. This is for my personal rumination/thought and I don't recommend taking anything I say as anything worth really listening to. That would be too much pressure. However, my aim is to be as teachable/correctable as possible so if you have legitimate concerns with anything I post here, fire away.