Hmmm… another missing book.  It seems I don’t have a very good loaner system.  I keep loaning out books, dvds, etc… but they don’t seem to ever return.  Most mornings I would probably consternate over that a bit more (a bit more than I should even   BUT, not this morning.  Today I head North.

Shortly (after packing, iPod prep, haircut, etc…) I will leave my wonderful wife and four chillens and turn my truck northward… to the ‘Dacks’ as my good brother Rob calls it!  The Adirondacks are a beautiful place and that’s where I will go for a few days of silence and solitude with my Counselor and King.

There is both a sense of desperation and delight as I go… I really need to get away and get quiet before my God, who knows All; I need to remember that.  Ezekiel understood and responded well in Ez. 37:3, ‘O Lord GOD, you know’.  In this, I am desperate.  There is alot here in NJ world that seems upside down and out of place and it’s shaking me.  In this, I also delight.  God’s word is clear.. His intentions are clear.  He is preparing me for another home, another dwelling place. 

I am finding the rejoicing in my heart being overwhelmed and so I am turning my attention to the God of all wisdom and the God of peace to meet my need.

The book I was looking for a moment ago was Don Whitney’s ‘Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life’… a very good book and one that has a chapter on the discipline of silence and solitude.  I hoped to refresh my thoughts on this chapter before heading on my way.  Oh well… perhaps the borrower is being blessed by it today?

I also look forward to the weekend ahead as my eldest son, Luke (16) will join me in the ‘Dacks’ for the ABC Men’s Retreat.  His first.  Our first.  I love these retreats… solid teaching from the Word… incredible times of worship and singing… sweet fellowship with the church of Jesus Christ!  A taste of heaven!  Luke and I will room together, talk together, pray together, be taught together, fellowship together, Worship our Lord and Savior… together!

By God’s grace and pleasure, it will be a ‘good’ five days away from life in New Jersey.  And then I will return home to my Amanda and my other three chillens.  That will be really cool too!

“I will establish my word with you” 

2 Cor 1:21,  And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us,

Col 2:6-7,  Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 

1 Kings 6:11-13, Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon, “Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father.  And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel.”

These verses have been on my heart the past two days as I’ve wondered about God and the if/then promises in His word.  I have much to learn and I also remember and stand on what He has taught me thus far.  It is the reality of His sovereignty that clarifies His commands.  And it is a joy to behold God in His word… it is, indeed, all of grace. 

The conditional covenants that God makes with his people are truly wonderful.  Yet how could a sovereign Creator God relinquish control to the creature?  He doesn’t; and for that we must be eternally grateful.  Our sovereign God is NEVER ‘not sovereign’.  No matter how we might choose to define His sovereignty, no matter how we will, in our own hearts, deface the sovereign grace of God… He remains forever Sovereign. 

How is it with you?  How did  you get God to respond to you?  What level of obediance did you achieve (walking in his statutes, obeying his rules, keeping all his commandments and walking in them) for God to take notice and responsively establish his word with you? 

Is it not God who has ordained, in His sovereignty, to dwell among the children of Israel and to not forsake his people Israel?  Is it not God who has called you, put a new heart in you, made you alive in Christ, established you in the faith, empowered you to walk…obey…keep…walk?  Are you not doing this as He establishes you in His word? 

John 17:14-19, “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  Sanctify them  in the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.” 

Rejoice in the Sovereign God… rejoice in his Sovereign Grace… rejoice, again I say REJOICE!

Glory glory glory.

Transforming power… the New Testament indicates that the transforming power of regeneration is total. It meets our needs at every point. This is not to say that regeneration produces perfection. But just as total depravity means sin has influenced every area of our lives, so grace reaches into every aspect of our experience where the ravages of sin first ventured. It is through the new birth that the image of God, like an embryo in the womb, is restored. It then begins to grow to the full maturity of the later stages of Christian experience. …In regeneration the mind is illuminated… the heart is purified…the desires are renewed… we begin to live a new life!

(The Christian Life, Ch6, Sinclair Ferguson)

This morning two prayers converged before me. I was reading in 1 Kings ch3, where Solomon prays to the Lord in a dream at night. As I read these verses, I began to pray that God would bless me in the same way… that He would…

“Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”

 It is often that I feel this way… “Lord, how can I do this? How can I do what you’ve put before me.  Lord, please give me an understanding mind and discernment between good and evil.”   I then saw that I had received an email from an older brother in the Lord who is praying for me and he is praying Philippians 1:9-11 on my behalf, a familiar and wonderful prayer…

“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

As the return of our Lord draws nearer, I am concerned that the schemes of the enemy of God are having a significant influence on the body of Christ, abroad but also in our families and local church bodies.  Please pray like Solomon… please pray like Paul… for the church (you and your church) and for the elders at your church, that they may lead and oversee well to the glory of God.

I loved it when I read the last verse in 1 Kings 3:28,

“And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.”

God gave Solomon the wisdom of God and the people ’stood in awe’… not (so much) of Solomon, but of God.  AMEN! Let’s look to God and pray for the wisdom of God so that we might all walk in obedience before our LORD and King.

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)

Blessings as you walk by faith today,

I read this brief thought and prayer (from The Valley of Vision) and thought that each of you might desire to have this in your arsenal as you read, study, preach, teach, minister or sit under God’s word in various ways. 

At first read it seems almost wrong… affronting… rude… detrimental… certainly ‘negative’ to consider such self-abasing language, for are we not children of the King?!   Yes, we may be children of the King and we may be joint-heirs with Christ and yes, we are also, in the present reality of our flesh, very much tempted to step outside the Truth of our desparate need for ‘Christ in me’ and to rebelliously pursue the “I in me” to live in a state of self-righteousness, forsaking the saving and sanctifying Christ-righteousness that brings all glory to our God. But with our great need ever before us… Then grace, grace, will be my experience and cry. 

Who knows, it may be that we will find ourselves as spiritually hungry men to be more readied to preach/teach sound doctrine with understanding as we grow up in Christ and the fullness therein.  This prayer is certainly helpful to lead us in laying ourselves at the foot of the old rugged cross in complete surrender and dependence on our Great Savior. 

http://www.challies.com/archives/articles/quotes/a-ministers-strength.php 

A Minister’s Strength

The prayer immediately before a sermon is one where the congregation is prone to drift off. This prayer is usually a minister’s plea for God to grant him words to speak and for God to grant the ability to hear and understand for those who listen to the sermon. I’ve noticed, though, that when I am the one who is to preach immediately afterward, this prayer takes on a new dimension of desperation. The one standing in the pulpit (hopefully) has a real sense of his unworthiness, his unsuitableness, his inability to do in his own power the task he is called to do. This morning I will be preaching at a church nearby and already I feel that sense of inability and already I’m turning to God to grant me strength. This prayer from The Valley of Vision has given me words to speak to God to ask for his help.

*****

Unchangeable Jehovah,
When I am discouraged in my ministry and full of doubts of my self,
fasten me upon the rock of thy eternal election,
then my hands will not hang down,
and I shall have hope for myself and others.
Thou dost know thy people by name,
and wilt at the appointed season lead them out of a natural to a gracious state by thy effectual calling.
This is the ground of my salvation,
the object of my desire,
the motive of my ministry.
Keep me from high thoughts of myself or my work,
for I am nothing but sin and weakness;
in me no good dwells,
and my best works are but sin.
Humble me to the dust before thee.
Root and tear out the poisonous weed of self-righteousness,
and show me my utter nothingness;
Keep me sensible of my sinnership;
Sink me deeper into penitence and self-abhorence;
Break the Dagon of pride in pieces before the ark of thy presence;
Demolish the Babel of self-opinion, and scatter it to the wind;
Level to the ground my Jericho walls of a rebel heart;
Then grace, grace, will be my experience and cry.
I am a poor, feeble creature when faith is not in exercise,
like an eagle with pinioned wings;
Grant me to rest on thy power and faithfulness,
and to know that there are two things worth living for:
to further thy cause in the world,
and to do good to the souls and bodies of men;
This is my ministry, my life, my prayer, my end.
Grant me grace that I shall not fail.

We need to understand why we need to know the Truth. We need to teach the Truth. We need to believe the Truth…

in our homes and in the church…

And we need to understand and help our families and church understand that we can’t hide Jesus Christ under a bushel… NO!  We can’t get fuzzy on the eternally-impacting reality that NOT all roads/religions lead to God.

For personal edification and perhaps passing along or usefulness as a current event news piece to use for teaching, check out this blog and especially the US Today editorial link..

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2009/10/16/separation-of-church-and-sport/

 http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/10/column-and-id-like-to-thank-god-almighty.html#more

While this editorial seems a calm and polite push-back… take note that ‘the world’ is taking note of the different “types” of christians/evangelicals that exist in the world… even they can spot a “true believer”; and they won’t be… can’t be content to let it slide. The truth that God alone… Jesus Christ alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life is something the enemy hates with a passion equal to the task that brought about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

One, God is Sovereign.

Two, the prince of this world still prowls about as a roaring lion… the thief is still all about stealing, killing and destroying… for keeps!

Lets make sure our families and church know the Truth. Let’s make sure “we” are not offering up our families and the church to “alters” God has not called them to. Let’s make choices based on the Truth that there is but One God and One Mediator… 1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

Blessings.

 

Check this dude out! 

No… not the picture with the funky wavy hair or the corduroy jacket (I think a had the same jacket when I graduated H.S. (1979) except in a lighter color.) but the drive which God put in his heart so early to dig in to the depths of God’s word so that 30+ years later, he could be a biblically grounded proclaimer of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the church and to missions and to the spiritually dull who had/have lost their way in the maze of church pews and programs.

I give honor and glory to God for letting me sit under this man’s preaching for the past 3 years, albeit from an mp3 player or computer screen or book.

enjoy this blog link below… it is my hope that you will be encouraged and trained by God’s word and by a godly man like John Piper or one of the other many faithful men of God that He has placed in your life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2009/10/14/30-years-ago-today-how-god-called-john-piper-to-become-a-pastor/

I love getting clarity on truths that I haven’t properly thought through.  This question might have gotten a right answer from me, but I would not have been as helpful with the explanation that John Piper provides here.  It’s really good to think about and understand these truths and to worship God in response.

Ok… I’m going back to the future. (who knew that Michael J Fox’s role in this Back to the Future trilogy would be so useful for the moment in our dialogue about life in America)

I went back this evening to the following news clip on YouTube.

Going back, when I first heard this dialogue, I thought that Rev Voddie Baucham misspoke.  Shame on me.  I come back to this interview and LISTEN and I am convinced that I have become too colored by my culture and not changed enough by the truth of God’s word.

I, today, thoroughly appreciate Rev Baucham’s rebuke to this woman.  He is not antagonistic, but passionately unrelenting with regard to a reverence for God and His word…regardless of what culture’s commentary of the moment  might suggest.

Let’s be wise and discerning in our day.