Holy Holy Holy

Who do you think you are?

Philemon - verse 6

The Amplified bible reads like this:
6[And I pray] that the participation in and sharing of your faith may produce and promote full recognition and appreciation and understanding and precise knowledge of every good [thing] that is ours in [our identification with] Christ Jesus [and unto His glory].

The NIV reads like this:
6I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.

The idea is that in order for me, as a Christian, and for anyone else to "have a full understanding of every good thing" we have IN CHRIST - my faith in Christ must be shared.

When the gospel of Jesus is shared from one person to another - both people get to understand the goodness of HIM!

That's great stuff!

Another clip

Check It Out

I want to get these DVD's

Theology Rap

Thanks again to Jared @ the gospel driven church blog for finding great videos. I steel from his site all the time. Great video.

Crazy Stuff there Mr. Chan

So - a while ago, Crazy Love by Francis Chan was the free audio book of the month on christianaudio.com. So, I was listening to it this morning. The book is read by Mr. Chan. I have to listen to it a little at a time and I am only about an hour into it thus far. But, so far, I'm enjoying it quite a bit. So far, I've been invited by Chan a few times to just stop and worship God. Stop, and stand in awe of the greatness of the glory of God.

About 39 minutes into part 1 of 4 is the following quote:

Both worry and stress reek of arrogance. They declare our tendency to forget that we've been forgiven, that we are headed to a place where we won't be lonely, afraid, or hurt ever again, and that in the context of God's strength our problems are small indeed. Why are we so quick to forget God? Who do we think we are?

This was really great for me to hear this morning. Our worry and stress reek of arrogance! Wow!

In other words, How dare we worry! How dare we let our own worries and stresses replace our worship of The Almighty God.

Thanks Francis Chan. Praise Jesus!

Truth Observed

I just found a new blog that I intend to start reading. Truth Observed by Dr. Del Tackett. It's in the "blogs I read" section now too.

I am definitely very interested in the Truth Project.

Hhhmmm.... how much time do I really have available? Can I fit another thing into my schedule?

Pray for me, if you would.

Great post about worship

Go to Ray Ortlund's blog Christ is Deeper Still for more. This is a bit from his post today:

Both Cain and Abel worshiped the Lord. Both brought Him offerings. But the Lord rejected Cain's worship and accepted Abel's. Why?

[...]

Cain did not worship God with the psychology of faith. His gift was safe: "Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground" (Genesis 4:3). He worshiped God out of his income from past labors.

Abel worshiped God with the psychology of faith. His gift was risky: "Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions" (Genesis 4:4). He gave to the Lord from his breeding stock and from their best parts. He worshiped God out of his chances for the future, out of his capital.

[...]

It is good to run from safe, no-risk worship. It is good to worship God with a practical demonstration that He alone is the future our hearts will be happy with.

Run from safe, no-risk worship! Good stuff.

That darn Piper

Ouch! Don't you hate it when preachers talk like this?

I know I do. I hate it because I know it to be true.



It's true of myself, for sure. But, praise God! He saw it fit to love me in spite of my constant desire to be praised by man. He saw it fit to save me knowing that my desire is to take the praise that belongs solely to Jesus. Praise God! Praise God! Praise God!

Opening Prayer

Tri Robinson is the Senior Pastor of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Boise, Idaho.

Being a Vineyard guy, I thought it was cool just to see this particular pastor give the opening prayer for the U.S. House of Representatives. But, more than that, it was a great prayer(s) from Philippians.

Micah the minor (prophet)

I've been looking at Micah (The Lawton Vineyard has been going through the minor prophets) lately. Actually, we just started last Sunday with Micah 1. We'll be moving on and looking at chapter 2 this week, but I probably could have spent three or four weeks just looking at and discussing chapter 1.

Anyhow... the part that I keep reading over and over in Chap. 2 is the last two verses:

12 "I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob;
I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel.
I will bring them together like sheep in a pen,
like a flock in its pasture;
the place will throng with people.

13 One who breaks open the way will go up before them;
they will break through the gate and go out.
Their king will pass through before them,
the LORD at their head."

The NIV gives these two verses the heading, Deliverance Promised.

I guess I've just been getting wrapped up lately in the knowledge that there IS deliverance. And not just the kind that comes from the king, but the kind that comes when the King comes lead us out himself.

Jared Wilson has a great post today - remember the events of 9/11 at the gospel driven church blog. Tragedy, failure, disappointments, sickness, pain, and all the other sorrows we deal with will come to an end. There is hope. Jesus - THE KING of kings and LORD of lords (Rev. 19:16) - is our mighty deliverer. Praise Him!

Ecclesiastes

I was reading some in Ecclesiastes (Chapter 7)this morning and these few verses really caught my attention.

20 There is not a righteous man on earth
who does what is right and never sins.

21 Do not pay attention to every word people say,
or you may hear your servant cursing you-

22 for you know in your heart
that many times you yourself have cursed others.

29 This only have I found:
God made mankind upright,
but men have gone in search of many schemes.


God made mankind upright. We sure don't see it, do we? I don't. I see mankind not as upright, but as utterly wicked. ALL men have gone in search of many schemes.

He made us to be upright. And even though it is us who chooses time and time again to go off on our own "searches", HE still chose to redeem us.
No wonder we "feel" best when we "feel" upright in character. That's how we were made to be. That's how Jesus is.

Good stuff.

C.S. Lewis was a smart guy

C.S. Lewis quote:

All that we call human history--money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery--[is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.

Not sure about the "happy" part. It might be petty, but I try to stay away from "God makes you happy" in favor of using the word "Joy."

Still - a nice Lewis quote, I think.

The Gospel and the glory

The gospel of Jesus Christ might not always sound or look the way I think it should, but it will always glorify God.

I've been going through Jonah and this is something Jonah had to struggle and eventually just deal with. The gospel Jonah understood was one meant only for God's chosen people and not the Assyrians. Jonah did not expect, and did not want, the gospel of God's mercy to extend to his enemies.

But - in the end the repentant people of Nineveh gave God glory for His merciful warning.

God was glorified, and continues to be glorified thousands of years later as we read this story.

I hate that I see Jonah in myself so much. God help me!

Ryan Delmore

A really great song. Go to ryan's blog (ryandelmore.blogspot.com) and read about it.

WOW!!!!

Just another video because, apparently, that's all I do on this blog. This is a good one.

I Believe in God

Like usual, I was checking out other people's stuff and saw something I liked. So here it is. Thanks Jared!