May 19, 2009 · Posted in Piper
Christ is the glory of God. His blood-soaked cross is the blazing center of that glory. By it He bought for us every blessing–temporal and eternal. And we don’t deserve any. He bought them all. Because of Christ’s cross, God’s elect are destined to be sons of God. Because of His cross all guilt is removed, and sins are forgiven, and perfect righteousness is imputed to us, and the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Spirit, and we are being conformed to the image of Christ.
Therefore, every enjoyment in this life and the next that is not idolatry is a tribute to the infinite value of the cross of Christ–the burning center of the glory of God. And thus a cross-centered, cross-exalting, cross-saturated life is a God-glorifying life–the only God-glorifying life. All others are wasted.
—John Piper
Don’t Waste Your Life
Via: Of First Importance
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May 19, 2009 · Posted in Watson
Obedience must be in and through Christ. He hath made us accepted in the beloved (Ephesians 1:6). Not our obedience, but Christ’s merits procure acceptance. In every part of worship we must present Christ to God in the arms of our faith. Unless we serve God thus, in hope and confidence of Christ’s merits, we rather provoke Him than please Him. As, when king Uzziah would offer incense without a priest, God was angry with him, and struck him with leprosy (see II Chronicles 26:20); so, when we do not come to God in and through Christ, we offer up incense to Him without a priest; and what can we expect but severe rebukes?
—Thomas Watson
Obedience
Via: Of First Importance
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May 9, 2009 · Posted in Piper
This is an excerpt from John Piper’s autobiographical message entitled “The Pastor As Scholar: A Personal Journey.” It was delivered at an event hosted by the Henry Center called “The Pastor As Scholar and the Scholar As Pastor.”
If I am scholarly, it is not in any sense because I try to stay on the cutting edge in the discipline of biblical and theological studies. I am way too slow for that. What scholarly would mean for me is that the greatest Object of knowledge is God and that he has revealed himself authoritatively in a Book. And that I should work with all my might and all my heart and all my soul and all my mind to know him through that Book and to make him known.
This is the goal of every pastor.
The entire manuscript, along with the audio and video versions of the presentation, can be found here.
Via: Desiring God
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The repository of MP3 sermon audio on the Internet is vast and varied and easy to tap. Take your choice between living preachers, dead preachers, close preachers, and preachers on the opposite side of the globe. It doesn’t matter. With a click of the mouse a file rushes into your computer where it can be flushed through a cord into your iPod where it streams into your head through earbuds. Enjoy the thrill of a computer filled with hundreds of hours of audio sermons!
Now think of your pastor. He’s not unaware of this availability; he knows you have been downloading sermons all week as he has invested 20+ hours into preparing his sermon for Sunday. And stack his Sunday message against the Sunday sermons of preaching celebrities X, Y, and Z and there is no comparison.
Or is there?
According to the late Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a man who knew a bit about the art and craft of preaching, MP3 sermons are no match for your pastor’s pulpit. He said:
There is a unity between preacher and hearers and there is a transaction backwards and forwards. That, to me, is true preaching. And that is where you see the essential difference between listening to preaching in a church and listening to a sermon on the television or on the radio. You cannot listen to true preaching in detachment and you must never be in a position where you can turn it off. (Banner of Truth Magazine, Feb 1990)
Good thoughts to consider as we prepp for Sunday worship.
Via: Tony Reinke
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It is not death to die
To leave this weary road
And join the saints who dwell on high
Who’ve found their home with God
It is not death to close
The eyes long dimmed by tears
And wake in joy before Your throne
Delivered from our fears
O Jesus, conquering the grave
Your precious blood has power to save
Those who trust in You
Will in Your mercy find
That it is not death to die
It is not death to fling
Aside this earthly dust
And rise with strong and noble wing
To live among the just
It is not death to hear
The key unlock the door
That sets us free from mortal years
To praise You evermore
O Jesus, conquering the grave
Your precious blood has power to save
Those who trust in You
Will in Your mercy find
That it is not death to die
—Henri Malan and Bob Kauflin
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April 26, 2009 · Posted in Heaven
It is a surprising thing to note, because so often we speak of hell as a place where God is not. Let me, however, say something provocative. Hell is eternity in the presence of God without a mediator. Heaven is eternity in the presence of God, with a mediator. Hell is eternity in the presence of God, being fully conscious of the just, holy, righteous, good, kind, and loving Father’s disapproval of your rebellion and wickedness. Heaven, on the other hand, is dwelling in the conscious awareness of your holy and righteous Father, but doing so through a mediator who died in your place, the One who absorbed the fullness of the penalty of your sin. Heaven is eternity in the presence of God with the One who totally eradicated sin from your life, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hell is eternity in the presence of God without a mediator. Heaven is eternity in the presence of God with a mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ.
—Ligon Duncan
Fear Not!
Via: Tim Challies
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April 25, 2009 · Posted in Life
Several years ago I was working for a construction company–renovating and building homes. It was probably one of the most difficult jobs I have ever had; but it was what God used to teach me the value of working hard. One weekday morning, I woke up and read the evening section of this particular section of the Daily Light . As I drove to work that morning I meditated on Matthew 6:26, “Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” I was not sure why that particular verse stuck out as the one on which I would meditate as I went to work. That morning turned out to be one of the hardest mornings I had at this job. We had just finished building an extension on the back of a home and now had to put new sod down where we had ruined the grass. I was asked to rake a huge pile of dirt across the section we would put new grass on. As I labored and grumbled, I soon discovered that there were birds (Robins) right next to me. I labored and they hopped around. After a little while I realized that they were much closer to me than birds generally get. I started wondering why they were not afraid of me. I stopped and watched them for a minute. They were eating worms. “Well,” I thought, “Birds eat worms; there’s nothing unusual about that.” Then I realized what was happening. As I raked the dirt, I was being used to uncover the worms that lay beneath. The verse I had read that morning came to mind, “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your Heavenly Father feeds them.” My Father in heaven was using me to reap and labor so that the birds would be fed. There was, of course, an even greater truth in this rare experience. My Father was teaching me that He cares so much more for me than for them. “Are you not of more value than they?” My heavenly Father has abundantly provided for me since that time. I have never been in want. He has taught me that “every good and every perfect gift comes from…the Father of lights.” He had taught me to trust Him for my needs.
Last night, almost 7 years after that event, I was sitting on my bed expressing my worries about the church plant. “How are we going to get support;” “If we can’t gather a core group we won’t have a church;” “What am I going to do?” These were the things coming out of my mouth. At that very moment, I opened the Daily Light and began to read the evening devotional I read almost 7 years ago that day. The Lord again reminded me to trust the One who feeds birds who do not labor for food, and in whom we live and move and have our being. Oh, that I would remember this lesson every day of my life. It is one of the greatest lessons we could ever learn. We have a Father in Heaven who cares deeply for us. He provides for our every need. He has so ordered nature to exhibit His care and preservation that we ought always to make the connection between His care for objects of lesser value and greater value. Above all He provided His Son as a sacrifice for sin. I am exceedingly thankful that He continues to teach me this lesson.
—Nick Batzig
Via: Feeding on Christ
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April 24, 2009 · Posted in Life
When principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then battle is your calling, and peace has become your sin; you must, at the price of dearest peace, lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy, with all the fire of your faith.
—Abraham Kuyper
Via: Eric Schumacher
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