Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Album Cover Game (You Won't Believe My Results!)
My results were way too funny not to post! TKenny found this idea at the CMD+Shift Design blog via twitter and thought I would give it a go. First, what is the ‘Your Album Cover’ game? Instructions below:
- Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band. - Go to http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album. - Go to http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover. - Use Photoshop (or something else!) to put it all together.
- Post a link to it and share with your friends!
Leave it to Mike to...
Leave it to Mike (Simmons that is!) to provide a resource this morning in our men's accountability group that leveled me with conviction. Available online at: http://www.gty.org/Resources/Articles/A203 is an article, "Marriage As It Was Meant to Be" (adapted from John MacArthur's Different by Design. Within this article is a section titled, "Purifying Love." I was humbled by the following:
| Love wants only the best for the one it loves, & it cannot bear for a loved one to be corrupted or misled by anything evil or harmful. If you really love your wife, you'll do everything in your power to maintain her holiness, virtue, & purity every day you live.
That obviously means doing nothing to defile her. Don't expose her to or let her indulge in anything that would bring impurity into her life. Don't tempt her to sin by, say, inducing an argument out of her on a subject you know is sensitive to her. Love always seeks to purify. |
| Love wants only the best for the one it loves, & it cannot bear for a loved one to be corrupted or misled by anything evil or harmful. If you really love your wife, you'll do everything in your power to maintain her holiness, virtue, & purity every day you live.
That obviously means doing nothing to defile her. Don't expose her to or let her indulge in anything that would bring impurity into her life. Don't tempt her to sin by, say, inducing an argument out of her on a subject you know is sensitive to her. Love always seeks to purify. |
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Stott on "The Means of our Justification: Faith"
I have found the following excerpts from Stott's commentary on Romans especially fitting & beneficial as I continually delve deeper into the subject of justification by faith.
"When we say that salvation is 'by faith, not by works', we are not substituting one kind of merit ('faith') for another ('works'). Nor is salvation a sort of cooperative enterprise between God & us, in which he contributes the cross & we contribute faith. No, grace is non-contributory, & faith is the opposite of self-regarding. The value of faith is not to be found in itself, but entirely & exclusively in its object, namely Jesus Christ & him crucified." p.117
As Richard Hooker... "God justifies the believer--not because of the worthiness of his belief, but because of his (sc. Christ's) worthiness who is believed." p.118
"Christianity, by contrast, is not in its essence a religion at all; it is a gospel, the gospel, good news that God's grace has turned away his wrath, that God's Son has died our death & borne our judgment, that God has mercy on the undeserving & that there is nothing left for us to do, or even contribute. Faith's only function is to receive what grace offers." p.118
"Non-Christian systems think of 'the self-movement of man' towards God. Luther called speculation 'climbing up the majesty on high'. Similarly, mysticism imagines that the human spirit can 'soar aloft towards God'. So does moralism. So does philosophy. Very similar is 'the self-confident optimism of all non-Christian religion'. None of these has seen or felt the gulf which yawns between the holy God & sinful, guilty human beings. Only when we have glimpsed this do we grasp the necessity of what the gospel proclaims, namely 'the self-movement of God', his free initiative of grace, his 'descent', his amazing 'act of condescension'. To stand on the rim of the abyss, to despair utterly of ever crossing over, this is the indespensable 'antechamber of faith'." p.118
A few additional resources on justification (as cited by Stott):
"When we say that salvation is 'by faith, not by works', we are not substituting one kind of merit ('faith') for another ('works'). Nor is salvation a sort of cooperative enterprise between God & us, in which he contributes the cross & we contribute faith. No, grace is non-contributory, & faith is the opposite of self-regarding. The value of faith is not to be found in itself, but entirely & exclusively in its object, namely Jesus Christ & him crucified." p.117
As Richard Hooker... "God justifies the believer--not because of the worthiness of his belief, but because of his (sc. Christ's) worthiness who is believed." p.118
"Christianity, by contrast, is not in its essence a religion at all; it is a gospel, the gospel, good news that God's grace has turned away his wrath, that God's Son has died our death & borne our judgment, that God has mercy on the undeserving & that there is nothing left for us to do, or even contribute. Faith's only function is to receive what grace offers." p.118
"Non-Christian systems think of 'the self-movement of man' towards God. Luther called speculation 'climbing up the majesty on high'. Similarly, mysticism imagines that the human spirit can 'soar aloft towards God'. So does moralism. So does philosophy. Very similar is 'the self-confident optimism of all non-Christian religion'. None of these has seen or felt the gulf which yawns between the holy God & sinful, guilty human beings. Only when we have glimpsed this do we grasp the necessity of what the gospel proclaims, namely 'the self-movement of God', his free initiative of grace, his 'descent', his amazing 'act of condescension'. To stand on the rim of the abyss, to despair utterly of ever crossing over, this is the indespensable 'antechamber of faith'." p.118
A few additional resources on justification (as cited by Stott):
- Luther, Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians (1531; James Clarke, 1953).
- Hooker, "Definition of Justification", being chapter xxxili of his Ecclesiastical Polity (1593).
- Emil Brunner, The Mediator (1927; Westminster, 1947), pp.291ff.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
New Design for thevisiblegroup.net
I wanted to fill you in on the new site design draft I have been working on for www.thevisiblegroup.net. I have been playing with this design for a few weeks now & have found that it is sometimes difficult to be really simple. I would love to know your thoughts about our new design... so comment away!!! The new design isn't scheduled to go live for a few more weeks, but for now, check out the draft:
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
CJ Mahaney at CCK this weekend! And next!
I am getting very excited about this (& next) weekend at Cornerstone Church of Knoxville. I have admired the ministry & writings of CJ Mahaney for some time now & for the first time I get to hear him teach in person. I look forward to this opportunity & hope you will download the audio after this weekend if you are unable to attend. For those who would like to visit, feel free to email me & I can make sure to meet you. Click here for audio link!
Friday, July 17, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Pastor Dad: Free eBook
RE:LIT is offering Mark Driscoll's latest mini-book, Pastor Dad, available in eBook form for free. For those of us who are learning daily what it means to love God & lead our family, I especially think we would be served by this book. May we take a lesson in humility & open ourselves to counsel & insight from others.
Here's the link: http://relit.org/pastordad/
Monday, July 13, 2009
On Romans 3:20
"For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin." Romans 3:20
You would likely agree that this statement is pregnant with theological content. This blisters any hope of favor before God based upon merit or privilege. Instead of commented on this, I would like to offer a few of my favorite commentators thoughts on summarizing the above passage.
on 3:19 | hupodikos: held accountable, to bring under the cognizance of... "someone who is guilty in the sense of having offended against the law & so made hiimself liable to prosecution & punishment." | Cranfield
on 3:20 | "Salvation by 'works of the law' bolstered pride & privilege; salvation by faith abolished them." | John Stott
"The principle point... of the law... is to make men not better but worse; that is to say, it sheweth unto them their sin, that by their knowledge thereof they may be humbled, terrified, bruised & broken, & by this means may be driven to seek grace, & so come to that blessed Seed (sc. Christ)." | Martin Luther
"Our first response to Paul's indictment, then should be to make it as certain as we possibly can that we have ourselves accepted this divine diagnosis of our human condition as true, & that we have fled from the just judgment of God on our sins to the only refuge there is, namely Jesus Christ who died for our sins. For we have no merit to plead & no excuse to make... Secondly, these chapters challenge us to share Christ with others. We cannot monopolize the good news. All around us are men & women who know enough of God's glory & holiness to make their rejection of him inexcusable. They too, like us, stand condemned. Their knowledge, their religion & their righteousness cannot save them. Only Christ can. Their mouth is closed in guilt; let our mouth be opened in testimony." | Stott
You would likely agree that this statement is pregnant with theological content. This blisters any hope of favor before God based upon merit or privilege. Instead of commented on this, I would like to offer a few of my favorite commentators thoughts on summarizing the above passage.
on 3:19 | hupodikos: held accountable, to bring under the cognizance of... "someone who is guilty in the sense of having offended against the law & so made hiimself liable to prosecution & punishment." | Cranfield
on 3:20 | "Salvation by 'works of the law' bolstered pride & privilege; salvation by faith abolished them." | John Stott
"The principle point... of the law... is to make men not better but worse; that is to say, it sheweth unto them their sin, that by their knowledge thereof they may be humbled, terrified, bruised & broken, & by this means may be driven to seek grace, & so come to that blessed Seed (sc. Christ)." | Martin Luther
"Our first response to Paul's indictment, then should be to make it as certain as we possibly can that we have ourselves accepted this divine diagnosis of our human condition as true, & that we have fled from the just judgment of God on our sins to the only refuge there is, namely Jesus Christ who died for our sins. For we have no merit to plead & no excuse to make... Secondly, these chapters challenge us to share Christ with others. We cannot monopolize the good news. All around us are men & women who know enough of God's glory & holiness to make their rejection of him inexcusable. They too, like us, stand condemned. Their knowledge, their religion & their righteousness cannot save them. Only Christ can. Their mouth is closed in guilt; let our mouth be opened in testimony." | Stott
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
"Knowledge is Never Sufficient"
I am choosing to quote a snippet from Dallas Willard's Knowing Christ Today. I am a bit apprehensive to do this since I cannot provide the full context. Oh well, you will just have to read it for yourself!! I can't wait to read the next chapter based upon Hosea 4:6, "Exactly How We Perish for Lack of Knowledge," since the first few chap's have been so rich in content! Good readin'! Please take the time to read this thoroughly.
"Knowledge alone is never enough for human life, of course. That is itself one part of the genuine Christian knowledge. And by itself, apart from some adequate moral teaching & discipline (based of course, upon knowledge), it always 'puffs one up'--as the apostle Paul in his profound knowledge of knowledge pointed out (1 Cor. 8:1). Knowledge alone sets us up for a fall. It gives a sense of substance & fulfillment to the self & to society that is an illusion. Under this illusion of substance & sufficiency, it forgets, as that wise man Paul also pointed out, that we only know "in part" (1 Cor. 8:1-3; 13:8-12) & that, as the poet Alexander Pope said, 'A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.' Christians know that our knowledge is always little. We rarely even have any idea of how much it leaves out. (It is this knowledge of knowledge that, along with genuine love of neighbor, enables one to avoid intolerance.) In applying what we know or think we know, the 'law of unintended effects' comes into play. When we act with even the best of available knowledge, we really don't know what the consequences will be."
I love this! It just furthers my realization of my inability to be God & it humbles me under the mighty wisdom of an all knowing God. Complete knowledge knows the consequences of every action. Who can measure this but God!?!?
"Knowledge alone is never enough for human life, of course. That is itself one part of the genuine Christian knowledge. And by itself, apart from some adequate moral teaching & discipline (based of course, upon knowledge), it always 'puffs one up'--as the apostle Paul in his profound knowledge of knowledge pointed out (1 Cor. 8:1). Knowledge alone sets us up for a fall. It gives a sense of substance & fulfillment to the self & to society that is an illusion. Under this illusion of substance & sufficiency, it forgets, as that wise man Paul also pointed out, that we only know "in part" (1 Cor. 8:1-3; 13:8-12) & that, as the poet Alexander Pope said, 'A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.' Christians know that our knowledge is always little. We rarely even have any idea of how much it leaves out. (It is this knowledge of knowledge that, along with genuine love of neighbor, enables one to avoid intolerance.) In applying what we know or think we know, the 'law of unintended effects' comes into play. When we act with even the best of available knowledge, we really don't know what the consequences will be."
I love this! It just furthers my realization of my inability to be God & it humbles me under the mighty wisdom of an all knowing God. Complete knowledge knows the consequences of every action. Who can measure this but God!?!?
Monday, July 6, 2009
Psalm 36:1 | Romans 3:18
"Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes." Psalm 36:1
"There is no fear of God before their eyes." Romans 3:18
The above verses made me think twice. What is the fear of God? And, does it really influence my actions?
Sanday commented on 3:18. He said, "The fear of God supplies no standard for their actions." This makes me wonder, "Are my actions altered because of my honoring & fear of God? Or, do I assume that God will not discipline sin?
I hear people say quite often, "You just have to trust your heart." Well, I get what they are saying, but what if your heart is a big part of the problem. You see, there is a major difference between the unregenerate heart & the regenerate heart. Jeremiah says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, & desperately sick; who can understand it? (17:9)" Further, there is a great chasm between the heart that consistently intakes the gospel verses the heart that is passive towards God. What many people mean when they say, "Go with your heart" is "Trust your feelings." My friends, if I trusted my feelings all the time, I would be in a heap of trouble. Word?
What I am getting at saying is: we must preach the gospel to ourselves. Otherwise, the fear of God will have little bearing (if any) upon our actions. We are way too forgetful.
I am praying for you; I am praying for me. I am asking that God help give me a greater desire for Him. I don't feel guilty or condemned, I just don't want to miss out on Him. He is shown me countless times that He is the treasure.
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