Starting tonight I have the privilege and joy of teaching our 3-week crash course in practical hermeneutics, starting tonight, at Foothills Community Church: Enjoying the Bible for All Its Worth (6:30pm at our building ; let me know if you want to come join us!) I designed the course to be helpful for any and all Bible readers (even for those who don’t yet read it!) It should be beneficial for those who have plunged the depths of its truth for years as well as those still looking for that dusty Book on their bookshelf. All will benefit, and as Kari and my pastor remind me, I will attempt...

"These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." ( John 15:11 ) "There is not one blade of grass, there is no colour in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice." - John Calvin "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice." ( Philippians 4:4 ) "Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” ( Luke 15:10 ) "Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be...

God is to be enjoyed for His own sake and all other things are to be used as means to the end of enjoying God. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Enjoying + using", url: "http://www.deTheos.com/2008/07/08/enjoying-using/" });

C.J. Mahaney preaches: SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "The precious privilege of adopted sons and daughters before our “Abba, Father”", url: "http://www.deTheos.com/2008/07/06/the-precious-privilege-of-adopted-sons-and-daughters-before-our-abba-father/" });

Celebrating 5 glorious years of marriage Five years ago today Kari Zyp and I exchanged vows, and then I got to kiss the love of my life for the very first time. What an amazing time it has been, my Sauce. We’ve had our adventures: moving 7 times, living in two states, both following the call to seminary as students, raising Dutch, continuing to serve our Lord Jesus Christ, and being able to know, love and enjoy Him oh so much more because of one another. Sauce, I love you! I told you back then that I want to plunge the depths of who you are, and that passion has not and will not fade. You...

Keep in mind: most people we come into contact with each day are having a worse day that we are Let’s show others grace, for everyone is carrying burdens. Also keep in perspective that we all are having a better day than we deserve. Let’s take the time to listen to other’s stories. (Ideas formed today during our communication skills for ministry class) SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Happy tensions: listening + showing grace", url: "http://www.deTheos.com/2008/06/10/happy-tensions-listening-showing-grace/" });

“God did not create us to get the cosmic, infinite joy of mutual love and glorification, but to share it. We were to join in the dance. If we center our lives on him, serving him not out of self-interest, but for the sake of who he is, for the sake of his beauty and glory, we will enter the dance and share in the joy and love he lives in. We were designed, then, not just for belief in God in some general way, nor for a vague kind of inspiration or spirituality. We were made to center our lives upon him, to make the purpose and passion of our lives knowing, serving, delighting, and resembling...

"Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal of every condition." - Jeremiah Burroughs , The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment (listen to a discussion of the book here , highly recommended) "…I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me." -...

By its nature, saving faith loves God and delights in God as the sum of all that could ever satisfy the soul. —John Piper, Future Grace , p. 252. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Saving faith delights in God", url: "http://www.deTheos.com/2008/04/24/saving-faith-delights-in-god/" });

God glorifies Himself toward the creatures also in two ways: 1) By appearing to . . . their understanding. 2) In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in and enjoying the manifestations which He makes of Himself . . . . God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart. (Jonathan Edwards, The “Miscellanies,” ed. by Thomas Schafer, The Works...