September 29th, 2008 Jeff
"Most churches make the mistake of selecting as leaders the confident, the competent, and the successful. But what you most need in a leader is someone who has been broken by the knowledge of his or her sin, and even greater knowledge of Jesus’ costly grace. The number one leaders in every church ought to be the people who repent the most fully without excuses, because you don’t need any now; the most easily without bitterness; the most publicly and the most joyfully. They know their standing isn’t based on their performance."
-Tim Keller
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September 28th, 2008 Jeff
"The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love."
- Henry Scougal
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September 26th, 2008 Jeff
"Note then the kindness and the severity of God :
severity toward those who have fallen,
but God’s kindness to you,
provided you continue in his kindness.
Otherwise you too will be cut off."
(Romans 11:22)
Note the context (Rom. 11)
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September 23rd, 2008 Jeff
“The tragedy of the world is that the echo is mistaken for the Original shout. When our back is to the breathtaking beauty of God, we cast a shadow on the earth and fall in
love with it. But it does not satisfy."
—John Piper, The Dangerous Duty of Delight , p. 9.
"The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust them… For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”
—C.S. Lewis, quoted by Piper, same page.
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September 18th, 2008 Jeff
From tonight’s "Morning and Evening" via Spurgeon:
"And they follow me."—John 10:27
We should follow our Lord as unhesitatingly as sheep follow their shepherd, for He has a right to lead us wherever He pleases . We are not our own, we are bought with a price—let us recognize the rights of the redeeming blood. The soldier follows his captain, the servant obeys his master, much more must we follow our Redeemer, to whom we are a purchased possession. We are not true to our profession of being Christians, if we question the bidding of our Leader and Commander. Submission is our duty, cavilling is our folly. Often might our Lord say to us as to Peter, "What is that to thee? Follow thou Me." Wherever Jesus may lead us, He goes before us .
If we know not where we go, we know with whom we go . With such a companion, who will dread the perils of the road? The journey may be long, but His everlasting arms will carry us to the end. The presence of Jesus is the assurance of eternal salvation, because He lives, we shall live also. We should follow Christ in simplicity and faith, because the paths in which He leads us all end in glory and immortality . It is true they may not be smooth paths—they may be covered with sharp flinty trials, but they lead to the "city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." "All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant." Let us put full trust in our Leader, since we know that, come prosperity or adversity, sickness or health, popularity or contempt, His purpose shall be worked out, and that purpose shall be pure, unmingled good to every heir of mercy. … Precious Jesus, draw us, and we will run after Thee.
Posted in Blog, God-centered, Jesus, Quotes, Theology | 1 Comment »
August 10th, 2008 Jeff
As every day is His, these will work at all times too…
Tozer on looking outside ourselves:
“While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves - blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ, the very thing he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him .”
- A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, Inc., 1993), 85.
[HT: Of First Importance ]
Wesley on singing in church:
"Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature . In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he comes in the clouds of heaven."
- John Wesley, from Select hymns with Tunes Annext: Designed chiefly for the Use of the People Called Methodists
[HT: Sojourn Music ]
I pray this happens again this morning as I preach:
And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord. ( 1 Samuel 3:21 )
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August 10th, 2008 Jeff
"Remember, then, dear friends, that the punishment of the flock was borne by the Shepherd, that the flock died in the Shepherd, and that the flock now live because the Shepherd lives; that their life is consequently a new life; that he will bring all his sheep that as yet are not called, out of their death in sin, even as he has been brought out of his own death; that he will lead onward and upward those that are called, even as he went onward and upward from the grave to the throne; that he will preserve them all their journey through, even as he was preserved by the blood of the everlasting covenant; and that he will perfect them even as he is perfect. Even as the God of peace has glorified his Son, so also will he bring all his chosen to eternal glory with him."
— Charles Spurgeon, "The Blood of the Covenant ," a sermon on Hebrews 13:20-21, delivered on August 2, 1874.
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August 1st, 2008 Jeff
“The gospel shows us that our spiritual problem lies not only in failing to obey God, but also in relying on our obedience to make us fully acceptable to God, ourselves and others.
Every kind of character flaw comes from this natural impulse to be our own savior through our performance and achievement. On the one hand, proud and disdainful personalities come from basing your identity on your performance and thinking you are succeeding. But on the other hand, discouraged and self-loathing personalities also come from basing your identity on your performance and thinking you are failing.
Belief in the gospel is not just the way to enter the kingdom of God; it is the way to address every obstacle and grow in every aspect. The gospel is not just the “ABCs” but the “A-to-Z” of the Christian life.
The gospel is the way that anything is renewed and transformed by Christ — whether a heart, a relationship, a church, or a community. All our problems come from a lack of orientation to the gospel. Put positively, the gospel transforms our hearts, our thinking and our approach to absolutely everything.”
- Timothy Keller, Paul’s Letter to the Galatians: Living in Line with the Truth of the Gospel (Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2003), 2.
[HT: Of First Importance ]
Posted in Blog, Gospel, Quotes, Sanctification, Theology | 2 Comments »
July 29th, 2008 Jeff
"We conclude, therefore, that a Christian lives not in himself, but in Christ and in his neighbor. Otherwise he is not a Christian. He lives in Christ through faith, in his neighbor through love. By faith he is caught up beyond himself into God. By love he descends beneath himself into his neighbor."
- Martin Luther, On Christian Liberty
HT: Of First Importance
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July 26th, 2008 Jeff
"Let me never forget that the heinousness of sin lies not so much in the nature of the sin committed, as in the greatness of the Person sinned against."
– Prayer entitled "Humiliation" in The Valley of Vision , ed. Arthur Bennet (Banner of Truth, 2002 edition). Quoted by Jonathan Leeman in "Individualism’s Not the Problem–Community’s Not the Solution ," Modern Reformation , July/Aug 2008.
An excellent essay !
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