Friday, December 31, 2010
Resolved,
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Grace
Monday, November 22, 2010
3
Psalm 103
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses,
his acts to the people of Israel.
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust.
As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children's children,
to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments.
The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
and his kingdom rules over all.
Bless the Lord, O you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his word,
obeying the voice of his word!
Bless the Lord, all his hosts,
his ministers, who do his will!
Bless the Lord, all his works,
in all places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
=)
2
Sunday, November 21, 2010
1
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
The future freaks me out
Monday, November 8, 2010
When there's nothing to do...
Friday, October 29, 2010
Halfway (Again)
Sunday, October 10, 2010
DA Carson on What the Centre of the Gospel Is
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Glory be
as it was in the beginning; is now;
and forevermore shall be.
Amen.
:)
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Some thoughts
I think that as Christians living in a postmodern age it's very hard to think that our spiritual life isn't about us. And I think it's the engenderment of that kind of thinking that bothers me most about how I see people approach their Christian lives nowaday. The following comes straight from the aforementioned blog (Stephen Hopkins'):
"Personal Christianity. God created you for a relationship. God loves you so much that He would have died just for you. We need to work out our own salvations. All that matters is your belief that you are saved.
While all of the above do look Christian (and many are – we are released from sin upon individual conversion and we are to work out our own salvations with fear and trembling), one has to look at the subjects of these statements. Namely, the word ‘you’ and its conjugations. It’s all about you.
What follows is ‘experiential’ Christianity. What we, ourselves have experienced in times of prayer and in our daily lives no longer supplements our faith; our personal experiences now trump everything else upon which our faith is based. Nearly gone is “God is real” and enter “God is real to me.” We are more fired up when someone talks about miracles and victories within their lives (or our lifetime) than the word of God. Jesus, Himself, said that if one had ignored the prophets, then even someone coming back from the dead wouldn’t convince another of the reality of God.[...]
The last consequence I will discuss today of such a personal Christianity is the embracing of the self. Although it is often guised as self-improvement or self discovery, there exists a pervading idea that growing closer to God is the same as self-actualization. Empowerment by God no longer means being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but that God gives you the focus to more efficiently organize your own energy and talents. Knowing yourself is now a prerequisite to knowing God, and loving yourself a precursor to loving others."
http://hoppy393.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/children-of-modernity/
There is very little that he hasn't said that I can't say or screw up with my lesser level of verbal eloquence. But it is an important thing to ponder. The last couple weeks or so I've had one extremely important question on my mind: Does God want you to be happy?
My first approach to that question treated it as some kind of prosperity gospel - even if God doesn't want you to be materially successful, to think that His highest priority is wanting to grant you some kind of emotional stability is just as much of a prosperity gospel as any materially-minded one might be. So I preliminarily answered that as "No, God doesn't necessarily want you to be happy."
But now that I've had some extra time to think about it, it seems that it absolutely is the case - in a certain sense - that God does want us to be happy. But it's not about personal fulfillment or some flawed sense of "I want to grow in God so I can be emotionally secure", but it's very much true in the sense that we were created for God's glory, and moreover to enjoy the fullness of His glory.
"God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him" keeps popping up in new and interesting places.