tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646198713848121672024-03-13T23:40:30.817-07:00Battling UnbeliefUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger147125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-52839248284044651982010-08-04T16:14:00.001-07:002010-08-04T16:14:34.930-07:00HE CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE!<object width="416" height="374" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" id="ep"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><param name="movie" value="http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=us/2010/07/30/pkg.clerk.robber.wsvn"><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"><embed src="http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=us/2010/07/30/pkg.clerk.robber.wsvn" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="416" wmode="transparent" height="374"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-17171410892987435182010-07-26T06:51:00.000-07:002010-07-26T06:51:29.067-07:00Jason Helopoulos on Good Reasons for Moving On<a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2010/07/23/good-reasons-for-moving-on/">Jason Helopoulos on Good Reasons for Moving On</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-78559878945988895022010-07-20T07:00:00.000-07:002010-07-20T07:00:49.191-07:00Men with a whole heart<a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/rayortlund/2010/07/15/men-with-a-whole-heart/">Men with a whole heart</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-13871601007891572742010-07-02T10:16:00.000-07:002010-07-02T10:16:28.031-07:00Ghana: The Team That Prays Together | Liveblog | Christianity Today<div>I'm officially rooting for Ghana:</div><a href="http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2010/06/ghana_the_team.html?sms_ss=blogger">Ghana: The Team That Prays Together | Liveblog | Christianity Today</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-42237308587072552292010-07-02T07:56:00.000-07:002010-07-02T10:17:17.675-07:00A NEW HEART<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 22px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family:'Times New Roman';"><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Would you know the reason why so many hear the Gospel year after year, and yet remain unmoved by it? Their minds seem like </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pilgrim%27s_Progress" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Bunyan’s “slough of despond.”</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> Cartloads of good instruction are poured into them without producing any good effect. Their reason is convinced. Their head assents to the truth. Their conscience is sometimes pricked. Their feelings are sometimes roused. Why then do they stick fast? Why do they tarry? It is their hearts which are in fault! Some secret idol chains them down to the earth, and keeps them tied hand and foot, so that they cannot move. They need a new heart. Their picture is drawn faithfully by Ezekiel, </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“They sit before you as my people, and they hear your words—but they will not do them—for with their mouth they show much love—but their heart goes after their covetousness.”</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> (Ezek. 33:31). </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "></span></span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">~ J.C. Ryle</span></span></span></p></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-3971228832367750422010-06-30T08:37:00.000-07:002010-06-30T08:39:32.025-07:00Burning Grace<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">"A Xian Saint burns grace like a 747 burns fuel at takeoff."</span><div>-Dallas Willard</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-59115223512313082822010-06-26T20:52:00.000-07:002010-06-26T20:52:47.498-07:00Clown Camp<div>I wouldn't step foot (or let my kids step foot) within a mile radius of this:</div><a href="http://newsok.com/clown-camp-teaches-kids-more-than-just-how-to-laugh/article/3471558?custom_click=headlines_widget">Clown camp teaches kids more than just how to laugh | NewsOK.com</a><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-73427030638882334222010-06-23T22:10:00.000-07:002010-06-23T22:13:05.880-07:00Take Up Your Cross<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); line-height: 23px; font-size:14px;"><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“It is only when you deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow your Lord that you begin to experience the transcendent humanity for which you were created. Remember, Christ’s call to you is a rescue.</span></span></span></p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In asking you to deny yourself and follow, He is giving to you what you could never earn or achieve on your own. You will not find it in your marriage, in parenting your children, in accumulating possessions, in the esteem of friends, in theological knowledge, or in the most beautiful location.</span></span></span></p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Christ offers you what you cannot earn and what the physical creation can never offer: the all-surpassing glory of knowing Him. This is the world’s best prize. This is the universe’s best meal. This is the only thing that will give life meaning and fill you with lasting joy.</span></span></span></p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The final question: in your everyday situations and relationships, where are you finding it hard to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Christ?”</span></span></span></p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">–Paul David Tripp, </span></span></span><em style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.wtsbooks.com/product-exec/product_id/5359/nm/A+Quest+for+More:+Living+for+Something+Bigger+Than+You+(Paperback)_?utm_source=nroark&utm_medium=blogpartners" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-decoration: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A Quest For More: Living For Something Bigger than You</span></span></a></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2008), 121.</span></span></span></p></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-88305447126307849972010-06-22T11:13:00.000-07:002010-06-22T11:13:31.319-07:00Claremont seminary reaches beyond Christianity - latimes.com<div>The most absurd idea I have ever heard of:</div><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-claremont-20100609,0,4360922.story">Claremont seminary reaches beyond Christianity - latimes.com</a><div><br /></div><div>HT: Mohler</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-47858573290172357872010-06-21T21:51:00.000-07:002010-06-21T21:53:24.313-07:00Restaurant or Family???I'm not at all a Driscoll groupie, but this is very good:<div><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ne9DzfH3Ej0&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ne9DzfH3Ej0&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-38437158783891893742010-06-19T14:35:00.000-07:002010-06-19T14:35:46.741-07:00Remembering D-Day, 66 years ago - The Big Picture - Boston.com<div>I can't believe I missed this last week:</div><a href="http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/remembering_d-day_66_years_ago.html">Remembering D-Day, 66 years ago - The Big Picture - Boston.com</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-17255617926917212562010-06-17T13:39:00.001-07:002010-06-17T13:39:57.965-07:00Fun StuffI just finished this book with my girls:<div><embed src="http://www.tangle.com/flash/swf/flvplayer.swf" flashvars="viewkey=9ddcc0578c46ca04259a" wmode="transparent" quality="high" width="330" height="270" name="tangle" align="middle" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-75560612000984831322010-06-16T13:08:00.000-07:002010-06-16T13:09:12.007-07:00Really???Father's Day cards? Really???<div><br /></div><div><div><object width="576" height="324"><param name="movie" value="http://d.yimg.com/nl/cbe/default/player.swf"></param><param name="flashVars" value="vid=20346767&shareUrl=http%3A//whoknew.news.yahoo.com/%3Fvid%3D20346767&"></param><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed width="576" height="324" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://d.yimg.com/nl/cbe/default/player.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashvars="vid=20346767&shareUrl=http%3A//whoknew.news.yahoo.com/%3Fvid%3D20346767&"></embed></object></div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-19781077617329851812010-06-09T17:33:00.000-07:002010-06-09T17:37:41.008-07:00This One from WSJ<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">According to Dorothy Rabinowitz the distance between this president and people is being revealed:</span></div><div><br /></div>"A great part of America now understands that this president's sense of identification lies elsewhere, and is in profound ways unlike theirs. He is hard put to sound convincingly like the leader of the nation, because he is, at heart and by instinct, the voice mainly of his ideological class."</span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">Rest of the the article <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703302604575294231631318728.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop">here.</a></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-75828497540392066742010-06-07T13:36:00.001-07:002010-06-07T13:37:30.537-07:00Here's an interes....Sorry got distracted, but h....<div><br /></div><div>Yeah well, New York Ti...:</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07brain.html">Article on Technology Rewiring our Brains</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-90032143506980614132010-06-04T19:45:00.000-07:002010-06-04T19:47:14.827-07:00A Sweet Reunion for Coach WoodenI respect John Wooden as much as any sports figure I can think of. He died today, and I remembered this piece by Rick Rielly done last year:<div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre; "><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BFbZckxrTTQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BFbZckxrTTQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object></span><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-24507502127605099502010-06-04T09:02:00.000-07:002010-06-04T09:05:16.428-07:00A VOICE for Life<div><br /></div><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6QfKCGTfn3o&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6QfKCGTfn3o&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><div>HT: Challies (again)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-27090763097770115562010-06-03T13:32:00.001-07:002010-06-03T13:33:34.565-07:00When it Rains it PoursI know very little about Grace Community Church in San Antonio. I know they meet in a burger joint called Fatty's, which is fantastic, and I know they make great videos:<div><br /></div><div><object width="400" height="225"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=10412476&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1"><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=10412476&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="225"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/10412476">Grace Community Church of San Antonio, Texas</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/illbehonest">I'll Be Honest</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-24760073230693853912010-06-03T13:24:00.000-07:002010-06-03T13:24:15.964-07:00#10: Truly Reformed<div>Ray Ortlund does it again:</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/rayortlund/2010/06/03/10-truly-reformed/">#10: Truly Reformed</a><div><br /></div><div>His Conclusion:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">My Reformed friend, can you move among other Christian groups and really enjoy them? Do you admire them? Even if you disagree with them in some ways, do you learn from them? What is the emotional tilt of your heart – toward them or away from them? If your Reformed theology has morphed functionally into Galatian sociology, the remedy is not to abandon your Reformed theology. The remedy is to take your Reformed theology to a deeper level. Let it reduce you to Jesus only. Let it humble you. Let this gracious doctrine make you a fun person to be around. The proof that we are Reformed will be all the wonderful Christians we discover around us who are not Reformed. Amazing people. Heroic people. Blood-bought people. People with whom we are eternally one – in Christ alone.</span></span><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-35312571372047075212010-06-01T11:25:00.000-07:002010-06-01T11:25:33.617-07:00The awakened capacity to adore<div>From Ray Ortlund's Blog:</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/rayortlund/2010/05/31/the-awakened-capacity-to-adore/">The awakened capacity to adore</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-25059479464623029402010-05-26T07:31:00.001-07:002010-05-26T07:39:37.228-07:00A Word to Preachers (of the expositional sort)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(66, 64, 55); line-height: 24px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(66, 64, 55); line-height: 24px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A simple and conversational, yet forceful delivery commands both respect and response. Enthusiasm inspires. Logic is convincing, the illogical confusing. As preachers let us have a heart. Let us stop wearying our audiences. Let us make our preaching so absorbingly interesting that even the children would rather listen to us than draw pictures and will thus put to shame their paper-and-pencil-supplying parents. But we may as well make up our minds that an absolute prerequisite of such preaching is the most painstaking preparation.” </span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(66, 64, 55); font-style: italic; line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(66, 64, 55); line-height: 24px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">-Ian Murray</span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(66, 64, 55); font-style: italic; line-height: 24px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(66, 64, 55); line-height: 24px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">You can read his five CAUTIONS concerning expository preaching </span><a href="http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/resources/a/expository_preaching1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">here.</span></a></span></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-79530211682167222102010-05-23T06:58:00.001-07:002010-05-23T07:00:22.950-07:00I Realize it Doesn't Have to Be Either Or...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">But this is still a good statement:</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"></span></span></div><span><span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">"When churches abandon the gospel, they don't put out press releases announcing they have done so. They do things to distract us from that glaring reality. In most cases, the banner waved, has been social justice.</span>"</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(80, 83, 103); font-family: 'Palatino Linotype'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"></span></span></span><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-83711669499061633962010-05-20T20:07:00.001-07:002010-05-20T20:08:29.746-07:00OK, Now I'm ReadyI really get into the World Cup, which is strange because typically soccer sort of bothers me. This Nike ad doesn't not bother me:<div><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/idLG6jh23yE&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/idLG6jh23yE&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>(pardon the go go dancers...)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-51127220407024015282010-05-16T07:06:00.000-07:002010-05-16T07:09:09.913-07:00Wilson Expounds Piper...Oh Boy.<!--StartFragment--><span style="font-family:Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Doug Wilson has been digging deeper into Piper’s theology of hedonism lately, and really been bringing forth some good stuff. Here is one excerpt on the misguided nature of dualism and/or asceticism:<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:Book Antiqua;"><span style="font-size:12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">It is assumed that where creation is thick -- where the music is glorious, the beer stout, the women beautiful, the lawns rich, the architecture splendid, and so on -- it presents a greater temptation to idolatry than where someone has mixed the paint thinner of ascetic striving into the created order in order to avoid the idolatrous distractions. But this does not work.</span><br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;"><span style="font-size:11pt;">He goes on to say:<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:Book Antiqua;"><span style="font-size:12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">A man can worship an ornate idol, decked with gold and silver, and he can worship a Euclidian stick figure. The divide is a moral one. The divide has to do with whether God has given the man eyes to see. If God has given eyes to see, it does not hurt him to see a lot. Here is the word of the Lord to Israel:</span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"> "Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee . . . Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things</span> <span style="color:#1977A7;">(Dt. 28:4</span>5,<span style="color:#1977A7;"> 4</span>7).<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial;"><span style="font-size:11pt;">And in another place:<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:Book Antiqua;"><span style="font-size:12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">But God made the world, we trashed it, and then Jesus was born into it in order to redeem the whole thing.<br /><br />So we need to remember the nature of the Creator/creature divide, and how the sovereignty of God determined to cross that divide by means of Jesus the risen Lord. The divide remains what it always was, and the incarnational bridge remains what it always will be, world without end. Now of course this has ramifications for our worship, but it also has ramifications for absolutely everything else.<br /><br />By the nature of the case, we cannot present an exhaustive list, but the ramifications would include beer, mowing the lawn, sex with your wife or husband, brown gravy, sitting on the front porch, listening to a good poem, making movies, getting out the guitar, going to church, and getting a foot rub. There are two sacraments, true, but there is only one sacramental. The world is a sacramental, and everything in it. Grace is everywhere, and gets into everything. Faith can dig it out of anything. The grandeur of God can flame out from anything, like shining from shook foil.<br /><br />If understood, this results in mediated grace for everyone who is responding to God in true faith. God does grants immediate grace in various ways, true. When He converts a soul, when He visits someone with direct blessing, when He receives our worship, the grace can be immediate. But this immediate grace is supposed to be a radiant grace, spreading out through everything else, affecting everything else, causing everything else to become a mirror that reflects the glory of God.<br /><br />If we don't get this, we will start to think of ourselves as deep sea divers, who have a grace hose running from our helmet up to Heaven, and the only way we can get grace is through that hose. But God is the one in whom we live and move and have our bei</span><span style="color:#1977A7;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">ng (Acts 1</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">7:28). We are living in the presence of God where it is actually possible to offer thanks for all thin</span><span style="color:#1977A7;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">gs (Eph. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">5:20).<br /><br />John Piper certainly recognizes this element, but we all really need to learn how to push it into the corners.</span><br /></span></span> <!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1364619871384812167.post-32347312158670916622010-05-15T11:25:00.001-07:002010-05-15T11:25:10.381-07:00The Current State of the Gulf Oil Spill<a href=http://www.infrastructurist.com/2010/05/10/the-current-state-of-the-gulf-oil-spill/>The Current State of the Gulf Oil Spill</a><br /><br />Posted using <a href="http://sharethis.com">ShareThis</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0