HE CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

Jason Helopoulos on Good Reasons for Moving On

Jason Helopoulos on Good Reasons for Moving On

Men with a whole heart

Men with a whole heart

Ghana: The Team That Prays Together | Liveblog | Christianity Today

I'm officially rooting for Ghana:

Ghana: The Team That Prays Together | Liveblog | Christianity Today

A NEW HEART

Would you know the reason why so many hear the Gospel year after year, and yet remain unmoved by it? Their minds seem like Bunyan’s “slough of despond.” 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, “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.” (Ezek. 33:31). 

~ J.C. Ryle

Burning Grace

"A Xian Saint burns grace like a 747 burns fuel at takeoff."

-Dallas Willard

Clown Camp

I wouldn't step foot (or let my kids step foot) within a mile radius of this:

Clown camp teaches kids more than just how to laugh | NewsOK.com

Take Up Your Cross

“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.

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.

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.

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?”

–Paul David Tripp, A Quest For More: Living For Something Bigger than You(Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2008), 121.

Claremont seminary reaches beyond Christianity - latimes.com

The most absurd idea I have ever heard of:

Claremont seminary reaches beyond Christianity - latimes.com

HT: Mohler

Restaurant or Family???

I'm not at all a Driscoll groupie, but this is very good:

Remembering D-Day, 66 years ago - The Big Picture - Boston.com

I can't believe I missed this last week:

Remembering D-Day, 66 years ago - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Fun Stuff

I just finished this book with my girls:

Really???

Father's Day cards? Really???

This One from WSJ

According to Dorothy Rabinowitz the distance between this president and people is being revealed:

"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."

Rest of the the article here.

Here's an interes....

Sorry got distracted, but h....

Yeah well, New York Ti...:

Article on Technology Rewiring our Brains

A Sweet Reunion for Coach Wooden

I 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:

A VOICE for Life

HT: Challies (again)

When it Rains it Pours

I 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:

Grace Community Church of San Antonio, Texas from I'll Be Honest on Vimeo.

#10: Truly Reformed

Ray Ortlund does it again:

#10: Truly Reformed

His Conclusion:

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.

The awakened capacity to adore

From Ray Ortlund's Blog:

The awakened capacity to adore

A Word to Preachers (of the expositional sort)

“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.” 

-Ian Murray

You can read his five CAUTIONS concerning expository preaching here.

I Realize it Doesn't Have to Be Either Or...

But this is still a good statement:

"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."

OK, Now I'm Ready

I really get into the World Cup, which is strange because typically soccer sort of bothers me. This Nike ad doesn't not bother me:

(pardon the go go dancers...)

Wilson Expounds Piper...Oh Boy.

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:

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.

He goes on to say:

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:

"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 (Dt. 28:45, 47).

And in another place:

But God made the world, we trashed it, and then Jesus was born into it in order to redeem the whole thing.

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.

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.

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.

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 being (Acts 17:28). We are living in the presence of God where it is actually possible to offer thanks for all things (Eph. 5:20).

John Piper certainly recognizes this element, but we all really need to learn how to push it into the corners.

The Current State of the Gulf Oil Spill

The Current State of the Gulf Oil Spill

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Why Christians Should Covenant Together Through Local Church Membership

Really Great Stuff. From DeYoung via someone else:

Why Christians Should Covenant Together Through Local Church Membership

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What a Friggin' Mess

Oil spill approaches Louisiana coast - The Big Picture - Boston.com

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Real or Fake? Who Cares.

Funny:

Jack D. Risner IV

This Dude is 2 Years Old Today:

Mr. Spriggs

Mr. Spriggs Bar B Q is the greatest local commercial of all time. So great that I ventured to Mr. Spriggs with my good friend Justin Hitchcock last year. The place was as advertised...the meat truly fell off the bone. 

Finally they are getting some national recognition:

Game Trailers - E3 2010

On Being Governed By A Students

Brilliant little article here:

A Plague of A Students

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This is Great:

More from Eyjafjallajokull - The Big Picture - Boston.com

More from Eyjafjallajokull - The Big Picture - Boston.com

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Expertise

Have you worked hard enough to be this good at something:

Joseph/Jesus and his Brothers

Jesus has been lost to the grave, but three days later reappears with all authority in heaven and on earth.  His brothers (28:10) follow Him to Galilee, and find Him on a mountain, where the eleven bow down and worship (28:17).  Some doubt.  Well they might, and not just the resurrection itself.  They might be doubting Jesus’ intentions.  After all, the last time He saw them, He saw their backsides as they fled from the garden.  They’ve all abandoned Him.  Are they about to hear a “Depart from Me, I never knew you”?

No.  They are about to hear a “What you intended for evil, God intended for good, to save all these alive.”  Jesus is the new Joseph, lost and found, humiliated and exalted, now surrounded by His eleven brothers, who prostrate themselves before Him (cf. Genesis 37:9).  He is the new Joseph, revealed to His guilty brothers, reconciled.

-Peter Leithart

Pics of the Week

Mia throwing back some sparkling grape juice:

The Volcano in Iceland moments after eruption:

Whoa:

Summer is coming:

Two Weeks Late

Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it… The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. (Exodus 13:5-7;13)

Luther, Being Luther

“I understand that this is the week for the church collection, and many of you do not want to give a thing.  You ungrateful people should be ashamed of yourselves. . . . I am sorry I ever freed you from the tyrants and the papists.  You ungrateful beasts, you are not worthy of the treasure of the gospel.  If you don’t improve, I will stop preaching rather than cast pearls before swine.”

Martin Luther, exhorting his congregation, according to Roland Bainton, Here I Stand(New York, 1950), pages 351-352.

HT: Ray Ortlund

My Five Year Olds Can Color

I'm not sure whether to be mad or impressed:

And this is what Jack Dallas will do in a few years (from USC's intersquad on Saturday):

Sunday Best

I Can Face Tomorrow

This Week's Moment of Zen

Panda Bear Sneeze

Hopalina | MySpace Video

Nice Job, Sojourn

Some practical gospel thinking:

Gospel 101 from Sojourn Community Church on Vimeo.

You Say Coke, I Say Pop

The most useful thing I've seen this week:

Sola Gratia

When your religion is characterized the way Tiger Woods characterizes Buddhism you do not find peace. No amount of self-effort brings the type of satisfaction needed to recover from what he has done,  or been through. Only the cross of Christ can bring that peace. For the cross qlone saves us from our sin and from our self righteousness. Make no mistake, we need salvation from both paths away from God.

"In the Buddhist religion you have to work for it yourself, internally, in order to achieve anything in life and set up the next life. It is all about what you do and you get out of it what you put into it. So you are going to have to work your butt off in every aspect of your life."

-Tiger Woods

I thank God that he promises an easy yoke for those who trust in Christ Jesus. When found a sinner in the hands of an angry God there is only way to peace...and it's exactly opposite of "working your butt off."

Preach that Meaning

Remember: Scripture meant one thing before you were born, means the same now, and will mean the same, should you die.

HT: Dan Phillips Twitter

Depersonalized Medicine

WSJ on the impending doom:

here.

I Wish They Had This For Kids

Poor Dog.

The Coffee Shop is Not a Model for Church

"Please here me (and see point 3): there’s nothing bad, and probably lots good, about listening to emo bands, drinking fair trade coffee, and reading Wendell Barry at Panera Bread. Just don’t wear it all as a badge of spiritual honor."

Read the rest of Kevin DeYoung here.

It's Always Truck Month

This much I know...somewhere and somehow it's always Truck Month. 

Has anyone else caught onto this phenomenon???

80's Day at School (and yes they wore leg warmers too)

The Perpetual Campaigner

There's a difference between being a leader and a campaigner. Our president is the latter. It's sort of like the difference between a pastor and a charlatan, itinerant preacher. How do I know this? The Washington Post confirms it:

"Seeking to close the deal on a health care overhaul, President Obama is getting out of Washington, leaving the city he loves to bash and giving himself a platform to portray himself as an outsider going up against big insurance companies and their Capitol Hill lobbyists."

The rest of Obama's Elmer Gantry type ways can be read about here: 

Mandatory Viewing

I started listening to Keller in 2005. Not as early as some, but certainly before he was a Xian rock star. This course looks great:

Trailer for Gospel in Life from Redeemer City to City on Vimeo.

A Great Follow Up

Good thoughts from Kevin DeYoung on whether uncool people need God too.

Here.

My Thoughts Exactly

Some provacative church planting insight here.

Why They Go South for Spring Training

My Weekend in NYC

I spent the weekend in NYC for some wedding/engagement activities for my sister in law. My only star sighting:

Miles Finch - of "Elf" fame

He was in front of me in line at a bakery in Chelsea Market.

The Sky Is Still Falling...No Really It Is.

"From the standpoint of governance, what is at stake is our ability to use the rule of law as an instrument of human redemption." 

Al Gore comes to his own defense in WSJ.

David Platt @ Southern

Buckle your seat belt

HT: Asher

The Missionary Impluse (NYT)

"Imagine if a voodoo minister from Haiti had shown up in Boise after an earthquake, looking for children in poor neighborhoods and offering “opportunities for adoption” back to Haiti. He could say, as those who followed Silsby explained on a Web site, that “the unsaved world needs to hear” from the saved."

Read the rest of this unfair, but poignant article from Timothy Egan here.

The One in Heaven Laughs

From Douglas Wilson:

"Those who lived by the weather anecdote died by the weather anecdote.

They probably could have managed this, because enormous amounts of money were involved, not to mention a power grab of Orwellian proportions. Men like this were not going to slowed down by snow flurries in Georgia.

But then the climate data went blooey. Turns out the books were cooked, rigged, made up, massaged, bought and paid for, and then lost. There went the climate, and the phrase "the science is settled" took on a much more ominous meaning.

And then God, for His mercies endure forever, sent the world the winter of winters. The one enthroned in Heaven laughs; He holds them in derision."

Yeahhhhhh, booyyyyyy....!

Avery breaks it down in chapel last week:

Canada Isn't just for Hosers, Eh.

Great piece by Brokaw:

Piper, being Piper

Loving The Standard

Ask Doug - Advice on Childrearing from Daniel Foucachon on Vimeo.

The "Sport" Issue Revisited

If you are almost six months pregnant, and competing a sport's highest level I question the legitimacy of your sport:

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Canadian-curler-is-five-months-pregnant?urn=oly,219941

What it Costs to be a True Xian

"What does it cost to be a true Christian? “It will cost him his self-righteousness. He must cast away all pride and high thoughts, and conceit of his own goodness. He must be content to go to heaven as a poor sinner saved only by free grace, and owing all to the merit and righteousness of another. He must be willing to give up all trust in his own morality, respectability, praying, Bible-reading, Church-going, and sacrament-receiving, and trust in nothing but Jesus Christ. Let us set down this item first and foremost in our account. To be a true Christian it will cost a man his self-righteousness.”

~ J.C. Ryle Faithfulness and Holiness: The Witness of J.C. Ryle 

EXCLUSIVE: Shaun White

I generally dislike snowboarding(ers)...but this is pretty cool:

EXCLUSIVE: Shaun White's private pipe - Red Bull Project X

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Al Mohler's Study

I consider this porn for theology geeks:

http://vimeo.com/8693850

HT: Asher Griffin

MARY!

So Jack and his mom were at TJ Maxx yesterday shopping. Directly in front of them in the checkout line there was a Muslim woman wearing a head scarf. According to Mandi there was a point where the light bulb came on in Jack's mind, his face lit up, and exclaimed with great wonder and joy, "Mary!" "Look Mommy, Mary!" And the proceeded to continually point out Mary to anyone who would listen.

Would it be offensive for a Muslim woman to be confused for the mother of Jesus? Probably.

Is it safe to say Jack would have made a better Catholic than Protestant? Probably. 

Did the Christmas store register this year? Definitely.

FROM DAVID BROOKS - NYT

David Brooks responds to Gail Collins in Op-ed piece:

"Let me give you a hypothetical. Let’s say we had a year-long debate in the run-up to the Iraq war. Let’s say at the end of that debate, 33 percent of Americans thought it was a good idea to invade Iraq, 46 percent thought it was a bad idea and the rest weren’t sure. Then let’s say that there were a bunch of elections in places like New Jersey and Virginia in the middle of this debate and George Bush’s party lost them all badly. Let’s say at the end of this debate there was a senate race in Wyoming in which a Democratic candidate made preventing the war a central plank in his campaign. Let’s say Bush went out to Wyoming and told voters they had to support the Republican to save the Iraq invasion. And let’s say the Democrat still went on to win that Wyoming Senate seat by more than 5 percentage points.

Obama can’t come out swinging. He needs to tell Massachusetts voters that he hears them.Would you have advised George Bush under these circumstances to go ahead and invade Iraq? Would you have advised him to call a special lame duck session of Congress to push through a war resolution before the new senator could be seated? Would you have advised him to invent some legislative trick so he could still have his invasion? Or would you have said, George, I know you really want to invade Iraq. I know you think an invasion will do a lot of good for the world. But the American people are pretty clear about this issue. Maybe you should show a little doubt. Maybe you ought to listen and give this whole thing a second look."

HAITI

Here's a talk given by Jean Dorlus last July at Faith Bible Church. His insights give even greater weight to the images we've been digesting for the last week.

http://media.edmondfaithbible.com/faith/media/mp3/20090701_w433.mp3

Lamentations 3:21-26

Wordled my sermon:

Atom Bomb Explosion Underwater

God Be Praised

“Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.  Let your garments always be white.  Let no oil be lacking on your head.  Enjoy life with the wife whom you love.”  Ecclesiastes 9:7-9a

I refuse to be completely serious.  I refuse to be so rigorous that I become a pain to the people closest to me.  That cannot be the will of God.  If I am not under law but under grace, as the Bible says, then I can relax and enjoy life without a single thought that somehow that will jeopardize my standing with God.  It is God himself who gave me this life and who explicitly authorizes me to receive it from his hand as a good gift — not an ultimate gift but a good gift — and who settles the question of my acceptability to himself through Christ my Substitute who was perfect for me.  Especially with Jani, God’s greatest earthly gift to me, I want so to trust God that I set a tone of enjoyment in our life together.  Like today.  Like right now.  I think I’ll call her and just tell her I love her.  I think God would smile on that.  So would she.  So would I.

God be praised.

HT: Ray Ortlund Jr.