“You really should have this incredible sense of unworthiness – ‘I don’t belong here’ – coupled with the opposing sense of total joy – ‘It is all of grace, so I do belong here.’”
Gordon D. Fee
HT: Ken Harer
I know these Youtube homemades are often pretty bad, but I found this one very moving. Maybe because I love Genesis, Abraham, and Andrew’s Bible-saturated music. You can get this song on AP’s Appendix A. You can have his Appendix out and in your iPod (or whatever) for 12$ here.
“If Christ accepts of you, you need not fear but that you will be safe, for he is a strong Lion for your defense. And if you come, you need not fear but that you shall be accepted; for he is like a Lamb to all that come to him, and receives then with infinite grace and tenderness.”
Jonathan Edwards
HT: Jared Wilson
The following is a prayer by Scotty Smith (no natural relation). If you, like me, live among a people who are embracing Moralism and personally have a will that wants to embrace Moralism instead of Good News, then maybe this prayer is one you can pray as well. -sam
A Prayer About WHY God Loves Me and Us
The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers… Deuteronomy 7:7-8
Most holy and gracious Father, like every day, this day begins with the bodacious promise of your steadfast love and new mercies for me. Yet I am still foolish enough, at times, to look for some generating basis… some causal motivation… some rooted explanation in me for why you love me as much as you love any and all of your people. Here my cry for mercy…
Where do these moments of temporary insanity come from? Why in the world do I have days when I think there’s something I can do to prompt you to love me and stimulate you to even greater affection?
Isn’t it because I want to manipulate and control you? Isn’t it because I want less mystery and more predictability in my walk with you? Isn’t it because I’d rather spend the Monopoly money of self-salvation than declare my real bankruptcy? Isn’t it because I’d rather work my way out of guilt than be shut up to sheer grace? Isn’t it because I want to make you responsible for my bad days and hard circumstances? Isn’t it because I want to justify my critical attitude towards other less-disciplined more-irresponsible people? Oh, how much I need the gospel, today and every day…
Indeed, Father, all day long, I will rehearse this good, humbling and liberating news. You have set… settled… secured your affection on me NOT because of anything in me… not because of anything I have done, do or ceased doing. You have chosen me not because I am choice, but simply because you have chosen to redeem and restore me for your glory. It’s only because of your covenantal faithfulness—promises you have made that you alone can keep, that I have the absolute assurance that I am loved with your everlasting unwavering love.
The only mirror I want to consistently stand in front of is the mirror of your Word, where I behold Jesus, the author and perfecter of my salvation. For Jesus is your “Yes!” to every promise you have made on my behalf. So very Amen, I pray, in His matchless and merciful name.
“We obsess about the future and we get anxious, because anxiety, after all, is simply living out the future before it gets here.
We must renounce our sinful desire to know the future and to be in control. We are not gods. We walk by faith, not by sight. We risk because God does not risk. We walk into the future in God-glorifying confidence, not because the future is known to us but because it is known to God. And that’s all we need to know. Worry about the future is not simply a character tic, it is the sin of unbelief, an indication that our hearts are not resting in the promises of God.”
Kevin DeYoung, Just Do Something
“In the total experience of human life there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign, does not declare, ‘That is mine!’”
Abraham Kuyper
Note: How we react to this statement might clarify whom is sovereign in our view, ourselves or Christ. Offended?
HT: Scotty Smith
“I want to suggest that the gospel and theology alike are dramatic: that the gospel is something done; that the Bible is a script, that doctrine is theatrical direction, and that we all, as members of the church, form a great ‘company of the gospel’ with important speaking and acting parts to play. The dramatic metaphor has become for me, my family, and my students a bracing challenge to integrate doctrine and life under the rubric ‘faith seeking and showing understanding.’”
Kevin Vanhoozer
HT: JT
Yes there is.
See: Creation, by Yahweh. It is an amazing book.
1. Walk outside. 2. Open eyes.
“The kingdom of heaven is like this: Find the Treasure. Feel the Joy. Forsake the Stuff. (Matthew 13:44).”
John Piper
HT: Austin Storm