My Son...

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

I started this blog 2 1/2 years ago when my twins where born and have let it adrift do to the busy-ness of life and since I rarely had a visitor...

One of the twins was diagnosed today with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and our lives will take a detour off our plan. I still will look for God's grace in all. I want to be like Job when he learns his children have been killed:

20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

What kind of man says "blessed be the name of the Lord" after such pain?

Suffering Purpose

Friday, September 26, 2008

John Piper has an extremely encouraging mindset for the big picture (macro) on Preparing for Sudden Suffering. Here is an outline:

• Repentance -- Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:4-5)
  
• Reliance -- For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. (II Corinthians 1:8-9)
• Righteousness -- For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives...For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:6, 10-11)
• Reward -- For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (II Corinthians 4:17). Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12)
• Reminder -- That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death (Philippians 3:10). For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45)
  

Correctness

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Great post on Correctness by Rick Ianniello...

Just One Thing...

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Paul Tripp's blog on Psalm 27: One Thing has caused me to rethink the "just one thing" mentality which I perceive to so often paralyze American Christian thinking limiting our focus of the manifold wonders of Christ. This is the "one thing" David prays to God for! Definitely worthy or heavy meditation...

One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire (meditate) in his temple. (Psalm 27:4)

The Death of Pride

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

I'm finally posting again and reading a new book, Holiness by Grace authored by Bryan Chapell. Some of us continually fall into the appeasement of God trap and its root is pride. Bryan comments:

Spiritual pride dies when we realize that all of our comparisons with others based on relative levels of apparent goodness count for nothing in terms of gaining us standing with God. What we may want God to account to our credit has no currency with him, because the economy of good works is dead. Being better than the next guy, being a more astute observer of his sin, or being more insightful about scriptural truth does nothing to earn me status with God. [p43]

Although this makes perfect sense it so easily entangles our lives.

Pursuit of Happiness

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Can you have happiness without peace? Can you have faith without peace? Does joy then flow from faith? Gurnall implies we must have peace as the base of happiness (joy).

Peace is both indispensable and comprehensive. You cannot be happy with anything less than peace but you do not need anything more than peace to fill you with true joy. Of all the varieties on God's spiritual menu, His serving of peace can least be spared. If you take this away the feast is spoiled, even if a brightly garnished outward peace replaces it at the center of the prince's table.

Piper has greatly influenced my thinking in the last couple years on the fight for joy -- "Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!" (Ps 34:8). I think Gurnall adds a component to reflect on for that fight and understanding the peace we have through the gospel.

Autonomy

Monday, August 6, 2007

Reading through Future Grace I find it absolutely wonderful how Piper opens up the idols preventing future grace ("all-satisfying admiration" [p97]) particularly pride.

Every turning from God--for anything--presumes a kind of autonomy or independence that is in essence of pride. Turning from God assumes that one knows better than God. Thus pride lies at the root of every turning from God. It is the root of every act of distrust toward God. Or, more accurately, pride is not so much the root as it is the essence of unbelief, and its remedy is faith in future grace ("all-satisfying admiration").... In Jeremiah 9:23 God says, “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches". In those three phrases God names his great competitors for the boast of the human heart. [p87]

In the next few days I'll be digging deeper into each of those.

When Tragedy Strikes

Thursday, August 2, 2007

John Piper has a Christ centered perspective on the terrible events (Minneapolis bridge collapse, 9/11) we experience.

Cracking the Breastplate

Friday, July 27, 2007

Gurnall has a wonderful observation in The Christian in Complete Armour on the compromise of the breastplate of righteousness from the inside. I think we so often want to blame God or his tools for the failure of righteousness instead of looking at the internal compromise of our armor -- pride.

Satan's policy is to crack the breastplate of righteousness by beating it out farther than the metal can bend.... Is anything worse than pride, such a pride which runs rampant over the way which God Himself has made for saving souls? If you really want to be holy, be humble, because the two are clasped together. "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8) God has not asked you to earn heaven by your holiness but to show love and thankfulness to Christ who earned it for you. [July 27]

Grace Faucet

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Today I'm reading Future Grace by John Piper and a marvelous observation about grace in Paul's epistles:

Without exception the apostle Paul begins and ends each of his thirteen New Testament letters by blessing his Christian readers with future grace. What he usually says at the beginning of his letters is, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." At the end he usually says something like, "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you." [p65]

John suggests the beginning is grace about to flow to the reader and the ending is how grace will be with you:

With you as you go home to deal with a sick child and an unaffectionate spouse. With you as you go to work and face the temptations of anger and dishonesty and lust. With you as you muster courage to speak up for Christ over lunch. [p66]

He sums up his observation with the following:

In other words, we learn that grace is not merely a past reality but a future one. Every time I reach for the Bible, God's grace is a reality that will flow to me. Every time I put the Bible down and go about my business God's grace will go with me. This is what I mean by future grace. [p67]