Just reflecting on God's Word tonight I scribbled down a few lines to a poem and I thought that I would share it with you... here it is:
Lord I love Your Word
It is the truest sound to my ears
It gives faith that fills my eyes
The song of joy rising with my breath
Lord I trust Your Word
It is a lamp unto my feet
Useful for me
God breathed to teach
Lord I read Your Word
Because You first loved me
Day and night by Your light
The Truth has set me free
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
True Theology is God's Word
What's the point of studying God's Word and increasing in the knowledge of God? To glorify and delight in God through a deep personal knowledge of him. Meaningful relationship with God is dependent on correct knowledge of him.
Do you love the Lord? Do you long to live by faith so that you can please Him with your life and grow closer to Him as you live out each day? Do you tremble at His Word? Do you find true meaning and life by meditating on the scriptures day and night? Are you falling in love with God when He illuminates the scriptures and allows you to see Him? There is nothing like seeing God and knowing that you are loved by Christ. Nothing compares with His glory, His name, His love, His kindness, His majesty, His grace, His beauty, His freedom, His Spirit, His Word. Any theological system that distinguishes between “rational propositions about God” and “a personal relationship with God” fails to see this necessary connection between love and knowledge.
Does God's Word give you more than knowledge? Does God's Word transform you and cut the marrow from the bone and bring a song of praise to your lips? Does the Word of God live in you and bring the gospel into your thoughts? I hope so... because when it does, life is so sweet! Let's devote ourselves to Jesus Christ by His Wisdom, His strength, His power, His leading, His Truth, His forgiveness and once again His Word.
Knowledge without devotion is cold, dead orthodoxy. Devotion without knowledge is irrational instability. But true knowledge of God includes understanding everything from his perspective. Theology is learning to think God's thoughts after him. It is to learn what God loves and hates, and to see, hear, think, and act the way he does. Good theology is based in the belief that God exists, is personal, can be known, and has revealed himself. These presuppositions motivate theologians to devote themselves to a passionate pursuit of knowledge from God's Word. Loving God means loving truth. God is a God of truth; he is truth.
The greatest thing that could happen to you today would be for you to fall in love with the Bible. For you to devote yourself to The Word of God. For you to be changed by seeing the glory of God in the Scriptures. (2 Cor 3:18) For you to know the Christ of the Bible as your Savior, Master, Redeemer, Propitiation, Friend, Mediator, Justifier, Shepherd and source of Truth. God meets man's greatest need of relationship with him through an understanding of truth.
“O Lord God, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant” (2 Sam. 7:28). “Every word of God proves true” (Prov. 30:5; Ps. 12:6; 119:42; John 17:17).
ALL WORDS IN ITALICS ARE FROM THE ESV STUDY BIBLE ARTICLE: "Biblical Doctrine- An Overview of True Theology: Knowing and Loving God"
Do you love the Lord? Do you long to live by faith so that you can please Him with your life and grow closer to Him as you live out each day? Do you tremble at His Word? Do you find true meaning and life by meditating on the scriptures day and night? Are you falling in love with God when He illuminates the scriptures and allows you to see Him? There is nothing like seeing God and knowing that you are loved by Christ. Nothing compares with His glory, His name, His love, His kindness, His majesty, His grace, His beauty, His freedom, His Spirit, His Word. Any theological system that distinguishes between “rational propositions about God” and “a personal relationship with God” fails to see this necessary connection between love and knowledge.
Does God's Word give you more than knowledge? Does God's Word transform you and cut the marrow from the bone and bring a song of praise to your lips? Does the Word of God live in you and bring the gospel into your thoughts? I hope so... because when it does, life is so sweet! Let's devote ourselves to Jesus Christ by His Wisdom, His strength, His power, His leading, His Truth, His forgiveness and once again His Word.
Knowledge without devotion is cold, dead orthodoxy. Devotion without knowledge is irrational instability. But true knowledge of God includes understanding everything from his perspective. Theology is learning to think God's thoughts after him. It is to learn what God loves and hates, and to see, hear, think, and act the way he does. Good theology is based in the belief that God exists, is personal, can be known, and has revealed himself. These presuppositions motivate theologians to devote themselves to a passionate pursuit of knowledge from God's Word. Loving God means loving truth. God is a God of truth; he is truth.
The greatest thing that could happen to you today would be for you to fall in love with the Bible. For you to devote yourself to The Word of God. For you to be changed by seeing the glory of God in the Scriptures. (2 Cor 3:18) For you to know the Christ of the Bible as your Savior, Master, Redeemer, Propitiation, Friend, Mediator, Justifier, Shepherd and source of Truth. God meets man's greatest need of relationship with him through an understanding of truth.
“O Lord God, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant” (2 Sam. 7:28). “Every word of God proves true” (Prov. 30:5; Ps. 12:6; 119:42; John 17:17).
ALL WORDS IN ITALICS ARE FROM THE ESV STUDY BIBLE ARTICLE: "Biblical Doctrine- An Overview of True Theology: Knowing and Loving God"
Monday, November 9, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
A prayer for our nation
This is a prayer by Billy Graham that a friend shared with me today and I just loved it and thought I would share it with you!
'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics... We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!'
'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics... We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!'
Saturday, October 31, 2009
The power of God at work, saving everyone who believes!
2 Corinthians 11:3-4 …I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.
It's a big crazy world we live in full of wolves in sheep's clothing. We are surrounded by empty philosophies, false cliches and in every direction the truth is suppressed. Our eyes are blind to the Truth of Jesus Christ until God gives us the grace to see Him. My intent with this blog and my prayer in this moment as I write is that Christ will open your eyes to see the reality and Truth. To see the climate of ideas that surrounds us and the glory of the gospel that endures in the midst of us. It is of fist importance that Christ died for our sins. Lord give us the grace we need!
My greatest advice to you would be to filter culture, filter information, thoughts, ideas, philosophies and teaching through the Bible. It's the only absolute source of Truth we have. Read Psalm 119 and see the glory of God's Word in action. We know from God's Word that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, God's son who gave his life as a ransom for many. We read in Romans that salvation comes by faith alone through grace. I come to you, like Paul, deciding to preach nothing but Christ and Him crucified. And I pray that this message would not come with lofty speech or with eloquent words but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. THE GOSPEL IS THE POWER OF SALVATION TO THOSE WHO BELIEVE!
Don’t put up with teaching
1- That denies that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. (John 3:16)
2- That communicates salvation by any means than faith in Jesus by grace. (Ephesians 2:8)
3- That denies the realities of being a Christian and suffering. There's no health & wealth gospel in the Bible (Romans 5:3)
I am committed to preach the Gospel and to share the Truth of the cross every time I teach from the Bible. Do you wonder why? Does it seem elementary to keep mulling over this Truth of Christ killed, buried and risen? When I was younger and dragged to church I hated hearing the gospel over and over. I was like, "Why dont these people talk about something else? I wanna hear about Noah or Jesus walking on water, not the cross."
2 Corinthians 4-6 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
All the rebellion in my heart in those years was a blinding of my eyes to the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. It is my mission to stand in the face of this opposition and speak the cross in a compassionate yet powerful way. Think about the cross, study the cross, sing about the cross, worship Jesus as the one who died and rose again, write about the cross, talk about the cross and live because of the cross! Because the Truth of the cross and life in Christ is the Gospel!
I'm gonna unveil some light on the Gospel with the help of John Piper's book God is the Gospel:
The gospel includes the good news that there is a living God who created heaven and earth. we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. Acts 14:15 WOW, It is good news, it is the gospel that there is a living loving God who sent His Son to redeem us! There simply can be no good news without a living God who created the universe.
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’” Isaiah 52:7 Part of the life of the gospel is to know the good news that Christ has conquered sin and death through the finished work on the cross. This is good news that OUR GOD REIGNS!
Acts 8:12: “Philip... preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ It is an essential part of the gospel to know that Jesus, the Messiah has come for us! Read John 1:14... The Word of God has become flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood! WOW, what a God!
“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you... For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:1-3).
It is the gospel that Christ endured the suffering, the shame and death on a tree for our sins. He didn't deserve to die but He laid down His life as a ransom for us.
But there would be no gospel if Jesus had stayed dead. 1 Corinthians 15:17, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” This is why Paul’s definition of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1, 3-4 includes both the death and resurrection of Jesus: “I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel... that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”
THE GOSPEL IS NOT GOOD NEWS WITHOUT THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT. The Holy Spirit is the down payment, a guarantee of the fullness of joy we will know in the perfected
fellowship with the Father and the Son in the age to come (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5). What makes the gospel good news in the end is the enjoyment of the glory of God in Christ. The Holy Spirit provides the present experience of that enjoyment. Therefore the promise of the Spirit in the gospel is what makes it good news. Ephesians 1:13. “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.”
Peter described the gospel that God sent through Jesus as “the word that [God] sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ” (Acts 10:36).
Wow, we can have peace with God because of the good news, the gospel of Christ.
The effect of this peace with God is eternal life. This too is what makes the gospel of Christ good news. Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:10: “[God’s grace] has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
This gospel of grace and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ has changed and is changing my life. I will never be the same because of the precious blood of Jesus, that bought me and washed me and gives me life. Oh, that we would fall in love with the Bible, oh, that we would sing praise to the name of Jesus, oh, that we would fall in love with the gospel that is the good news, oh, that we would bring glory to God, the maker of heaven and earth, who loves you and proved that on the cross.
It's a big crazy world we live in full of wolves in sheep's clothing. We are surrounded by empty philosophies, false cliches and in every direction the truth is suppressed. Our eyes are blind to the Truth of Jesus Christ until God gives us the grace to see Him. My intent with this blog and my prayer in this moment as I write is that Christ will open your eyes to see the reality and Truth. To see the climate of ideas that surrounds us and the glory of the gospel that endures in the midst of us. It is of fist importance that Christ died for our sins. Lord give us the grace we need!
My greatest advice to you would be to filter culture, filter information, thoughts, ideas, philosophies and teaching through the Bible. It's the only absolute source of Truth we have. Read Psalm 119 and see the glory of God's Word in action. We know from God's Word that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, God's son who gave his life as a ransom for many. We read in Romans that salvation comes by faith alone through grace. I come to you, like Paul, deciding to preach nothing but Christ and Him crucified. And I pray that this message would not come with lofty speech or with eloquent words but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. THE GOSPEL IS THE POWER OF SALVATION TO THOSE WHO BELIEVE!
Don’t put up with teaching
1- That denies that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. (John 3:16)
2- That communicates salvation by any means than faith in Jesus by grace. (Ephesians 2:8)
3- That denies the realities of being a Christian and suffering. There's no health & wealth gospel in the Bible (Romans 5:3)
I am committed to preach the Gospel and to share the Truth of the cross every time I teach from the Bible. Do you wonder why? Does it seem elementary to keep mulling over this Truth of Christ killed, buried and risen? When I was younger and dragged to church I hated hearing the gospel over and over. I was like, "Why dont these people talk about something else? I wanna hear about Noah or Jesus walking on water, not the cross."
2 Corinthians 4-6 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
All the rebellion in my heart in those years was a blinding of my eyes to the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. It is my mission to stand in the face of this opposition and speak the cross in a compassionate yet powerful way. Think about the cross, study the cross, sing about the cross, worship Jesus as the one who died and rose again, write about the cross, talk about the cross and live because of the cross! Because the Truth of the cross and life in Christ is the Gospel!
I'm gonna unveil some light on the Gospel with the help of John Piper's book God is the Gospel:
The gospel includes the good news that there is a living God who created heaven and earth. we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. Acts 14:15 WOW, It is good news, it is the gospel that there is a living loving God who sent His Son to redeem us! There simply can be no good news without a living God who created the universe.
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’” Isaiah 52:7 Part of the life of the gospel is to know the good news that Christ has conquered sin and death through the finished work on the cross. This is good news that OUR GOD REIGNS!
Acts 8:12: “Philip... preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ It is an essential part of the gospel to know that Jesus, the Messiah has come for us! Read John 1:14... The Word of God has become flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood! WOW, what a God!
“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you... For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:1-3).
It is the gospel that Christ endured the suffering, the shame and death on a tree for our sins. He didn't deserve to die but He laid down His life as a ransom for us.
But there would be no gospel if Jesus had stayed dead. 1 Corinthians 15:17, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” This is why Paul’s definition of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1, 3-4 includes both the death and resurrection of Jesus: “I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel... that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”
THE GOSPEL IS NOT GOOD NEWS WITHOUT THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT. The Holy Spirit is the down payment, a guarantee of the fullness of joy we will know in the perfected
fellowship with the Father and the Son in the age to come (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5). What makes the gospel good news in the end is the enjoyment of the glory of God in Christ. The Holy Spirit provides the present experience of that enjoyment. Therefore the promise of the Spirit in the gospel is what makes it good news. Ephesians 1:13. “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.”
Peter described the gospel that God sent through Jesus as “the word that [God] sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ” (Acts 10:36).
Wow, we can have peace with God because of the good news, the gospel of Christ.
The effect of this peace with God is eternal life. This too is what makes the gospel of Christ good news. Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:10: “[God’s grace] has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
This gospel of grace and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ has changed and is changing my life. I will never be the same because of the precious blood of Jesus, that bought me and washed me and gives me life. Oh, that we would fall in love with the Bible, oh, that we would sing praise to the name of Jesus, oh, that we would fall in love with the gospel that is the good news, oh, that we would bring glory to God, the maker of heaven and earth, who loves you and proved that on the cross.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
"Behold Your God"
“Behold Your God!”
(things we can know about God from Isaiah 40)
V9- Behold your God!
He is our God! He is the one we’ve been looking for… as we search through life looking for meaning, here in the 40th chapter of Isaiah God says, “Look at me! I am yours!”
V10- Behold, the Lord God comes with might
He is mighty! He is mighty to save! He is strong and when He comes into our lives He opens our eyes to see His glory! He is a conquering King!
V10- behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.
He is a generous benefactor to those who trust in Him and put faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ which is the power of salvation to those who believe. He gives grace, He exalts the humble, He is the defender of the weak. He is now, because of the finished work on the cross, because of the innocent blood of Christ our Father.
V11- He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
He is our Shepherd! The same mighty King in V10 leads His family with the gentleness of a shepherd. He takes care of us and feeds us with His Word. He will gather us when we wander and lead us home.
V12- Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?
He is wise in the way He creates and sustains. He is the Creator of all things! This wisdom and precision shows me that He can be trusted!
V18- To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?
He is incomparable! No where outside of the Trinity will you find such power and such glory. In no other name than Jesus can men be saved! Who can compete with His kindness? His grace? His love? His wisdom? His Word?
V21- Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
He is founder, He is from the beginning! There was nothing before Him!
V22- It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
He is heavenly! His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. Our God reigns!
V22- V23 who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
He is sovereign! That means He is in control! That means He will do as He pleases and who can thwart His purposes? Wow, nothing can separate us from that kind of love and authority! Praise and glory to Christ who endured the cross as a propitiation for our sins, that He would bring us to God!
V26- Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing.
He is the sky-maker! He is the Creator that imagined the stars and gives source to their light. He knows them by name. Not one is missing, nothing can be plucked from His hand.
V28- The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary;
He is everlasting! That means there is no end in Him! He does not even tire our have need for rest, He doesn’t grow faint of heart or ever unable to love.
V29- He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
He is the source of true power and strength, we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength. He is the defender of the week and the giver of grace that brings life… Oh, that we might be to His glory!
V30- Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;
We are not like him. He is the infinite while we are finite. We grow weary and need Him to know and experience life. Without Christ there is no way, no truth and no life.
V31- but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Behold your God! Let the Truth of God’s Word give you hope tonight, that we are loved. He proved it on the cross. Jesus will rescue you if you turn to Him. He will give you the grace to know Him and live for His glory. Wait on Him and He will fill you with hope and renew your strength! Through faith in Christ and the power of His Word we know that He will never leave us or forsake us.
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