Your Gospel Is Too Small

"A gospel which is only about the moment of conversion but does not extend to every moment of life in Christ is too small.

A gospel that gets your sins forgiven but offers no power for transformation is too small.

A gospel that isolates one of the benefits of union with Christ and ignores all the others is too small.

A gospel that must be measured by your own moral conduct, social conscience, or religious experience is too small.

A gospel that rearranges the components of your life but does not put you personally in the presence of God is too small."

Fred Sanders - The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 106

(HT Of First Importance)

Christ Has Died For Us

"Our Lord would have us regard the crucifixion as the central truth of Christianity. Right views of His vicarious death, and the benefits resulting from it, lie at the very foundation of Bible-religion. Never let us forget this... If we are wrong here, we are ruined forever. Error on many other points is only a skin disease. Error about Christ’s death is a disease at the heart. Here let us take our stand. Let nothing move us from this ground. The sum of all our hopes must be, that “Christ has died for us.” (1 Thess. 5:10.) Give up that doctrine, and we have no solid hope at all."

J.C. Ryle

Enjoying And Loving God

"So what should we do in sharing the love of God, whose full enjoyment constitutes the happy life? It is God from whom all those who love him derive both their existence and their love; it is God who frees us from any fear that he can fail to satisfy anyone to whom he becomes known; it is God who wants himself to be loved, not in order to gain any reward for himself but to give to those who love him an eternal reward--namely himself, the object of their love."

Augustine

Piper Poem On Suffering

What is God’s sovereign grace?

Not grace to bar what is not bliss
Nor flight from all distress but this:
The grace that orders our trouble and pain
And then, in the darkness, is there to sustain

John Piper

Communion With Jesus

"I bear my testimony that there is no joy to be found in all this world like that of sweet communion with Christ. I would barter all else there is of heaven for that. Indeed, that is heaven. As for the harps of gold and the streets like clear glass and the songs of seraphs and the shouts of the redeemed, one could very well give all these up, counting them as a drop in a bucket, if we might forever live in fellowship and communion with Jesus."

C.H. Spurgeon

The Connection Between Believing and Living by Randal Pelton

From Do You Understand What You Are Reading:

The Connection Between Believing and Living
John 20:30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. I believe that this believing is aimed at Believers, those who have already begun the journey of faith. I do not believe that the Gospel of John was written to unbelievers who happened to attend church in the first century. Throughout Jesus’ disciples’ lives and throughout our lives we are constantly battling against unbelief and where that attitude takes us spiritually. When you read the Gospels, read them to benefit from them in the way they were intended. Let these narratives bolster your ability to entrust your life into God’s care through Christ and enjoy “life in his name.”

From Preaching With More Accuracy:

Christ-centered Meaning of Isaiah's Messianic Prophecy in 7:10-15
Isaiah 7:10-15 contains a well-known prophecy of our Lord Jesus Christ, the virgin-born son. Although the following phrase doesn’t get much press in several commentaries, it is significant: “when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.” I take this concept to be a key to understanding how our Savior would deliver us who believe (not the "when" part, but what He would do). Jesus would do what Adam could not do, what Israel could not do, and what we can’t do without a new heart--refuse the evil and choose the good. Thankfully, our Lord chose the good and refused the evil in most difficult scenarios such as in the wilderness, in Gethsemane, and ultimately on the cross! Because He did, we can have assurance that God’s people will enjoy the fulfillment of Isaiah’s wonderful prophesies. If you’re following the blog, you can see that this is another attempt to show a potential connection between the Gospel and Isaiah’s own wording in verse 15. This is one way to utilize a Christ-centered hermeneutic on a Messianic prophecy.

Christmas - It's About The Cross

It’s not just about the manger where the baby laid.
It’s not all about the angels, who sang for Him that day.
It’s not just about the shepherds or the bright and shining star.
It’s not all about the wise men, who traveled from afar.

It’s not just about the presents underneath the tree.
It’s not all about the feeling that this season brings to me.
It’s not just about coming home to be with those you love.
It’s not all about the beauty of the snow I’m dreaming of.

It’s about the cross.
It’s about my sin.
It’s about how Jesus came to be born once so that we could be born again.

It’s about God’s love nailed to a tree.
It’s about every drop of blood that flowed from Him, when it should have been me.

It’s about the stone that was rolled away
So that you and I could have eternal life today.

It’s about the cross…

Merry Christmas!!!

Waiting Anxiously To Trade Tears For Shouts Of Joy by Randal Pelton

Waiting Anxiously To Trade Tears For Shouts Of Joy

The Nicene Creed

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.

And I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Jesus Calls His Disciples To Obedience

"The Antinomian heresy is the view that the law of God revealed in the Old Testament has nothing to do with the New Testament church; that the New Testament church is a church without law, a church that lives and breathes exclusively on the basis of grace… But the New Testament is far from abolishing God’s moral law. Jesus calls his disciples to obedience. He says, ‘If you love me, you will obey what I command’ (John 14:15)."

R.C. Sproul - The Purpose of God, An Exposition of Ephesians, p. 64-65.

Psalm 16:11

You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

The God Who Will Bring Good out of Bad - Randy Alcorn

(HT Randy Alcorn)

Repentance And Faith

"The question has been discussed: which is prior, faith or repentance? It is an unnecessary question and the insistence that one is prior to the other is futile. There is no priority. The faith that is unto salvation is a penitent faith and the repentance that is unto life is a believing repentance... It is impossible to disentangle faith and repentance. Saving faith is permeated with repentance and repentance is permeated with faith."

John Murray

Know And Treasure The Glory Of God

“We are all starved for the glory of God, not self. No one goes to the Grand Canyon to increase self-esteem. Why do we go? Because there is greater healing for the soul in beholding splendor than there is in beholding self… The point is this: We were made to know and treasure the glory of God above all things; and when we trade that treasure for images, everything is disordered. The sun of God’s glory was made to shine at the center of the solar system of our soul. And when it does, all the planets of our life are held in their proper orbit. But when the sun is displaced, everything flies apart. The healing of the soul begins by restoring the glory of God to its flaming, all-attracting place at the center"

John Piper - Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ p. 21

Every Speck, Spot And Stain Of Sin Is Gone Forever

"See how red is your guilt, mark the scarlet stain. If you were to wash your soul in the Atlantic Ocean, you might incarnadine every wave that washes all its shores, and yet the crimson spots of your transgression would still remain. But plunge into the “fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins,” and in an instant you are whiter than snow. Every speck, spot, and stain of sin is gone, and gone forever."

C.H. Spurgeon

Jesus Identifies With Us

(HT Matthew Kratz)

Fix Our Hopes On The Glory That Is Yet To Be Revealed

"In His infinite wisdom, God allows trials in order to develop perseverance in us and to cause us to fix our hopes on the glory that is yet to be revealed… Our faith and perseverance can grow only under the pain of trial."

Jerry Bridges - The Practice of Godliness,  p.112

God's Judgment Is Right

Joni Eareckson Tada:

"I ran into some people over the weekend who are still stymied as to why a good God would allow cancer on top of my chronic pain and quadriplegia. But it's no mystery to me. “The cross God sends is a cross that He understood with His divine mind, tested with His wise justice, and weighed with His own hands to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for the person to whom He has given it,” as one writer put it. The Bible puts it this way: “All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering” (II Thessalonians 1:5). When it comes to the cross you daily bear, join me in agreeing that God's judgment is right. The cross you shoulder is not one inch too large nor one ounce too heavy, for the Lord especially hand-tailored it so that Christ's kingdom might be advanced through you. That alone is the highest of honors."

Read the entire article here.

Look At The Cross

“Every time we look at the cross Christ seems to say to us, ‘I am here because of you. It is your sin I am bearing, your curse I am suffering, your debt I am paying, your death I am dying.’ Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross. All of us have inflated views of ourselves, especially in self-righteousness, until we have visited a place called Calvary. It is there, at the foot of the cross, that we shrink to our true size.”


John R. W. Stott - The Message of Galatians, page 179.